Easter Week

Easter Week was super busy with all sorts of fun Easter activities.  It started with Palm Sunday and Miller walking through church and waving his palm high.  I did take a few pictures on my phone, but they didn't turn out well.

Then my Tuesday night girls Bible Study had our second annual Easter egg hunt.  Laura hosted this year at her parents house and they even had a train (we piggy backed on another party).  Here are all the kiddos of the six of us.  It's so hard to believe that when I started going to Bible Study with these girls there was only three tiny babies. What special friends!

 The whole gang on the train.

 Miles and I on the train.  This picture doesn't show how much he loved it.  He threw a fit when we had to get off.

 The boys school has an Easter parade and the kids all wear their Easter bonnets.  For boys that's a little difficult.  The last few years, I've just sent him in bunny ears, but this year I decided I was going to make him a hat.  I figured Miles could wear it in the future.  I took an old dress up cowboy hat and went to town with hot glue.  I added grass, eggs, some butterflies, a bunny and a pinwheel at the top.  Miller loved it until he tried it on and he said it bothered him.  At least he wore it for the parade.

 Each child brings a flower to put on the living cross to symbolize Jesus dying on the cross so we can live.  I'm not sure if the kids really "get" it, but I love the idea.  Then they all have chapel together.

 After chapel, Miller's class had an Easter Egg Hunt and special Easter snack.  

 Here is his class after the egg hunt.  They are all so cute and we are going to miss everyone next year.  I can't believe after four years, he's graduating from the school.  At least Miles has three years left, but it won't be the same without all these friends there.

 Then on Saturday before Easter, our church had their Easter Egg Hunt.  Here are my three boys all ready to go.  They are all wearing their Vineyard Vines shirts.

 Donut time!

 Miles loved finding eggs (or really just picking them up and putting them in his basket).

 He took several breaks from egg hunting to slide down the slide.

 Our family.

 If only Miller would have smiled.

 After the hunt with all their loot.  Just what we needed - more candy.

Tee-Ball

Miller is playing Tee-ball for the first time and Jud is the head coach.  Here he is ready for his first game.

With coach dad.

Saying the prayer before the first game (I love church league).

 Coach Jud says pre-K t-ball is a lot like herding cats.  Not sure what Miller knows what he's doing in the field.

Jud helping Miller bat.  Yes, he's a lefty batter because that's what Jud wanted him to be.  

 I love these action swing shots!  The look on his face in the second picture is priceless.

 Look at his determination running from first to second. 

 Check out Miles running the bases with Miller after the game.  He sits in his stroller saying "run" and just waits until the end of the game.  That boy is already a sports nut.

So it is pre-k and they have some crazy rules.  They can only get a single and the entire team bats in one inning.  There is no score and only outs sometimes (if the other teams wants to actually make their players sit down).  I will say there aren't many outs.  As a baseball fan, these rules are really frustrating, but again it is like herding cats.

Spring Break - Durango

So, we all traveled to Durango, CO for Spring Break. My parents traded in a lot they had purchased years ago for a townhouse. We are all so excited to spend fun family time up there. It's in a golf community called Glacier Club that is super nice that is in between the town of Durango and Durango Mountain (formally Purgatory). A perfect location if you ask me.

I do wish it was a little easier to get to. For this trip we flew Southwest with my parents to Albuquerque and drove 4 hours (at least we were staying a week). Evan and Blake came up at the end of the trip for a long weekend. While they were there, they hiked up to the top of Glacier Club and took a picture of the house from above. It's the one with the brown roof just to the left of the center of the picture. They are basically duplexes so it shares a wall with another house.

We were so excited about the house that we couldn't even wait until it was furnished to go. I had gone up two weeks prior with my parents and Evan to furniture shop for a long weekend. We got the essentials done (i.e. mattresses, sheets, kitchen stuff, lamps, a few small furniture pieces). My mom ordered lots of stuff online (towels, dishes, glasses, etc.), but we were basically camping while we were there. We had the two larger TV's and a few small chairs. Here's some of the group sitting on the "couch" watching TV. I did go online before we left and ordered a card table so we would at least have a place to eat.

