in training for the Easter Egg hunt

The girls have had ample time to hone and perfect their egg grabbing skills in the past week. First up, an egg hunt at our friends house-which was a blast!

The kids had so much fun running around getting eggs...and then eating the entire contents.

Then they had yet another practice session at Grandma and Grandpa Christian's house!

This one was slightly more difficult because of terrain, but they still conquered quite a few eggs.

Then today Sadie was naughty and ate a ton of forbidden candy during naptime. I hid my smile-because what kid hasn't done that?  She even left the wrappers all over the floor. well, she's just an amateur after all. ;)

Valentine's Day playdate

The girls and I (haha) hosted a Valentine's Day playdate for their little friends last week, and it was a blast! See my craft blog for more info...but here are some fun shots of the cute kiddos and the exchanging of the Valentines!

Sadie loves seeing her friend Payton!

Cousin Coraline was there too! (and soon-to-be cousin as well... :)

Goodies were nibbled on...pretty much constantly.

Sadie got a bit pouty at one point. Kid, you're getting sugar...what's the problem here?

Charlotte nearly fell asleep in her high chair gripping her lollipop. She was not letting go of that!

Merry Christmas!

We had a pretty good Christmas this year-besides the cold and flu bug we all suffered during and after the festivities. I really could have done without that, but we managed to still have fun! The girls loved opening their stocking presents (though the picture suggests otherwise, lol)

Rory wrapped my presents particularly well this year-can you guess what this is?

Charlotte got her baby doll, she has been loving on it ever since!

Sadie got what she'd been asking for for weeks-a Tiana barbie! (plus all the Princes!)

Sadie had so much fun with all her new toys! (and ahem...Charlotte's as well)

Charlotte seemed to love these glasses the most...and her binky. We spent it with my family, and it was low key and relaxed. Love those kind!

Trick or Treating

We met our friends the Watsons at my parents house last night and commenced the tricking and treating for candy. We've been going up and down that street for so many years!

Rayne and Sadie were old pros, of course, so they led the way!

Charlotte was surprisingly determined however...and was cracking us up all night! She would drag her bag behind her (mostly because she wasn't tall enough to actually carry it), from house to house, you can see how focused she looks in this pic below. hehe!

A few times, she pushed her way past the other kids waiting and knocked right on the door! lol. Then when the people who lived there took too long she would turn around and leave. She had no patience for time wasters, lol....and she knew what she was doing.

Then once we got home, she tried raiding our candy to hand out-I think we have a sugar crazed kiddo on our hands...she must get it from Rory.

MORE CANDY!!!! wahhh!

We actually did get some trick or treaters which was nice! In previous years we've been gone at parties or whatever. The last two we got we gave them each a huge handful and they were HAPPY. ;)

After we went out the Watsons came over and the kids played for another hour and a half! The girls don't see each other as much anymore since Rayne is in kindergarten, so they were in heaven! We resolved to do family dates more often!

Happy Halloween!

happy fourth

We had a great Fourth of July, we went to two BBQ's, had a blast swimming, and fun dancing time with aunt Nae Nae.

Charlotte is on her way to becoming a water bug just like Sadie is! She loves the water.

This is how they looked when I came outside at one point. lol!

Sadie enjoyed her food. Lots of good food was made and devoured. Fireworks were watched later and kids were so sleepy they asked to be put to bed.

Best kind of summer day, in my opinion.

Easter

How was your Easter? Ours was great! Well, the egg hunt was great...we didn't take pictures of anything else and if you don't have a picture, it didn't happen, right? Well maybe not, but still. I'm lame when it comes to taking pictures on holidays-I'd much rather just have fun! I did manage to get pics of our egg hunt though.

Indoors, since it was sprinkling most of the morning.

Sadie has been in Easter egg hunt training for the past few months, so she got down to business collecting eggs..

 

..until she made a crucial discovery...these eggs had candy in them! WHA? So she got down to business eating candy.

Charlotte even managed to "find" an egg pretty quickly...it color coordinated with her dress. That's my girl.

Charlotte had fun hanging out with everyone-including Aunt Nae nae...wearing bunny ears...

and inadvertently finding the coveted "Golden Egg"! (which earns the finder a prize...this year a large chocolate bunny.

Truth be told, Jordan helped her find it by placing it in her hand, but she did get reeeally close by herself.

Finally, just have to show off my mom's new HUGEmungous table-it has 12 leaves! This is with 10 leaves...awesome, no?

Thanksgiving

 We held our Thanksgiving dinner at the church-and almost busted out of there too! Soo many people came-it was soo great, like a big partay!

 I made most of the appetizers and they were well-received! I will have to quadruple my artichoke dip next year-it always get scarfed down within minutes.

 This was our set up-in the Relief Society room. So much fun!

 Later that night :D

 

The girls in their Thanksgiving dresses I made them. Sadie's is a bit thrashed, sorry. That's what happens when you let a toddler loose amidst lots of food.

Charlotte and Everett dressed up as pilgrims. They loved it. Ok, not so much, but it was funny for us!
we played a huge Bunco tournament with 32 people (8 tables!) and I got the prizes-some movie night bags-including popcorn, candy and Christmas movie DVDs. (Elf, The (original) Grinch, and Rudolph) I think everyone had a good time! There was a 8 or 9 person tie for most Buncos that roll off to see who won took awhile. lol. The turkeys were all delish-my dad made one in his smoker that was particularly tasty! My Grandma made an awesome sweet potato dish....like candy! yum. Sadie didn't do so well without a nap and lashed out later by not being able to get to sleep for awhile. Poor thing. It was so sad! We will make sure to get her a nap on Christmas. I don't want a repeat performance. ;)

Happy Thanksgiving!