March- Birthdays and Easter

March is always a fun month with all the birthdays we have in the family but adding Easter in there made it extra fun!

Ellie Marie turned 3 years old on the 10th of March! 3! I'm still having trouble believing that she could possibly be that old.

The day before her real birthday was a half day at school so I sent out an email on our neighborhood/wards social email inviting anyone and everyone to come over to celebrate Ellie's birthday by eating cupcakes with us. I honestly didn't think anyone would come since I haven't ever had the best turn-outs with parties and such, but I was surprised with how many people came! It was so fun! I guess if you offer cupcakes, they will come....

 Ellie was SO cute when everyone was singing happy birthday to her. She would smile and tilt her head side to side just enjoying and loving all the attention. 

 It had rained earlier that day so our yard was a muddy mess that all the kids loved playing in... sorry moms!

Ellie at 3:

-She is such a sweet little girl and is just my best friend 

-She loves to say "Mommy, will you pway (play) wif me?" How could I say no to that?! Sometimes I have to though :(

-She loves to color and do any arts & craft

-She is really into, "No! I do it!"

-She rides her balance bike that she got for her bday like a pro. She'll zoom down our driveway at lightning speed! I guess she's learned from a real pro...Tripp is pretty awesome with his bike!

-If I tell her it's time to share or time to go she will simply  hold up one finger at me and stare. This means "one more time, mom." 

-She says that she is going to marry her awesome nursery teacher, Brother Wolfe

- She loves to play dress up and anything pink!

 Since Ellie and Justin's bdays are 2 days apart, we had the family come over on Ellie's bday to celebrate both.

 Justin turned 31 years old! But doesn't he still look like 20? What can I say, I married good genes!

 Justin got some ugly, but aren't they so practical, Crocs, some new sandals and a gift card to Home Depot. 

 Ellie got a new dress, an adorable swimsuit, a balance bike (they are super cool), and some baking stuff. We all enjoyed some pink punch bowl cake for dessert!

 March also brought sickness. Poor Mason spent the majority of the first part of March still teething and he was in and out of temperatures, colds, etc. Did anyone else get blasted with sickness this winter?? It was just a nasty cycle in our house. 

One day all Mason wanted to do was this...

 I was loving it and savoring every sweet moment!!

But then he got better and was all smiles again...

 Mason turned 10 months old this month and started to let us know when he was mad or unhappy about something. We laugh at how dramatically he lets us know he's mad!

 Here are just a few things to remember about Mason at this age:

-He just barely started army crawling- like as in 2 days ago. 

-He can spin around to different things on his tummy super fast

-He just barely, also 2 days ago, got both of his bottom teeth in!! Woo hoo! Finally!

-When he sits up, he raises his right leg in the air the whole time. Now that's some ab strength!

-He is just starting to cry when strangers hold him and reach for his momma.

-He is starting to really eat a lot of table food and loves it. I always forget how messy it gets when they start feeding themselves.

-He babbles all the time- ma ma, da da, ga, ga, ba ba, etc. 

- Ellie is his best friend and his worst enemy. She can make him laugh the hardest but also cry the hardest too. 

I am pretty much enamored with the little boy. Seriously... he is SO sweet and just radiates love!

 Ethan started playing coach pitch baseball this month. He's actually never played baseball before but seeing how he refuses to hit off a tee, I figured we'd just skip that step and go to the real deal. He's doing really well with it. He says that he still prefers soccer but likes this sport too. He is on such a fun team! Every kid on the team lives in our neighborhood and all but 2 are in our ward! Fun!

 Ethan had a field day at his school last week and Ellie, Mason and I went to it to cheer him on. 

 I remember back in my day it being a really competitive thing with races, ribbons, the whole works. Anyone else remember that?! I guess his school wants everyone to feel like a winner so they did a whole lot of team building games. It was fun but really I wanted to see him win the 50 yd dash.... :)

 We also went to the Easter Pageant located at the Mesa Temple. We of course had to pick the busiest and most crowded day (Good Friday) to go but I'm so glad we did. Even though Ellie was quite the handful and super sleep deprived the whole time, it was fun to get some pizza and eat it before the show started, and to just be together as a family. I think pre-show pizza will be our newest family tradition. 

 Ha.. I love how the flash blinded the boys and how Ellie is deliriously crying.

 On Saturday (the day before Easter) the kids woke up to their Easter baskets and then we headed down to the park for the neighborhoods annual Easter egg hunt! There is a couple in our ward who puts this on for the whole neighborhood. They definitely win the award for the ultimate party throwers!

 There were SO many kids there. It was so much fun!

Can you spot Ellie with her awesome plastic bag Easter basket?

 We even saw Tripp there!

 Zero to three year olds got to go first in their own section, then the 4-7 year olds, and last the 8-11 year olds. 

 Ethan found some really cool and unique eggs.

On Sunday we went to church, Justin flew out in the morning to Spain/Netherlands for work..Booo..., and we had a yummy Easter dinner at the Smith's house. We loved talking with our kids about the true meaning of Easter as well. We like keeping the Easter activities on Saturday and focusing more on the spiritual matters on Sunday. It works for our family :)

Whew! I think I'm basically all caught up!! Now I can blog about current everyday things. That OCD part of me wouldn't let me do it until everything was blogged about in order :) We are so excited for General Conference coming up this weekend! What a great way to start off April!