gratitude

 I took the kiddos to see my friend who's a practicing photography major and she took a few pics of the kids, mainly for T's bday, but she got a few of Mei too. She was thrilled because she had chosen her own outfit that day, and I was thrilled because it happened to match! ha. The pics turned out super cute. I love the time that I'm privileged to have with them during the day, while Kai's at school. I'm grateful I can be at home with them, there's no where I'd rather be, honestly.

2 yrs old!

Can't believe this handsome little man is 2 yrs old already! He's talking so much and is growing so fast because he's trying to keep up with the other two! He says 'I two dears owdddd'. We had a sweet little party with the little man. We blew up a couple balloons, which made his day and I made him a firetruck cake that he was so excited to break into! I love how easy it is to make little people happy :) I was wrapping presents with the kids and Kailer said he wanted to give T a toy of his and wrap it for him, so Meili did too of course. After Kai had wrapped his he almost looked like he was going to cry and looked up at me and said, 'mom it just feels so good to give something that I love so much'. I told him to remember that feeling and that is how you feel when you give. It was a neat thing to watch him realize that for himself. He is growing up... T loved all his simple presents including a stuffed firetruck pillow I made for him and the kids really did a good job letting him open them and just getting it started for him, it really is a challenge! At one time Meili had to fold her arms to let him go for it and I loved seeing the excitement on their faces as he opened the presents from them :) It was a sweet day :)

 I also snapped a few bday shots of the little dude :) He actually loves having his pictures taken :)

 complete with silly faces :)

 This might be my fav :)

Easter

We went to Hy-vee for a easter egg walk through, it was pretty decent, I think their favorite part was walking through the store with their own carts though... It was a little hazardous for others, but we managed! We colored easter eggs with them and they loved it as always. Tristan probably dropped and cracked more than he colored, but oh well, he had a great time doing it :) The Easter bunny hid eggs both colored and filled with candy. It was almost as fun as xmas morning :) We talked a lot about why we celebrate easter and Meili prayed easter eve to 'bless jesus that he can get resurrected good' so I felt good that we scratched the surface of that with her. Sometimes I feel like she never listens when we read scriptures together, she's so busy, but something must have sunk in :)

 I snapped a few pics of them donning their easter sunday best. They are sure cute little stinkers :)

 I had to bribe meili with chocolate for each picture I took of her... she got 3 pieces... :)

 Kai on the other had was super photogenic and wanted to have his taken and even helped me make T laugh. What a dude :) complete with CTR ring and moroni pin :) love it.

part 2

We spent the second day at the science center and between the science demonstrations and the activities we managed to fill a whole day there. Tristan was not sure about the animated XL T-rex, but Kai sure was! It was definitely up his alley. There were areas that were better geared toward Meili's age than some, but they had a great time overall. It was a great trip and a nice getaway for a few days :)

 This was an earthquake simulation and Kai tried and succeeded finally to built an earthquake steady building! It was quite the challenge!

 T just liked jumping off of things...

 The leprechaun even made a visit to our hotel room...

St Louis staycation day 1

We ended up with a nice tax return and thought we'd take a couple day trip and stay in St. Louis and enjoy the city. We spent the first day at the zoo and the kids loved watching the bears and sea lions get fed. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. We love the zoo! We stayed in a fantastic hotel, which fed us breakfast and dinner, and even had free popcorn and drinks. The kids swam every chance we got! We wore ourselves out for sure!

 We have excellent travelers!

 Lovin the ice cream break!