Never Gets Old

I don't know how many times we've gone and fed the ducks now, but for some reason there is still something thrilling about it:)

I just like it because it means there's good weather so we can be outside.

We ate some lunch on a picnic blanket and I just sat and enjoyed the sounds of outside.

It brings me joy!

We gave the birds our left over brown honey wheat bread from the Outback.  Turns out ducks aren't really fond of that kind of bread so the seagulls took over.  At least it didn't go to waste:)

Happy Easter! Happy Easter!

I was proud of that one:)

A family tradition I have tried to keep going:)

Every Easter (or the Saturday before, I believe) I would wake up to the house lined (literally) with candy eggs.  

Every ledge, every corner, every door frame.  

We would race to find our baskets and then frantically scoop as MUCH candy as possible into them.  The funniest thing about this, is that after all our baskets were full we would declare a basket filling winner, and then immediately dump the entire contents of our baskets onto the kitchen table and evenly distribute each piece back into everyone's baskets. By COLOR! When I say even, I mean even:)  Why?  Well, my oldest sister declared this the new rule when my second oldest sister would always win the candy scooping contest and then have more candy than she did:)  

I loved this tradition and have done it in my college apartments with my roommates and now with my own family.

Please notice the candy drool!  She did not even need to be prompted for that one!

She got the candy scooping down pretty good.

The Easter Dress.

My mom made this for her.

I helped...

I made the bows-lol

She calls it her Rapunzel dress and demanded Eugene (aka Flynn Rider...aka Targhee) be by her side for picture taking. 

The happy family... *kinda

*Please see next picture.

THIS is actually what we were dealing with ALL DAY!!

I find humor in the picture only because it's the day after...and all my mom wanted was a cute picture with Leilani in the dress she had made.  Do you think she was going to cooperate?  Nope!

Egg hunt at Grandma Cole's

She lost interest in finding more eggs.  All she needed was a squishy rubber bunny:)

Finding Easter eggs is very serious business to the Cole men.

Or not:)

The booty

This is how TJ searched for eggs.

A Tinker Bell dress.

It was worn the rest of the day.

Dinner at Grandma Bishop's

Egg hunt at Grandma Bishops

(Easter is just another word for candy overload!) 

Leilani with Myriah, one of the little girls my sister is fostering right now.

I feel like this picture needs to go in a magazine or something.

Little girl in a Tinker Bell dress, with a mouth full of candy, counting Easter eggs with her dad.

Love it!

I love holidays and the family traditions they bring mostly because it brings families together.

But among all the festivities, we did not forget the real person who brings families together.

Our Savior Jesus Christ.

Because of Him, our families can be sealed together for eternity.  We will be able to see those loved ones who have passed on again and we will be able to return to live with our Father in Heaven again.  I am truly grateful for the life of our Savior and his sacrifice for us.  It was a world wide sacrifice and yet personal to every one of us. 

He Lives!

Photo Opp

My mom and I played dress up the other day and took a few pictures of TJ.  They're obviously not professional but don't hate the photographer:)

p.s. his hair is NOT red.  I don't know why it looks that way here.

I got one on camera!!

I can't help but love it:)

I have such a hard time with infant pictures because they always seem to have the wrong angle or just look awkward, but this one looks the most like him, to me, of all the pictures I've taken.  Even so, he's much cuter in person:)

Since I've had two kids

Man this two kid thing is exhausting!

My time is completely eaten up with feedings, rockings, bum changings, clean ups, and consoling melt downs (including my own).

I have actually really enjoyed having two kids.

I can't believe three weeks have already flown by.

I can tell it's going to be a lot harder to keep track of happenings.

I'm going to have to keep a notebook right by the rocking chair to write little things down.

So here's a few things we've done since becoming a family of four.

Our first family walk.

We don't have a double stroller yet so we both had to push one:)

I went for a walk on my own while Targhee was at work and I had to strap Leilani to the handle of the single stroller with my Dad's tie so that I could push them both- lol.

Ya, a little white trash, but it was nice outside and TJ needed an outing.  I guess you lose a little "so whatness" when you don't sleep much:)

Grandma and Grandpa Fuzzy (aka Grandma and Grandpa Cole) have come to visit a few times.  They love their Grandparents!

Helping out with the dishes.

Just a regular day.

Me showing Leilani pictures of when she was a baby and my Dad (who just retired Friday- woohoo! Go Dad!) rocking TJ.

Flying a kite.

Grandma Fuzzy brought Leilani a Cinderella kite.  So, here she is wearing her Cinderella dress flying a Cinderella kite.  Talk about 2 year old bliss.

This was an adventure!

Leilani decided she didn't need to take a nap (she's been doing that lately...little stinker!) so I brought out the finger paints to keep her busy.  Well, of course TJ had to wake up JUST as we were getting our hands dirty.  So I left Leilani to go at it while I fed TJ.  Needless to say, she had paint EVERYWHERE and I was strapped to the chair with a baby connected to me so there wasn't much I could do about it.  I finish feeding him, then go to clean up Leilani.  I had to put her in the bath, then go back and scrub the bathroom (where she was painting) then TJ started screaming.  I had to change him then he pooped everywhere (a favorite trick of his), so I had to change his clothes and clean up his mess, then I had to go back and finish washing Leilani.  

After it was all done, I was so tired and just laughed at myself at how silly I was for pulling out the finger paint. I thought, "Oh!  This is what it's like to have two kids.  I'm going to learn a lot!" :)

He's starting to focus on us more.  The cuddly infant stage is sweet, but they're much more fun when they can interact with you. 

Leilani's been spending a lot of time outside lately.

She loves getting all dressed up in princess dresses, but then wants to go play in the mud:)

p.s. She also took another trip to the ER a few weeks ago.

She tripped and hit her head on the corner of the fireplace.

I tell ya, this girl is going to be lucky to stay in one piece.

Gratefully all they needed to do was glue it shut so hopefully the scar isn't too big.  If it is, I guess it will just match the other two...

We went and visited some baby bunnies and chicks.

Lately TJ has been throwing these full on colicky fits.  His sweet, easy going attitude lasted about 2 weeks, then BAM, on comes the screaming.  I don't know what it is.  Leilani was a screamer too.  I stopped eating dairy, which seemed to help with Leilani so hopefully it helps with him too.  

At least with TJ I know that it doesn't last forever.

I remember thinking that this was going to be my curse for the rest of my life when Leilani was a baby, but it wasn't.  She got over it and became the sweetest, happiest child.  So I have hope that TJ will do same and can deal much better with his episodes than I did before.

In fact, he's having one right now which is why I am sitting here writing this because Targhee is taking a turn.  We're great at taking turns:)

He also has his clock turned backwards.  "And I'm thinkin'... that's gotta stop." (that's a quote from a movie- candy bar for whoever can guess it- hint: it's one of my favorites)  He sleeps all day and then is up all night.

The no sleep thing is starting to wear on me.

I really am not a pleasant person when I don't get enough sleep, so we're hoping to turn this kid around fast!

Saturday night he slept from 11pm-6am.  It felt so good but I couldn't keep from feeling guilty that he went so long without eating... he was up til 4am the next night, so it must have just been a tiny present for mom.

Well, I think that's all I have for now. I've already taken too long...time to feed the babes again:)