Easter Day!!

Oh Easter, what a fun holiday you are for so many reasons! (The biggest being that because of what Jesus did we have the option to love him and have eternal salvation! Not too shabby!!) Cambry is so cute describing why we celebrate Easter. She always says "Jesus died and Mary cried, but then Mary was so happy cuz Jesus ROSE again!" I've never really described it to her from Mary's perspective, but I think we have a book that does and she remembers everything. However, on the Easter when all the family was standing around I asked her why we celebrate Easter and she said "Mary died". I had to help her out a little bit, but she got it. Anyways, Easter was super great. We had to wake Colbie up and we all four headed downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny had left them. Cambry was pointing out the more obvious eggs that he had hidden the whole way. They had so much fun hunting for eggs too. They were not as competitive as I remember my sister and I being, but I'm sure that will come with time. They wanted to see what was inside each one immediately instead of collecting a bunch and then inspecting at the end. Colbie would find and egg but couldn't open it, so she would throw it on the tile forcing it to bust open so that she could get to the scattered candy. Very smart girl.
After our little family Easter we went to church. Chad Moore you rock, it was a beautiful service. Then later that day we had the whole crew over for Easter dinner at our house! My grandpa and grandma Harrison were in town from Kansas so were able to have them, my gma and gpa Byers, my parents and the Brantons were all here for the same holiday! It was a full house with tons of good food! Here are some pictures from the day:

Cambry racing for her basket.

A little tired still, but very excited to see that for some reason she is getting Jelly Beans before breakfast.

The girls and all the eggs they had collected around the house.

Just after church still dressed up.

The Easter Bunny had left the girls some princess things in their baskets, but Colbie was much more interested in the candy that morning. Later on that day she decided to give it a try, and loved it all! The funny part was after she put on her gloves she kept putting her hands on her face (I assume because they were so soft). She walked around like this for a long time, and it was cracking me up.

Possibly my favorite pic from the day.

Brielle was such a show stopper in her fabulous Easter dress.

We had another egg hunt that evening with Brielle here. By that time my kids were, of course, almost naked. I'm not sure exactly what is going on, but it looks like she is transferring some of Colbie's eggs into her own basket.

Colbs got even by stealing Brielle's basket.

Finally, it's not Easter until Mike looks like this.

Pre-Easter

I have some catching up to do in the blog world. April is a crazy busy month for us so expect to see posts on Colbie's 18 month appointment, getting rid of the pacifiers, Easter, duck feedings and Cambry turning th, th, th....I can't even say it. This post will be our pre-Easter activities!
We were lucky enough to have Grandpa John and Uncle Will come into town for a few days last week. The girls had so much fun loving on their family. We ate out a ton, dyed Easter eggs, hit the mall, watched Tangled twice, and played really hard. Thanks for a great time guys!

Dying Easter Eggs.

The gorgeous results.

I just thought this one looks like some sort of family portrait.

Cambry with her favorite egg that she made herself.

Sweet Uncle Will brought the girls Easter baskets filled with goodies that they LOVED, and then put the baskets to great use afterward.

We took the girls to an egg hunt at our church on Saturday morning where they scored some more goodies.

If Colbie is a hippie when she is older this picture will be proof of her early tree-hugging days.

Cute Brielle at the egg hunt.

Thirty, be gentle.

Well, it happened. I turned thirty. Turns out, it's not that bad! I'm actually looking forward to my thirties. As my twenties were on the way out I began to reflect on them and think of all of the changes that I encountered during them. Turns out there was a lot! I made a list of major events or changes and I thought I would share them with you. (There were some fairly dry years in there, but other action-packed years make up for them)

20 - (2001, sophomore year of college at NAU) Lived in Flagstaff with a group of girls in a house and later moved in to an apartment with Jessamyn.

21- I turned 21 (obviously) and realized I'm not cut out to be a drinker (my parents took me out for one drink on my bday and I laughed/cried the whole way home), I moved in to apartment with Jessamyn and a girl I now refer to as Crazy Rachel, moved yet again to another apartment with Jessamyn, Crazy Rachel and Trisha, major baseball-to-the-head-injury and spent some time in ICU, also involuntarily became a vegetarian but voluntarily maintained that title for now nine years.

22- Graduated from NAU, left Flag moved home with my parents in Gold Canyon for the summer, got married (yay!), moved to Drew's apartment in Mesa, moved back to Flagstaff and lived in our townhome.

23- Got my real estate license, accumulated another brother-in-law, and had my most athletic moment of my life while golfing at Pine Canyon.

24-Moved from our townhome to our home in Flag

25- Moved in with Mike and Cindy for a month, then moved into a rental house in Gilbert.

26- Moved to our current home in Gilbert, got my nose pierced, got pregnant, and started cosmetology school.

27- Had a baby (yay little Cambry is here!!), graduated from Toni & Guy.

28-Had another baby (yay little Colbers is here!!), became an aunt for the first time, began working at a salon

29 - DID NOT have another baby, decided to do hair out of my home and not in a salon

30- Discovered I actually like almonds (only salted smokey ones). Please let something more exciting happen in my thirties. Please!!!

