Hmm....Where's Tyler?.....

During a game of hide-n-seek with Ty the other day, I found him in the most hilarious hiding spot I had seen in a while....

You have to admit- it's pretty creative.

He even placed the pillow in front of him just perfectly!

I ran back to get my camera so that I could remember the creative and quirky genius of this little boy of mine- and as I took a picture, I could hear him behind the pillow saying,

"shhhh.... I'm hiding."

SAW THIS-

- DIED LAUGHING.

When I wrote the post below about Bella's day riding the rides at Castles and Coasters, it reminded me of the funniest picture on earth.

{took a picture of a picture- so it's not that clear}

The ride picture from Bella's very first experience on a "real" roller coaster at LegoLand.

John and I still get tears in our eyes from laughing when we look at this picture.

Note the following hilarious components to it:

-1- The obvious- the look of sheer terror on Bella's face.

-2- The way that my too-tall husband and his long legs are jammed into that teeny tiny ride.

-3- The look on the kids' face behind Bella.

It's all just too much. Priceless!!

It's A Bird...It's A Plane....

..... it's Tinkerbell!

John brought home a surprise the other day- in the shape of a 3 foot wide Tinkerbell kite.

Bella was ecstatic {Ty kept asking about a dragon one for him, but eventually got excited about Tinkerbell} . Bella and Ty couldn't stop asking about kites after seeing them at Costco one day.

* by the way- does anyone else get excited to walk up and down the isles of Costco...just browsing all the fun gadgets and "deals"? Just me? Ok.*

So when the wind picked up the other night, we all ran out to the cul-de-sac and watched Tinkerbell take her maiden flight.

It's the simple things in life, you know?

She's All Mine.

She's saucy.

She has a bit of an attitude.

She's confident, goofy, caring, creative and smart-as-a-whip.

She has a big imagination, and an even bigger heart-

... and the girl knows how to work a camera.

Yep.

She's 100% adorable.

She lives up to her name as beautiful, both inside and out.

And she's all mine.

Castles and Coasters

One thing we have discovered about Bella is that she loves roller coasters.

Loves them.

We have passes to LegoLand, since its just minutes from my parents house, and Bella is brave enough to try even the tallest roller coasters. We may have even fudged her height a bit last summer by letting her wear her wedge sandals that give her an extra inch or so. Those big brown eyes were just pleading for us to let her ride the "big kid" rides, and we couldn't say no. Lucky for her, now she is the perfect height and can conquer all the rides they have to offer.

So last weekend we came up with a spur-of-the-moment idea to take the kids to castles and coasters, which is just a fun amusement place with a few rides- but to Bella, it was heaven.

In fact, John went there when he was a kid, and the roller coaster with the loop scared him to death! And he was 14!

Bella handled it like a champ :-)

So we had lunch, rode all the rides and had a fun Sunday together. Even the boys got to go on a few rides that maaay have scared them. Just a little. Right boys?

Ty was able to go on a few rides all by himself, and he was a little nervous at first....

Then he started getting excited......

...and then he had a blast!

Spring Is In Full Swing

And what better activity during the spring than an outdoor picnic with your friends? With cold juice boxes and princess dresses....crowns and all :-)

Bella and Tyler have been busy little kids with lots of friends, family and activities going on lately. So busy, in fact, that I have had trouble keeping up on everything! And more specifically, we had a very special house guest this past weekend...Uncle O'Neal!

He is busy working out and staying focused until the finale of the show, but he was able to sneak out here for a quick visit to surprise his son Arece and spend time with his AZ family. So we had to throw a party of course! We got all our friends together and threw a viewing party to watch Tuesday nights' episode together with Uncle O'Neal. He looked AMAZING and he worked out so hard while he was here, so I can only imagine how much even more amazing he will look by the finale :-) So because the show is still airing, we can't post any of the pictures we took of him, sorry! But soon enough, you will see the new-and-improved O'Neal Hampton!

So we got all decked out in our yellow, and celebrated with him on Tuesday as we watched the show together. And if you watch the show on Tuesday, you saw that he won a prize challenge! Oh, it was just something small.

Like. A. New. Car.

As soon as he won, he promptly handed over the key to SunShine :-)

Excuse me while I hold back the tears and lump in my throat.

So touching and awesome!

Bella even owns a "SunShine" Barbie that Aunt Katherine made for all the little girls in the family.

And lastly, just because I thought this was the most adorable thing ever....I found the kids sleeping like this when I went to check on them before going to bed last night. Ty had quietly snuck out of his room, and climbed into bed with his big sister. The two of them were all cuddled and fast asleep when I found them like this. I just had to take a picture...not even the flash woke them up!

My little sleeping cuties.

It's been busy few weeks around here, but we are having fun and loving this weather!

I've got lots of photo shoots coming up and family activities...so stay tuned :-)

A Very Special Date.

Bella had a very special date on Saturday night.... with her papa.

We surprised her with tickets to Disney on Ice (for the record, this is her fourth time to the show....different shows but still same idea :-) ) and we even surprised her with a brand new princess dress from the Disney store. The look on her sweet little face was priceless :-)

So she got all dressed up...a little lip gloss and everything...and headed out for a date night of just the two of them.

( a little Top Model action here.....)

Papa (of course) was a sucker for his granddaughter and bought her snacks, a princess purse and a sparkly wand at the show, but she came home with a huge smile and lots of fun memories of her special night with Papa.

On a side note, can you believe I am the mother of an almost-5-year-old???!!!

Dear God,

Please keep my little girl little for as long as you can.

In fact- freeze each sweet moment in time for me so that I never forget her beautiful little face just the way it is right now.

Love, Me

Where Has Time Gone?......

Oh my poor little blog.

I have been severely neglecting you.

And then I realized that this blog is more for me since I print at the end of the year and it serves as somewhat of a memory book for me to keep...and so I'm going to try to be much better about my blogging.

So let's play a quick little game of catch-up! First off- welcome the newest Scottsdale resident and our favorite house guest...Arece Hampton!

Arece is John's cousin, and he has been the most delightful addition to our local family here in Scottsdale. Many of you have heard me brag on and on about his dad and sister O'Neal and SunShine, who are currently on The Biggest Loser. Well, now he calls AZ his home, and we couldn't be happier to have him here. The kids are pretty much obsessed with him, and they drop everything to play with him when he walks in the door. He is staying with us while he looks for a place of his own, but the kids will be devastated when he does! :-)

We love you Arece- and welcome home!