Easter

My kids became egg-hunting pros this year! These first few pictures are from the egg hunt we went to with Nathan & Aubrey.

I'll never be fast enough to get a good picture of 4 kids at once!

Then we had our annual egg hunt and breakfast at "Ms. Emily's". Believe it or not these two events were a week apart, but I did dress my kids in exactly the same clothes. Elle's outfit was intentional, but I didn't realize until I was looking at these that I put Will in the same thing. Oh well! Will won a "big prize" basket filled with pool toys. I can't believe I didn't get a picture with him carrying it around! I think he showed everyone at the party - he was so proud.

Saturday night, Will & I dyed eggs. We colored them with crayons and put stickers on them, too. He did a really good job (minus the one spill you can see in the photos).

On Sunday morning we got to church earlier than usual to make sure we had a seat. After waiting patiently for a while, Will leaned over and whispered, "Hey, Mom, when is the Jesus show gonna start?" Both of the kids were sleepy, but I think they enjoyed "the Jesus show". I took advantage of having a photographer around while we were all dressed up to get a quick photo of the 4 of us.

The Easter Bunny came while we were at church and then we were off to my dad's. The kids, of course, enjoyed yet another egg hunt and some Easter gifts from Go-Go & Grampy. New sunglasses and sandals - yippee!

What a good-looking bunch of kids!

And, finally, after lunch we headed to my mom's for naps, one final egg hunt and a yummy dinner. I'm worn out, but we had a wonderful time with family and friends!

All decked out

Our new deck was finished today! It obviously still needs some touch-ups, furniture, landscaping, etc...but this is such an improvement over the concrete slab! The kids and I had a picnic outside for dinner tonight and then played in the yard or on the deck until bedtime. Loved it!

Benches on either end with built in storage underneath

Nice shoes, eh?

They ran and ran and ran on the deck tonight! I just thought this was such a sweet shot of Elle.

Ellie Kate is 2!

We celebrated Ellie Kate's 2nd birthday last weekend. As of her 2 year check-up, she's 26.8 lbs and 33.75 in. tall. She jumped to the 75% for weight; still about 50% for height. Healthy girl - tubes look great.
We had a party with all the family and she had a great time! She was perfectly content to let her brother do most of the unwrapping while she watched and played with whatever he unwrapped.

We had cookies instead of cake. Aren't they cute?

I think Daddy likes this one too!

Big brother gave her bubbles. He's so proud of himself!

new tutu!

I love her trying to blow in this picture.

Cheese!

All week long as we've eaten leftover cookies, she sings happy birthday to herself :)

new backpack

new baby bed

chillin' in her new chair

Spring time

I have so many pictures -- I need to get caught up on posts! As with every spring in Kansas, snowing one day, beautiful the next. Literally, it was snowing this time last week and it is about 90 degrees now. As frustrating as this is with a wardrobe and planning, I secretly like it. It's hope that warmer weather will be here to stay soon.

These pictures are from a couple weekends ago. I can't wait til we have the deck and swingset done in the back! It will be so great to have that space outside and in a fenced in yard where I don't have to worry about anyone running into the street.

Will has been on a bit of a defiant streak. (As you can see in the scowling picture above.) While I was upstairs working on something, he decided to color on his face with a highlighter. "I thought it would be fun, mom!"

Then, he got mad when we were playing outside one evening and decided to shut the garage door...as Elle was running toward it! I got to her in plenty of time and yelled enough for Will to know he was in trouble. So, he was inside by himself and I figured I'd give us both a moment to cool down. He locked the front door. In effect, he locked us out of the house. Silly boy didn't realize the back door was unlocked so when I got there he was unlocking the front door. I'm pretty sure he got the picture that that was not a good choice.