EAstEr wEEkEnd

We had such a fun Easter weekend this year. The kids are totally into holidays now and so everything is quite an adventure.
We dyed Easter eggs on Saturday evening. This year I let Kai pick out the egg coloring kit. He was so excited as we stood in the aisle and he carefully looked at each kit before deciding on one. I just put it in the basket and didn't think twice about it until we got home. When I was unpacking our groceries I finally looked at the dying instructions. It was a totally different kind of kit than I had ever seen. We didn't actually need to dip the eggs in cups or anything with the kit Kai picked out. This year we just added drops of color into a bag and the kiddos just rubbed the color onto the egg. I must admit I was totally prepared for a messy egg dying activity this year and was pleasantly surprised when there was hardly any mess at all. It was awesome!
Here are some of our pictures from our MESS FREE egg dying evening.
***Also, a bit of a disclaimer...I recently bought a new lens and have been playing around with it. So, a ton (MOST) of my pictures aren't in focus like I would like. But I'm learning.
Again, when I tell Kai to smile...he squints.
The next shot I told him to open his eyes and this is what he gave me. Classic.


Kai was totally into the egg dying this year.

So cool that the kids got to touch the eggs but finish the activity with CLEAN hands. RARE for Cic.




Our finished product.

Kai is starting to be such a poser.
Cic was begging to take a picture "just like Kai" but when we sat her next to Kai and he (heaven forbid) put his arm around her...MELTDOWN.
As soon as Kai took his arm away...everything was right in the world again.
L.O.V.E.
Easter Sunday.

My Mom bought Cic an Easter Dress and Cic was so excited. As soon as I put it on her Kai said, "Oh Cic, you look petty."

Kai told me about his lesson in church today.

"Jesus was praying and the mean guys came. Then he was bleeding. Jesus died. He came back to life."

After church the Easter bunny stopped by and left some baskets for the kids.
Cici's Easter basket
Kai's Easter basket
Kai when he found his Easter basket. So glad I captured this excited face.
Heaven on earth...
K...This is the face that I see every day. EVERY DAY. Cic has this face that she pulls at different times when she is really happy or surprised. It is so funny. I can't get enough of it. She pulled it today when she found her Easter basket. Love.
More of heaven on Earth...
My Mom sent some of the goodies for the kids baskets. She always knows the right things to buy that will just thrill my kids. Thanks for thinking of us Mom! You are the best!

Easter Egg Hunt

The weather kept saying that it was going to rain all weekend and it really didn't. So, after church I decided that the weather people were all wrong and opted to defy the odds and have our hunt outdoors. I came inside to gather everyone up and on our way out the door to hunt for eggs it started to sprinkle. AWESOME. So, we bundled everyone up and told them to hurry and grab the eggs as fast as they could. Kai loves anything competitive and was excited to see if he could "beat Cici."
We had so many eggs in the backyard that Ben had to empty Kai's basket a few times b/c it was overflowing and Kai couldn't pile on any more eggs.
Cic was excited but in no hurry to gather a ton of eggs. She quickly learned that the eggs had candy in them and was more interested in eating the candy inside of ONE egg than gathering several.
Again...the face. This is what happens when you tell Cic to smile.
...and again...
Kai was so proud of his haul. He went through each egg and sorted through all the candy...totally organizing it. Kinda OCD. I was so proud.
I couldn't hold still long enough for this picture to be in focus, but I love in anyway. Cic is OBSESSED with Tinkerbell. She got some new "Bababell" (also known as Tinkerbell) jammies for Easter and couldn't have been happier.
My loves before bed tonight.

Happy Easter everyone!

