That silly Bear...

This little bear was purchased a while back I believe I picked it up at a good discount at Target for Valentines day for the kidlet. He took to it like no one would believe (the only thing to be this loved is his softy) He has needed it every night since to sleep and he naps SO much better with it. Not that it always works but if he is having a hard time I can usually find his bear outside of his crib. (his dad hasn't gotten that idea yet) Recently Brian and I became more aware of this by watching him pull it out of his crib every time and carry it with him. We often have to take it in the car... and I usually even make him leave it there so we won't lose it. As a back up plan we decided we needed two of the same bear. I went to Target and looked at all their shelves of sales to find no bear. Went online to their website (because some lady at Target told me they usually keep stalk of it there for MUCH longer than they do in the store...) she was wrong by the way. I called multiple Targets in our area hoping one had one hiding away somewhere and then I gave up. I remembered Ebay and went on and looked for this little bear. The only 3 listed were pretty much not an option. Two of them by the same seller were marked at $27.00 + $7.50 shipping... uhmm I got this bear for like nine something... it was originally $20 I think. The other one you ask... was USED.... uhmmm even more no. I was about to swallow my pride and buy the really expensive one when I decided I would wait a day and call a few more Targets just to make sure. Well no luck... when I got back online much to my disbelief I couldn't find ANY. Someone must have actually bought those overpriced bears apparently they are "rare," so I tried a few alternate searches and the last one revealed this little beauty he was priced at $14.99 + $7.50 for shipping. I bought him that instant. It was a little bit of a tender mercy. When we pulled up tonight the package was on the door step. I got it and opened it while Leland was napping. When he woke up and came out I had forgotten I had left him on the rocking chair and Leland got this silly grin on his face... looked at me then ran back into his room... came back out and shot towards his new bear... he picked it up and loved it for a minute and then ... you guessed it he left it. Guess we need to break this duplicate lovey in before he will love it as much as the original;)

Easter

Lots of pictures in this one guys sorry! We spent Saturday morning with Amy's family.(Since her blog is private I will refer to her boys by their first initial only.) I love love love being so close to such an amazing sister, and all the fun we have and the friendship that we have. She is great with my Leland and patient with me... always a plus! I told her I didn't really get anything for Leland and when we got to her house there was a basket ready for him. As you can see below he LOVED it...

He has one half eaten cadbury egg in his mouth and two (one big and one small) cradled in one hand while he is deciding what to do with a candy bracelet.

M made this cool "camo egg" Amy and I realized on Thursday that we didn't get any pictures of the egg dying... I think Amy at least got one of the eggs and dye on the table to prove that we had done it:D

We emptied out the baskets into the white bags to use the baskets for egg hunting

E came to ask Brian for some assistance with a glider that he got in his basket

The 4 older boys with their baskets

Leland showing his candy off

All six of them together

Z is always happy!

Mike helped E find eggs. Each boy could find 15 plastic eggs and 10 hard boiled... that should tell you how many we dyed and filled. Amy and I had filled the plastic ones with loose change rather than "filler candy" this year because it never gets eaten anyway.

Z may be happy but he isn't the most observant little guy:D

The older boys were told they had to look higher first and C shows off the monkey in him... The two littlest got to scour the ground first to see what they could find.

I so wonderfully cut out the egg that was perched on the fence but Z is reaching for it...

N counted his eggs numerous times since they had a limit. This is totally him... wanted to make sure he followed the rules.

Michael had just discovered that the plastic eggs held loose change

I adore these pictures of Leland... so there are a few of them

C decided to check the slide with his bum:D

Leland started out on the trampoline... Amy was a little dismayed as the backyard wasn't the best place to have an egg hunt... but I think it worked out swimmingly!

So cute Brian and Leland working together

Finally found one on his own

E climbed with the assistance of Mike to retrieve the eggs from the climbing wall!

