some cute videos of the kids

Easter

 

 

Easter was perfect this year.  We had a lot of fun play dates with Easter hunts leading up to it, a ward Easter egg hunt, the Mesa Easter Pageant, and a fun Easter morning.  The ward Easter egg hunt was a lot of fun, I think Ezra got like 5 eggs because he would stop and open them all before going to the next but Rylie was a Rock Star and got like 20!  The kids came home and enjoyed dying the eggs...excuse me Easter eggs.  Ezra kept correcting me when I would call them just eggs, they were specifically Easter eggs. 
The night before Easter we went to the pageant.  It was a beautiful night!  We also met up with the Johnson Family and honestly I'm so glad we did, the kids play so well with them and it was great company for such a special show.  The picture of us with the characters I really debated if I was going to post it, I hate when I look so much taller than Devin.  I need to just accept that I am taller than him.  I think I'm only like an inch taller, but in this picture some reason I loke like 3 inches taller than him..oh well.  Back to the pageant.  The kids did wonderful, 20 minutes into it the Johnson's 2 kids were out and Rylie too...of course my energizer bunny Ezra was the only kid that stayed awake.
Easter morning the kids woke up and enjoyed their baskets.  Ezra got some Toy Story toy characters he was missing in his collection and a chocolate bunny and a couple other little things.  Rylie got a princess toy and a new movie.  My mom bought her the pretty dress and they also got some new paints and chalk paint.   For breakfast I also made bunny pancakes.  We didn't give them too much candy because Devin and I are both on diets and I just don't want it in my house, luckily they are young enough that they dont' care. 

Here, there and everywhere!

 It is hard to believe that such a cute little girl and give her mommy such grief sometimes.  Rylie is such a sassy little girl, people don't believe me when I tell them some of the things she has done to me (hissed, scratched, hit..you name it) but she is also such a cuddle bug and just loves attention and her family.  She may not also get her point across the best way, but I wouldn't have her any other way...i think ;) 

 For St. Patty's day we went to a movie and used our Build a Bear gift cards we had from Christmas.  Rylie of course made a puppy because she is obsessed with dogs and Ezra made Alvin, going to see Alvin and the Chipmunks earlier in the day i'm sure inspired him.

 For Spring break I really wanted to take the kids horse back riding, mostly Rylie but I also knew that Ezra would love it too. We went with Corynn and Jake (the three are like the 3 amigos)  Kids loved it and we can't wait to go again.

 Here are just some random pictures I wanted to throw in the group.  Ezra is really into Star Wars these days, hmm I  wonder why :)  The picture with me and the kids in all blue is for Autism Awareness day.  The weather is getting pretty hot here so washing the car seemed like the perfect Saturday activity a couples weeks ago.  The picture with Devin and I is us before we left to go to our Strong bonds retreat that the Air National Guard put on for us. Tannis and Clayton came to watch the kids for us, I don't think the kids thought twice about us...they love their Aunt Tanni and Uncle Clayton.

Rylie turns 3!

We were lucky to spend a little time with GG and Papa and Sweetie for Ezra's first game so we thought we would combine the game with the fact that Rylie's birthday was only 2 days away and throw a little party for her.  I somehow neglect Rylie's birthdays because it is right after Christmas, our anniversary, my birthday.. and it's just a busy time of year.  So this year I was going to make sure to throw her a fun party. (Ezra has had a fun party every year..the guilt was getting to me ;) )

So for our fun little party we did a princess and super hero's party.  I really had a hard time committing to it because again it is just a busy time and with TBall going on now too I just wasn't feeling it..so literally I invited people a week before the party and we still had a great turn out.  The kids enjoyed dressing up. It was just play as you want type party. the had a lot of fun.  Rylie got some great gifts, my little pony (her favorite right now), dolls, play dough, and a couple of games. 



Rylie turning 3 also meant that she was going to start preschool.  She qualifies for preschool for speech and so far so good.  She loves it, she loves that she gets to go to school with Ezra.  Before when we would drop him off she would cry because she didn't get to go beyond the gate, but now she does!  These days Rylie is into my little pony, my little pony, and my little pony.  Seriously, the girl loves them!  She also likes the Disney princess', dogs, acting like a puppy, wearing dresses, and of course playing with Ezra.  I love to watch them play. Ezra is a great big brother and rylie is your typical little sister..its cute.  Rylie does not like to have her hair touch in any shape or form...don't mess with her. She is also now saying her own prayers, which is completely adorable!   Rylie doesn't not like to have her hair messed with in any shape or form..so no cute hair style for me to do and no cute bows...sad day. :(  She is talking more and more and she seems to be wanting to talk sentences now just need to work on her articulation.  We love our little Rylie bug, she has quite the spunky personality, but its just what I would expect from my daughter.
Happy birthday Rylie!!!