So there you have it. My twenties in a nutshell. Complete with a few career changes, one husband, two babies, and 10 moves!!! Whew. I am so looking forward to my thirties. I hope that the the theme is stability. I want to live in our home for a long time, grow old(ish) with my wonderful husband, and love my girls to pieces. Thanks for being so good to me, twenties. It's been fun, but I bid you adieu. Thirties, let's get this party started!!!

Disney 2011

We made it back from Disneyland!! We had so much fun! We spent three days at Disney and then went to Huntington Beach for the last night to do some shopping and say hello to the ocean.
It all started off with Colbie's first flight! She did wonderful on the way there sitting in her daddy's lap the whole way looking out the window and playing with the shade. She was a little rowdy on flight home, but we were all tore up by that point!

We landed and went straight to Disneyland! It was really cold about, but a huge relief from our last experience when it was 113 degrees. We bundled up and hit the town. The girls LOVED meeting the characters. Cambry was so excited to see buzz. She told him she loved his movie. Every character she met she would tell them "okay, I'll see you probably next week okay?"
Oh the carousel. We rode that thing at least four times. Cambry would laugh sooo hard when it started going that all of the people waiting in line were smiling and pointing to her as she went around. We also rode It's A Small World about four times. Both girls loved that. Cambry loved the Haunted Mansion of course to see all of her "scary" friends.

3D glasses for the Toy Story ride that Cambry insisted on putting on herself.

Colbie loved meeting Minnie and Mickey. So did Cambry. She had matching gloves that she couldn't wait to show Minnie. In this picture she is telling Minnie "see, see we have twin hands!" Minnie was very sweet to them.

We were waiting in line for an Alice in Wonderland ride and Colbie was getting a little restless. She isn't very happy in this picture, but her eyes looked so blue that I had to post it.

Cambry loved the teacup ride. That's one only mommy can go on with her because it makes daddy sick. :)

More merry-go-round giggles

The water was freezing, but Colbie loved putting her feet in it.

Our hotel on the last night was called the Shorebreak. It was AWESOME! It's right on the beach above all of the shops. I would call it upscale-modern-surf. I want to live in it. Anyways, it had the biggest bathtub I have ever laid eyes on. It's hard to tell because the girls are so small, but it was huge.

Not very often do people tell me that I look like Cambry, until she makes this face. The sad thing is it's true! I could probable pull out ten pictures of me making this face. Glad I passed on my good genes to her.

And lastly, Scary Scary. He is the only souvenir from the trip, but Cambry really wanted him. She treats him as if he were the sweetest little baby on the planet. And when we got home she introduced Scary Scary to Scary (the Christmas skeleton I made her - two different scaries just similar names she has given them) And they are the best of friends. I love her love for different toys, and how she finds beauty in the toys that most children wouldn't want. I love that when we watch Toy Story she love Buzz and the Little Green Men, and the only reason she wants to see Barbie is to watch her cry. I love her little brain. I think she is going to be just the right amount of warped like her mama.

Split Ends

I have this horrible habit. Whenever I'm sitting by myself and I'm a little bored my first attempt at curing my boredom is checking the ends of my hair for split ends. This happens at stoplights, or the entire drive somewhere if I'm the passenger, or while I'm playing with the kids and they have been playing with the same thing for too long, a boring movie, or even when I'm on the phone. It's a really annoying habit. I pull up a clump of hair and begin to inspect the ends. It's so bitter-sweet to find one. Bitter in the fact that my hair has unhealthy areas, and sweet that I found one of them and I get to snip it off and feel a sense of accomplishment. Why are split ends so nasty to me? Well, they are a sign of damage. A sign of weakness. They are ugly. The worst part is when they multiply they make even the healthy hair look bad. It's easier to see split hairs because they stand out and show over the healthy sleek hairs leaving the sleek hairs looking unhealthy because they are hidden behind the unhealthy layer. When you don't give your hair the proper maintenance it is not going to be it's best. There are many products out there to conceal split ends and make hair appear healthier for the day, but after a wash your real hair is revealed. It would be a lot of effort to continously hide them from everyone. There is no mirical product the only way to get rid of them is to cut them! Cut them off! This is surprisingly hard to do for girls that are growing their hair out. (Myself included) It's easy to set a goal for length and then lose sight of the fact that your long locks are now nappy.
I was thinking how sin is a lot like split ends. It can be found anywhere and come up at anytime even in the midst of healthiness. Most times we can hide it from everyone and think they don't know, but the only way to free ourselves from it is to cut it out of our life completely. Cut it out and run from it! It's takes so much more effort to conceal sin and will eventually weigh us down. It will contaminate and make even our healthy aspects appear unhealthy. Though it might seem harder to confront than to conceal, confronting your issues will help you grow and be closer to God. So make it right. God already loves us just they way we are. He wants us to be at our best so we can love him too.
Romans 8:6 "The mind of a sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace."
Life and peace is a great promise. Thank you Jesus for knowing that we all have split ends and for loving us anyways and helping us to get rid of them!

It's not what you cut off it's what you leave on. Choose to be strong and healthy because that is beautiful.

Oh a hairstlyist bible lesson. My poor girls are probably going to get a lot of these.

Also, if this inspired anyone for a haircut please feel free to call me. :)