Easter in St. George!

This year we spent Easter/spring break in St. George. It was so much fun to get away and enjoy some nice weather. My parents, along with my sister and her family joined us. We had a great time. Darin wasn't able to take off work the entire time, so he met us down there on Fri. evening. We missed him....and he definetly missed some of the excitement....I guess that is what you call it. On Fri. we decided to take the kids to this park that has a splash pad and a fun little river. We set our stuff down, and I took the next couple of pictures....Myah and Grady just enjoyed sittin in the sun...

Myah as usual enjoyed chewing on her shoe.

We had only been there long enough to put on sun screen when Camden told me he needed to use the restroom. I asked Carter if he wanted to come, but he was already having to much fun (I never got a picture of him, but if you want to see his excitement check out this picture.) Anyway, we went to the bathroom, waited in line for about 5 min. and when we got back, my brother-in-law was holding Carter and Lesli looked about as pale as a ghost. When I asked them what happened, they told me Carter slipped and hit his head, got up, walked a little and passed out and hit his head again. By the time Lesli was over to him he was blue and unconscious. It only took him a minute to come to, but it was long enough to give everyone around him a good scare. Unfortunately Carter has a reputation for holding his breath when he gets hurt and this isn't the first time it has happened. A couple of years ago was the first incident, and it scared us so bad the ambulance ended up coming and we headed to the ER for tests. (If anyone else has breath holders out their you know how scary it looks!) Anyway to make a long story short, we ended up in the ER for about 3 hours getting a cat scan just to make sure it was him holding his breath and not trauma to his brain. He was fine....but that splash pad turned out to be much more expensive than a free day at the park! One good thing...Darin was so worried he took off from work early and we were able to be with him that evening earlier than we expected!

This year we decided we would try inviting the Easter bunny to visit us on Fri. night instead of Sat. so that on Sun. we could focus more on the real meaning of Easter. I loved it! I think that will be our new way of doing things. We went Easter crazy on Sat. however and did all of the fun things you can do on Easter...

Camden was excited that the Easter bunny found us, even though we weren't at home!

Carter was thrilled as well!

And what girl wouldn't be thrilled with a new pair of pink shoes?

After we looked at all the fun things the Easter bunny brought and ate lots of candy.....we headed off to what we thought was another Easter egg hunt at the golf course by my parents condo. Well it turned out to be more of a candy toss.....just tons of candy all over the driving range and the kids had to run as fast as they could to pick it all up. The weather was not very cooperative, but the boys didn't seem to mind!

Camden was thrilled with his loot of candy!

Carter also has a sweet tooth like you wouldn't believe....you would never guess that he was my son :-)!

Camden, Carter and Clara.

Ok, so I didn't really care to have my kids pose with this sad excuse for an Easter bunny, but I had to get a picture! Isn't it the creepiest thing you have ever seen!!! I am surprised more kids didn't leave screaming!

After eating a few pounds of candy, we decided we needed some exercise. Since the weather was bad we headed for the indoor pool. Carter said he will go swimming still, but maybe no more splash pads for him!

Myah loved the fountains, she loved the pool, I think she will be our water baby!

I don't want to go home!

Easter Sun.

Easter was a beautiful day! We headed to church in our fancy duds, and Darin and I walked back a little later than the kids. When we got home Camden was already changed and I couldn't convince him to go and get dressed up for pictures. So I got a few of him in just his play clothes....he still looks pretty handsome...

Carter on the other hand LOVES to stay in his church clothes on Sun. So here are some fun shots of him.

Myah and Grady. Aren't they cute! We've been asked if they were twins...would you believe that he is 4 months younger than Myah? I think he will be tall and Myah will be short, but if you look at their parents, that is no surprise!Myah is at such a fun stage, and I get a little photo happy with her. My boys just don't think it is much fun to have their pictures taken anymore and Myah....well she just sits there! (By the way, no I didn't make Myah's dress, but a friend of mine did...isn't it cute! You can check our her darling dresses at jennijackson.com)

Carter LOVES his sister!

Clara Belle!

We had such a fun trip!!! We can't wait to go back!

Neighborhood easter egg hunt.

The week before Easter, we planned a little Easter egg hunt in our cul-de-sac. The kids had a great time, hopefully this will become a yearly tradition! It's amazing how many kids we have in such a small section of our neighborhood...one reason I never want to leave! Carter meant serious business!

I made Camden stop and pose for a picture....he isn't really loving his picture taken these days!

Myah's first hair cut!

A few weeks ago I decided it was time to give Myah a new do...it turned out pretty cute, but it all of a sudden made my little baby look like a big girl!


Before.... After....

She was actually pretty good, letting her suck on a bottle of toothpaste does wonders!

First birthday bash!

Myah's birthday turned out to be a fun little celebration! We had our family over for pizza, cake and ice cream. Thanks to everyone who came! It was a fun day....I still can't believe my baby is one!

Here is Myah enjoying a nice slice of cheese pizza.....I think she is starting to wonder what this baby food business is when everyone else gets to indulge in food like pizza! She loved it!

