Abbie's First Birthday Party

When I found out we'd be moving to Connecticut in April or May I made Tyler promise we'd be able to still be in Florida for Abbie's birthday. I don't know why but I really wanted to celebrate her first year in the same place she was born before having everything change so dramatically. Luckily we were able to have her birthday and party at home :)

I decided to go with a fishy theme for her party, she loves animals and is our little fishy so we went with it. I was planning to have the party at the park near our house but that day the weather was chilly, windy and supposed to rain. An hour or so before the party began we decided to just move it to our house and it ended up being better there anyways.

We had fish food, Tuna Fish & Jellyfish Sandwiches, Goldfish, Etc Etc, and each kid got to take home their own mini goldfish bowl. There would have been more decor and fun at the park but it ended up being low key at the house.

Scott & Ashley come to visit!

We were so excited to have Tyler's sister Ashley and her husband Scott come visit us in Florida before we moved. They got in late Thursday night and we spent the next day at Disney! We started the day at Hollywood, then Ty took them to Animal while I went home to let the kids nap. Then they came home exhausted in the evening. Scott had a bad migraine so he was done for the day, but Ashley and I went back to Magic Kingdom for a super fun girls only night!

Saturday was Abbie's birthday party (Post coming later)

Sunday we went to stake conference and then spent some time driving around some of the Disney Resorts. Too bad it started pouring rain while we were at the first resort! We all got pretty wet but then headed over to the Wilderness Lodge and hung out in the cozy lobby playing games and checked out the stunning grounds. We then all headed back home for naps and dinner and games that night once the kids were asleep. Turns out Ashley and I are a pretty amazing Sequence team, totally dominated the boys and I won my first game of Monopoly Deal, and then won again and again. Sorry everybody else...

Monday we had it arranged to go to Universal Studios but with rain in the forecast again, I wasn't sure I wanted to take Jackson and Abbie. So I ended up staying home while Ty, Scott and Ashley went. It didn't end up raining too much but it was super overcast and chilly (for FL standards) all day so the park was pretty empty! They had a great day and rode all the huge roller coasters and rides without having to wait in many lines.

That night we had to take them to Four Rivers BBQ, and of course they loved it! This was Tyler's last night with them, since he had to fly to Philadelphia in the morning.

The next day was perfect weather for a beach day, so that's where we went. The van took it's first trip to Clearwater beach and Jackson learned about the DVD player in the back .. we hadn't mentioned it to him before :) But it was perfect, Abbie slept the drive there while Jackson watched a movie. We had a great few hours at the beach, seriously having Ashley and Scott there to help haul the stuff and play with the kids made my life easy! Jackson loved playing in the water with them and building and digging with Scott. After some yummy ice cream we headed home, Abbie slept the drive home and Jackson watched another movie. We got home, cleaned up and then I drove Ashley and Scott to the airport.

It was such a fun week with them and Jackson loved playing with his Aunt and Uncle and especially zooming around with Unlce Zoom, i mean Uncle Scott :)

After Abbie's Birthday

Abbie's birthday was on Friday and the next day I got to go up to the Munns' ranch with the young women.

Abbie went with me and Jackson stayed in town at his good friend David's house. Abbie loved seeing all the animals, but didn't love it when I put her on the horse. The past couple months she has gotten so excited when she sees any animals. All her favorite books are her animal books. She makes little noises when she sees them it's pretty cute.

We got our license plate for our van and I thought it was very appropriate. We're planning on holding on to our FL plates as long as we can.

Jackson discovered he loves salsa

Abbie discovered she loves spaghetti, ok lets be honesty she loves all food!

I decided to go dark with my hair

And we finally went blueberry picking! They've advertised it in our neighborhood the past three years and we finally made it this year. It was a lot of fun and we discovered Abbie loves them just as much as Jackson.

That night we came home and decided to try out the pool for the first time of the season. Jackson has been doing swimming lessons and he's gotten so good already! He had his same teacher as last year, Miss Shannon. She was excited to see Jackson again. Last year he did not like floating on his back, and this year he learned to love it! He also learned that goggles are pretty awesome too, last year he wouldn't even try them on. I'm so proud of him and how much he has improved already.

Wow

Wow, it's been over a month since I last posted about Easter and Abbie's birthday. So much has changed since then. Scott & Ashley visited, family pictures, Jackson in the hospital, our last days in FL, Terry & Vicki visited, moving to CT, our first week in a hotel and our first week in our house. Is that about it? I think so...

Last night we finally got my computer set up and we just got internet on Friday so this is the first time I've sat at my computer in weeks. It feels good. Life is starting to get normal again, well a new normal, but it's calmed down and we're grateful for that.

Now I'm going to try to blog about the recent events before my memory explodes with everything in it recently...

Easter

I guess I'm a little out of order now, posting about Abbie's birthday before Easter, there's a first time for everything, right?

Either way, March 31st we celebrated Easter and enjoyed our first time around with two kids. Last Easter I was 4 days away from having Abbie! It's crazy how much has changed since then, our family is so much more fun with Abbie in it :)

On "Easter Eve" we had Jackson's friend David over for a play date, they had fun going on Easter egg hunts together. They would take turn hiding the eggs and the other one would go search. This reminded me of what Paige, Michael and I did when we were younger, "practicing for Easter." Jackson went on a neighborhood egg hunt that morning so he was excited for the bunny to come to his house the next day. We also died eggs with the boys and they had lots of fun!

Jackson would always "guide" David...

Dying Eggs!

 And luckily for Jackson, the Easter Bunny did come to our house! Both kids had lots of fun looking at their baskets! They both got cute swim suits, books, candy, toys and the movie Wreck it Ralph which Jackson now loves!

What, mom? Now we get to look for more eggs??

Can you spy the egg on the baby stroller? It took Jackson a minute...

Abbie was totally with it, pretty pro for her first Easter :)

Jackson spotted this one pretty quick and thought it was so silly that the bunny hopped up there!

Finding more eggs outside!

Jackson loved his new magnifying glass the best!

Letting Abbie try her first Jelly Bean!

Taking a picture with these two was nearly impossible.

They are pretty cute though :)

The day got crazy from there! Tyler had meetings, I put Abbie down for a nap, and (as normal) then had to wake her up to make it to 11 am church on time. We took the pictures right before Abbie's nap and Jackson was more interested in complaining about his new shorts (which he now wears just fine) and throwing the Easter Grass to look at the camera. Then after church we cleaned up our house and got ready to host 3 other families for a big Easter dinner. I got off way easy and just made the potatoes and a fruit salad. The Carters, Mullins, and Beverlys came by with our combined 11 kids 5 and under. It was a little crazy with that many kids, Abbie was the youngest so they were all mobile! But the adults did get to sit around and talk for the majority of the evening which was not expected! But having 19 people in your house can be a little loud. We had the movie "The Testament" playing on tv for the kids and it was fun to see the older ones explaining what they knew about Jesus and his resurrection.

And did we take any pictures of the whole group? Of course not, that would have been too smart!

Just kidding, I just found this one that Tyler took. All the boys (three 5 year olds and Jackson) had fun shooting hoops for an hour or more! The 7 girls had fun playing with the few girl toys we have in the house :)