Easter 2009

Easter was a crazy day for us. we rolled into town from mexico the day before, enjoyed a fun family-packed Easter Sunday and the next day drove up to Utah to spend 3 weeks. madison's favorite part of the morning was her HSM pillow she got from the easter bunny with troy and gabriella on it. (i can't believe i haven't blogged about her HSM obsession - one of these days....) in the future i think the easter bunny will only bring church/religious paraphernalia to our house. :)

sharing jelly beans with grace

madison had her first Easter egg hunt EVER at G&G Lebaron's but wasn't quite sure why she didn't find candy in her hard boiled egg.

poor grace was congested but being the trooper she is, with all our traveling and busyness, was her happy self and looked adorable as usual.


the LeBaron family never fails putting on a a good holiday dinner for the masses and even had the tables decked out for the occasion, color coded and all!


even the kids table for the great grandkids looked good! although all that candy right in the middle made for a hard time trying to get madison to eat her food. oh well. a little sugar never hurts anyone...


this last thing is a video we took right before we left, of madison and brayden, her second cousin, playing the piano together. they were too funny. poor brayden was trying to be so sweet and madison's stubborn streak is pretty apparent! kids are hilarious!

Mexico Trip #3

our third and final trip to mexico (within a 5 week period) was with my family - my mom and hannah, dan, the girls, gma and gpa farnsworth and uncle rob. we stayed at my parent's beach house in Rocky Point and played lots of games, ate too much food, relaxed on the beach and watched some crazy kite flying!



we came back to the house after going to town one day and found this:

cRaZy seas

i've never seen the water so rough in all the years we've been going. it was all the way up the beach and hitting the storm wall and washing up on the boat ramp.

hannah was brave and got the closest!

what better place to read scriptures than a window seat looking over the ocean?

some serious game playing

on a different note: this was the first time back in Rocky Point, as a family, since the crash. one year ago in May was the last time we were all together. it will forever hold a place in my heart. my dad and dallin LOVED it there.

my mom brought some of dad's church clothes to mexico with her, to donate to the branches there, in hopes they would benefit young men going into the mission field. my dad loved missionary work and supporting missionaries. it seemed fitting but was hard to watch it go.



the hardest part of the trip for me was when i found this on the top shelf of my parents storage closet. my dad's hat.

in almost every picture we have of him in mexico he's wearing it - or one like it. he left it there for the next time he'd be back to use it. seeing small, unexpected things like that bring emotions rushing back.

i brought the hat into the beach house where it kept us company all week. it also came across the border with us and right now it's sitting on top of my fridge. till i find a better place for it.

i went into the trip expecting it to be bittersweet. we felt a big void and missed those who weren't with us, but rocky point is a special place - somewhere where i will always feel close to them. it's a place where memories were made and won't be forgotten.


{last may}

She's Got The Moves

i laugh out loud every single time i watch this -
granted, i think every thing she does is pretty darn cute.

did you notice how dizzy she was at the end?

we love this girl!

Wow. Hard Night.

somehow, between:

my mom going alone to take pictures of hannah on prom night,

me having the cutest video of madison dancing
that my dad would think is hilarious,

kamber telling me about her and porter attending dallin's mission reunion without him,

and my husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law going to the Priesthood session of General Conference together tonight-

i fell apart.

but while picking up the pieces, i am grateful for the counsel we received today.

i am grateful for our prophet and apostles.

i am grateful for my knowledge and my testimony.

i am grateful that
families can be together forever.

Mexico Trip #2 - Friends

quick summary: this trip was a mere 36 hours after the first one (we drove to Tucson for Match Day in between them)! we went with the soelbergs (alan and erica) and miners (brad and meghan) and it was so fun! we stayed at my grandparents time share and though i started out really nervous to 'host' the vacation, i think it turned out really relaxing and it was great to catch up and see our kids play together.

can you see tiny little madison on the right? i waited to see where she would go and she walked all the way back to the beach house (on the left)!

elise miner (9 months?)- she is adorable!

grace (left) and mae (right) soelberg - their clothes matched almost the entire time and it made me so excited for my girls to get older.

baby claire (5 months) - she and grace (my grace) are 3 days apart

my grace

grace and claire got to 'play' in the pack and play and have tummy time together

enjoying sunset on the beach before the BBQ

we found out mae is a chocolate lover when we made s'mores

the only thing better than a camp fire on the beach is
a gas fire pit,
at the beach house,
right on the beach
- no sand, no clean up, no smoke

our sabbath beach attire - we attended a small spanish branch

lunch on the patio - love the view!

madison and probably her two favorite things - her dad and "ish" (goldfish)

grace and grace

i have to explain the picture above and below. madison is obsessed with high school musical. actually, she is obsessed with gabriella. one morning the kids were watching it and tyson and madison climbed up on the coffee table, front and center (he's 4 months older). well madison, quite loudly, starts saying, "gabriella, gabriella, gabriella" because she was excited and wanted to show tyson (above). it doesn't quite sound like that when she says it but you get the picture. tyson starts saying, "no gabriella, no gabriella", right back to her (below). which made madison angry so she started talking even louder. it ended up requiring some parental intervention. those two had a love/hate relationship going on. it was pretty funny.

enjoying our last evening

low tide and sunset - my favorite thing

this picture sums up how we all felt about the trip

pretty darn fun!!

Mexico Trip #1 - Skinners

{don't let this be confused with mexico trip #2- next post, or
mexico trip #3- scheduled for next week!!}

quick summary: a super fun trip with the skinner family to vacation one last time together before brett's mission. we stayed at a beautiful beach house (thanks dan and laura!) and enjoyed every minute.

tennis
putting green
volleyball
volley-tennis (my favorite)
lots of games
good food and
great company

she waited so patiently!

can you see madison snuggled in front of dan?

trying to play tennis

the skinners brought their plasma cars and madison loved them

i took hardly any pictures compared to normal but i did get a little video of madison riding with dan on the plasma cars. mom - this is for you



i love how she uses her feet to push the car and that she had to have the ball and water bottle wherever she went