Grrrr...

Meeting Marilyn

Brandon with his Great Aunt Marilyn
Ella, Great Great Aunt Marilyn and Brody

We were so excited when Brandon's Great Aunt Marilyn called and said she was planning a visit to come see us! We haven't seen her since the summer of 2007, and she hadn't ever met Ella. We picked her up on Saturday and spent the day visiting. Sunday we went to church and showed her around the area we live and on Monday we went to the movies and saw "How to Train a Dragon" which was really cute. Brody left the theatre informing us that he wants a dragon that he can fly on too. We were treated to a yummy dinner at Olive Garden and spent the evening playing Simon Says. The visit was great, the kids were spoiled with new books and candy (including some red lobster shaped lolly pops)...they loved having their Great-Great Aunt come to visit.

Aunt Lori & Uncle Larry

This is almost embarrassing to admit...my Aunt Lori and Uncle Larry came to visit and we had the best time with them (that isn't the embarrassing part)...and I don't have one picture with them in it. How sad is that?

I got to spend Thursday with my Aunt Lori while the other family worked, so I picked her up and we drove around and went to lunch with the kids. We had a great time. I took her to my place and showed her my house and the kids were excited to play with her. We played Candyland and visited and then that night we went to my mom's for dinner.

On Saturday we met up again and went and toured the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium. It is a beautiful facility, that we will gladly take any future visitors to, on a weekday. We arrived shortly after noon and our tour began at 2:30. It is neat to go behind the scenes and learn about these places. This tour was better than the first we went on because they actually let us on the field! That was cool.

Daddy with the kids walking around the outside of the stadium

Don't I wish this sign were true...sigh...

Afterwards we had a bbq dinner at my house and visited some more. On Sunday we met up after church and had a quick dinner and watched the end of the PGA masters tournament before they had to run to the airport to catch their flight. It was so much fun to have them come here and see where we live. We decided next time they need to bring Ben, Lindsey and the kids too so we can have a huge slumber party! Brody keeps talking about Aunt Lori and asking when she is coming back.

Easter 2010

Easter morning began with our little alarm clocks running in our room to tell us that the silly bunny had come to our house! They were excited to find their baskets full of treats and a new movie. We spent a lazy morning eating cinnamon rolls (which consequently I forgot to put cinnamon in...thus making them sweet rolls) and watching conference.That afternoon we had an easter egg hunt in the back yard and had Grandma and Grandpa come over for dinner. The weather was beautiful, a little overcast with some wind...enough to open the windows and cool down the whole house. I love that! It was a very relaxing holiday.

29

I turned 29 on March 28th...although many family members kept thinking I was still only 28...thanks mom.

The weekend was celebrated with a WHOLE Saturday shopping sans kidos. Fabulous! I got some new things and enjoyed walking through the mall while other parents searched for their kids beneath the clothing racks. It was lovely.

We got home that evening just in time for Ella to show us all the goodies Grandma fed her...unfortunately she did so by barfing on my feet on the driveway. No harm done, she is definitely my daughter. Now we know what her limits are.

Sunday was my actual birthday and we enjoyed church and then dinner and cake with my parents. It was a great birthday!

Hellos and Goodbyes...

Say hello to our new playground...We are SO excited to have this lovely jungle gym join our family! It has been so hard to walk through Costco and have Brody say, "But I need that play ground" The best part about this play ground, is that it was given to us by some friends of ours...for free. We were so grateful! Brandon and Troy loaded it up in three loads in an F150 truck (in a thunderstorm) and got it to the house. The next night a different Troy, and Casey took apart our fence to get the tower into the yard. For a few days we had to sit and look at it in pieces and dream about playing on it, but we were able to have the playground guy come out and put it together for us and make it all level and pretty. That was money well spent!

The bummer about the playground was that it was given to us because the Whatcotts are moving away. We are excited for them to get settled in their new house, but we will all miss them. Today we had a picnic at the park to play one last time and say goodbye.

Brody and Drew are good buddies. They both love trains and could spend hours together playing. We will miss having him around!

Miss me much?

Today I am thankful for two things...(really many more things than that, but especially these two things):

1. a computer that works again; and

2. we were able to save ALL my pictures that were on it when it crashed!

Our computers (our home desktop and Brandon's laptop) decided both to poop out on us at the same time. We are thinking it was a virus, but whatever it was...we are better now. We had to wipe Brandon's laptop clean, which is really no big deal. The big deal was potentially losing all my pictures on the desktop again! (last happened in November 2008) I learned my lesson and we haven't deleted any memory cards since then, but I would have lost all my pictures from 2008 that we had recovered from Brandon's ipod. One external hard drive and one new internal hard drive later, we are up and running again.

Here is an older picture - that I am grateful I still have!

It is a perfect representation of Ella...she is into everything, and going outside, and causing trouble. We had my Aunt Lori and Uncle Larry in town for the weekend and I thought Ella was going to give my Aunt a heart attack. She kept sneaking off and going outside (front and back yards). She is becoming very quietly mischieveous - a dangerous combination. We'll be getting additional door locks and a few more child proof handles.