easter egg hunts

this year the kids got to participate in two easter egg hunts. the first one was a fun neighborhood one that involved a ton of little kids running around a huge field collecting 10 eggs each.  it was over pretty quick, but they were so entertained with their candy, the park and their friends. it was perfect!

 

this is katelyn and tanner with their friends charlotte and finn.

 

the second easter egg hunt was at grandma and grandpa hedin's house.  the kids were beyond excited to learn that there was enough eggs to fill up their whole basket!  i'm pretty sure katelyn ran around laughing the whole time.

 

even reese joined in on the fun.

 

the kids with their goodies.  they were completely spoiled and were completely satisfied.

dying easter eggs and easter baskets

dying easter eggs is so fun with kids.  our kids hurry and zip through dunking them in all of the colors as fast as they can.  this year we found an idea to pull out sharpie markers to draw designs on the eggs.  this was a huge hit with katelyn who loves to color.

reese was sleeping through most of our egg dying experience, but loved joining us and playing with  the markers once she woke up.

 

tyler was being a dork and getting tanner all riled up when it was time to pull the eggs out.  it worked well because tanner was extra excited about the egg-dying process.

the easter bunny visited us the same day we did easter eggs, which happened to be the friday before easter.  we like to pass the baskets out early so that we can focus more on the Savior on sunday.  we would have done saturday instead but tyler had to work all day, and we didn't want him to miss the kids reactions.

 

this top picture cracks me up.  our neighbor had gotten his motorcycle out and was starting it up right as we were taking pictures.  they couldn't focus on anything else.

st. patrick's day

for st. patrick's day we got a group of ladies together for a pot luck green luncheon.  it was so fun getting everyone together and letting the kids run around outside.  i was sad that we didn't do a family dinner this year, but this made up for it!

a visit from friends

a definite bonus to living in utah is that we've been able to visit with our old wisconsin friends when they come to visit family in utah!  we love these dear friends and definitely miss living close to them.

 

katelyn with some of her pals from wisconsin.

 

all of the kids who were there.  look how much our families have grown, and kind of amazing that every child's face can be seen.

 

a great group of ladies that i really admire!

disney on ice

i've always thought it would be fun to take our kiddos to disney on ice.  our chance opened up when i checked my email one morning to find a fun surprise.  i had won four tickets to disney on ice.  we were definitely going!  grandma hedin and aunt emily were already on board, so we planned our day to go.

 

our kids were so excited for this day to come.  we showed them some videos on-line so they would know what to expect.

grandma hedin was smart and realized that the kid would be eying all of the toys they would be selling there.  so she made a trip to target before hand to grab the kids toys that were cheaper and just as much fun!

it really was so fun to go all together as a family.  the kids loved it (although reese did get a little bored near the end)!

free zoo day

the hogle zoo only offers a few free zoo days during the year.  so when tyler had a day off, and it happened to be a free zoo day, we were so happy!  this free zoo day happened to be in February when it was a little chillier outside, but honestly, the day couldn't have been more beautiful.  we had been cooped up inside for so long it was just nice to be outside breathing in the fresh air and being together as a family.

katelyn was able to bring one of her friends along.  they get along so well and had a blast together.

 

even little reeser didn't mind the cold.  and for a free day, it really wasn't that packed.  we were expecting it to be hard to navigate through the crowd, but it was wonderful.  hopefully we can go back when they offer their free days again.

 

valentine's day get-together

a friend of ours decided it would be fun to do a valentine's day get-together for the kids.  the kids decorated some cupcakes, ate treats and ran around having fun together.

 

Katelyn sat and put a lot of effort into decorating her cupcake.  tanner on the other hand quickly mad and ate his then ran off to play with friends.  the evidence is in the picture.

most of the kids that were present.  i think we missed some because some people had left already.

 

this is one of katelyn's best friends.  so glad these two have each other!