Easter 2014

Easter this year was full of family, as it should be.... and drama, which is inevitable. Maddie loved the egg hunts even more than last year, and Avery seemed to have a good time on Saturday at the ranch but came home with some mean mosquito bites, which put quite the damper in our Sunday festivities. This mom and dad survived the weekend just barely, considering the hub had been sick for quite some time, and received a diagnosis of being somewhere "between bronchitis and pneumonia" on Easter Sunday. Sigh.

At least we kicked off the weekend the right way: baking Easter cookies!

Maddie was a big help. And only begged to eat the cookies about 14 times before they actually finished baking and cooling. Here are the finished products:

My favorite are the bunny backsides :)

Saturday, at the ranch...

                                   Love the hair twirling                           "can you open?"

thoroughly enjoying her Easter candy!

 Mommy and Avery

silly girls

Daddy and his girl

We had an Uncle Drew sighting for Easter as well, but sadly I did not get any good pics. Really the best one I got all of Sunday was this nice pic of my niece puppy, Raleigh. She's really cute.

And even tolerated being chased around by a 2 yr old for hours! Love you Raleigh!

Potty Update

I know many of you are just dying for this update, am I right? Well Miss Maddie is doing really great with the potty training. She was practicing before we went to Hawaii and then we took a break for vacation. We started back up when we got back and had a few hard days but she has really gotten the hang of it now. She's even started conquering potties in public places! That's hard people!

Yesterday she did so well that she got a "Big Book of Boo Boos" just like one of her fave Disney characters, Doc McStuffins. Dr. Maddie is delighted to be able to record her diagnosis' now. Photos are a bit blurry off my phone, but you can see she loved it!

"Mommy, you have sneez-a-tosis"

sassy face

Now she can record/color/sticker to her hearts content!

Next up for our big girl is a big girl bed a.k.a. taking a side off her crib to make a toddler bed. Mommy is nervous!

A Fish Needs Water

OK, so you might be tired of hearing about Hawaii, so I apologize, but I have a good little story about Miss Maddie Brynn that I don't want to forget.

Maddie has a Disney "Look & Find" book with all of the characters from Finding Nemo that she really enjoys reading. Before we went to Hawaii, she had actually never seen the movie. So, after we visited with the characters at Disney Aulani, we took the girls to the gift shop and I told Maddie she could pick one thing for us to buy. The shop had lots of Mickey and Minnie stuff, some Frozen stuff, and a few princess things that I thought for sure she would want. She kind of surprised me by finding and requesting a Nemo stuffed animal. I asked her if she was sure and she said yes and cuddled it under her chin, so I said ok let's do it.

We purchased Nemo and then headed for the front lobby of the resort to wait for our car. On either side of the lobby were little ponds of water with rocks and fountains. Maddie saw them right away and headed over to look. As I peeked outside for our car, out of the corner of my eye I immediately saw something orange fly high into one of the ponds.

With literally no hesitation, Maddie had spied that pond and decided that, naturally, it was where a fish like Nemo needed to be. Made so much sense. So she launched her new (just barely bought! and not cheap!) stuffed animal straight into the water as I did one of those slow-mo, "Nooooooooo" things you see people do in the movies. When I ran over to where she stood watching, she turned to me with this look on her face that was, like, so confident and happy that she had just done the right thing. It was so, SO hard not to burst into laughter.

Luckily (or because this happens frequently?), a Disney employee ran right over with one of those long claw thingies you use to grab things... like swimming stuffed animals, and plucked it right up and out of the water.  I only held sopping wet Nemo for a second before a different employee ran over and offered to "fix" him right up for us. Awesome. My immediate thought was whether they planned to blow dry the darn thing? but we waited only about 5 minutes until said employee came running back into the lobby with a "fixed" (and actually brand new) Nemo to hand to my precious, fish tossing daughter. I have to say, these Disney people really know how to bring it. 

The way Maddie is so literal minded makes me giggle. She acted so swiftly! Put that fish exactly where fish need to be. And no regret. I like that. 

Hawaiian Vacation Top Ten

So I finally got around to uploading all my pics... I was wrong, it was 264 photos, not 200. Plus my mom's 100. And there are WAY too many good ones to post! I decided to do a top ten list because (obvs-- y'all know) I love lists, and I've got to have some kind of cap on the photos or this post will never end.

1) THE HOUSE: do not have enough words for what a slice of heaven this place was. It was actually a larger property with three houses total that shared a beautiful beach and long dock with amazing 360 views.

dock girl

2) HOT TUBBIN' IN PARADISE: we've decided that in the future, we'd rather not vacation without a hot tub. The kids loved it, the adults loved it, it was perfect. Triple plus was it made my Avery super happy. 

3) DISNEY AULANI: we drove across the island one morning to visit the Disney resort for breakfast with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy. It did not disappoint! Although Maddie was a little terrified frightened, Avery was in her element. I already posted her Minnie hug, but she also walked over to Minnie and gave her both hands, it was so sweet. Mickey made her smile from ear to ear.

Minnie was so sweet :)

fun with coconuts

omg I just met Mickey!

4) HAMMOCK BLISS: the prime relaxation spot.

this is not suspicious at all...

goosed!

Mommy gettin some primo chill time

5) WATER TOYS, exhibit A & B: kayak & catamaran!

in our family, we make the little bubs do the work ;)

sailing right near our house on the catamaran

Maddie thought it was super cool

6) WATER TOYS, exhibit C: paddle board

OK, so I decided to teach myself to paddle board and lucky for you, my mom took

approximately 50 photos of this adventure... you're welcome.

First five seconds I am up you might notice 

1. you should really stay away from rocks on a paddle board and

2. I am facing the complete wrong way on the board

3. My hair is dry but in 3, 2, 1,

I get my first taste of nice, cold Hawaiian ocean water.

And realize that water shoes would have been really smart since

I am standing on a super rocky coral reef.

But no, I am determined to get up again, so after a little paddling

I'm back up!

And after about 5 more falls into the water 

(and some super burning thigh muscles)

SUCCESS!

7) SEALIFE PARK: dolphins! probably what Maddie got most excited about, but we all had a great time:

"look daddy, dolphins!"

dolphin show #1

dolphin show #2

Avery and mommy enjoyed watching too

8) SEALIFE PARK: sharks, sea turtles and birds!
 

watch out for the hammerhead!!

got to feed a few hungry sea turtles

and one very hungry bird :)

9) PARASAILING: so glad Mike and got to do this. I will never forget how beautiful and calm it was up there. Thrilled to check it off the bucket list.

here we go!

up, up and away

can you see us?

happy post- para bubs, and one sleepy bub

10) GREAT FRIENDS: overwhelmingly glad we got to spend another vacation with our great friends, The Petersons and their two adorable nuggets, Elizabeth and Vera!

Rach has been my dear friend since we were in junior high :)

And got to hang out with my ol' traveling partner in crime, Lindsay

such a treat!!!

11) WINDY BEACH FAMILY: the bubs had genuine, super fun family time on this vacation and it will be hard to beat. Hawaii is officially my fave.