Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Lilly's Joy--April 30, 2012



Came across these adorable pics today...Lilly is full of joy and brings us so much joy (most of the time, anyway!). She's definitely a little ham and LOVES attention and being the clown!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Pizza, An Old Time Candy Shoppe, and Good Company--May 12, 2012

We finally had a free Saturday, and took advantage of it to head up to Boise to visit, shop, and enjoy the day. We met up with my Aunt Teresa and cousin Emma for a fabulous lunch, visit to an old time candy shop, and some relaxed play/visit time. It was a gorgeous Saturday (although we did fight a major headwind on the free way the.entire.time.we.were.driving).

Flatbread Pizza was our lunch spot of choice and it was amazing. A wonderful place for kids, but classy and delicious for adults as well. (Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera, and my camera on my phone completely sucks since the phone spent at least two solid hours at the bottom of the Salmon Falls Reservoir one fishing day--that's a whole different story that I won't go into here!), so I stole these pics off the website.


At Flatbread, children get to make their own personal pizza. Jackson and Emma had a great time creating their pizzas (Emma's, a smiley face and Jackson's with everything obsessively neat and well laid out). They even got to watch their own pizzas bake in the brick oven, complete with wood-burning fire. The kids loved it, even Lilly, who didn't actually make her own pizza, but enjoyed eating more of Jackson's than he did.

Right down the street from Flatbread is this wonderful little old-fashioned candy shop named Powell's Candy. Powell's has all the old-school candy from when my parents (and possibly even grandparents?) were kids. Candy cigarettes...real black licorice...Neccos...it was great. Our kids were not at all interested in purchasing any candy, but they enjoyed everything about the place. Although they didn't want any candy, Jackson begged for a cheap little potato gun (imagine that) and Lilly spent a good 20 minutes playing in a basket of Tootsie Pops (having no idea they were edible, obviously, or we would have had issues!). Apparently Powell's does candy scavenger hunts as well (wouldn't that be fun!).


We spent the afternoon checking out some thrift shops that we are seriously lacking here in Twin (Play it Again Sports Equipment, Urban Exchange Outfitters, Plato's Closet...), scored Jackson some tee ball cleats at Sports Authority (red of course) and headed over to Aunt Teresa's for a fun afternoon/evening of hanging out, watching the kiddos play and enjoy each other, and making pizza puffs for dinner (kid friendly and delicious!).

This busy family needed a Saturday like that!

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Mother's Day--May 13, 2012

We had such a nice, relaxing Mother's Day! Jake's wonderful parents hosted a cook-out for both sides of the family. The kids had so much fun playing outside, blowing bubbles and enjoying the wonderful sunshine! I loved being able to just hang out with all the family in one place and not having to split our day between two places.


Drink up kids! Haha, actually they were just enjoying the ice, not the beer!
Still, this picture might come in handy for Future Vandal Days!













Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms out there!

Lilly Has Hair--Spring 2012

Lilly finally has enough hair to do cute things with! Now the only problem is getting her to hold still for it--I've had to be pretty creative to try to get anything done!





Easter 2012

This is what the kids woke up to Easter morning!


Church was fantastic, as we celebrated our Risen Lord!
Then we headed over to my parents for a fabulous Easter dinner.

Lilly in the Easter dress I made her (with the help of my good friend, Keshia and my Mom!) It turned out so cute!

Jackson dominating his new bike

Easter egg hunt at Nana and Papa's

We hid the eggs in some crazy places!

Happy Easter! We are so grateful for our Savior!

Decorating Cookies--April 5, 2012

Easter fun--decorating cookies!


Lilly only decorated this one little piece...she did enjoy licking the spatula, eating pieces of cookie, licking the beaters...


Jackson started off being very careful and neat, but after a couple cookies...

He turned silly and the frosting became tie-dye!

And here is what I was doing while they were frosting cookies...making my grandma's banana pudding dessert for Easter dinner! Delicious!

Easter Family Night--April 4, 2012

Our church had an Easter Family Night on Good Friday. We hosted crafts, a dinner, a short message, and a night-time Easter egg hunt. We had lots of families from the community and lots from our church.

Jackson did some crafts...


Dyed eggs, played lots of ball in the gym, and hunted for prizes and eggs.


Oh, the anticipation!!!!! (Jackson, Zane, and Chloe)

(Actually, our kids had more fun playing than hunting eggs and prizes...this was right in the middle of the Easter egg hunt!)

Lilly actually didn't pick up one single egg or prize, which was fine with us...less to store at home! However, she did climb the rock wall on the play structure when no one was watching, and managed to get stuck trying to get up the last little part!

We loved having the Easter egg hunt Friday night instead of Saturday!

Build-A-Bear--March 5, 2012

My mom accompanied her friend on a day trip to Boise one of the days our kids were with her, and she took them to Build-A-Bear Workshop! Jackson chose to make a fireman bear and Lilly wanted a pink bear, but chose camo clothes (which is so typical of our daughter--loves the "pretties" but has quite a bit of tomboy in her as well.)


Here they are with their cute bears!

Hollywood, here I come!--February 17, 2012



This girl is just too cute for words!


How We Have Fun...And Other Randomness!--January and February 2012

This kid loves books


Building a pirate ship with Daddy


Happy girl on her scooter!


A racing track all over the house (Jackson and I had fun making it out of masking tape...and a few days later when I tore it up, I'm pretty sure the carpet almost came up with it!)


Remember that post awhile back about Jackson's obsession with boxes? Apparently it's in the genes...Lilly loves them too!

Jackson painted "habitats" for some animal stickers he had...


He's such an eager and capable helper...not sure what I'd do without him!


Making biscuits

I love my kiddos!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Skiing and Tubing--all in one day!--February 2012

Skiing again...with fresh snow! We skied a half day, ate lunch, then around two o'clock, we met some friends for some tubing fun! Jackson was a little trooper! He skied for several hours, then held up just fine for the tubing fun!


Papa and Jackson (they look deep in discussion, don't they?)

Unfortunately my tubing pics did not turn out well at all, due to the heaviness of the snowfall that afternoon. But we had a blast all they same!

Happy Valentine's Day--February, 2012

So, obviously, I'm very behind on my blogging! Yikes! I have to go back to February to start catching up. Imagine how behind I am on my scrapbooking!

So Jackson's good friend, Zane, invited Jackson and Lilly and a couple other kiddos over for a little Valentine luncheon on the Saturday before Valentine's day. We brought a project for the kids to do--puff painting!

Beige, Lilly, and Zane experimenting with the puff paint...Lilly thought it was finger paint! (Which I expected, which is why she is shirtless!)

Jackson, with lots and lots of red!!! (His favorite color, for those who have missed out on that obsession!)

More is always better...that was the Jackson and Beige philosophy.

Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of them eating their super cute little Valentine lunch, but they had fun! (The mom's did too, of course.)



Valentine's Day at Home:

Jake and I decided to do a little Valentine's scavenger hunt for Jackson.

Jackson got to pop all the balloons with a "J" on them and read the clue that led him to the next balloon. At each balloon there was a little prize. He had so much fun! (Sorry the pic. is sideways, sometimes Blogger won't allow me to rotate them.)


Lilly didn't do a scavenger hunt, but she got to enjoy a couple cute prizes!

It was a cute Valentine's Day!

Bram, Keshia, and BZ (Baby Zane)

Jackson freaking out on Santa's lap (with Tonia and Aide)

Most of the group at Christmas in the Nighttime Skies

Michelle's First Tree-Gorgeous Picture!

Still in Love *Sigh*

Me, Jackson, and Jake (and our tree)