HaPpY BiRtHdAy ToRi!

To our cute (not so) little Tori bug! You are 4! I cannot believe it! We LOVE you!

April...I LOVE Spring!

April means SPRING! All of my flowers are blooming...I have daffodils, tulips and nameless other purple and pink flowers springing all over my front flower bed (we will see how long they will last...Tori keeps on picking them). Our trees and lilac bushes are blossoming...we can have picnics under the trees in the shade. SIGH! It is AMAZING!

Tori is a blast! She is getting bigger by the minute. She has turned into quite the mama's helper. She feeds Katelyn (I am not sure how much of the food actually gets into her mouth!) and she has even tried to cut her own hair! Luckily it wasn't too bad! She lifted up the front of her bangs and only cut off the underside!

Here are a few of the lost files of Easter. I took some of these pictures on my little camera and got frustrated because the colors were coming out way bad because of the stinking florescent lights! Brooke did the Super Why puzzle with me. She is not quite the fan of puzzles as Tori was, but she worked hard! She LOVED the picnic that we had outside (as you can tell by the HUMONGOUS smile!

And Katelyn...she is 8 months today! She is sporting her pink Adidas soccer outfit and her little pink corduroy high tops! ADORABLE...need I say more!? Katelyn got this cute little outfit in the hospital when she was born from Ursula Tingey...her adopted grandmother, I mean Auntie. The pants are supposed to fit a 0-3 month old, but they now finally fit Baby K's waist (sure they are a little high water...K is quite tall!) and the jacket is 6-9 months...and a little long, but all in all she is a DOLL! Thanks Auntie Ursula!

The Easter One!

The Easter Bunny made it to our house, although there was a sad moment for me in the whole scheme of things. Brooke accidentally found the stash of Easter candy that I had been taking care of for the Easter Bunny.  One day I was wondering where Brooke was...she was being so silent. I walked down the hall and found her in my bedroom. To my HORROR her face was covered in chocolate goo...she was eating my one and only Cadbury creme egg (I was trying to be good this year and not eat a dozen! so I only asked the Easter Bunny for one!) Well...I did get a piece that she couldn't get out of the foil...so much for savoring it! Ha ha ha! But don't worry the Easter Bunny still left me a baby Lindt bunny and Cadbury mini-eggs. Do you see Jason's ginormous Reese's egg (that Katelyn wanted to steal!)?! He almost ate it all in one sitting except for the fact that it was like almost 900 calories and that bothered him! Ha ha ha! The girls enjoyed a little pre-breakfast candy and then I took their stash and put it in the candy bowl. I know...I am mean, but someone has to control sugar intake!

 The Easter Photo Shoot

Tori...she is getting so big. This year I let her pick out her dress at Carter's. I thought that she did a great job...it was like torture for her not to wear it for 3 weeks! I LOVE her shoes (I found them at Walmart). Please note the mischievous grin in the upper left corner. and I LOVE the swing picture on the top middle...it reminds me of a model photo shoot!

Brooke...although she didn't want me to take her photo she sure hammed it up! She is such a goof ball. She wouldn't let me take a picture with her and all of the girls, so that is that. She is two, so I am lucky I got these shots! Brooke also picked this dress out for herself and calls it her princess dress (complete with silver sparkly shoes...that, against my will, I let her pick out...they left sparkles all over the pews at church!).

Katelyn...is a doll. We didn't take these pictures until after a few naps, but she is still the star of the show. She didn't get a new dress, but I thought that this one matched so well. Lets be serious...she doesn't really need a new dress (she has like 10 in her closet and only wears them on Sunday!). Although she wasn't really into the whole "Easter" thing, she LOVED playing on a blanket in the shade of our backyard!

Sisters! Tenderness!

Family...these turned out pretty well even though there were a few meltdowns from the oldest in the process. As you can see there are no pictures of me in my Easter finest, but that is ok...and Brooke wouldn't humor me either with a picture. Please find the picture of Tori's devilish smile and giggle! Hilarious!

 Dinner

Simple yet amazing! And all the better that my friend Alli brought me rolls! You rock Alli Blue! That is how we celebrated Easter! We missed all of our family, but I am grateful to Jesus Christ that we will be together forever through His sacrifice. We remember Him!