Ezra is a baseball stud

Ever since Devin and I have been married we seem to be drawn to small towns.  We like living in small towns, but close enough to a big town that it isn't a big deal.  For us living in Maricopa has been proven to be a blessing in more ways than one.  I personally feel like I have met some of the most amazing people out here and the ward has been so easy to move into and make friends with.  Another thing that I love about maricopa and know that this is exactly where the Lord wants us to be right now is the services that we have been able to have for the kids here.  We have been involved with the best therapist ever, been involved with support groups, made best friends with other people that have children with the same challenges, and now Maricopa offers a challenger division for their little league team.  Here is more information on a challenger team and from what I understand its nation wide..so spread the word!  This program is awesome, I'm so happy to be apart of it.  Because this is the first year in Maricopa there are only 2 teams.  Most of the kids are around the same age, 4-7.  I would also guess that 90% of the kids are on the spectrum.  On Ezra's team we have some really great friends that play with him.  We had a practice on Thursday and his first game was Saturday.  We got there on Saturday and each child was assigned a "buddy" .  The buddies did awesome!!  Another thing that I love about the little league here is the values they instill for the children.  Opening exercises included a prayer, flag ceremony, and a pledge to the league.  The pledge said "I believe in God, I love my country, and I will obey the laws of the Land"  How impressive is that for a city sport?!  The prayer was also impressive and I just felt like to be participating with this league.  I never really thought we would be a baseball family per se but honestly I love the values and their give back to the community that I would love to be a baseball family now. 

At practice.

Opening exercises.  So impressive!

Colby and Ezra.  Ezra told Colby when they first met " Hi, I'm Ezra. Silly putty is my favorite toy, its so awesome"  Colby responded perfectly and told Ezra how cool he thought silly putty was too and gave him a high five.  it was really cute.

Warm up lap before the big game.

My left handed stud.

Very excited...actually they were trying to hold him back because he was more interested in running to the ball rather than running the bases.

And the cutest little cheerleader out there.  "Go Ezra Go!"

last year in my 20s

I have one more year to enjoy my 20s!  My 20s have been great to me.  Went on a mission and loved every moment of it, got married, had 2 children, will finish my associates (in about 2 months), and have lived in 2 countries, 4 states, 7 cities.  This year some things I would like to accomplish be for the big 3-0 are lose weight, become more organized, love more, play with the kids more, and learn to love my scriptures even more. 
So to celebrate my birthday my friend Corynn and I shared a party.  Her birthday is just a couple days before so we thought it would be fun to invite a bunch of couples to go bowling.  We had so much fun.  All together there was 25 people that came and in our group we had 5 January birthdays.  I think we need to celebrate birthdays with friends more often. 

cute kids

Is it bad when your child's favorite words to spell are ALL related to movies or TV shows (don't you love how Ezra made an 'R' with a 'P' and 'L' to spell Dreamworks.. seriously ask him to spell anything Disney related and he can and will .

Rylie working with her OT doing some messy time with glue.  I just want to give a shout out for early intervention.  It works!  do not delay, if you have any questions about your child's development call your state's early intervention program and get them evaluated and start as soon as you question things.  I don't want to imagine where we would be today had I waited to see if they would eventually talk on their own later.  I'm so glad I went with my instincts and their progress is amazing.

Kids and I having fun tracing our bodies.  Ezra is really into drawing bodies these days so I thought he would really like this activity. 

and he did!  He kept telling me "look mom, its me Ezra"

We have also had fun racing cars while working on our fine motor skills :)

Just a really cute picture of Ezra.... he needs to slow down growing up!

It happened, both kids looking at the camera at the same time and neither one of them are upset.  It only took 3 years, but we finally have "a keeper"  (after every picture we take the kids say "that's a keeper")

I had a couple videos to upload, is there a secret for doing it b/c my videos never uploaded?

A Random Post of everything in between

One thing we love to do as a family is going to the aquarium in Tempe.  The kids love it and I have to admit it really is one of my favorite places to go.  I love the picture of Devin trying to look like he is holding his breath under water..I laugh every time I see it.  Yet again another family picture where not all of us are looking at the camera at the same time..tips please!