This is one of my fav's. We were just starting to open presents. She was just excited to be there, my boys on the other hand were really thrilled to see what was inside all of that wrapping paper. I swear she would open one present, and let's be honest, all she wanted to do was eat the darn thing and my boys were just throwing a new present in her lap taking the old one away wanting her to hurry!!!!! It really was pretty comical!

This picture I love! Lesli's little girl Clara is just about 2 and she was just heart broken that Myah was getting all of these fun new gifts. She so badly just wanted something to be for her! Good thing her birthday is just a couple of weeks away, I think she will enjoy that party MUCH more!

Myah got a new little car to ride around in! Pro.....she loves it, Con......the boys love pushing her in it. This would be a good thing, however they think it is fun to have crash wars while she is in the driver seat. I swear if this little girl survives these brothers it will be a miracle. Funny thing is, she just adores them. I think she might grow up to be just as daring and crazy as her brothers!

Cake time! She so badly just wanted to touch that flame!

Out of all of my kids, she dove into her her cake the best!(Carter was a close second....Camden put his finger in it and was completely disgusted!) I think it was the best thing she ever tasted! She started with both feet and then just dug in with her hands! She loved it! (By the way, I was going to make her cake, but decided on a birthday dress project instead so I had to settle for Macey's. But it was great because they gave me a free "smash cake" just for her! So if you are in need of a 1st year b-day cake, I highly recommend it!)

Darin thought Carter should join in on the fun as well. He thought it was funny for about 3 seconds then we had some pretty good tears mixed in with that frosting!

We celebrated her birthday the night before her real b-day, so I had to get a couple of pictures on the "real" day. I love the look on her face...I don't think she can believe it is her birthday either!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY...until next year. I took Myah for her one year checkup last week and she was weighing in at 18 lbs 4 oz. (10%.....she is my little runt, I have never NOT been able to face my kids forward when they turned 1) and was 28 in. (25%....not only does she not weigh enough, she still has an inch before she outgrows the infant carrier). She is soooo close to walking, I'm sure it won't be long now. It is just crazy to see how much she has grown and learned in one short year. As much as I hate seeing her grow up, I just love this age and all of the cute things she does!

She's one!!!!

I'm not quite sure where the past year has gone....I can't believe our little Myah is one!!!! She has just been a ball of fun and we feel so blessed to have her in our family! We love you miss Myah!!!!

Going to try something....

Ok so one thing I don't like about private blogs is that the google reader function doesn't work any more. So my great plan to get past this......Everytime I have a new post I will post "new post" to my darinandjoanna.blogspot.com address which is not private. If you keep that address in your reader than you can click on that and use the link to my private address. We will see if it works!!!!!

Go Aggies, Go Aggies...Hey, Hey, Hey!

We drove far, we cheered loud, they played hard, they came close, but not quite close enough... but we still are True BLUE Aggie fans!Utah State had a great basketball season ending the year 30-5. We were the WAC champions and headed off to Boise Idaho to play against Marquette in the NCAA tournament. We decided to make it a family affair and have a weekend get away. The drive wasn't so bad. 5 people in one hotel room wouldn't have been so bad either if our kids weren't all 5 and under. Once we got to the hotel, it was 10:00p.m. mind you, I asked the front desk to send up a port-a-crib for Myah...he politely informed me they were all gone. Now for some of you that might not seem like a big deal, but Myah, unlike my boys does not sleep well in bed with me. So lets just say I laid in bed with a restless baby from about 2-6 a.m. Oh did I mention Camden and Carter were fighting over who got more covers so bad that we finally put Carter in with me and Darin with Camden (my choice...you should hear Camden grind his teeth...you do NOT want to be snuggled next to him all night!) So I had Carter on one side, Myah in the middle and I on the other side making sure Carter didn't smother Myah and that Myah didn't crawl on top of Carter....it seems rather comical now that I am replaying the night in my head!!! Anyway the next morning we had a great breakfast....on the house, (I love when hotels include a REAL breakfast...its great!) and we were off to the game. USU had a bad first half, but the second seemed promising. It all came down to the wire and we ended up loosing by 1 pt. It was a little heart-breaking, but they played their hearts out! At least we proved we were good enough to be there. After the game we headed to the Cheesecake factory for lunch and then spent the rest of the day enjoying the 78 degree weather. We stayed one more night....much better...they had a crib (Yeah) and headed home the next day. Here are just a few....ok...a LOT of my favorite pictures of the day!

The cutest little Aggie I have ever seen!

Carter was endlessly blowing up this beach ball the hotel gave us. I think it had a hole, but he insisted it stay full!

Darin had fun taking some action shots of the kids jumping off the wall.....they could have done this all day!

My niece Gabrielle spent the afternoon with us too!

Pretty Gab!

I guess I should re-wind a little. Darin and Camden went on a little father/son adventure to Reno Nevada to watch the Aggies win the WAC tournament. They had a great time....here is a clip of their fun.

Bowling...

Outside of the hotel.....

Go-Karts.....

Mini-golf....

The winning game.....Darin called me after the game was over and all I could hear was Camden singing "We are the Champions!" I assume that is what he is saying in this picture. He was SOOOOO excited!

They had a great time! We sure missed them back at home though!!! I can't forget to thank my parents for the hotel accommodations and game tickets at all of the fun events! Thanks again, we all had a blast!