Easter Fun!

We spent Good Friday coloring eggs...

Lily tried to eat the eggs...

..

This year the Easter Bunny came on Saturday morning.

He brought candy, a few trinkets and Easter Sunday clothes

On the hunt for some eggs

I painted bunny nails for the girls

 

They liked em

 Then we went to a friend's birthday party/ Easter Egg hunt

I found these vintage bunny plates and placemats at Williams and Sonoma outlet for 90% off!!!! love a good deal

 

And we set the Easter table the night before, so we could be all ready for sunday

 

I took a couple of wilton classes over the last 2 months...and Saturday happened to be my last day. this was my final cake. Just in time for Easter

I made these SMEEPS for the ladies I visit teach

And that was a bit of our Easter. It was a very special one for our family. This was our first Easter that we did our own thing here at home. The week before we did the Easter Week each night leading up to Easter Sunday, we also did "secular Saturday " (Easter bunny, egg hunt and candy on Saturday instead of Sunday), which really helped Sunday feel less commercialized and more focused on the Resurrection of Our Savior. I had to give a talk on Sunday, so I think that also helped me feel more focused on what Easter is really all about. I even forgot to take pictures on Sunday! Darn it, no cute pics of the kids with their new Easter outfits on...but that's not what it's all about right;) maybe I will be more on the ball next year!

Better late than never...Spring Break 2011

I FINALLY downloaded our spring break pictures...brace yourself picture OVERLOAD!
I started blogging a few pictures, but my computer is S-L-O-W today, so I'm just doing a slide show to make my life easier! Sorry I know it's lengthy, but it's a time issue for me! We're back into the grind since our trip, so it was kind of nice to have to wait a while to see these pictures again and remember how fun it is to have a break! We are a  beach loving family, it's in my Costa Rican blood and it looks like I've passed it down to my kids! but then again what kid DOESN'T love the beach right?
(*double click if it's too small)

Love Day 2011

this will be my 4th post in one month...whoa!!! that's a new record for me!
 

Valentines day this year...

Funny story, well not really funny but...I bought the kids class valentine's this year at the end of January thinking I was so awesome getting them ahead of time. on the ball. go me! I got them based on their favorite candy, because you always give what you love right? so I put them away till it was time, pulled them out, opened them up, and my boys REFUSED to hand them out because they said stuff like, "will you be my valentine", "I like you"...you know, VALENTINES quotes! So I quickly remembered I saw these earlier this month thinking they would be fun to do, too bad I already bought some....well we ended up making them after all. Of course when Sav saw the boys' valentines, she wanted ones with HER picture on them too, so I had to do hers. I think they turned out cute and were easy to make, and tape the candy on. Much easier than having to work with those little heart stickers that come with the store bought stuff.

I made heart ruffle shirts for the 2 bigger girls!  ran out of time for baby. I can't believe I didn't get one picture of Savannah in hers! Or the kids at their class parties. boo!

For  FHE we had a family Valentine's Party. We ate heart shaped papa murphy's pizza for dinner ($5!! what a steal!)Thanks to a friend for the heads up! A few weeks ago for FHE we did a heart attack (we used to do this in college with roommates) Each family member had to write what they love about each person on a separate heart, then we posted them on our kitchen cabinets and enjoyed them through out the month. We pulled them down after dinner and passed them out as valentines and each person read their favorite one they got. mine was Sav's that said " I love Mom because she makes cookies" this girl knows her priorities!

Mike and I hardly ever do gifts, but I got lucky this year! he made up big time! a chocolate fountain! sweet.
( I've wanted one for years!) We decided to do that for dessert and end the night with a dance party (in efforts to burn off some of the sugar;)

 

One last collage.promise.Earlier in the month I tried taking some Valentine's pictures for fun...ha ha...fun. the only fun part about taking pictures is making crazy faces according to my kids. And I look gross with no make on.nice. (thanks Kristi, for taking the family shot and humoring me;)

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!
We LOVE you!

Baby Love...