SMoRGaSBoRD

I would have posted these pictures sooner but our laptop has been in the shop so I am a bit behind. Days seem to be flying by and life is crazy. I am trying to get caught up on everything b/c after the baby comes, I know that I will be too exhausted to do any of this.
We went to Utah a few weeks ago for a baptism. Probably our last trip before the baby comes in July. We were a bit nervous about the roads b/c the weather is still a bit unpredictable and we didn't know if the pass was even going to be open. Luckily the roads were excellent (other than wind) on our way up.
It was kind of a crazy trip since we planned on simply going for a baptism and about a week before we left found out that my parents were going to be in Utah the same weekend. My dad has an arrhythmic heartbeat and was having a procedure done to help correct it. My parents try and down play these things so no one freaks out, but it turns out it was a pretty big deal. The doctors wanted him in ASAP in fear that he was at risk for cardiac arrest at any moment.
We stayed at Ben's brothers house and hoped that the kids would get along well with their cousins. Unfortunately my kiddos became leeches and wouldn't let go of me the entire time we were around Ben's family. I think they just were unsure of their surroundings and the new faces. It was exhausting and a ton of work. I had whiny kids and there were times when I wanted to breakdown myself. We had a weekend with no naps and a go, go, go schedule.
There weren't a lot of smiles to take pictures of while we were there, but Ben did manage to capture this one of Kai.
We went out to Pirate Island with my Mom, Dad, my brother Travis' family, and my brother Forrest with his family while we were there. It is SOOOO much cleaner than Chuck e Cheese. The kids had a blast! My parents are always so good at trying to come up with activities that the kids will enjoy and trying to make fun memories together with everyone.
I brought my camera and was excited to get some fun shots with my brothers and their families, but my battery died after a few shots. I am waiting for my brothers to e-mail me some of the group shots so this is all I have from our fun night together.

I love this pic of me and my Mom. Totally an accidental picture. I don't know why I never noticed it as a kid but I have the exact same eye color as my Mom. My Dad once bought me a Sunflower b/c he said those flowers reminded him of me b/c I have a sunflower around my eyes.

Now whenever I look at my eyes in the mirror, I see my Mom. What a great reminder of her that I have. Glad that I get to share that with her. Love you Mom!

Cicilee wants to do whatever Kai does. Since Kai is totally into racing games lately, I couldn't get her off the racing games for most of the night. She was so serious about it too.

The next day was Ben's nieces baptism. It was awesome to be able to attend and Ben was able to participate. I spent the majority of the time in the hall with my screaming/crying kiddos. It was rough.
Here is Kai after the baptism sitting in time out. This is the "happy face" Kai had for most of the day.

Then there was Cic. Just wanting to be held. I am trying to enjoy her snuggles and give her what she wants b/c I know that in a few months her world is going to change.

During the trip, I had diagnosed her clinginess as the start of the terrible two's but she's back to normal again...Thank Goodness!

Ben's niece, Hannah after her baptism. Hannah was the ONLY person that Cicilee would play with. She absolutely adored Hannah.
Kai and Cic slept together while we were there. They are really starting to be such good friends. I love it!
Ben and his folks.

We stopped by the hospital on our way home and visited my Dad. He looked AMAZING! Kai and Cic were a bit shy when we first got there but once my Dad showed Kai how to push buttons and make his bed move Kai was all about it.
Turns out my dad's heart was only functioning at 40%. So glad that he is doing well and feeling better. Wish we lived closer to them. Kai and Cic sure love 'em.

When we got back, Kai and Cici's bunk bed arrived. I looked and looked for bunk beds and couldn't find any (affordable) that I liked...until I found these at Walmart. I was thinking, "Ya right" but then I read all the reviews that people had written and thought we would give it a go. They were super cheap and I love them. The kids are still kinda rough on furniture so I won't be devastated if these get beat up b/c we didn't pay an arm and a leg for them. I would totally recommend these beds to anyone that is looking.

This isn't a very good picture of the room but I wanted to post a pic anyway. I found the dresser, and toy chest on craigslist and we repainted them. The room used to be blue. I bought solid white curtains and sewed a green panel to the bottom. There are still things that I am working on. Kai and Cic just completed some artwork for the wall, I am working on the letters for their names, and I still haven't bought knobs for the dresser yet. It's kinda a work in progress still. I'll post some more pictures once it is complete. At least it is "complete" enough for them to sleep in it now though.

Kai loves painting. I repainted the wall mobile that I made for his room when he was a baby recently and he helped a little. Ever since I painted it, he has been asking me if he could paint again. So, we headed over to JoAnn's and bought two of those $1 birdhouses.We decided to paint them and send them to my Mom for her garden. I love gardening but my Mom LOVES it even more. We thought it would be fun to have a little piece of the kiddos in her yard. Kai was so excited! I picked up some paint in the children's section (not even reading what kind of paint it was) and headed home to please my little artist.

Kai gets very serious about his painting. Won't talk and is totally "in the zone."

Then there is Cic...

A totally different story all together.

