grandma...

My mom stayed a few extra days to visit and watch Carter. This little girl loves her grandma. I swear, I am non-existent when grandma is around!

She got them matching Superman pj's. Tucker thought it was pretty cool that they even made girl superman ones for Taylor.

Then she took the kids to jump & bounce. I love Carters faces in these next two...

She had fun taking the two little ones down the slides...

:)

My birthday...

I am so spoiled! I know I am. Ben always makes me feel so special on my birthday and really works to make things fun for me! This year he planned a surprise dinner with some family and friends at a new Asian buffet here in the Valley. It was kind of crazy with me trying to plan things, a few of my friends trying to plan things and Ben trying to plan things. But in the end it worked out and I was totally surprised! :) What I thought was going to be a small dinner with a few close friends turned into a little surprise party! :)

He even got me an ice-cream cake- My favorite!!!

Me & my little brother, Nathan...

Me & Tara...

Me, Ben, Nathan & Angie with my mom. She came up just for my birthday! Thanks mom!

And all of us with my dad. My mom didn't realize her camera was on Manual focus so it wasn't focusing right for these pictures.

And me and my girlfriends who came...

A few days later one of my best friends, Katrina took me downtown for Olive Garden lunch and some much needed girl time and shopping with our friend Tara. It was so nice! :) I am so lucky to have such great friends!

THEN.... Just when I thought my birthday celebrations were over. Ben surprised me EVEN more. My mom was here and so I guess he thought he'd take advantage of that and booked us a hotel for the night and surprised me with WICKED!!! :) Wicked just happened to be in Spokane, and I really wanted to go. But with plane tickets and trek stuff and other stuff, I just couldn't justify spending the money on going. Well... Wicked does this lottery ticket thing. Where for every performance they do a lottery to people who enter to win tickets. So, we had to be there two and a half hours early to enter our names, it is open for a half an hour and then they chose names. My name was chosen so I got two tickets and they were only $25!!! I felt so lucky! Wicked, dinner at the Catacombs and Creme Brule for Dessert; It was the perfect night!I love my husband!

Ben didn't love it, but I thought it was so cute; and I can see why it's a perfect girls night.

Ben and I before the show...

The next morning, it was so nice to just sleep in and relax reading my book before out noon check out.

My mom took the kids to Chuck E Cheese (of course!) that night for dinner and these are some cute pics I got off of her camera. I love my kids! :)

Taylor is a dancing maniac. Whenever she hears music she stops and starts shaking her little body!

Tucker in deep concentration...

She has so many expressions, I love it!

Once again, I felt so loved and spoiled on my birthday and I am so very grateful for my wonderful friends and family who make me feel so special!

Tucker & Taylor...

Since the sun has been out, we've been hitting the park as often as we can. Here Taylor is on a lunch date with spongebob.

And this little lady is finally cruising around! :) I love having her mobile, it's so much fun!

And she also loves my soda. I made the mistake of letting her have some of it once, and now whenever she sees me with a soda, she whines until she gets a sip!

Playing outside with daddy...

I had to get a picture of Tucker with a fire hydrant. He is obsessed with them. Seriously, every time we get in the car, we have to play the game of who can spot the most fire hydrants. Every. time.we. get.in.the.car. We pass this one on our way in to Old Navy and he thinks it's so cool that he can actually touch it and play on it. So I had to get a picture of him with it.

I love bath babies...

And here is my little stinker. I love this girl! I gave her the spoon to my brownie batter the other morning. I was making them for a friends baby shower. Needless to say, she was in heaven. :) I think this face pretty much sums it up! :) Love her!

How was I blessed with two fun, adorable , albeit stubborn and independent, but totally wonderful little kids? I love 'em!

The Cottons...

We watched our friends kids the other night so they could go out for their anniversary. It was so nice out, we just had to be outside. Being cooped up for so long has made us hungry for the outdoors. The boys had so much exploring and playing.

Of course, the biggest boy of all had to get in on the action! :)

Tucker gets a little crazy with Taylor sometimes. He loves her too much and too crazy sometimes.

Of course, a race had to happen. Tucker loves to run and race!

I took this cute picture of their little lady, H. She is so cute! :) I couldn't keep the grass out of her mouth, but we had a good time! :) A little grass doesn't hurt, does it?

We are so happy the warm weather is starting to come and we are so happy to have such great friends to play with! :)

mudders day and such...

I had a fabulous mothers day this year. I woke up to a beautiful bouquet of flowers complete with homemade cards, chocolate covered strawberries when I got home from church and a day of relaxing, reading and napping. Seriously, Ben took the kids up to my dads house right after church and I had an empty house to myself all afternoon. It was a-mazing! :)

But I do love those two little ones who have made me a mommy. And I have a wonderful husband who makes mommy hood so much easier for me! I am one lucky girl! :)

We went out to dinner for Angie's birthday and this little girl was having fun playing with her daddy. I love that little face! :)

Uncle Nathan creepin'...