Since we live in Houston and hardly see snow, just playing in it was super exciting for the boys.

How cute do they both look all bundled up with their monkey hats?

Glacier Club has a sledding/tubing hill and let me tell you, it is really steep and the snow was really hard. Miller started halfway up and went down once and wouldn't do it again. Can you see the look of panic on his face? After that, we stuck to the small stuff.

Miller and I were racing down the small hill.

Making snow angels.

A good part of our time was just spent in the house with the boys running around and throwing balls since we had no furniture. JoJo also spent lots of time reading books. Both boys have a special place in their hears for JoJo.

Miller is a officially a skier. He took two half day lessons and one full day. He was doing so good by the end. He even went down a small run with Jud and I on the last day. I had the most proud feeling watching him ski. It made me so excited about the years to come with these guys on the mountain.

Skiing in ski school. He loved the "magic carpet" that took him up to the top of the bunny slope (behind the fence in the background). The best part was that he loved it and wanted to go back every day.

Jud and I on the mountain.

The view from the top of the mountain to the base area. Check out how crowded it was. This was one of the busiest weeks of the year. We hardly ever waited in line for a lift and if we did it was max two minutes.

The mountain is also very easy to get around. Since we had never skied there, we were worried that it would be small and dinky. It is smaller than our normal Keystone/Breckenridge mountains, but a perfect size and for sure not dinky. For spring skiing, the snow was really good too. They kept is well groomed. Here are Jud and I on a lift. Look how empty it was. There is nothing better than feeling like you are the only one on the mountain.

Evan and Blake were able to ski a day with us when they got there. We had lots of fun and skied a full day.

Jud, Miller and I on the last day.

Noni and JoJo took the boys for a walk one morning and they found some cool rocks that they had to bring back to the house.

The day before we left Evan, Blake, Jud, Miller and I went snowmobiling. It was so much fun. Here we are on the top of a mountain.

Miller had so much fun on the two hour snowmobile trip. We had some free time in an open valley and all he wanted to do was race and go super fast. After that, he turned to Jud and said, "This is more fun than Disney Land." Yep, he is all boy!

One of the great things about the new house is that it is a short walk to the club. It was so nice not to have to load up the boys and just walk to dinner. It will be super nice in the summer to walk to the pool, golf or workout. Here are Noni, JoJo and the boys walking home from dinner one night.

The evening before we left it finally snowed. Here are the boys running around like crazy in the driveway enjoying every minute of it.

When we woke up early on the last morning it had snowed quite a bit. It was so nice to see everything covered. When we were eating breakfast, we looked out on to the golf course and their were about 40 elk on the fairway behind the house. We didn't have time to take a picture before they heard us yelling for everyone to come see and ran off.

This is the house covered in snow as we were leaving. We can't wait to go back. Maybe Memorial Day weekend, but if not, we look forward to spending lots of time up there this summer and for years to come. It's going to be a great place to escape the Houston heat.

Houston Rodeo

In early March, Jud took off work and we took the boys to the Rodeo on a Monday morning. We have done this with Miller for the past few years, but this was Miles' first time to go.

We did all the Livestock Show stuff first and then rode some rides. It was such a beautiful spring day and we all had so much fun!

Miller milking a fake cow.

Miles checking out the donkey in petting zoo.

Miles carrying his basket through the farm and collecting his fruits and veggies.

Miles "driving" a huge tractor.

My boys on the ferris wheel.

The both loved the rides, especially the bouncing cars.

They also loved the huge slide. There goes Miller.

Now Miles with Daddy. They each rode it at least twice.

We had so much fun and the boys were wiped out.

It's Rodeo Time!

With March comes rodeo time in Houston. The boys school has a Rodeo Round-up event every year and it is always so much fun. Here is Miller riding a pony.

Miles rode a pony for the first time. He loved every minute of it and cried when it was over. He is such an animal lover.

So of course he loved the petting zoo also. He basically chased/tormented a silly looking white duck around the whole time with quick breaks to pet the other animals.

Miller and Hannah wouldn't leave this bunny alone.

Miller getting some Hannah love.

Miller introducing Miles to his new friend.