I stripped her down for the project b/c Cic has never been a "clean and tidy" kind of girl.
Kai is doing this thing lately where he just squints when you ask him to smile. Kinda makes me wonder just how many wrinkles I have around my eyes...Is that what he thinks I look like when I smile?
Serious business.
Notice the difference between the picture above of Kai and this one of Cic? They are both focused on painting...Kai painting the house and Cic painting HERSELF. She started painting her fingernails in this picture.

Then her tummy, followed by her legs, then her ear and so forth. I kept telling her to keep the paint on the birdhouse...she didn't care what I had to say though. Signs of a true artist. :)
Love these next three pictures.

These perfectly show the difference between Kai and Cic.

Maybe I should have bought body paint for Cic?

Seriously? Check out how CLEAN Kai is when painting. Hardly even uses his napkin.
She got paint EVERYWHERE. It was in her hair, the chair, the floor, her mouth, ears, bellybutton. I started cleaning her off and suddenly realized that it wasn't coming off. Ya, I was in such a hurry to buy the supplies that I didn't realized that I had bought acrylic paint for the kiddos. Glad that it eventually can come off but it didn't come off easily. I gave Cic a bath and it didn't all come off for about 4 days. She hated every bath time b/c I was trying to scratch it off and comb it out of her hair. Poor thing. Lesson learned...PAY ATTENTION to what you buy in the kid aisle, Ashley!
Our neighborhood had an Easter Egg hunt last weekend and the weather was FABULOUS! Colorado has been such a tease lately with hot and cold temperatures so it felt nice to be able to to out and enjoy a warm day collecting eggs. It looks like Easter Sunday will be raining again this year so at least the kids got to have one Easter Egg Hunt outdoors this year.

Ben snapped these three shots of Cic and I LOVE them.

In thAnsItIOn

We are in the process of putting Kai and Cic in the same room for a while. I have been so busy buying and refinishing furniture, shopping for bedding, repainting the room a new color, working on curtains, etc. I even had to sell Kai's bedroom furniture, which was kinda sad b/c I can remember how excited I was to buy it for him. The whole experience has been so fun though. I love it!
I shopped and shopped for beds for the room. My dream was to get two twin beds to fit in the corner along both walls with a side table in the corner. I REALLY wanted that to work out, but alas our rooms in this house are SO small and it wouldn't fit. So, I finally agreed to go the bunk bed route. I am really nervous about this b/c I can imagine Cic climbing up to the top bunk and Kai pushing her off.
Anyway, most of the room is done (minus a few details) but we are still waiting on the bunk bed that I ordered to arrive (that is LATE by the way.)
We bought Cic her own twin mattress and were too excited not to try it out, so on Monday we let the kids start their adventure together. We THOUGHT it was going to be a breeze. The mattresses are on the floor side by side but Kai wanted to sleep with Cici so they are only using one mattress anyway.
Everything went well initially. We did out bedtime routine, everyone was in bed tucked in and said a sweet, "Goodnight." Ben and I walked downstairs and gave each other the, "That was EASY" look. Then the crying started. Cic was so scared and it took a while to comfort her. It was after all her first night without her crib. She missed it. It took probably a full hour for her to relax a bit. Relax might not be the right word though. After that hour, Kai and Cic realized that they had a room to themselves and began playing and playing and playing. It was a NIGHTMARE!
My kids are known to be in bed some nights (at the earliest) by 6:30pm. (I know that is early...It's usually about 7 or 7:30pm.) Monday when they shared a room for the first night, they were still up and running around in their room at 10:30pm.

I couldn't believe it! After going in and reinforcing that it was bedtime, Cic started to cry again.

We decided to let her cry it out. Ben overheard a sweet conversation between Kai and Cic...
Kai said to Cic, "It's OK Cici. There aren't even any spiders in my room."

When Ben told me this, my heart just melted. Kai kinda has a thing about spiders. We don't have any in our house, but he LOVES spider man. He LOVES everything about spider man...everything but the spider part. I think he might be afraid of actual spiders. We have had to tell him time and time again that there aren't any spiders in his room. I guess he thought that is why Cic was crying. It makes me happy that he tries to cheer her up. What a good big brother.

Now, only if we could get this bedtime thing down AGAIN. Last night wasn't any better. Their lack of sleep during the night makes for LOOOONG and whiny days.
This is the exact reason why I wanted to combine them early on. I am hoping that combining them three months before the baby arrives will give them plenty of time to get used to it before their world is turned upside down with a new family member. That way, I will only have one kid up all night. :)
One can dream right?!