Easter 2013

Easter is always such a beautiful time of year. I love all that it represents: life, love, religion, and hope. I also love the traditions that our family has implemented. I love time with family, food, egg hunts, dying eggs (though we actually forgot to dye eggs this year, though we had the stuff and everything...whoops!) and Easter baskets. We celebrate the commercial side of Easter the day before since we want to focus on the Savior and the resurrection Easter day and this has worked well for us.

We celebrated by having Easter baskets Saturday morning with Jennifer, Steve, and kids. Jennifer and I then put together a gourmet menu for our Sunday dinner and did the shopping for that. As soon as we were back, we fed the kids lunch and put them down for naps before everyone else began arriving for our annual Egg hunt. This year we had Grandma Donna and Grandpa Doyle; Mari Ann, Ron, and Hailie; Cortney and kids; and Landon and Hudson come for our hunt. Ever since we were little kids, we have always had an egg hunt with money in our eggs, so of course we carried on that tradition. We also had a lot of candy and wayyyyyyy too many eggs. Oh well- it was great fun for the kids and that is what counts! We have had the hunt at the park around the corner from our house for the last few years and it has worked wonderfully.

After the hunt, the kids spent some serious time playing on the toys at the park while the adults lounged and watched them. It was such a beautiful day. Ron brought kites, so he and Doyle spent some time flying kites. We decided to celebrate Ron and Mari Ann's birthdays that night by going to dinner, which is always fun and chaotic with such a crowd. After dinner, everyone headed to their respective places and Jennifer and I went back to my house to start preparing for our feast.

Jen, Steve, and family came to church with us on Sunday. We did our best to remember our Savior and his resurrection, but we also had a few unfortunate incidents while there, one that involved peeing on the floor of the chapel (I'll let you guess who on that one) and another that involved throwing up in the hall of the church (I won't say who on that one as to save them from embarrassment). All we needed was someone to have a poopy accident somewhere and it would have been great. Haha. We came home and enjoyed our meal before sending Jen and Steve on their way home. All in all, a fabulous Easter weekend.

And now for a million and one pictures:

Checking out her Easter basket

New shorts! Yeah, let's clothe that kid, eh? :) Not sure where his pajamas were at this point, but oh well.

Kids all ready for the hunt. Four for nine looking at the camera...hmmm.

Checking out the loot!

Grandma was really cute to help Jace unload all of his eggs. After they got done, they both may or may not have had chocolate smeared all over their faces from tasting the treats...

Way too much candy!

zero for three of the kids looking in this one- it's just getting worse!

Can you believe that these two are only three months apart? Yeah, there is a bit of a size difference.

About the cutest picture ever. Grandma and some (most?) of her great-grandchildren. 

Another adorable picture. Flor and Grandpa Doyle hanging out on the couch. 

While the rest of us sat around, we let the 80+ year old catch the kids on the slides. So nice of us, I know. (She really wanted to!)

Flying kites- we live in a beautiful world!

We had multiple attempts to get a picture of all the kids before church. I have not a one that is a success, but this one is cute, especially Brookie and Hals. 

Our sweet home teachers brought over each kid an egg with candy and a little homemade basket. Isn't that adorable?

Easter feast. Healthy? NO. Delicious? YES. We also had strawberry shortcake for dessert, which is not pictured.

Happy Easter from us!

InstaSample March

Apparently I posted a lot on Instagram in March. I like this app because it is an easy way to keep track of everyday moments as they happen. I am sorry for those who follow me on Instagram already, but as I have said before I want to keep track of the pictures here for the long awaited day when I might actually print my blog into books. I try not to repeat any pictures that I have or will post in other posts, but sorry if there is any redundancy.

Hallie wanted to draw a picture for uncle Judd shortly after he had his stroke. She decided to draw his favorite things, which according to her were a trampoline, a sun, a snowman, a porcupine, and a hot dog. Random? Yes indeed.

Two cute girls sleeping in matching jammies in matching beds. 

We officially have only one kid in diapers! Jace mastered potty training in March (we use the term 'mastered' loosely as he still has accidents from time to time and wears diapers at night, but overall he does pretty darn well.)

Jace really likes his Mickey to do everything he does. One day he took him potty then wrapped him in a blanket and threw him in a drawer for a nap. Lovely.

After taking the kids to the library one day, they posed for a picture on the steps. It was only as I was looking at the picture that I just took that it occurred to me that Hallie had been out in public like that. Oh yeesh. Mom of the year!