DunnDinger Extravaganza Spring 2012

Well, the end of March brought some rain, so on rainy days it calls for some puzzles, dressing up and just being silly! Katelyn still loves to try new foods...she LOVES peas, sweet potatoes, and every fruit she has tried so far. She is really into the rice husks and little bitty rice cereal crackers.

DunnDinger Extravaganza Spring 2012!!!

The Dunns came up for a visit over Conference weekend. Needless to say, conference with 4 kids under 4 is highly impossible. I don't think that I was able to listen to one full talk without an interruption. This is the first year that it has been so crazy, but it was FUN to have the Dunns come and visit! I made some of my magnificent cinnamon rolls! Mmmmm! The girls kept each other busy, and I think that Ryah and Brooke were plotting to take over the universe, but it was great to see all of them play together. We cannot call Ryah, baby Ryah anymore...she is quite the toddler. So this is going to be an extra LONG blog because when the Dunns are here we try to pack as much stuff into a weekend so that our Dunn tank is full until the next time we see them!

The Park!

Between sessions on Saturday we took the munchkin to the park to glean as much as we could out of the sunshine. We hit the park just in time too because soon after we got home the storm clouds came rolling in! This was Katelyn's first time at the park and she had a blast! She loved the sunshine and the swings. Tori is now not afraid of anything ans had a fun time playing with all the kids on the big jungle gym. Brooke was all over too...do you see the absolute glee on her face?! It was a blast! The girls all rode on the fun whirly-gig...they were a bit dizzy when they were all through! While the boys went to the Priesthood session, Tiffany and I ventured out to Walmart with all 4 kids. It went pretty well...we actually got a lot of pictures at Walmart because Tori stole Tiff's phone and took pictures of the most random things!

Egg Dying!

Sunday we dyed eggs after Conference. Jason was extremely nervous, but all in all, it went pretty well...just a few dyed fingers! This was Ryah's first egg dying fiesta...she had a lot of fun. Tori was pretty much a pro except for the fact that she wanted to plunk the egg into the dye which created quite a mess, but she still kissed all the eggs before we put them into the fridge (just like last year!)

TENDER!

What? I am in a picture!?

Zoo Time!

Quite possibly the cutest baby in the universe!

Jason took Monday off and we took the kids to the Zoo! It was Ryah's and Katelyn's first trip to the zoo. They loved to see all of the animals and it was a beautiful morning! Although there are no pictures (the viewing area was crowded with an elementary school field trip), we got to watch the lions eat! They put this box filled with long tubes that contain meat in them right in front of the viewing window, and the lionesses played with all of the tubes and with each other right in front of us! It was awesome! Of course I LOVE the wallaby exhibit. Tori loved the giraffe. Brooke & Ryah just loved running around like banshees!

Favorite exhibits: penguins and the prairie dogs! Make these pictures big and look at their faces in the prairie dog domes! Hilarious!

Although the tigers were sleeping (just like Katelyn) the girls struck a pose on the tiger seat.

The famous Giraffe Slide!

 

 

Flatbread Pizza!

With all that walking, we needed to fill our tank with some delicious pizza from Flatbread Community Oven! Yummy!!! The girls made their own pizzas and I devoured some of their scrumptious macaroni and cheese & a mini pizza bianco magnifico that has onions, fresh mozzarella, chicken, prosciutto, and it is drizzled in balsamic vinegar (if your mouth is not watering you are insane!). If people in the Boise area have not been to this restraunt...GO!

The Egg Hunt!

When we were living in Orem, we would always have Family Home Evening with the Dunns. So when they come we have amazing FHEs with awesome activities. This year they visited close to Easter, so we did an Easter themed FHE complete with a cartoon from Living Scriptures on the Resurrection. Then we had an Easter egg hunt! This was Ryah's first hunt, and boy was she ready! Although she had more fun taking her eggs out of the basket and putting them on the swing!

Brooke found a stash!

And I guess if you can have a winner, Tori took the egg! She found more than her share of eggs, but she gratefully shared with the other little girls.

All things must come to an end...it was hard to see the Dunns go, but this time we will see them in just two more weeks! See you soon and we miss you already!