The Snake Adventures....

Pop Pop has introduced my girls to the wonderful world of snakes!  Better him, than me I say. :)  

They went from a quick touch and being pretty cautious to being brave enough to hold one.  

Addilyn has woken up every morning and her first words are not, "Good morning, Mommy!" but instead, "I touch snake!" Literally, every morning she says this to me like it's the biggest news in the world. :)  

Ella even wanted us to take a picture of her holding it to "freak out Grandma McKean" (yes, her words....really, we can't make this stuff up. She's just full of one liners these days!) and she obviously has inherited the ornery gene from my father after hearing that statement.  So this picture is for Grandma McKean from Ella. :)

Mother's Day...a little late!

Mother's Day celebrations seemed to have lasted quite awhile this year....as they should, right? ;-)  Ella's preschool put on a very cute Hawaiian program the Thursday before, then Andy & the girls spoiled me on Sunday and took extra good care of me since I was feeling under the weather, then the following weekend we celebrated Mother's Day with my family and my grandma came up from Roseburg to join us.  We had a yummy brunch with everyone, and then just the girls went to Pittock Mansion afterwards.  Ella of course thought it was amazing and said, "I would feel like a princess everyday if I woke up here and lived here."  As if she isn't already??  Okay, back to the point.....I'm so lucky to have not only an amazing mom that has always been there for me and is my best friend, too, but I also have 2 amazing grandmas that I love dearly and feel so blessed to have as "mine" and it was wonderful to spend the day with all of them!  Happy Mother's Day a little late to all my "mommy" friends and family!  :)

Sunshine in Oregon = Productive Weekend!

Oh, how we've missed the sunshine all winter here in Oregon, and can hardly wait for sunny days to be a regular occurrence!  Every time we get a nice, even slightly warm, sunny day we are outside!  Ella says, "If the sun is shining in Oregon, then we are outside right, Mom?" Amen, to that! ;-) 

Obviously we had some wonderful weather this weekend....even into the 70's on Sunday so we had to get out and play a little and work a little.  Highlights include hiking at Tryon State Park with my parents where Addilyn discovered that snails are very fun to play with, playing in the backyard on the swing-set, and doing some yard work where I found a tiny little nest hidden in the Vinca minor on our slope.  We got the whole backyard weeded, pots planted, deck scrubbed, furniture cleaned and oiled....time for some BBQ's!! :)

Sore and sunburn is how I'm feeling now, but extremely happy with that big dose of Vitamin D!  I think we Oregonians can say it's officially Spring now!  Yay! 

Happy Easter!

Easter Egg Craziness!

I must be crazy, but I attempted dying Easter eggs with both girls this year....by myself! :)  Not an easy feat when you have a independent and stubborn 2 year old.  Ella LOVED it and of course had a plan for "the design of each egg!"  (Yes, her words!)  Addilyn just wanted to eat the eggs, then drink the dye, followed by spilling the dye, and lastly using most of the stickers to cover herself with instead of the eggs.  Oh well, they had fun and that's what matters, right?!  And we have pretty fingers to prove it! :)

Spring Break = Disneyland!!

We decided pretty much last minute that we would attempt to ditch the rain here in Oregon and drive down to Disneyland for Spring Break.  It is a very LONG drive and we were pretty worried about Addi, but both girls did really well under the circumstances.  However, when I put her back in the car yesterday to take Ella to school she did start crying and saying, "NO!!"  I don't think she was ready to be in the car again after 2 days of driving home....poor thing.  We enjoyed the sun, dry days (for the most part), and 4 days of playing in Disneyland and California Adventure.  We all had a blast, but Ella was definitely in heaven to say the least.  We rode tons of rides, ate cotton candy, saw shows, meet and danced with princesses, stood in LONG lines, but best of all we just had fun being together.  It may have been impulsive of us, and people thought we were nuts (the rain will do that to you!) but we are so glad we went ahead and did it!  

Sorry for the picture overload, but we took about 200 and this is the narrowed down version! :)