Easter 2011

This year the Easter Bunny was a big to do around our house.  Lots and lots of questions about him...how does he get in our house, what color is he, is it a girl or a boy...stuff like that.  The boys really soaked in the meaning behind Easter this year too.  They had lots of questions about Jesus and his death.  That one was a little harder for me to try to rationalize with them.

I didn't make the mistake of having the Dollar Tree Easter like we did last year :)  No,  don't get me wrong,  I love the Dollar Tree!  But I have figured out what and when to utilize the fabulous bargains from there.

Caiden of course was the FIRST one up at the CRACK of dawn!  He could barely restrain himself from digging in while I woke up brother and daddy.  Finally after an eternity to him, he got to see all that the Easter Bunny had left!

Notice Ethan is not as much of a morning person as Caiden is.  As soon as Caiden wakes up is dressed and ready for the day, Ethan on the other hand has to lounge in the pj's for awhile.

Daddy helped the boys put together the hot wheels cities that they got.  I know daddy appreciates the fact that the boys are always left with presents that need to be put together :) HE HE!

After all the excitement we had coffee/orange juice and some breakfast before we started to get ready for church.

The boys had gotten these really cute suits for Christmas from Grandpa Brown and I was so excited that they now had a reason to wear them.  Well as soon as my excitement came it went..the wonderful-always on top of things-mother forgot to get them dress shoes...OOPS!

So we decided to take a different approach and they looked sooooo handsome!  I had all these wonderful intentions to take our family picture, but it was raining that day pretty bad, so that was forgotten in the chaos of the weather.

As you can see I remembered on the way home from church.  Ethan was already passed out (remember he was woken up early), so I had Caiden pose by him in the suburban :)

Grandma and Grandpa Brown arrived shortly after we got home from church and the fun began!  We ate and then yep you guessed it...egg hunt time!  We couldn't go outside so we had one inside (this is when a bigger house comes in handy).

Grandma and Grandpa Brown brought up 2 rolls of quarters, 2 five dollar bills, and 2 twenty dollar bills so the boys didn't get a lot of candy (thank the Lord for that idea).  It didn't take Caiden long to figure out how to tell what the eggs had money in them.  It seemed so innocent and sweet to everyone else that he was sharing with his little brother.

I figured out real quick that Caiden would shake the egg and if it didn't sound like money was in it, he would give it to Ethan so he could get ALL the money eggs for himself.  Little stinker!

I hid them every where upstairs!  Even the grown ups had a hard time finding them.

The winnings!

Finally the boys found them all and couldn't wait to put their money into the new dinosaur banks that Grandma Charlene got them.

Another holiday down and a million more to go!  I love spending time with family!!!!

One Armed Quack!

WARNING!  This may gross you out!

It is official...Ethan has sucked on his quack so much that his arm fell off!!!  I know it is a disgusting habit that we are trying to break.  He is going to the 3 year old program at school next year and I know it will get nipped in the bud then, so until then I have no choice, he will suck on his quack :(

SMILE and DANCE

That is what I do when I hear this song!  It just make me feel happy!  Once you hear it you will listen to it over and over, I swear!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do...think I have a new favorite artist!

Always ready to go!

These boys crack me up!  They are always pretending to go somewhere...grandmas, fight a fire, work on a car, you name it they are doing it.  I miss being able to have such an imagination...

Cowboy Church

Some close friends of ours have helped start a new church here in Yukon called Canadian County Cowboy Church.  It is the coolest thing ever! They started out with a calling and it has just blown up in size and who they are reaching with the gospel of Christ!

Since they have grown so big so fast they are in need of a bigger building.  To help raise funds they are doing a  play day once a month along with other things.  The boys love it!  Everyone brings their horses and lets those that do't have one ride.  

Cashton and Ethan are best buds!  They were together ALL day!  They play together so well! I had to capture this moment, it just melts my heart...

Caiden on the other hand was all about making new friends!  On this day God really opened my eyes.  As a parent you constantly see your children as a bother to others, or at least I do.  Caiden, as most of you know, is a kid that has to know everyone and everything that is happening!

In particular he really flocks to older people.  He finds them interesting and loves to hear their stories as well as tell a few of his own.  On this day at this exact moment I realized that my child had a gift from God and that I shouldn't be annoyed with it or apologetic for it.  I should embrace it and help him mold it into something constructive.  I'm tearing up as I type just thinking about what I learned a that moment.

Caiden and Ethan are all about Buddy.  So much that when they play now they pretend he is around.  

He started off leading Buddy himself.

Then moved up to letting Mimi lead Buddy so he could ride.

At finally he was riding all by himself...he thought he was hot stuff!

Then the play day events started.  Caiden and Ethan were in the lead class.  All that means is they get led through all the events by someone instead of trying to direct the horses themselves.  Our close friend Joe ran with Caiden and they got first place!

After that run he decided since he had to do all the kids in that class he better get a horse!  So Ethan was led by horse and he got third place!

Now little Cashton from above was also in this class.  Poor guy ended up riding with Terry because the horse that led Buddy took off too fast and Buddy got scared, the chaos began.  Cashton got thrown off, but luckily was okay!  That brave little guy got back on and finished his race!

We plan on attending ALL the play days we can.  The boys love it and so do we!