We went to a really fun Easter Egg Hunt at a beautiful home near here on Easter weekend.  It was an unusually warm day in the midst of our extremely cold and rainy spring.  The chocolate candy in the eggs was even melted!  Nobody was prepared for a day that warm but we all enjoyed it.

Here's our annual egg dying picture.  They always seem to look "eggs"actly the same :)

Tyler playing with his first matchbox cars.  Heidi and Nicole got them out of Cheerio boxes and were very excited to start his collection for him.

Just a cute pic of Tyler playing with plastic eggs on Heidi's bed while under her watch.  She was busying around in her room and he was just so content, until he spotted me with the camera.

Nicole still loves to hold her brother and help him eat, walk, crawl, etc.

The pictures below are of our recent trip to Utah for Grandma Lyman's funeral.  It turned out to be a really good trip.  It was so nice to see all the relatives in Blanding and say goodbye to Grandma.  I'm sure she is much happier now than she has been in a long time.  We had a few minutes of nice weather there so ran to this park to enjoy it.  The kids always have so much fun with their cousins.

Our new play structure!!  We love it.  It was installed on Wednesday and then Scott worked all day Saturday putting a border and bark chips underneath it.  The kids enjoyed helping him and riding in the wheelbarrow.

March

Tyler is 9 months old today!  

(That means halfway to nursery!!!)

Here's a picture of our happy little guy.  He's always been a pleasant baby but now that we finally have his eczema calmed down, he is a very happy boy.  And we are happy too and so, so grateful!!

His personality has really come out the last few weeks too.  His newest tricks are rolling his hands and clicking his tongue.  He loves music and whistling.  I can always count on a captive audience when I sing or whistle.

Here Tyler is looking up at a balloon.  I was trying to get the perfect shot of him AND the balloon but it didn't happen.  I thought this was the cutest one.  He thinks his toes are pretty good toys too.

This past weekend our neighbors invited us to spend some time with them at their house just south of Lincoln City.  We had a great time and we even saw the sun a few times.  We went on lots of walks looking for treasures.  Here are the girls having a grand 'ol time.

Here is a picture of Heidi at her school play (see video in previous post).  Doesn't she make a cute flower?

Heidi's School Play

Here is the video from Heidi's play she did at the school.  We didn't have very good seats for filming (you get a good look at the lady's head in front of us), but it isn't too bad and hopefully won't give you a headache.  It is about 15 minutes long.  We had to cut out a song so we could post it (it was too long otherwise).  She had a big part in the play and had quite a few lines to memorize.

Tyler is Eight Months Old!

Tyler is eight months old today so I wanted to post some pics to celebrate him.  He is such a pleasant little guy and we just love having him in our family.

Here he is in his Sunday sweater that he only wore once because of his eczema but I thought he looked so handsome.

 Sporting the BYU hat that Granny Jo and Grandpa brought him from Utah.

 Heidi and Nicole playing "School" with Tyler :)

 Tyler and his racetrack from Santa.  He absolutely loves this toy!  He rarely gets tired of it and it might just be Santa's best move ever.  He's a pro at sitting up now but not in a hurry to start moving.  He will probably follow in Nicole's footsteps.  She was also content to sit until she was almost 11 months old and started crawling.

 This football shirt is from his California grandma and grandpa.  All this football stuff is fine for him now although I'm secretly hoping he never wants to actually play football.  He can just enjoy watching it with his dad from the safety of the bleachers or the living room :)

Nicole Turned 6!

As most kids are, Nicole was extremely excited about this birthday.  She played Happy Birthday on the piano all week, helped me pick out cupcake decorations, decorated the house with help from Heidi, and wrote a happy birthday message to herself on the chalk board in her bedroom the night before.  Luckily, it turned out to be all that she dreamed it would be and maybe more.

 She also just got her hair cut a week ago.  Now her bangs will catch up in no time.

 She chose pizze for dinner and conveniently always wants lots of pink and hearts and love which works well with after Valentine's Day sales :)

 This was her main gift and was definitely a hit.  She spent the whole day after singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious trying to get a perfect score.

We had Briella, Julia, and Michelle over for a special birthday lunch followed by some indoor hopscotch and watching Princess and the Frog.

Granny Jo and Grandpa Come to Visit

Granny Jo and Grandpa got to come and visit in January and be our little bit of sunshine in what is usually a pretty cold and rainy time of year.  Here are some pics from their time with us....

 Granny Jo was dubbed the "expert" when it came to puzzles.  The girls were impressed with her skills.

 This is one of many, many UNO games played with Grandpa.  

It's always a favorite.

Granny Jo sharing her apple with Tyler and making him all messy so mom would have to change him.  

I guess that's the beauty of being the Grandma.

Holiday Travels

 We went to Utah for Thanksgiving this year and had a very fun week with the Lyman Clan.  We also got to celebrate Granny Jo's birthday while we were there.  I had to post a picture of the scrabble cake my sister made because I thought it was so cute.  As usual, we played a lot of games and ate a lot of good food and didn't take enough pictures!  We also took the kids to the movie "Tangled" which was really cute.  Thanks Granny Jo and Grandpa for the fun time.

 Granny Jo and Grandpa with all the grandchildren.

 Made with love by my very talented sister.

 Tyler has officially begun solid foods but is not enjoying it at all.  So far we've tried applesauce, carrots, banana, and sweet potato.  If anyone has any advice, please send it my way!!

 We did some serious cookie decorating this year.  I went a little overboard on the dough so we had mega cookies.  The girls decorated with friends two days in a row and then we finished them up on the third day.

 Heidi got pretty artistic this year and Nicole is still in pile on mode :)  There's nothing like a sugar cookie with all the trimmings though.  Can you tell whose are whose below??

 

 Scott and Tyler didn't get into the cookie decorating but they did enjoy a little football together.

 Here's Tyler in the Bumbo seat I will be returning as we have to squeeze him into it and he's not very happy once he's in.  He's almost got the sitting thing down anyway.

 Tyler in San Jose.  Grandma let us bring this little walker home with us because he quite liked it.

 Our Christmas Eve manger scene and Bible reading.

 Tyler with the race track Santa brought him.
It was quite a hit Christmas morning.

 Grandma Williams and the girls.  They had such a good time with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Mark.  Here they are in their new robes Christmas morning.  Nicole got a keyboard and Heidi got a desk among other things and everyone was quite thrilled.

I think after a trip to Utah in November and a trip to California in December, we are going to stick around Oregon for a while now!  We are already looking forward to visits from grandparents in January and February though and if anyone else wants to come our way, we'd love to have you!

Happy New Year!