Mother's Day Tea Party

At preschool, the teachers and kids planned a wonderful night just for us mommies. We were showered with gifts and songs and chocolate covered strawberries!!! It was fun to share this night with Emma. She is the sweetest and I love being her mom!

The kids singing us a few songs they had practiced. Aren't they cute?! They were swaying back and forth!!

Kissy, kissy!

My beautiful corsage. I even wore it to church the next day. I'll keep it forever!!

All of my treasures from this special night.

Soccer's done and Spring is here!

Soccer has been really fun for Emma this year. I didn't think she'd really like it, but she surprised me! She was sure she knew all she needed to know about soccer, but realized there was a little more to it then kicking the ball into the net! On the last day each player got their very own soccer pin. Emma was so proud she wore it to school and everywhere we went for a week!

Tal had fun too...as long as there was an extra ball around!

Spring officially arrived here in MO a few weeks ago, and Emma and Cooper figured out that they didn't need snow to sled!

Here is our first bouquet of spring. All the "flowers" along the walking trial!

Happy Spring!

Elder Beckstrand returns!!

He's home!! After 2 years well spent serving and teaching the farmers in Billings, Montana my youngest brother is home! And because there are smart, technologically savvy people on this earth the kids and I were able to be apart of it with help from Corbin and Skype! I had to take these pictures from my sister's blog. Because even though I was "there" my camera was here... in MO!! I'm really proud to call Tyrel my brother. He's just awesome. Simply put. I just wish I could give him a big hug instead of having to wait until this summer. I'm so proud of him and can't wait to see him. Plus, he has a nephew who is dyeing to meet him and a niece who isn't 3 anymore! We'll be counting down the days!

Here we all are. Waiting... and waiting...! Guess where the kids and I are?!

Here is Ty saying hello to us!!!
All together again (after we logged off!!!!!)!

CHICAGO!

Yep we went to Chicago last week for the NFSA Convention (Fire Sprinkler stuff). That is a big, expensive, traffic-crazed city folks. But all of that aside we had a great time.

We road tripped it! Nate and Jasmine braved the waters by riding with us and the kids for the 5 hour ride. We kept promising Emma that when we got there we'd go straight to the pool, right. So my mother-in-law called us to see how things were going and told me that there was NO POOL there (they had already been there a couple of days). NOT. Even. Funny. Are you serious? How was I going to tell Emma that? For 5 hours I had been promising her that very thing. It was the only thing keeping her sane! GRRRR. So after the tears where dried we told her of all the other fun things we were going to do. And here's what we did.

The Miracle Mile. Heaven help us. We were there every day!

Shedd Aquarium. If you ever go to Chicago this place is a must. It was great!

The American Girl Doll store and cafe! I think I enjoyed this more then Emma did...and she loved it. I always loved the "American Girl" stories.

Eating brunch. They even let Emma borrow a doll to eat with. How cute is this cafe?!

After many, many, many trip around looking at each doll she finally decided on Molly!! (An early b-day gift from Grandma. And Jasmine got her all the "Molly" books!) We'll be busy!
At least Tal was occupied!

Making a mess at the Disney Store.

Navy Pier and the Farris Wheel.

Looking good, babes!
Emma and I rode the Famous Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier.
Where's Daddy and Tal?
Views from the top

The scared one. I really was. I don't now what came over me but on the way up it was hard to breath and my heart was beating out of my chest. I was fine on the way down, it was just the up that got me.

The brave one! All I heard was "This is awesome" while I was reminding myself to breath!

The Trump Tower.

Since there was no P-O-O-L this became a favorite activity. Up and down. Up and down.

Do you want to see what saved me?

Mommy view!

Don't judge. This thing was awesome. That little backpack carried a diaper, wipes, a snack and his drink. Plus, he LOVED wearing it. I did a lot of big talking about how cool it was and he bought it. He wanted to wear it everywhere!

Then it was time to leave. Because all of the seats in the car were filled with people...and Molly...we had to strapped some things to the roof. That was Nate's job and he took it very seriously!!!

The front

The middle
The back

When we started going there was a strap banging on the roof, and of course we couldn't have that for 5 hours, so since it was his job up Nate went. No need to pull the car off the interstate for Nate. Nope. Five minutes of 65 MHP winds didn't even phase him.

Wow! That was a lot. Good times. Good times!!

Opening Day!

Last time (which was right before I had Tal) I went to Opening Day for the Cardinals the game was rained out by the 4th inning, but not this year. Blue skies all day long, baby!

Let me kind of explain here about Opening Day. It's not like other days here in St. Louy. It's big! I mean out-of-control, go completely crazy BIG! I really think it is an unofficial holiday here. It might as well be, cause people are leaving work by noon to get down to Busch for all the "stuff" that goes on. And guess who are among the crazy, out-of-control, work ditchers... Matt and his brother Nate that's who. They were there soaking in the Cardinal Nation vibes that were exploding from every seat in the place. I even think their hearts would occasionally skip a beat. I'm serious!

Now I have to admit I love it too. It was an awesome game (saw my first Pujols home run! Whoot, whoot) and the feeling there is really almost overwhelming, but I do have some sense of where the "crazy line" is and I don't think I'll ever get close to crossing it.

So Jasmine and I took our loving time, a detour here and there to finally find a place to park, and we even made it for first pitch... barely! We figure that since we are now "baseball widows" that it really doesn't matter when we show up, only that we do!

And to make it all better, the Red Birds WON! Life is good.

Check out this shot. It's Pujols up to bat and on this swing he scored the Cards first run! Nice!

Check out all that RED!

The Coleman brothers are the Cardinals #1 fans. But Jasmine and I are #2!!

Tal pal is 2!!

Tal now has 2 years under his belt! It only seems like 1 year under mine, but that never counts! He makes us laugh. He knows just what to do to put a smile on your face. Also, he is a great shot! He's even doing lay-ups now. Watching him run toward the basket and then making it is just fun. He's working on his dribbling too. SO, a basketball cake seemed in order.

He is my sweetest bubs and I love the time I get to spend with just him while Emma is at school. He is growing and learning and doing such "boy" things that it really reminds me just how different girls are. It's not a bad different, it's a really good one, and I love every minute... even when those minutes result in another mess or scrapped knee!

It doesn't seem that long ago that he looked so cute in his little, tiny, clean baby clothes, but he's just as cute it his bigger, messy, little boy clothes.

Happy Birthday, little Mr.