I hosted a baby shower for a good friend of mine and her sweetest new baby girl (#5-2 boys and now 3 girls just like my own family:) Love celebrating new babies at showers, especially when they're already here and we get to ooh and aaahh over  them. sweet. I also love that it was right around Valentine's and that I had a good excuse to decorate and force myself to craft a little. I have a love/hate relationship with crafting you see....love to do it/ hate to find the time to do it. I also love that there are so many talented people out there willing to take their time to share their talents and post step by step instructions for craft impaired folks like myself.
Take those super cute pom poms I made by following my talented sis-in-law,  Carrie's instructions. Thank you Carrie!!! Now I can use them in Lil's rooms! Or how about that dot garland idea I borrowed from a cousin-in-laws blog. So cute right?! And then there's tons of the cute decor you see pictured below, half of it provided from my other talented friend Kristen , who also made this blissful ganache cake (recipe found here) that I am still drooling over just typing about it...yummm.

SO, I've decided that my talent is being able to recognize, admire, appreciate,be inspired by and borrow others' natural talents. Thank you ladies for inspiring me with your talents and helping me pull off a successful shower!!!and now my house is ready for Valentine's day. double score!
 


 

The framed picture is a wedding picture of my parents.

 
Some of mine and Kristen's cute decor in my entry way

Cutsie water bottles

I made a couple of lovie blankies for Michele's little lovie

 
The Hostesses's with  the mostestesses and a very cute new mommy

 
The Spread

Can you see the ganache cake on the white cake stand...drooling..

 
We had a candy "bar" 

Friends

 
And here is the darling little guest of honor at the end of the party! She was soooo good the whole time and was feeling pretty done by the end!!! Wish my baby was still this size!!

no work, no school- it's a play day!

Gotta love Texas weather! Sunny and 70's one day, snowy the next...School was canceled and Mike canceled patients for a snow day! I love days like these where we get to take a day off from busy everyday life and just have fun and play! I was really excited to take pictures and try using my  new skills after taking THIS awesome class...I totally need to practice, but I'm just thrilled that I even know HOW to fiddle with my camera now rather than just keeping it on auto. So some of these are super bright as I am still learning, but you get the idea! My nice camera battery actually died near the end, so I had to pull out the old trusty point and shoot. Can you tell the difference at the end? Poor Zach didn't get to go out, he came down with a fever of 103 on thursday. I guessed I jinxed him after that last post! He still managed to have a great time a little outdoors but mostly indoors! Fun times!

* Double click for larger images

January flash back

So technically this was the end of December when G and G, Uncle Brett and Uncle Jeff came for a visit. Not so great pictures:( We were just too busy enjoying the moment. Can  you find uncle Brett hidden in there?  We played some apples to apples and angry birds, Sav opened some presents, we ate some cajun, watched a great movie, had an awesome target run, and the men put our trampoline together. THANK YOU!!!! A short but very sweet visit.We love it when they come!!



New Year's  Resolutions and Party. Sassy resolves to
"set a good zampl", "make every buttys bed in the morening" and "make Lily lagh"
We ended the year with our annual pinata!

Another year of Science fair project. check. Josh did "Plop Plop, Fizz Fizz...Big or Small Pieces"...I know what you're thinking..eeeewww. get your minds out of the gutter! it was Alka Seltzer and measuring reaction rates based on particle size.

 We spent about 2 weeks of January looking like this...swine flu this year. Everyone but Zach and I got it- though I did manage to squeeze in a kidney infection. nice.

A highlight for the boy! His last pinewood derby and he came in third out of 20 something cars! He was all smiles that night! Here he is with his gator skater, trophy and Mike who helped a little;) I made some treats for the big night. Can you tell what the checkered cakes and the twinkie oreo/combos are?

Another highlight, was a visit from my good friend Kristy from Dallas. We took a photography workshop together from my other good friend Kristen. We had a great time eating, talking, eating, taking pictures and eating;) Thanks for coming down Kristy!!

And these pictures are from this morning... the 100th day of school!! Kinders had to decorate a shirt with 100 objects...she wanted felt rosettes...yikes. can you say time consuming? Fortunately I taught her how to make them and she made most all of them and I just burned off my fingertips hot glued them on to her shirt. The boys had to dress up like 100 year olds. For some reason they associate old age with grumpiness, hence the grumpy old men faces :)
 

And here are Ms. T's 100 day Kindergarteners! how cute are they!?!

So there you go, a bit of december, all of January and even a piece of February.
phewww.! I'm all blogged out!

Time flies!

Guess who's 18 months old? How I love this girl! What did we do with out her 18 months ago?