We made it up to Greer around Halloween time. The weather could not be more beautiful.  It was such a nice and relaxing trip and I hope we go every fall break.  This trip Ezra broke/bent his arm.  He was acting like Buzz light year and decided to jump off Tim's big ol' truck and landed face first into the dirt. When he got up we realized that his arm was very crooked so we took him to the hospital.  I was freaking out of course.  I especially was freaking out because we were 25 minutes away from the hospital and he was sitting in my lap as devin drove.  He kept wanting to fall asleep and that just scared me so I kept asking him to tell me the ABCs or how to spell his name and anything else that I could think of to keep him awake.  When we got to the hospital the doctor told me that it was fine that he fell asleep..I don't do well with my children being hurt, what can I say? :)  So then we waited to get his arm Xrayed.  Right away they came in to show us the results and said they had never seen anything like this because his arm wasn't broken like they thought, it was bent at a 22 degree angle instead.  Our fear was that he was going to have to have surgery to have them break it then place it but after going to the specialist he decided that it would be OK to let it heal on it's own an just cast it.  It is still crooked today and they said it would take about 2 years for it to fully straighten out but I think he has learned his lesson.  Anytime he jumps off things he now tells me "be careful don't break the other arm." 
Even though all that happened it was such a nice little getaway and fun to see Sweetie and PopPops and Aunti Tanni and Uncle Clayton..even though a certain aunt drove over Rylie's pink box..but i won't mention names ;)

Another random collage because I didn't feel like posting a bunch of individual pictures.  Devin graduated with is bachelors in psychology!!! yay!!! I really thought this day would never come :)  He starts his masters program soon which I'm excited for him but not looking forward to having him back in school, for selfish reasons!  We also got to see our good friends the Tibbs from Alaska recently.  Devin and Jon went to HS together and Jon and I worked at Wellsfargo together.  It was great seeing some Alaskan folks and made me almost miss Alaska-just enough to make me want to visit this year.



The kids have so much fun playing.  This summer/fall we played a lot of hide and go seek, rode bikes with our neighbor friends, Blue's clues,  and had a lot of picnics outside.  They sure are fun to have around and they keep me going constantly.  Sometimes I can barley manage the two of them and often wonder how families manage more than 2 kids but I guess we are given what we can handle.

Because I'm usually the one taking pictures I thought I would post these few pictures that I do have with the kids..i have almost perfected my self portrait pose.  Don't you just laugh and love Rylie's one eye opened look that she always gives, she is a goofy girl i tell you!

California Lovin'

We were really lucky this summer to get to go to San Diego and Disneyland with Grandpa and Grandma Telford.  We seriously had such a great time and going back on these pictures make me really excited to go back for our family reunion in February! We of course went to Mormon Battalion and USS Midway.  Neither one of them were exactly exciting for the kids but we still had a good time anyway.  I loved the tour that the church gave on the Mormon Battalion and in the end we got to dig for gold and rylie got to play in water, her favorite thing to do!

You can't do San Diego with out going to Sea World of course!  I love Sea World, I especially love that we get to go free once a year because of Devin being in the military :)  I think the sea otter show is my favorite, its the most entertaining but Shamu is just amazing!    Ezra thought it was so cool to meet Elmo.  He asked him where Dorthy was right away and they all thought that was pretty cute.  He also was tall enough to do the big Atlantis ride.  He did amazing!  After the first big dip and when we started going up the next one he said to me "oh no, not again!"  He loved the big roller coasters and cried when we didn't let him go a third time!

Ah Disneyland!  I wish I had more pictures, but Neva has a good majority of our really fun pictures.  Seems like words can't describe how awesome Disneyland is.  It was hot and we walked a lot and by the end of the day I admit I was grumpy, but it really is magical.  I don't have pictures of our dinner at Goofey's kitchen but seriously it was one of the best parts of the trip-well worth the $$. 

We were having so much fun that we decided to stay an extra day.  I love how every picture taken at the beach always looks amazing..because the beach is amazing! Ezra loved writing his name in the sand and watching the water wash it away.  I would move to So. California in a heart beat!  We also got to visit Great Great Grandpa Wilkerson (the kids great great grandpa, Devin's great grandpa)  He wasn't feeling well when we went so we didn't get to talk to him much, but we love that we have been able to visit him every year.  This year I believe he is turning 94..I think. 

Ezra Turned 4 ( a long time ago!)

I had so much fun planning Ezra's birthday this year.  I couldn't believe my little guy was turning 4!  Ezra was obsessed with angry birds around his birthday time (September 8) and still is, just not as bad.  So it only made sense to me that I would throw an angry birds themed party.  At the time you could not find Angry bird's birthday supplies anywhere! but now it seems everywhere I go I find angry birds and it would have been really nice to have had all that stuff for his birthday.  I had to do everything by hand, but it was worth it because he loved it!  I also made him a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom magnetic toy thing. He loved it, it didn't last long on the cookie sheet so now it is on the fridge and still gets played with at least once a day. 

I decided to go all out.  Blog world and pinterest really inspired me.  I love seeing pictures of parties people do for their kiddos and I wanted one that looked just as cute.  I was very happy with the outcome and I'm pretty sure the kids were too!

We have great friends and we feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many fun little friends.  The kids watched Rio Angry Birds, played pin the beak on the angry bird, colored, danced, and ate lots of goodies. 


We sure do love our little man.  He is such a smarty pants and loves to have fun.  Thank you Corynn for taking awesome pictures- you are the best!