What a wonderful last few days we have had! Tim's parents have recently moved to Virginia. We are very happy to have them closer to us and got to go for a visit over Easter. We had such a great time and fell in love with Virginia. It is beautiful! The kids had a blast and were very happy to spend time with Nana and Popop. They already want to go back.

On our drive out we stopped at a cave and did some exploring. It was a lot of fun, but we were quite dirty when we showed up at Nana and Popop's house.

( I promise this isn't what it looks like. :) It was visually deceiving-he is just laying flat on the ground.)

This was their backyard. So awesome right?? The boys were very sad about the no fishing sign until Popop told them it was his sign and they were the exception :)

On Friday we went to a really great State Park close to their house. We had such a fun day. We played, had a picnic, fished, went for a walk, skipped rocks and splashed in the lake.

( I am under their somewhere...it started as a tickle Tanner fest and turned into dogpile on mom)

Easter Morning!

Thank you Nana and Popop for the wonderful vacation and priceless memories.

New Camera!!

Tim bought me a new camera for my birthday this year. It has been a need and a want for a while so I was super excited. I am learning how to use it and having a lot of fun. It is so nice to have a camera that can take a picture while my children are moving and not be blurry. I love it! Thank you sweet husband!

Leprechaun Mischief

We had some Lerechauns in our house this St Patricks Day. They were quite mischevious and the kids thought it was great.

This is a human trap. We think they might have been retaliating for the trap Tanner built to try to catch one of them.

Happy Valentines Day

We had a great Valentines day here at our house. We started the day off with little gifts and heart shaped french toast.

Grandma sent the kids the cutest little bugs filled with candy for their Valentines. They loved them. Brooklyn has carried hers around until it is bent, broken, missing antenna and covered in little chocolate fingerprints.

For dinner we made heart shaped pizzas. They tasted better than this one looked... I promise.

We were heart attacked by members of the ward. The boys woke up to it this morning and thought it was the greatest thing ever. Thank you to our sneaky valentine.

We hope you all had a wonderful Valentines day with those you love! We love and miss you all!

Little Prayers...

We had a big milestone in our house last night. Tim and I kneeled down to say nightime prayers with Brooklyn and got quite a sweet surprise. She LOVES to say prayers. I mean, she cries when it is not her turn and someone else gets a chance. The last few weeks she has been saying them on her own without help. It is usually a collection of things we have helped her say in the past or what she hears other people say often. They are always repetitious, which is fine, because that is how you learn right. Well, last night she said a little prayer that came straight from her heart. For the first time she said things that were new and all her own. You could hear her pause and could tell she was thinking about what she wanted to say. It was the sweetest thing I have ever heard. It went something like this...

Dear Heavenly Father

thank you for my family...

thank you for mommy...

thank you for my family...

thank you for my pillow...

thank you for my blankies...

please bless mommy

bless my family

Jesus Christ

amen

In all fairness, I might have been so touched because I was mentioned personally..sniff..sniff.

It is hard to see her grow up so fast, but I love the little person she is growing into.

We love you sweet Brooklyn.

Super Bowl Sunday

After months of prep and talking about the super bowl...it is finally here. We were excited to be the host city this year. We had to head downtown to see all the transformations. Friday was fairly warm so we pulled the boys out of school, Tim skipped work and we headed downtown. Whole sections of the city were closed down and turned into various festivities. All of Georgia street was one big long party with games, decorations, concerts, ice sculptures and more. There was an 800 ft. long zip line that was amazing. Tanner was heartbroken he couldn't ride (no more tickets) and Brooklyn had quite a giggle when a person in a polar bear suit went zipping overhead. We were there early in the day so we avoided the majority of the crowds. By the time we left at around 6:00 it was getting pretty crowded. We read on the news the next morning that it got so bad they had to close more streets, stop letting people into the area and even still people were gridlocked and multiple injuries occured. Needless to say we were glad we had gotten our kids out before that.

Walking down Georgia St.....

The numbers at monument circle...

Photo-op! Wake up Brooklyn!!

Ice football...

Lombardi trophy art..

What a great day! We can't wait to see who wins the big game!

We are in love...

...with the zoo!

I don't think a week goes by when Brooklyn doesn't ask to go to the zoo at least once. I think she thinks I am lying to her when I tell her it is closed Mon-Wed. She cries...no, it's not closed...it's open. Tim and I don't even talk about the zoo anymore because she gets so excited if she thinks it is a possibility. We used to spell it. That only lasted about 2 days until our little smarty pants says "I want to go to the Z-O-O".

She might live there if I let her. I can't blame her- it is a lot of fun. We try to go as often as there is weather warm enough that mom can stand it. Fortunately, that has been a few times this year even in January. Here are some of our pics from our last visit with some friends.

In awe of the coral reefs...

The trip is absolutely not complete without a visit to the tigers. They are her favorite for sure.

This time even the bear came down to say hello.

Here she is kissing the penguin. (This is one of those mom moments you try not to think about what has touched the glass and just think how cute right?) We took her to see Happy Feet 2. She has been really into penguins lately and loved it. She talks about penguins all the time. In fact she asked Santa for one this year. Sorry Baby, I don't think Indiana is quite that cold!

We miss you zoo and can't wait until it warms up again. Until then we will dream about all the wonderful things we will see....