I was shocked that during the finale of the Bachelor, I happened to see one of my best friends sitting int the audience. At least she could have warned me that she was going?? I didn't have the presence of mind to take a picture myself, but my sister was kind enough to text me this one.

Yay for warm weather! We have loved being outside almost every afternoon. Please let it continue!

On our way to Idaho, making use of my awesome plastic Man V. Mud glasses as I can't find my regular sunglasses. Time to head to the store, I think! :)

On the drive to Idaho, this happened. So adorable, especially because Jace and Flor normally fight like nobody's business. They do love each other!

Sweet Claire. I'll claim the favorite aunt title right now!

We put up our trampoline (a Christmas present from my dad and Sharon for the kids) and it has been AMAZING. Hours of entertainment, right there! YAY!

Devin is really cute with kids. He is definitely going to be the favorite uncle. This is while we were in Idaho- playing with Brookie and Claire. 

I was trying to show how messy an eater Flor is, but this just happened to come right after Hallie commented that she was done with her food and wanted to give it to Flor because "she eats everything we give her!" It was hilarious that Flor seems to be saying, "Who me?!"

Movie night with my friend Jill-- friends since 4th grade. I especially think it is awesome that she comes over dressed to the nines with her hair and makeup done and I am wearing my pajamas, hair up, no makeup. Lovely. She is a good friend to tolerate me. 

Devin's parents are moving to the town next to us and are re-doing the inside of the condo they bought. Devin has been to help them whenever he can and takes the kids usually while I am at work. One day, he told Hallie that they were going to be painting, so she ran and got a piece of paper and asked me to spell out each of the colors she wanted to use on Grandma and Grandpa's walls. I especially loved the "sparkly glitter" (2nd to last if you can't tell) and I am sure that Devin's parents were all for that color on their walls!

Easter present from Grandma and Grandpa Strobel- new jammies! Always needed and always fun, especially Flor's. :)

While in Idaho, my brother mentioned how much he hates people posting food on Instagram, so just to bug him, I posted 5 days worth of dinners. I know, I am such an awesome sister.

Cute Flor awaiting sedation at the hospital in order to get her teeth cleaned and a few cavities filled. Or so we thought-- what she ended up with was two cavities, two crowns, and two pulled teeth. Poor girl! She was happy before, but had no idea what was coming. Waking up was quite another story...

She didn't like swinging last year, but this year she does it like a pro! 

We live in a beautiful world. 

(kperry33 on Instagram if you would like to get the pictures throughout the month.)

Family Time

Nothing is more refreshing than spending time with family. It had been a little while since we spent time with my family (since Disneyland in January), so when our newest niece Claire was being blessed in Idaho, we definitely wanted to be there. We hadn't even met baby Claire yet (my brother Mike and his wife Lara's baby) so it was a perfect time to go.

We had a great weekend-- early Easter presents from Grandma and Grandpas, plus games, tons of food, and of course meeting Claire! Great fun.

Easter presents from Grandma and PoppE!

I know she looks thrilled....

We even attempted some pictures of all the Strobel grandkids:

Poor Jace is outnumbered. That's a better caption than the one I put on Instagram of this picture. I put that one of these things is not like the others and then got a bunch of comments about Flor being the standout. HA! Not what I meant. I think that would definitely have qualified me as a bad mom to point such a thing out. hahah. It made for a good laugh, though.

Okay, perhaps this it out of order, but here is Jace with one of his presents from Grandma-- a chia pet type thing. Remember those things?? He won't let it go-- still won't. It has some serious hair now. 

Can't NOT include this one...I was very surprised to find  this lovely shampoo in my mom's shower and had to question  whether it is her or Dave who believes that they are a woman of color?? Still up for debate...

Game night. Apparently Mike doesn't feel the need to dip his chips in salsa, rather he dumps it all in a bowl and eats it with a spoon. The things you discover about your siblings late at night...

Devin loves babies-- it is cute to watch him with them. 

Claire's blessing- after all the fun on Friday and Saturday, it was really special to be a part of Claire's blessing day. Michael gave her a beautiful blessing and she looked just darling, as you can see. All of these pictures came from Lara, so thanks Lara for letting me steal them!

This was this week, but thought I would include these pictures on this post, since it was more family time. Jennifer and Steve came down last weekend on their way to a spring break vacation, so we took the kids swimming at their hotel on Monday. Always a good time, except that this pool was rather cold. Yippee. Oh well, the kids couldn't have cared less. Swimming is swimming. 

And we have an escapee...

Whew! More to come on Easter and Instagram pictures from March.