Easter with my boys

This Easter was seemingly a great time to take pictures.

We had a blast at our ward primary Easter party and egg hunt.

Cohen was more than pleased to frost, decorate, then eat a cookie.

It's on holidays like this that I forget lunchtime is not for filling up on cookies and candies rather than nutritious food.  All for the sake of some holiday joy. 

Totally worth it.

We made sure Parker got enough sugar too.

We wouldn't want to leave the little brother out of the Easter fun.

Parker actually sat down and colored on these bunny ears.  I was impressed.  He lasted almost as long as Cohen; which in all honesty, doesn't say much.  Cohen has never been one to enjoy coloring.





 Getting ready to hunt for some eggs.

Cohen is unknowingly possing and cute.  He had a blast getting eggs.

This was really Parker's first egg hunt. 

He was cute as could be, and simply excited to put colorful things into a container and have mom and dad get excited about it.

We "colored" eggs the evening before Easter.

There was a big emotional problem for Cohen with dying Easter eggs.

The poor boy thought that we were happy and celebrating dying (killing) eggs, which somehow related to Christ dying on the cross.  He's so sweet.  He simply couldn't understand how we could be celebrating Jesus' death by killing eggs.  He's so sad that Jesus died on the cross for us and that evil men killed him.  He sincerely cried a couple times that day for sadness of this concept.

It took me a long time to teach him that we were actually COLORING eggs, not killing them.  I had to change the whole scenario in his head to get him to be ok with this activity.  Luckely, just before we started he finally became ok with the concept.



 This is Cohen's grumpy face, not wanting to take a picture.

Then we showed him how silly he looked, and tried again.  Ahh, much better.

 The results.  Josh sweetly accused me of doing these silly traditions purely for my enjoyment. 

Ok, I enjoy holidays.  I figure they're out of the ordinary, and we might as well participate and make it fun!  I think he's just not quite as into decorating eggs as I am.... which in reality isn't all that much.

Here's the boys' Easter baskets.

Easter morning was chaotic and fun.  Cohen had been eye-balling this golf set for at least a month before Easter, so of course he wanted to play a full fledged game instantly.  Parker wanted to experience everything as fast as possible.  I wanted to keep things rolling so we could make it to church on time!  Josh is a wonderful father who always balances things right out.

Cohen is hunting for eggs.

Our 2 week kind-of-sort-of break

For the last two weeks we have been on school "break."  It sounds wonderful, right?

Although it hasn't been what we're used to by now (we get 2 week breaks every 3 months) it has still been kinda' nice. 

Josh didn't really get a break because he's been studying about 8 hours a day for a series of huge tests that start his first week back to school.  So, we didn't travel to Utah.  Sad.  We didn't even make it to the coast, or Washington, or anything.  But, we did get to see Josh a little more than we normally do, an he did take a couple days and really focus on the family.  Yay for that.

The first Monday into the break we went to the zoo with our friends, the Gilletts.  We had a lot of fun, and Parker's getting old enough now to really enjoy the animals.  It's cute that he's seeing them in real life after learning all their sounds and characteristics from his baby books.

This first video is from a bird enclosure at the zoo.  This is where he learned what birds say.  He makes this funny squeal noise now every time you ask him what a bird says.  He REALLY liked this part of the zoo.

Here's Daddy and Parker chillin' at the zoo.

Cohen had fun.  He likes the animals, and honestly probably likes the feeling of constantly walking and moving and going just as much.  I think the zoo tires out most kids.  Cohen just feeds off of it.

Cohen and Landon are on the big lion.  They had so much fun together that day.  

My buddy, Parker.



Happy St. Patricks Day

I tried to make St. Patrick's Day something exciting at our house or for our day.

The original plan was to go downtown and go to some kind of festival and let the kids experience the culture and all that.  When I realized how sick the kids were that day (we went through at least 4 weeks of seriously sick lately) I knew there was no way we were going too far from home.... unless I wanted one or more meltdowns in public.  I opted out of that one.

So, the excitement of our day was browsing Target.  I spent a few bucks to try to make the day a little interesting.  I found this little pot for gold, (that I justified I could turn around and make something of it for Halloween), some clover hand towels, and Lucky Charms.  We were set!

I got home and made Cohen this Leprechaun hat and a rainbow; I borrowed from Josh's penny stash and gave Cohen some gold.  We had dry Lucky Charms for our afternoon snack.  He had never had them before.  It was quite a treat.

Then onto the fun!

Cohen is very into pretend!  Everyday all the time, it seems like, we are pretending.

I told Cohen a little about Leprechauns and the folklore, and he had a hay day!

I would put the "gold" on the clover towls, or other places, then he would go around and gather it up.

Then put it in his pot of gold, which was conveniently at the bottom of the rainbow.

One of the cutest parts was after he had all the gold in the pot, he would go around asking if there was anyone who needed any gold, then helped us get some from his pot.  All the while, he was this very polite and helpful leprechaun, who just wanted to share his gold with anyone who needed it. It was so cute to see his little personality go into this folklore!