Brian couldn't resist helping

Amy's cute new cut... She and I took pictures of the whole thing

Counting the loot... I think all the boys got at least $10 dollars from this maybe less... but still a good deal of change adds up....

We had a blast being together as a family and Uncle Mike reminded us of the true reason for Easter. Christs resurrection and his love for us, He died so that we may live again. How grateful I am for that knowledge.

4 days late but still not pregnant... this roller coaster is getting OLD

Bake sale endeavors

Amy signed me up for the Young Women bake sale... which is fine since I love to bake... However if I knew how seriously these people take it I may have kindly declined! I felt like such a dork taking my cake that looked like nothing special at all when these people went all out not only with what they made but how they packaged it. I guess I know for next time. Anyway I made two things. I made red white in blue cup cakes in patriotic cupcake cups. And the always a hit tie dye cake.I made two circle cakes and cut the tops off so I could stack them and make it pretty this top came off really thin so I decided to share.. the above picture caught him mid happy dance....
He is pretty sure I am just joking with him and will be taking it away...
but is pretty pleased that I left it with him... You can kind of see that this one had the heart on the top(in yellow).... not that it matters since you cover the thing and icing and you can't tell what it is till you cut into it and the design doesn't run deep... but its fun for me never the less... This mixed with Leland drinking food coloring made for fantastically fun colored pooh... I resisted the urge to take a picture for you all but it was like electric blue... pretty cool:D

This is what happens when I leave these two home alone.... would you look how tall my 2 year old is compared to his Dad! Crazy!

Girl Scout Cookies

This is what happens when you put the girl scout cookies up on the shelf... He clearly saw he could help himself while I was taking a potty break... and he did... I am just glad he left the monitor on the desk! You should note that he removed the key board so he could have a bigger place to stand....

Zoo Zoo Zoo....

We love going to the Zoo... so at the sight of good weather we packed up our kiddos (ok Amy only packed up Eli...) and we invited along little Camden and we all went to the Zoo. Amy upgraded our membership to a "passport" and that means we can ride the monorail and carousel as many times as we want... HOW COOL IS THAT. She is amazing anyway we headed in to do the Monorail first thing and it was closed till 11 so we went to meet up with our fave silverback gorilla and he didn't dissappoint. Patrick was right up close. This time Leland and Eli didn't seem to be so afraid of him once I went over into this little corner with them and they got right down next to him. It is AMAZING to see him up close and if you live in the Dallas area it is worth going to see him...
Amy loves seeing him so close to. It is really neat to get to be so up close with such a huge animal. I love love love this picture of Eli right up close... he is looking at the school kids but he was more wishing they would leave. I think he really enjoyed Patrick this time!
We had to get a group shot and poor Camden was NOT comfortable at ALL with it. She was shaking so badly... poor little girl... she will probably have a fear of gorillas now...

Then or course there was the Epic Battle of being able to turn the crank at the penny press. Leland had been over there playing with it for some time (and a school group of first graders kept pulling Leland away until I got loud enough for the teacher to hear... oops...)

Camden was a bystander who kept looking back sure Amy or me would come to break up the fight.

The battle Clearly ended when Eli shoved Leland and got his hand a little too close to Leland's mouth and Leland chomped down... Poor Eli! Then we finally got to ride the monorail... most of the animals weren't out so we were glad we didn't pay for it!

Amy got stuck by Leland who is the hardest on the monorail... that whole sit still thing is really hard for him!

We then headed to the childrens Zoo and played there for a while but it was SO crowded because of all the school field trips that we headed out to the carousel and rode it 3 or 4 times

Little Eli doesn't like the ones that go up and down... but one that goes in circles... totally his cup of tea... only its a nest... but there was nothing clever for that

Leland LOVES riding the up and down ones... but didn't mind riding with Eli either. Poor Camden didn't get to rid in the nest because Leland didn't want her to touch the steering wheel thing in the middle...

Amy riding with Eli and Camden... they are good buddies....

You can tell how many times we rode it by all the different animals and benches they sat on:D