a week in Idaho

On monday, we headed out to Kerry and Lana's to spend most of the week there. The girls were excited as usual about all the animals. Papa bought them little helmets so they could go riding. Kara went first. She had fun.

Kiersten really liked it. She kept begging to "dwive" the horse herself.

She also wanted to make friends with the roosters, but they kept getting away from her.

Kara always loves playing fetch with Duke.

Grams had bought a little tea set and some dress up things. They enjoyed their afternoon tea party. I think they used chocolate milk in the tiny little cups.

We decided to go visit Grandma Hill one afternoon. The girls had fun at her house, and Ben and Kerry were able to fix a few things for her while we were there. Evie crawled all the way up her stairs without assistance.

On friday we drove to Twin falls to see Nancy, Victor, Tommy, and Whitney. She is such an adorable little girl! She is just precious. Evie was walking up to her while she was sleeping on the couch, and Kiersten exclaimed, "oh no! Mommy, Evie's gonna get the princess!".

I wish I could have spent much more time cuddling with her, but I had a really bad cold, and didn't think I needed to be coughing all over her. I did hold her for a bit, and was able to hold in all my coughs until I was done holding her. It's nice to hold a baby that just lays in your arms instead of wriggling all over.

saturday we had an easter egg hunt with Tommy. That was the girls' third hunt, and they weren't tired of easter at all. They had tons of fun.

Tommy and Evie had some baby friendly eggs to find.

He loved finding those blue eggs, but did get distracted a few times with his fun backyard toys.

The girls got super spoiled again! And after they had these 3 hunts, they got to come home to the easter things that had been left behind. So they have candy that should last the rest of the year.

Kara took some of her easter candy to school for her class helper day. I think next year I will hardly buy any candy!

Evie got to try her first sucker. She was enjoying it until it got dropped in the grass too many times, and got taken away. Now if she sees her sisters with one, she goes crazy trying to get at it.

the daddys enjoying the hunt

Later that evening, Grandma Van Sickle was taking dinner out of the oven, and Evie was standing nearby. She put her hand down on the oven door and got a second degree burn on her hand. I have been racking my brain to remember what I was doing, and why she had wandered in there without Ben or me noticing. I was helping the girls with something, but I just can't remember. I felt like the worst mommy in the world! It was really sad and scary, but she handled it well. She only cried for about 15 minutes. When I took her to the doctor on monday, he was surprised she would let him handle it and dress it with no fussing or crying. I guess it must not hurt as bad as it looks like it should. He thinks it will heal fine. She had an ear infection when I took her in, so he put her on an antibiotic, and said it will also prevent the burn from getting infected.

my big, tough girl! Still so sweet and happy, even when injured. She was even good for our long drive home to washington.

Evie's blessing and Easter

After a week in Utah, my parents drove me and the girls up to Idaho Falls for Evie's baby blessing. Ben had driven out early that morning from home, and met us at Mark and Vicky's house. Here we are with Grandma Hill waiting outside the church for the bishop to show up for the blessing. He had forgotten about the blessing, so we went back to Mark and Vicky's to eat dinner. We were all tuckered out from the drive and a cold we caught in Utah.

when the bishop got our messages, he came right over for the blessing. She slept through it, but woke up happy. My dad gave her the sweetest blessing.

Ben didn't change back into his suit

the recently engaged aunt Katie. Doesn't she look happy?

These are blurry, but I like how they show off her dress. She's a quick little runner.

Happiest baby!

After the blessing we colored easter eggs. Amber and Shaun came over with their twin boys, who we hadn't met in person yet.

Look at these cute kids waiting for an easter egg hunt. We had the hunt around noon on sunday.

my girls were sure anxious to get out to the hunt.

my sweet little bear. she is getting so big. When we were dress shopping, she had already picked out this dress, and when we found perfectly matching shoes at H&M, she said, "O..M..G.. these are the perfect shoes I've been looking for!" what 5 year old talks like that?!?

Kiersten is getting prettier and prettier. She loved this dress at the store. She really freaked out about it and had to have it. It drove her crazy to see it in her closet for a month and not be able to wear it.

Our family on Easter 2011.

the start of the hunt.Evie only picked up 3 eggs and then gave up.

It got a bit competitive between the two girls. Kiersten lost her temper a few times when Kara beat her to an egg.

since all of the girls' Easter stuff got left home by someone (Ben!) We bought some clearance premade baskets for them to hunt for. They still ended up with tons of candy and toys though.

Evie was pretty excited about her treats and the easter grass.

It was a really fun blessing/easter weekend. Be looking for another post in the next day or so with pictures from our week in Idaho.

Utah visit

We just got back from a 2 week trip to Utah and Idaho. The first week was spent in Utah visiting with my family. The girls and I flew out together, and Ben stayed behind in Washington to work that week. We stayed with my parents for several days. The girls loved my mom's cat, Muffy. Kara kept trying to get a picture with her, but she kept running away. Digging in Shelly's backyard.

My lovely neice Makayla was so good with the babies, and little kids. Evie really took a liking to her.

my mom was so thrilled that Rylynn came to sit on her lap. Usually she is a Grandpa's girl. So we had to take a picture to remember that she did take a nap with Grandma at least once.

Kiersten took a nap in a comfortable place for once!

Just a picture to make Ben jealous of my meatloaf and funeral potatoes. Also, This was taken before Jackie cut my hair off.It is much shorter now, and I don't miss an inch of it!

I got this egg at the dollar store. The girls and their cousin Cash excitedly waited for it to hatch.

I got this little easter project for the girls to do at Grandma and Grandpa's house the day that none of their cousins came over to play.

Kara loved hanging out with Cash.

Mom, Jackie, and I took the kids to a restaurant called Pirate Island. They sure had a blast!

Kiersten won tons of tickets.

Evie really liked her Grandma Boot, and would even reach for her while I was holding her, which is rare. Mom loved having a baby like her so much.

The girls used their tickets for eye patches, erasers and tootsie rolls.

The kids were so excited when the egg finally hatched and a baby duck was inside.

Another easter project that the girls did with Cash.

Jayden and Kiersten.

Dad holding Evie and Kaymie. He sure is good with all the kids.

Uncle Nic playing with Evie.

We spent a few nights at Shelly and Troy's house in eagle mountain. My girls loved having other girls to play with and playing dress up and fashion show.

Kara and Laynee get along so well. As much as she loves all her cousins, Laynee seems to be the favorite. They have just about everything in common.

Jackie bought brightly colored cupcakes for Cash's birthday party. all the kids got a kick out of Kiersten's messy face. she had bright green poo 2 days later.

we had a sister sleepover, and all the kids watched movies and slept in sleeping bags. the next morning, there was popcorn everywhere! It was fun playing games and laughing with mom and my sistas, and Makayla joined the adults too.

the next morning we took all the kids to hogle zoo. they had fun, but it sure was an adventure trying to follow around 14 kids!

we had a big group, and some people were annoyed, and some people thought we were polygamists since Troy was the only husband that went. but all the kids had fun, and that's what matters. we may have had a lot of kids, but at least they were pretty well behaved.

adorable kiddos. Laynee, Kara, and Addy stuck together. Afton really wanted to be included in their little group.

After the zoo, we had the kids play some easter games, anf then they had an egg hunt in the backyard.