Tucker got majorly sick this week. He started throwing up on Wednesday night and didn't stop until Saturday morning! I had called his Dr. on Friday afternoon to ask what signs I should be looking for for dehydration and they told me to make sure he is going pee every 12 hours. So, that night before he went to bed, around 9pm I made sure he went to the bathroom. A few minutes later I noticed that I didn't hear anything coming from the bathroom. So we went in and Tucker was just laying on the floor with his pants around his ankles. He was so weak he just couldn't move; poor boy! We decided then that it was probably a good idea to take him to get some hydration. We were in the ER for about 4 hours and he had to get two bags of fluid! They kept on saying, 'he is just as dry as a bone...'. Yea, make me feel even worse than I already do! :) I just felt so bad for him, he had it bad! You will notice in the picture below we had a lot of gatorade and ginger ale for the boy. But no worries, he is all healthy now and we are happy to have our big boy back! :) Which brings me to this next picture. Taylor had gotten into a bottle of sprite and not only sat in the puddle of it, but bent down and was licking it up off the ground. :) This little girl is just like her momma and loves food, drink and anything that is a snack or treat! :)

We went out to the new Brazilian restaurant in Coeurd'Alene to celebrate Andrews mission call to Brazil. It was fun being with family and friends to celebrate a wonderful thing.

Kathryn & her boys...

Ben, Ben & Chase...

Ben & The Orndorff's...

Me & Ben (and Chuck coppin' a feel)...

It's been an eventful past few weeks; these children (and husband) keep me busy!

one great weekend...

We just had a great weekend. Some highlights have been:

• two words, Royal wedding!

I DVR'd it on Thursday night so as to not miss a minute of it! :) I watched it with some friends on Friday afternoon while we had a play date with our boys. I may or may not have watched a few more times on my own throughout the weekend. Ben asked me last night if he could delete it and reluctantly I said yes. I had my fill. But I loved the ceremony. I loved what the Bishop had to say. My favorite part was when he said in a way all weddings are royal because when we marry we become kings and queens of creation. I loved how he truly made marriage out to be noble and an honor. I also loved her dress-she was stunning! And Prince William is so dreamy! I've had a crush on him since I was about 15. :) It was fun to get caught up in this fairy tale this weekend.

• My mom is here visiting. She is watching my nephew while my bro and sis-in-law are in Vegas looking for a house! They are moving, so it is bittersweet; but we are so excited for Nathan to start school! They will be missed! But it is fun having my mom here. We played and had Pizza on Saturday night with her and Carter;

• Right after Ben & Tucker got home from here:

Saturday afternoon Tucker & Ben went to the circus! Tucker had so much fun! His favorite part was, of course, the cotton candy! :) ha ha. He loved the animals, but when Ben asked him if he wanted to ride an elephant, he did NOT want to! :) I am actually surprised that Ben was able to take this picture of the clown, he is deathly scared of clowns! :) They had some fun boy time.

• My mom & the sister missionaries came over for dinner on Sunday so Tucker & I went into our backyard and picked our first bouquet of flowers from our garden.

This was great for two reasons: first, it means that the weather is finally getting warm enough for the flowers to come out. Summer is on it's way, finally! And second, sister missionaries! I love it! There are Spanish speaking Hermanas out here in the Valley right now and I've had so much fun going out with them as much as I can these past few months. It's great to brush up on my Spanish and help out the Hermanas, I remember those days! It was a perfect Sunday afternoon having the missionaries in our home. Tuckers been wanting me to speak spanish all day today! :)

Other exciting events this weekend consisted of a hot date on Friday night with Ben that turned into an impromptu double date with our good friends, the Nelsons when we saw them driving by us. :) Dinner, Bowling and FroYo. :) Doesn't get better than that! :) I am so blessed!

A few that I've found...

Here are a few photos that I found on my computer that I had to share. :)

I just love this girl. I mean really, look at that face! :)

I don't exist when grandma is around. Seriously, both of my kids love their grandma!

Taylor always has to do whatever I'm doing. She is seriously like a little mini-me! :) Most of the time, I love it.

Here are the two group shots from Easter. Keyton wasn't into picture taking at all, and eventually just went inside! :)

This is after Keyton left...

And I love Taylors face in this one. So cute, with Papa! :)

Tuckers pre school had a little Easter egg hunt at the park this week. It was so much fun, a little chilly, but fun. On the way home Tucker shared one of his Bit-O-Honey's with Taylor. She then fell asleep. I had to get a picture of her with it hanging out of her mouth! :) Another reason why I love this girl! :)