A Little Easter Fun and Some...

The kids love going to the park.

The swings are always a favorite!

Angela is learning to do all kinds of 'big kid' things on her own.
Angela started soccer last week which she really enjoys!

Kick it Angela!

Our cute little #22!

They had an Easter Celebration at our community park house, so the kids had fun doing their own Easter egg hunts!

They even had the chance to meet the Easter Bunny himself!

Austin wasn't interested in sitting on his lap.

Angela's Easter Craft

Here she is with her basket full of eggs!

Austin loves his turtle balloon animal!

Angela had a ball on the pony ride. She got to go twice and they let her stay on for at least 10 minutes. She loved every bit of it!

Austin had more fun watching the ponies than riding them.

The kids even got to decorate and eat cup cakes. That's one of Angela's favorite things to do!

...and of course you have to have face painting too. Angela got a butterfly on her cheek.

...and a butterfly balloon animal.

It was a fun party!

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

I know, it's practically march but I just downloaded some pictures off my old camera that I completely forgot about. So here are a few of the kids decorating the Christmas tree and eating Christmas cookies.

Just look at that face! Where did the cookie go? Oh, I think I see it berried under all the marshmallows and chocolate chips! She loves to decorate cookies almost as much as she loves to eat them!

Angela's 4th Birthday Party!

Upon Angela's request we had a mermaid party, so I had to make her a cake with a mermaid on it. I'm so glad that she loved it!

We went on a treasure hunt and Adam made all the kids pirate swards out of balloons.

Then we made all the kids into mermaids by duct taping garbage bags around their legs so they looked like fins.
Then we did some mermaid races to the mermaid rock. (we had that all on video)

The mermaid princess on her mermaid rock

And we all know it's not a party without a pinata!

We had a great turn out! Angela had 13 friends come so it was an exciting group!

Rowan beat the pinata the most. He has a good swing so we let him attack it after everyone had their turns. It was so well made that he couldn't break it. Adam eventually had to bust out his hammer and take a few wackes at it so the kids could break it.

I wish I had gotten a picture of the treasure chest. I was so pleased with how it turned out (but at least it's on video right). The kids are all lined up taking turns picking some treasure out of it. There were chocolate gold coins and ring pops inside.

I would have to say her party was a real success. I won't lie; I was a little nervous since this was Angela's first party with friends and there were a lot of them. But, everything went as planned and the kids all seemed to have a great time and so did Angela so the effort was absolutely worth it!

Angela's Birthday

On Angela's 4th birthday she wanted to make cupcakes so that's exactly what we did. She had a great time decorating! She loves it just like her mommy!

And we know she loves to eat them too!

For lunch we ate at McDonald's with a gift card she got from her Great Grandma DeStefani. She loved her happy meal and the cool chipmunk toy it came with. We planned what she wanted to do for her party with her friends (that was going to be in a few weeks) and decorated for her special day. For dinner I made her current favorite: macaroni and cheese. That was easy! ;) That night we watched a movie as a family and she played with her new Barbie and new Barbie clothes she got from Grandma Young. All in all, she had a blast!

Christmas Time 2011

Angela and I made some cakes to bring to the family for Christmas. It was just a little idea I thought might be fun. When they cut the cake and saw it was blue inside I wanted them to figure out what it meant. It meant we are having another boy!

Angela is busy at work with her cake decorating!

My proud girl and her cute cake (she is pretty cute too :))
It's Christmas morning.... I love how happy and excited Austin was when he saw his present from Santa Clause.

Angela helped Austin with the unwrapping job.

Angela got her first Barbie from Santa! She is officially into the really girly toys now!

The happy face of anticipation

Good morning...we all look fabulously tired (no one got much sleep on Christmas Eve).

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Winter Wonderland at the Bellagio

Chocolate fountains

Family fun at the park (nothing like a good old fashioned game of duck, duck... goose)

Adam racing with a spoon on his nose

You know what they say, "monkey see, monkey do." It's Angela's turn.

Nothing like going through an obstacle course blindfolded. The kids loved it!

Austin loves any animal, so they had a great time watching and feeding the ducks and geese.

Austin's first time fishing with daddy!

The kids had a party climbing the mountain of dirt and then sliding down it. (Angela of course had to ask Todd to help her down. I'm pretty sure she has a crush on at least half of her uncles at this point. She's my funny girl! Gotta love it!)

Angela and her cousin, Takoda, going cruisin' on their bikes

Hiking at Red Rock

part of the gang

making our way along the trek

Adam and Austin climbed to great heights!

My cute girl

Adam attempting to boulder....I got him a pass at a rock climbing gym for Christmas, so I think he's getting pumped up to use it.

Family Shot

Austin taking his turn on the rocks...you gotta start 'um young if you want them to be good at it. ;)