Grandma came to stay.

We went hiking at Garden of the Gods, picnicked, played croquet, fed the giraffe's at the zoo, went for walks and played lots of board games. The boys just soaked up their time with her.  It was so fun to have her here.

Pappy, Jenna and Maddie came to see us!

It was so fun to have them come to see us here in Colorado.  When they arrived we had just been here 5 weeks.  We were lonely and it was so fun to see family!  We loved showing them our new city, neighborhood, and home.  We took them to our neighborhood park to play - which is one of our favorite things to do and the boys were so excited to take them there.  Maddie was so much fun and the boys loved having her here!

First place at the pinewood derby!!!

Dawson's car took first place at the pinewood derby this year!  It was so exciting!  He designed this car and did a ton of the work himself.  Love the silver color he picked out too!  We were so shocked to have him win.  We were brand new to the ward and hadn't met a lot of the people yet, so it was great fun to have a winning car and have something to talk to new people about.  When people asked if we win the pinewood derby every year...  (because he smoked the other cars) we said no, some joked and said it must be the altitude!  Must be.  (Some of you may remember Dawson's disappointment in last years car being the slowest at the derby....  if so, you know how fun this was for us to see him win!)

The top three cars in each ward derby went on to the stake derby.  Dawson went on the the stake derby and took 5th place out of 22 cars there.  Go Silver Bullet!  (That is what he named his car).

snow play

These pictures are from a month ago...  I am so behind on blogging.  It snowed a day or two after Dallon's birthday - mid april.  Dallon was out riding his bike anyway and loving it.  The kids have loved playing in the snow.  It's so fun after living in Texas for 10 years.

outside for a walk. enjoying the snow.

These pictures were taken after Easton and I went for a walk thru the neighborhood.  Easton loved it.  At first we started out with him in the stroller.  But he kept saying...  mom, I want a work out too.  So I let him out and I was so surprised how well he kept up.  He finished the whole rest of the walk on foot and we had such a great time together.  I took these as he walked up to our house.

Easton (April 2012)

Easton used his easter $ to buy the pets in the little house that he is sleeping with in this picture.  He bought them at the gift shop at Garden of the Gods.  He put himself to bed that night...  fell asleep on his own.  (exhausted from the hiking that day I'm sure).  This is how I found him.  His new pets next to him and Curious George in bed.  So cute!

Easton's hand got hurt real bad a few weeks ago.  He was playing outside on the retaining wall on one side of our house.  It had rained and the ground was muddy and several of the big rocks on the retaining wall tumbled down and landed on his hand.  His hand was stuck real bad and he had to call Dallon for help lifting the rocks off of his hand, so he could get free.  His hand was very swollen immediately, and his pinky finger was also cut real bad.  After watching him for 2 days I noticed that his hand was still very swollen.  That he still wasn't using it.  And that it was turning blue with either bruising or loss of circulation.  I ran him into the doctor.  And both the doctor and I thought it was broken.  But after xrays we found out it was not broken.  He did have to wear this splint all week just to support it while it healed.  He loved the splint.  I could tell he thought it was so cool!

Easton and Georgie playing in the fort in the living room.  His big brothers helped him build this fort and it was huge.  Everyone had their own room!

 And in case you didn't know...  Super Hero's ride scooters these days!

Happy 13th Birthday Dallon!

We went to Garden of the Gods on Dallon's birthday and enjoyed seeing that for the first time.  It was beautiful and we all had fun hiking around.  We had a little party for him at our home with just our family.  We got him a mountain bike.  He has really wanted one ever since we got to Colorado.  We had it sitting out in the dining room with the rest of his gifts...  it was so funny, he didn't see it for the longest time.  When he finally did see it we all had a great big laugh.  He was so surprised.  

I can't believe we officially have a teenager.  Dallon can't be this old already!  It's crazy how fast the time goes by and how quickly my boys are growing up.  Dallon is such a great boy and I love him so much!

Easter

Easter egg hunting was a whole new level of fun this year.  It was great to be living in a new home and have much more space for the Easter Bunny to hide the eggs.  The kids ran all over the place and wore themselves out filling their baskets!  Easton was adorable this year and kept up with the big boys well.