Eastertime

Thanks to child support money and finally a paycheck, my kids woke up to this on Easter morning. They were very excited to have stuff in their baskets because I told them the Easter bunny was having a hard time getting enough money to get all of the kids Easter stuff, so they might be one of the houses that does not get very much. Sweet little Cayden then said to me, "It is ok mommy, I will share with my friends." I am so blessed to have such a caring child, mind you he is not like this all of the time. I do like to mention it when it happens because it reminds me that it does sometimes happen. Kayla had a few things to play with, she loved her new sippy cup and was chewing on it right away.

Josh got a new pair of shoes that he was needing. The easter bunny was not able to splurge on not needed items over $1 this year. both of the boys really needed new shoes, that is what they got.

Cayden really wanted to show off that the Easter bunny did not forget him. He made me take pictures of him with everything he got. He really loved his spiderman flip flops that the Easter bunny found on clearance.

Jared was not really excited about anything. He is never really excited about anything anymore these days. I am not sure what it is about 11 year old boys, but they are hard!

After church, we had a big family picnic at the park by my house. I was so happy to have so many people from my family come! My mom and dad, John and Andrea and their kids, Paul and Camille and Jordan, and then us. It was so much fun! We grilled hambergers, hot dogs, and chicken and the had a Easter egg hunt for the kids. I helped Kayla get her eggs. She loved it!

Cayden posed for me after he found his eggs. He was so excited to find his eggs without a huge amount of people pushing him around.

Kayla loved to play with the eggs she found, I just emptied all the stuff out of the eggs and let her play and put them in her mouth.

Cassia and Camille were playing in the sand. I thought this was so cute, that I had to take a picture of Cassia playing with her Auntie Camille.

Blaine even got off work early and was able to come out and have fun with us. I am really enjoying living here with so many of my family members living close by. I am glad for the opportunity to be able to build a better relationship with my family. I am thankful for all of the help that we have received from everyone and the prayers said on our befalf. I am most thankful for the knowledge the God plays a very important part of our lives and he loves and helps us in everything if we just ask.

I thank you all, have a great day!

Easter

There was a community Easter thing at the park by our house. We took all of the kids except Josh, he thinks that he is far too old to have fun at those types of things. We had fun though. We missed the time for Kayla to get Easter eggs, but fortunately, Bubba had a few extra that he was willing to share. They were empty but Kayla just wanted to play with the empty eggs anyway. Blaine had the day off (yes he finally got a really good job), so he was able to go with us.

Cayden wanted to get a picture with the Easter bunny. I was shocked because this is the first year he has not been afraid to get a picture by himself. He said that five year olds can not be afraid of the Easter bunny anymore.

Here is Kayla with her basket, was not really interested in it but I wanted to get some pictures for her baby book.

Kayla

My baby is getting so big! I can not believe that she is 10 months old now, the time has flown by. She can crawl all over the place and boy is she fast. She get to a sitting postion while she is crawling too. She is pulling herself up onto things and walking along them. Here she is holding onto her srtoller attempting to push her baby.

I was at my dad's house with AnnMarie, Amy and Andrea and there was a bin full of ribbon on the floor, my little girl thought this was the best toy ever. She got tangled up in the ribbon, she was having a great time until I noticed she had gotten some wrapped around her neck. She was not happy that I took her away from her toy.

She is interacting with Cayden whild playing now. She loves to come and mess up what he is doing and then giggle when he gets mad at her. I love her face in this picture.

The Zoo

Well it sure has been a long time since I updated everyone on how were are doing. We have been busy since moving down here to the warm weather of Queen Creek. I am totally loving it! I am not sure how I am going to be this summer, but right now the idea of it being chilly at 65 degrees is wonderful!
We went to the zoo on St. Patricks Day. The Phoenix Zoo is so amazing! I had such a great time. I had all of the kids and we met AnnMarie and her kids, my dad, Andrea and her kids, and Amy and her kids. 17 total people, not really that fun to get us all moving in the same direction, but fun to spend time with each other! I did not manage to take any pictures of the animals, Josh and Jared were camera shy and refused any pictures they knew about to be taken, so I really do not try and have all the pictures just be of Cayden and Kayla but it usually turns out that way. There was a splash pad that we took the kids to, the boys loved it but Kayla was not really happy to get splashed. She just sat with Natalie and played around.
Kayla wanted something to chew on so I gave her a carrot to chew on. Her tiny teeth managed to bit off one or two slivers of carrot and she did not choke. She had fun sliming the carrot and I felt good about her not choking on anything. Happy mom and happy baby!

We also took the kids to a playground that they have at the zoo, they have farm equipmet that the kids can play on and "drive". Cayden and Jared had fun pretending, Josh was hangin out with Bailey and they tried not to appear too bored.

Overall, it was fun, the weather was warm, and were had a good time. I am looking forward to going back soon to see more of the animals.