The egg hunt tradition continued...

Happy Easter! Tamina's sister Tera mentioned to me that we should have an egg hunt for Easter, and I thought that we should have it at mom and dad's to continue the yearly egg hunt that they would do when they were home. So, because of food allergies, I decided instead of having the kids make Rice Krispy treat nests, they should make sock bunnies! Luckily I had lots of socks that were missing their match! I think the kids did a pretty good job!
Here are the proud owners of the sock bunnies! (This and an egg find worksheet kept the kids busy while Grant and Chris hid the eggs in the backyard) The kids then lined up and picked teams (Noah wanted them to do this.... they all ended up on the same one) and were off!

As soon as Isabel found tons of eggs, she went right over to the swing and started eating!
Ben didn't make it to a swing! He just sat down and started eating!
This is the best one I got of the Yamashita cousins. (Isabel, Ben & Zoey)
Sarah really wanted to be in a picture. She and Ben love and hate each other. Today was a good day for them! Ben's smile kills me in this one.
Grant held Sam and they chased the kids around the yard. Such fun!
A cute one of Isabel looking for eggs.
Ari posing for her picture :)
Ben running to get as much candy as possible. (They chose gummy bunnies from HOP and krabby patties from Sponge Bob to fill the eggs with)
Zoey eating a gummy bunny. She loved them.
Sarah just wanted Ben to pull her around the yard. He wanted to, so that was a bonus :)
Here is the whole bunch, hopped up on sugar! They all told me they had fun! Thanks everyone for coming! I had fun putting it together. We will have to remember to do it next year too!
(Ari holding Nara, Sarah, Isabel, Zoey, Maylee in front, Noah, Adam holding Sam, & Ben)

Birthday Boy!

Check out this cute boy! Can you believe that he is 3 now??? He is definitely growing up really fast! This is one of his favorite things to do, ride his bike. He LOVES it! Now onto the birthday celebrations. On his actual birthday, we started out with colored pancakes.
Here they are mixing the colors! Then they decided that they wanted crazy colored pancakes....
They love them like this! Since Brady was a work, we let Ben open one present early, and had him wait til Brady got home to open the others. (Now remember, another thing that Ben LOVES is the movie How to Train Your Dragon.) I found on a blog called 'running with scissors' a pattern for dinosaur tails. I decided that I should make Ben his own dinosaur/dragon tail! Here it is....
I ended up having to make Isabel one too, so they could have dragon fights and races, etc.... (I have pictures on my phone I will have to try to get off so you can see hers)
Isn't he a cute dragon! Ben used to be obsessed with the movie Despicable Me. That is what he originally told me he wanted for his cake, was a despicable me cake. I thought I was in luck.... twinkies would make perfect minions! Well, then along came How to Train Your Dragon. We looked at cakes on google, but Ben decided that he wanted the 'Big Wagon coming out of the mountain"......Hahaha knew I couldn't make a cake out of that one :) I consulted with Tracie, and she mentioned that lots of times on the TV shows where they make cakes, they use rice crispy treats to mold shapes..... Rice crispy treats I can do.... so here is how it turned out.
I had him molded out of regular rice crispy treats, then I was really smart and poured hot melted chocolate over the top, to make him brown...... Marshmallows melt with heat, so he quickly lost his shape :( So, I decided to just work the chocolate into the rice crispies and mold him again. So not only did Ben get the 'Big Wagon', he got a big chocolate dragon :) His eyes are made of melted white and chocolate chips, his teeth are marshmallows, his tongue is marshmallow fondant. The covering on the mountain is Brazilian brigadeiros! (basically chocolate caramel that is really yummy). I had to make 6 batches of rice crispy treats to make this bad boy, but it was all worth it when Ben woke up and saw it on Friday. (The day when we had people over for his party). In fact, he ran into the kitchen, saw it on the counter, jumped up and down and said over and over, "my big wagon!!!" (if you hadn't guessed yet, he doesn't say his D's really well yet) He then ate all of the dragons toes off..... and said it was yummy!
I couldn't just have rice crispy treats, so I made egg free (and milk free) cupcakes. (love those little kids with allergies) Then I made some marshmallow fondant, which is way better than regular fondant and way cheaper, and molded shapes for the tops of the cupcakes. Jen came over and helped me sculpt dragon tails, swords, viking hats (Isabel made a few of them...look at the one in the middle right under the red and blue dragon tail...) a viking ship, and fish. The kids loved them. Thanks Jen for coming to play :) I loved how they turned out!
When all the cousins arrived, they all went off to play, but Ben sat right by his cake. He was ready to dig in!
He was even the first one to start singing to himself! He blew out the candles about 1/2 way through the song! He was so excited!
Here I am lighting the candles. (Nice picture, I know) If you look close, you can see how Brady tied up Ben's new dragon toy, Toothless, to the fan. Ben wanted him to fly to kill the Big Wagon! We turned the fan with our hands to make him fly, cause it went way to fast otherwise :)
Just another cute picture of Ben and his cake :)
You can see the flying dragon better in this one. Here are the kids eating cupcakes.
Then it was present time! It was a whirlwind. He actually does love everything he got, even if it didn't seem like it at the time :)
Zoey loved the t-ball. This made Ben jealous, so he had to take it with him everywhere after that. Thanks everyone for the presents! He was spoiled! And yes, he has already played with both water guns :)
The next pictures need some explanation. Ben was being a turkey the other night, and when he turned around, Brady threw a ball that was soft and hit Ben on the bum. Ben thought it was funny and every since has wanted to have Brady play this game with him every night. I was telling my brothers and sisters in law about it, and had Ben show them how to play. All the cousins thought it looked like fun, so they joined in.....Nothing like a good game of Bum Ball :)
First you have to put your bum in the air, and then you wait..... if you get pegged with the ball, you have to fall down, laugh and say "ahhh". Then you get back up and throw the ball back to dad so you can keep playing. (This is a great game to get the kids hyped up before bedtime...)Ben was the one who was hit this time, so he had to fall over. What a fun way to end a birthday party! :) As Adam was leaving, he had to tell me that he was so excited because his dad said that they could play bum ball the next night at their house!! Glad I could help in the starting of traditions! Ben loved his birthday! Thanks to all who came!
I can't believe he is 3. They grow up way too fast....can't imagine my life without him :)

