Mother's Day Tea

 Cole's "Little Hands" Preschool did this mother's appreciation brunch called "Mother's Tea."  There was this card with his picture on it, and a cute poem inside with his hand print. I love it.

They had this little presentation where they sang songs to us mothers. It was so sweet they sang, "I am your sunshine" while holding up suns around their heads. 

They also sang a couple other mother's songs.

 Then the kids came in to serve us mothers our brunch. 

Yummy, thanks buddy.

 This is Cole's teacher: Miss Erica.

 Ella also made me a card and flower at school.

On actual Mother's Day Scott made me an amazing lunch: Chicken parmigiana sandwiches   Brock was sick and stayed home from church with daddy, who folded and put away 5 loads of laundry for me (his most hated chore)... that must be true love, best present ever. Thanks hun!

Utah Trip

A couple weekends ago we went to visit my sister for the weekend in West Haven. Scott had a doctor he wanted to shadow, so it worked out perfectly. We had such a great time. We took our kids to Treehouse Children's Museum in Ogden

(right across from the Ogden Temple, under construction though)

Cole and Brock tried to get the sword out of the stone... tried but sadly, no success.

 Brock loved this firetruck. He was here for about 30 minutes straight.

Which, for an 18 month old is a long time in one place.

 

 

Love his smile!

 Ella and Miles LOVE horses. They were in the horse barn area forever... it seemed.

This picture below fits her perfect: wearing pink and on a horse.

 My kids loved playing with Miles. What a cute kid.

 There was this storytime in the music center while we were there and the kids got a mini-lesson on rhythm and drums. It was fun to see them so enthralled in it.  After the Treehouse Museum we went to this yummy pizza place with these garlic breadsticks on sticks, so yummo!!!!

On Saturday morning we took our kids to Temple Square. 

What a beautiful day!

We took our kids to a park by Stephanie's place later that evening. 

Thanks Steph and Grant for letting us come visit for the weekend, we love you guys! 

And congrats to Grant for just graduating with your

 masters in hospital administration. 

Way to go! Can't wait to see where the future takes ya!

Teddy Bear Picnic

Cole attends an awesome preschool.  They had a Teddy Bear Picnic last week, where we came to their backyard and they had all sorts of games and jump houses there for the kids. They all had a blast running around the "playground" for awhile.

Then Miss Erica took her class on a nature walk around the beautiful property.

Ella was lucky they had the picnic in the morning so she could make it before her school started.

What a fun afternoon!

{EASTER}

I LOVE celebrating Easter, not only the bunny & candy side,

 but remembering the real meaning behind why we celebrate it. Scott and I were lucky to have talks on the Atonement on Easter Sunday!

Meant more to us this year, since we were researching and studying the topic for our talks.

The day before we went to our star community center for an egg hunt.

Whoever was in charge did amazing, and had all these kid games set up to play before the hunt. Aunt Kassie & Steven brought their family and my kids had a blast playing with them.

 

Cole really got into the hunt this year, he kept saying

"I'm so excited" before it started.

I think Brock understood that he was picking these odd shaped things up and sticking them in a basket...

that's about it.

To Ella, it's always a competition and takes it seriously

to get THE MOST eggs possible...

I think her basket was overflowing.

 

We didn't have time to take a picture Sunday morning with all three children since we had to get there early for our talks, and the moment we get home Brock is already sleeping in his carseat.

So here's Cole and Ella already digging into the chocolate :)

Ella's Easter loot

Cole's basket 

 His favorite item was this HUGE spiderman action figure....

he's still a favorite.

When Brocky woke up he got to dig into his basket. 

 

Then we colored eggs as a family.

I loved the kit this year; each color had its own bag to put sparkly dye in.

 

Our kids love a good egg hunt... with real eggs makes it that much more fun!

 

Somebody left this yummy plate of
Easter cookies on our doorstep that night.

We found out later it was the Christensen family.

 

After Easter dinner, all the cousins got to enjoy yet another

 egg hunt on grandma and grandpa Thompson's backyard...

so fun when there's Cadbury eggs in the middle!

 

Indy Girls Trip

For spring break Ella and I took a trip back to Indianapolis

to see our great friends we made there.

We saw our old house we lived in for 4 years,

(nobody was home, but we looked inside and they remodeled it!)

We took all our kids to Bouncer Town in Greenwood,

On Friday night the Goffs, Cutlers, Becks, and Gardners

all went to Rascals Fun Zone for some

 mini bowling, arcade games, and go-karts.

Ella was reunited with her best friend she made there: Adrienne.

We took them to Toys R Us to get a toy for the weekend

(while we were gone at TOFW)

and they both decided on these horse stuffed animals

which they rode around and jumped over broomsticks.

We also went out to Steak 'N' Shake one night with the Goffs and Becks.

Ella had just as big of a social life there with

 sleepovers at the Goff's, Becks, and Cutlers,

 and then a birthday party for Jocelyn Baker!



I was really excited for Time Out For Women!

I needed the spiritual recharge big time!

Above: Camille Cutler, Brittany Goff, Me

We saw so many people from our ward,

 it was a great reunion to see everyone and catch up.

We got our TOFW bags, love them!

On Sunday after church it decided to snow....

for over 24 hours straight!!!

This is the view out the backyard window.

So, we came home one night after a girl's night out

and Cody was  building a snow-bunny!

Ella wanted to "help" but mostly played in the snow with him.

The last night in Indy my friends gathered together

for some yummy gelato to celebrate my birthday.

Thanks to all the thoughtful gifts, and thanks to Camille

and Brittany for letting us crash at your places for the night.

Love these gals... miss them already!

Thanks for the good times, can't wait for our next get-together!