Another trip to the zoo

It wouldn't be right not to take Grandma to one of the best Zoo's around! I never have to convince the kids to go, they love every second of it even if they have seen the animal 10 times already. There are even some things we haven't seen, that's how big it is! Plus the Aquarium just opened for the season and it was our first time seeing that. It was pretty cool too! We took a lunch and spend the day hanging out walking around. After the zoo we stopped and Grandma bought Ava a new car seat...without a back. That according to Ava was the most important part! :) They we got some ice cream so the kids would stay awake on the drive home. We had a fun day together.

ewww so gross!

Ava was scared to death to cross the bridge! She turned back around. Dresden is scared of nothing, and did it twice!

looking at all the sting rays

baby sting rays that were just born

This was so awesome! There were right out in front of everyone doing ultrasounds on the sting ray's to see which ones were pregnant! It was so fun to see.

They both had to be the diver!

Easter

It was such a fun Easter this year! My wonderful mom came into town the day before and she gets to stay til Sunday! That's two weeks total! The kids have been so excited for a visitor. We don't get to celebrate many holidays with family so it was a nice change.

I always forget my camera( it's time for my own iphone!) but the kids and I did a little Easter egg hunt with friends on Friday and we also had our ward pancake breakfast and Easter egg hunt on Saturday. We love our ward and the kids are pros at hunting for eggs. It was a great morning. After that we headed to the airport to pick up my mom. Last week was her spring break from school and this week was the real reason for coming. Eric left for an (Endo) AAE conference on Boston on Tuesday and won't be back til this Saturday night. So my mom was nice enough to come out here and stay with me while he is gone. It's been so nice and we have done lots of organizing and playing!

Our church is at 9 so the picture taking didn't last long and it is also not so warm here right now! But I grabbed a few of the kids.

They were freezing and even though I REALLY wanted to get more it wasn't worth the fight.

Ava is all about posing! I couldn't get her to stand still.

After church I had my mom grab a family picture real quick before we saw Easter baskets. Even though it was super windy.

We had just rented the movie HOP so the kids were crazy about Easter and couldn't wait to see if the Eater bunny came. He did of course and they loved everything. They both got new jammies, swim suits, coloring stuff, and sunglasses. Ava got a new necklace and Dresden got new cars! And of course the candy. Ava loves her chocolate!

Grandma also spoiled them with two new shirts for summer!





My mom always puts money in the Easter eggs and this is the first year the kids got to enjoy this tradition. They were in heaven, especially when pulling out the one dollar bills! And the got to find so many eggs since it was just the two of them.

We decided we should talk about the real meaning of Easter. So hopefully this will become our new tradition. There were twelve eggs that tell the story of the resurrection. It was a fun way to teach the kids. Dresden and Ava love their new jammies too. Dresden got that cute cape from a birthday party and thought be should wear it with his new batman jammies!

I thought I would take a few belly pictures. I know I look more like 20 weeks but this was at 16! My body has assumed the position pretty quickly this time! It's a good thing I love a big belly! :)

And a close up!

Conference

Conference was wonderful this year. I really enjoyed the talks and spending time together as a family. There were great lessons for everyday life which is always good to hear! The kids did pretty good, I made them each a conference basket and different things to do and eat! Ava is even starting to remember a few names as they speak.

Eric's 30th Birthday

Wow Eric is actually in his 30's now! Crazy! It's kinda lame when you have to go to school on your birthday but Dresden and I surprised him with some Balloons and Donuts. He has some great friends at school, one of the girls made a treat for him the day before and another made cupcakes that day. The door was decorated and one of the schedulers brought in a card and treats. Apparently everyone loves Eric! But I don't blame them! We got there a little late and he was at lunch with the boys from Endo but Dresden and I decided to decorate his car while we waited. We ended up saying Hi real quick in the parking lot as he was getting back. The car was going to be a surprise but as we were talking to him Dresden says "we painted your car Dad"! But it was fun seeing him for a little bit.

He got some new shoes for his birthday and we actually went out over the weekend. I was lame and didn't feel very good that night but I hope he had a good birthday anyway. Ava's so sweet she kept wanting to wrap up everything from around the house and give it to daddy. We sure love him and are so thankful for all the hard work he puts in at school and home! Happy 30th Birthday Hun!

I still love seeing Dr. Wilbur!

Dresden had fun spinning in the chairs in the resident room!

Dresden was very good and decorating the car!

I don't know why he is so anti pictures but I tried to take one and this is what I got. I didn't realize it til now but when I asked Dresden to hold the balloons for a picture at the school he did the exact same thing (top picture) Like father like son I guess!

I kids came in and then I forgot to try for more. Oops!

The Hunger Games

When the Hunger Games came out one of my friends thought it would be fun to make Hunger Games t-shirts and go on a group date to see the movie. I had never read any of the books even though we have all three because Eric has read them all! I saw the preview and Eric has told me alot about them and I thought it sounded awesome and very interesting so I was excited about seeing the movie.

So for craft night we used freezer paper stencils and make some pretty cute shirts! It was so fun and easy! When Ava saw my shirt she said "cool shirt Mom!" When I told her I made it she thought it was pretty cool and wants to make one herself. So that will be a future project for us. As we were making the shirts the girls were all talking about the books and how great they are. They couldn't believe I had never read them. They all thought I should read it before the movie...in two days! So I decided since I had them I might as well. So I read the whole book (minus the last 4 chapters) in two days even with spending an entire day at the zoo for one of the days. It is a super easy read and Eric was a big help. He took the kids to the gym by himself so I could read and I read on the way to the zoo. It was kinda fun not knowing the ending but then I had to go back and read the end after the movie.

It's amazing how much gets left out of the movie but I still loved the movie and the book. I will definitely be reading the rest!

We had a fun little date afternoon with our friends.

Eric's Spring Break

Eric's spring break the the week after Ava's. We were so sad they didn't end up on the same say but we took Ava out of school one day and spend the day in Omaha with our friends the Nehrings.

The other days Eric was so nice to let me take naps and took good care of Dresden. And Ava was thrilled to have him come to her school and eat lunch with her at school. I love how excited she gets. It was so so nice having him home with us. It's been a long time since his last break and we had a great week spending time together.

These are a few pictures of the Zoo. We can't get enough of that place!

We get to see IMAX moves for free with our pass so we watched the 3D Sharks movie. They both loved trying to grab at all the fish!

After the Zoo we headed to Smash Burger for dinner! It's been a long time and it was so yummy!