Easter Fun

Easter! We love this holiday and once again continued our Sunrise and waffle breakfast! We love being able to start the morning by talking about Christ and the reason we have the Easter holiday. It's great that we live so close to the mountain as well cause the sun doesn't come up on our house until 8:00! I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ. Because of Him I get to be with my family for eternity. Because of Him I can be forgiven for my many weaknesses and try to become better. Because of Him, I can pray and be comforted in times of need. Because of Him I have purpose in this life and can look forward to the life to come.

 

A couple days before Easter, we invited some friends over for an Easter Egg hunt in our backyard. It was really fun. However, Reese and I got a "fun" Easter surprise...
Reese went to go after an egg in some rocks when she all of a sudden started screaming! Well, she screams the same whether her hand got cut off or she dropped a favorite stuffed animal so I didn't think anything of it. I walked over to her and I screamed too when a snake slithered right past my bare feet! It was pretty funny :).

Thank Heaven for "Frozen" (Emma's potty update)

Well, after TWO AND A HALF YEARS we can finally say Emma doesn't have accidents and always goes poo in the potty. Even better than that, we can say that Emma no longer has constipation issues and is a healthy little girl now!!! BLESSINGS I TELL YOU! Last fall we got her body under control with lots of fruits and veggies, myralax, fiber gummies and prune juice and she was finally choosing to go in the potty!!! We were so happy! And....then baby Nora was born :). Emma needing some attention and so she started going in her pants again :(. So another couple months of accidents and Cade and I finally sat down and talked to her about consequences and going potty. We told her that it was fine if she chose to go in her pants, and it was fine if she chose to go on the potty, but there would be a consequence either way. That consequence was TV and movies (which Emma absolutely loves). A few times of Reese being able to watch something and Emma not was almost enough to turn the tables, but not quite. We mentioned to her that the following week, Disney's "Frozen" was coming out on DVD and we were going to have the entire family over for a party but she needed to choose to go in the potty all week if she wanted to join us.

Well, she decided that was enough and we haven't had an accident since! Hallelujah! We are so happy that she no longer is in pain- so so so so so so happy! I can't even explain. And we are very proud of our Emma for making that choice. It has helped the happy feelings to stay more easily in the home :).

Spontaneous Disneyland Trip and More

Cade aren't usually very spontaneous but we decided our family had been under quite the stress with moving and adding a baby to the family. So we said, "let's go to Disneyland next week!" And that we did :). It was so cute to see how in love Taft was with Baby Nora. Whoever was holding her, he was RIGHT there beside them :). He couldn't get enough of her! Good thing he's going to be a big brother come fall!

Nora had a rough time sleeping during the day on vacation...she always slept in a swing during the day...

We first drove to Las Vegas and spent conference weekend with the Close side. It was a relaxing weekend and fun to let all the kiddos play! Then we drove the rest of the way to Anaheim Sunday night. Monday and Tuesday we spent all day at Disneyland and California Adventure and had a blast! Every time we have gone to Disneyland it has been wonderful and different in their own ways. This time we didn't have another family to trade off with on the "bigger" rides, but this time made it all about the girls. We did whatever rides they wanted and tried to get some good one on one time with them. Their favorite parts were meeting Elsa and Anna and the other princesses. Their favorite rides were Peter Pan, Dumbo, the rockets and Winnie the Pooh (we went on that one 4 times in a row!). This time we did character dining in Ariel's Grotto and got to meet the princesses while the characters came around to greet us- definitely worth it! We had so much fun with our own little family and the girls had a blast. It was quick planning but was so much fun.

Emma and I went on Racers in CarsLand and it was NOT her favorite :). I was laughing the whole time and she was on the verge of crying...this pic taken BEFORE the fast racing part ;).

Our only "Family" pic taken this time. We kinda forgot so we have all three in strollers for memories :).

After Disneyland, we drove to Santa Barbara and spent 3 days with Sisten and Andrew. We got to see their new house they live in now and see how much Jaxon is growing up! Our favorite things were Padero Grill that we ate at (beautiful and a huge sand area that the kids could play in), playing at the beach and walking along the pier, and just hanging out at the house. It was so funny to watch Reese and Jax play together. Lets just say that they both have VERY strong, independent personalities and neither one wanted the other one to tell them what to do :). Just about what we expected. Cade is so good to me. He never wants me to leave sad from a vacation because I didn't get enough time to spend with Kristen (or any other family member) so he makes sure we get plenty of time to talk and hang out. Kristen is doing SO SO good. She has had a lot of health problems after being pregnant and its great to see so much improvement after almost three years! She is so wonderful and I love her so much.

Nora is not a cuddler, but when we got to Santa Barbara, she was so tired. Aunt Sisten got a lot of cuddle time with her!!

Padero Grill. It's so beautiful!

Beach Day! Chilly, but the kids had fun. Well,, almost all. Reese hated the sand in between hers toes so much that she wouldn't even get off her chair :). It was actually pretty funny.

Because Sisten has to watch what she eats, we got treated to some very healthy delicious meals!!

 Snuggle time and time to say "goodbye".

Overall our trip was almost perfect. The only thing that I would have traded was our 13 hour drive that turned to 15 because of random protestors that completely SHUT down I-15. Not my favorite drive home, but I guess the vacation coulnd't be absolutely perfect. Opposition in all things?

To make the parting bearable, Elmo Facetimed with us after we got home from Cali :). We love Uncle Elmo (Andrew).

OH, and some great news! Just a few days after we got home from visiting the, Kristen and Andrew got to welcome little Julian into their home to foster for some time. Sweet little boy is so blessed to be in their home. He will be completely loved and well taken care of!