Happy Cinco de Mayo....

From your local Mexican Mariachi Band. :)

Easter...

I know, Easter was like so last month, but these pictures have been hanging over me like the plague, and I've been trying to ignore them, but I just can't any longer. :) I hope you'll bear with me through this Easter post. Its a little long and there are far too many pictures, but are you really that surprised at this point? I didn't think so! :)

Our Easter was really great this year. My mom, brother, sister in law and nephew all came in town. Tucker loved having his pal, Keyton in town and the weather was great that week! We couldn't have asked for anything more.

We did a lot of playing outside with grandma and Keyton...

We even needed our shades. It was great. Grandma got Tucker a new pair for the summer...

We played outside up at my dads house:

Watched a few movies at Papa's house:

We colored some Easter eggs up at Papa's house:

On Saturday, my dads ward was having an Easter breakfast/egg hunt. My dad was in charge of it, so we all went.

The boys had so much fun finding eggs, and especially getting the candy at the end. (egg hunt #3)

Easter morning Tucker woke up to a trail of eggs that led him straight to the treats that the Easter bunny had left... yum! (yes, he wore his shirt from the day before to bed because he fell asleep on the way home.) :)

I love that he is finally getting to the stage where the little things about holidays excite him so much! If you notice in all of these pictures, his face is pure excitement and bliss... :)

After opening his basket, we quickly got ready for church and went with the whole family to my dad's ward.

After church we went back up to my dads house and had a wonderfully delicious Easter dinner. My dad's cooking is the best. We are so spoiled! :)

After dinner we had another (the 4th and final of the season) Easter egg hunt for the boys. We hid the eggs we had dyed the night before. There were only like 8 eggs. So we kept hiding them over and over. They had a blast.

After the egg hunt we came inside and got even more treats from the Easter bunny! We are so lucky! Thanks Easter Bunny!!!!

This is far too much candy to have in the house...

Phew...glad that's over with. :)

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter spent with loved ones and remembering the true reason for the Holiday!

My new favorite Easter quote is by Jeffery R. Holland:

'One of the greatest consolations of this Easter season is that because Jesus walked such a long lonely path utterly alone, we do not have to do so.'

It is so easy to get caught up in the secular commotion of the Easter season, which we did, (making sure I had enough treats for Tuckers basket, making sure we dyed eggs etc... etc...) that sometimes I forgot the true and awesome reason for the holiday. I am truly grateful to the Savior for walking that lonely path, for taking upon my sins, for dying for me, then resurrecting so that someday I might be able to do the same. What a perfect gift he gave us and what a responsibility we have to always remember why we are here, the reason for all of this hoopla on earth. It isn't to make sure our son has enough dollar store toys in his basket to fill it up, it is to teach our son the gospel truths so that one day we can be with him forever, along with our Savior. How lucky we are to have the truth!

Tis the season of birthdays...

This season seems to be the start of 'birthday season' as we like to call it around here. All of our friends start having birthdays. And this is a big 3-0 year for a lot of them!!! My friend Cherie had her birthday at the beginning of the month. We went to her favorite place-Tomato Street- for a little surprise dinner with some of our girl friends.

We also had a little family dinner get together. Tucker, of course, was right there to help her blow her candles out.

All the kids, mesmerized by a movie...

Alicia's birthday was also this month. We went to the always reliable, Red Robin. (we heart Red Robin) I don't know why most of us have our mouths open in this picture, but... :)

We love our friends and we love having excuses to get together and celebrate! :)

Happy Birthday guys!

Stay tuned for even more to come...

Easter Egg Hunt #2...

I am FINALLY getting around to going through all of our Easter pictures. I am so far behind in going through our personal pictures; and add these to all of the family photo shoots I've been doing lately for other families, I am all pictured out by the time I get to our own! :) I'm not complaining though, I've loved taking pictures and having the opportunity to get out at shoot other families and do fun things.

Anyhoo...the week of Easter, my friends and I decided to have a little Easter egg hunt of our own at a little park nearby. It was so much fun. The weather was perfect and we had a great turn out. There were a ton of kids. Tucker had a blast running around the park finding the eggs. It is so much fun to watch him get into things like this now.

Here are all the kids (well, most of them)...

Tucker sometimes just randomly falls to the ground and rolls-on purpose! He loves it. Crazy kid! :)

Tucker and Carly finding eggs. (You can see that they were very well hidden eggs!) :)

Tucker and Carter...best buddies. These two couldn't be any cuter.

Tucker and his other bff..Carly. Yes, she is like a foot taller than him-I swear she grows like 5 inches every time we see her!!!

The three of them eating their goods...

Tucker really wanted Carly to go down the slide with him....Carly, wasn't so into it. :)

And I love this face...so Carly! :)

All in all, the egg hunt was a success...we will definitely be doing this next year. :) I'm all about an excuse to get my hands on more candy! :)

What the spring time means to us...

Beautiful freshly picked flowers...straight from our backyard!

Freshly painted toe-nails...excited to have a reason to show off the toes again! :)

Freshly cut summer 'do! (It only took me three hours to cut his hair amidst all of the crying and jerking of his head.)

And these two busting out the harmonicas to sing some summer time blues...

We are SO ready for the spring!