Weekend Getaway

I recently got reconnected with my old 2 on 2 outdoor volleyball partner, Sasha! She called me and asked if I would like to play in the UOVA season opener in St George the 1st weekend in April. I talked with Brady and he said it would be fun to get away before things get to crazy with work and school, so we went! It was fun! Here is Isabel chilling at the park watching me play.
Poor Ben. He went to the dentist on Thursday to have some cavities filled and to have his teeth sealed. Well, he was numb and when I looked over at him, he was covered in blood. He bit 4 holes in his tongue. 1 of which went all the way through his tongue. He was pretty miserable :( At least he loved playing at the park with Isabel and Brady! (It took about a week and a half for his tongue to heal. I just had to put orajel on it and make really bland food for him!)
Here is Brady hitting the ball at Ben. Ben has pretty good hand eye coordination. I taught him to hold his hands correctly and he can bump the ball back to me. Isabel is getting good at it too!
Before we left to go home, we stopped by the St George temple. It sure is pretty.
I love this picture of Isabel. She loved being by the water. Couldn't get a good picture of both of the kids by the fountain! Ben just kept trying to touch the water. Surprise!
Here they are at the top of the temple steps.
They liked this picture, because they look so small and the temple looks so big!
Ben had to climb up all the stairs! So, instead of a cute picture by the fountain, I have a cute picture on the stairs!
They loved to show me which flowers they liked. Ben has an airplane sucker in his hand, you know the kind that has the propeller that spins... He liked to try and kill the bugs that were on the flowers. He was making them safe.
There was tons of pollen from the trees on the sidewalk, so on the way back to the car Isabel had us play the game where you had to go as fast as you could without touching it. Notice Brady is not playing :) Besides having to switch hotels the first night, we had a good time. I'm glad we got to go down there and that the weather was nice. Oh, Sasha and I took 3rd in the tournament. We got a gift card to pizza hut (dinner that night) and another gift certificate to Smash Burger (wherever that is?) It was fun to play with her again. I definitely don't move as well as I did when I was 20 (that's how old we were when we used to play!). I do love the sport. If Isabel really gets to be over feet, I would love to see her play!

Farewell Ogden Temple

We decided that before the Ogden temple was demolished, we should take the kids to see it one more time. Then they would be able to see the progress being made as they rebuild it!
When we told Grandpa Grant what our plans were, he said to make sure that the kids got to touch the temple. Grandpa, Isabel and Ben want you to know that the temple is hard and cold :)
This is the best group shot of the Morgan grandkids. Can't really see Isabel, but at least everyone is looking in the right direction!
Sarah and Ben took turns reaching as high as they could. And yes, Isabel's new past time is sucking on her hair :(
This one had the words on the front of the temple. Ben didn't like to sit too close....
Here are the grandkids on the Yamashita side. This is the best I could get. Nice huh. They look so thrilled. :)
I had to put this one on there. Whenever Ben is looking for something, he puts his hands up to his eyes like binoculars. It cracks me up. This is the first time I caught it on camera.
Here are the Morgans. Sarah, Ari, Adam and Sam. (Only got 3 looking in the right direction.....)
Adam does really good with Sam! Such a good big brother.
The kids ran right out on the bridge when we first got there. They were fascinated that there was money in the water. :)
The wind kept blowing the water from the fountain and Zoey kept telling me that it was raining! Nara is a climber. That wasn't too scary, until she had help from loving cousins! We switched photo locations for the safety of all involved!
Check out Ari's hair! The wind was crazy! Isabel took it upon herself to make sure Zoey was safe. She also was the only one who was allowed to push her :) She likes being the boss.
Here are our cute girls at the temple!
I thought this one was adorable of Sarah! I took our her pacifier and had her say cheese!
Here is Zoey getting rained on by the water! So cute!
Here is Nara. Such a big girl. She wanted to climb and run on everything! Got to love when they get mobile!
Before we left, they all wanted to go on the bridge again. I had them all go out there and point to Angel Moroni. At least they all knew were he was! It is sad that the temple is closing for a time, but it will be neat to see how it progresses!