Sweet Georgia

I think I could easily live in Georgia.  I know I can easily live close to my sister.  I wish I did!  Lucky me, I got to spend a week with her and her new baby while I had family helping me at home with the big boys.  Thank you grandma/grandpa, Devri, and especially Shayne, for letting me go.  I shared a few pics already of Julia and Skyler together - he's 3 months older but it looks like more since she is so tiny!  Here are a few more highlights of my adventure to Georgia.

A hike - just a turn off the main road (of the city!) and there we were hiking through a wilderness.  It was SO beautiful.

I took a some pics of their sweet family - There were lots of great pics because they are a beautiful family!

Sky blue on blue

I taught Lara how to make biscuits.  They were perfect!

Skyler was jealous of our dinner and raised quite a ruckus - so I decided to try a little mashed banana and he DEVOURED it.  I've never had a baby EAT their solids at the first attempt - usually there's a lot of spitting it out.  It was such a hoot to watch this boy LOVE those bananas!

It's so fun to have babies at the same time!  (And here's a rare moment of Sky being mad - it was nap time!)

La-La with Skyler

Me with Julia...  it was fun to pick out bows and see those cute dresses!

*Paradigm Shift*

I have to giggle and I want to remember what Lara said as I was flying out to her house.  She called me during my lay-over and asked, "How do you go to the bathroom with an infant?"  Luckily, I had a stroller for Sky, so it wasn't an issue.  The funny thing is that I know Lara's world has truly shifted to a new paradigm - she has NEVER worried or even been concerned with such details on previous trips (and I travel often with kids).  It was so fun to see her being a mommy -- a very AMAZING mommy.  I thought I'd be doing a little "rescuing" when I got out there, but really it was just plain fun to both be taking care of our babies together.  I sure wish she lived closer to me, but I don't blame her for living in such a wonderful place.  She definitely has many supportive friends around her!  Love you Lara and I hope I get to see you again soon. 

Easter Weekend

Lucky us - we have two families to celebrate with and two family traditions to enjoy!  First we went to Brian and Devri's for our "REAL EGG" hunt, egg-cracking event, and then ate creamed eggs over toast...  a tradition I grew up with!

We make a sport out of smashing the eggs into other eggs - it's the fun way to get the eggs ready for our lunch.

Mom (Nana) making the special meal in abundant quantity!

Next we head over to Grandma/Grandpa's house for the plastic egg hunt.  Good thing Cherae showed up with a few eggs... needless to say, our boys had PLENTY of eggs to hunt.

Cheryl with the evening meal - she has mastered the "ROLLS" to be just like Grandma Hunter's...  good thing she decided to double the recipe.  There were 3 left at the end of the evening!

The mad dash in the field...

Connor found the "SPECIAL" egg...  specially made by Shayne for the unsuspecting, lucky one.
(It had a real egg in it, EWWW!)

I laugh at myself because when I see this on my counter, I can completely avoid it... I have no desire to eat a chocolate bunny.  (or anything chocolate)

But, when I walk past a package of these Peeps, I CAN NOT resist.  I know, I'm weird.  I think I ate all mine, and all the boys' Peeps too.

Our weekend get-away

Gotta love this hat made by our neighbor.

 love this fam - thanks for coming with us!

 Our crew

Did ya know that when you throw rocks into a large canyon, it sounds like gunfire?  And that this is pure entertainment for a group of boys?!

Dead Horse Point

Cousin play time

 I haven't blogged about Easter yet, or some other things I had in mind... but here I am visiting my sis and her new baby Julia.  I'll have even more pictures later, but I wanted to share a few since I have a spare moment to post them. 

When I first saw Julia I exclaimed, "that's not pale skin, look at her next to Skyler!"  And sure enough, Sky's little cousin has olive skin next to his bright white skin."  FYI, Lara had been lamenting that her daughter had her daddy's fair complexion.  Later that evening, Lara told me that she hadn't seen a smile yet, but she suspected one any day now.  And guess what Aunt Lea did, I got her to smile 4 times for me!  HA -HA!  Lara witnessed them but refuses to put the sticker on her calendar since they weren't for her mom.... giggle...  Here are just a few pictures when the two first got to meet...

 

I can NOT figure out how to turn this picture the right direction - I've tried it 5 times and I give up.  But, it's our favorite picture.... she's trying to eat him up!

Sky is 3 months older that his cousin - but he looks more like a beast when next to her!  And he did keep grabbing her hand too - he's going to be very protective of his little cuzin'.

Skyler is wooing everyone he meets and greets - lots to say and lots of smiles.  He's being a great traveler with his mommy.

Super Saturday

Maybe it was because we forgot it was St Patrick's day.

Maybe it was because we didn't wear green, any of us.

Maybe it was because we are just THAT GOOD at planning fun stuff.

The fact is, we had a super Saturday that is worthy of a post...  

Destination #1: Children's Museum

RESULT: Huge parade in front of the museum (and a sudden realization that we forgot it was a holiday) and a thousand people all around.  Let's change our destination.

Destination #2: Jump Place (Shayne had purchased passes through a groupon deal)

RESULT: Closed for private parties all day

Destination #3: Home for naptime... 

RESULT: whew, a little 3 year old in our house needed that!

Destination #4: Local Rec Center to swim

RESULT: "Sorry, but we are closing in 20 minutes, are you sure you want to pay to swim?"  (and lots of tears too)

Destination #5: Movie Night at home

RESULT: Daddy had to drive 2 towns over to get the desired movie, then left it in the shopping cart.

LUCKILY, he remembered before driving away.  

Did I mention we tried to take the boys sledding two weeks ago and ended up driving for nearly 2 hours looking for a hill with snow?  We ended up at Arctic Circle eating corn dogs...

Yeah, we're awesome.

Skyler

Dear Skyler,

I can't believe you've been in our lives for more than 3 months already!  There are few things you need to know about you at 3 months...
1) Danny adores and smothers you with affection CONSTANTLY (good thing you ordered the mommy-protection plan)
2) Cole makes up songs to ease your crying or just to entertain you, and they work!
3) Hunter loves to hold you and kiss you
4) You now sleep about 8 hours at night, and that makes Mommy VERY happy
5) You prefer to be held out - facing the world.  You want to see what is going on and be on the move.
6) Luckily, the swing is a favorite spot too.
7) The car seat is not a favorite spot - but you put up with it because you have to.
8) Daddy gave you a taste of ice cream and you gave him a good stink-eye, no more ice cream for you.
9) You've grown so much and too fast.  Mommy is sad that she had to put away the 0-3 month clothes already.  
10) No binky for you - you don't like it.  You do like your fist but, don't think about sucking on that little thumb-mommy will cover your hands with mittens!

I love you to the moon and back... over and over again.
-Mommy

quote for Friday

by Danny
"Mommy, I'm going to change my clothes?"
why?
"Cause they're not awesome."
I think they're awesome.
"No, they're cute.  Not awesome."

Laundry

I don't think this picture does justice to what I'm about to explain, but it has to be documented.  Danny LOVES to wear pajamas.  One of these days I will take a picture every time he changes his clothes, but that's for a future post.  The thing is that every time he changes, he changes his underwear...  so I giggle when I'm doing laundry and here are the piles of underwear.  I think the ratio is AT LEAST 3 to 1, if not more.  I suppose I should show the pile of pajamas too...