Easter 2011

As you can probably guess, our next big 'event' was Easter! I love Easter!! I love how it represents new life, a day of celebrating our risen Lord, fun times with family, way too much food, and way too much candy, Easter egg hunts, and spending the entire day reflecting on and being thankful for the grace we have received from the Lord! We enjoyed all of these things this Easter!This Easter was also extra special because it was Noah's first Easter!! Noah was about 6 1/2 months old at Easter and it is always so fun to look back and remember where you were the year before...it was already hard for me to even remember 'life before Noah'. He has been the sweetest addition to our family!

The outfit Noah wore on Easter was actually the same outfit that the other two boys wore for their baby dedications. I was somewhat sad that Noah couldn't wear it for his baby dedication, but there was just no way because the other two boys were dedicated on Mother's Day and Noah was dedicated in February... it was a little too cold for shorts and short sleeves!! So, it was really fun for him to get to wear this little outfit for a special occasion too!! It looked mighty cute on him!! :)
What a blessing you are to us, Noah!! It's always fun to still have a 'baby' around Easter time. It has always seemed to really bring home the idea of new life, new beginnings, and Spring. Babies are so sweet, innocent, and lovable and it was so fun to have little Noah to cuddle this Easter!!
A few pre-church pics....

They have this little area set up at our church for pictures, and it was all we could do to get a 'decent' picture. Believe it or not, the picture below was THE best picture out of all of them. Jay was taking his job very seriously about helping Noah. Noah was unsure about being plopped down on a small bench with his two big brothers. And Logan had gotten new shoes for the day and was trying to show anyone and everyone how fabulous they were! Don't you agree...the outfits on the hanger are much easier to get pictures of?!?! ;)

Grammie & Grandad with their grand-boys. :)

Uncle Ryan & Aunt Lauren with the 3 musketeers!
We enjoyed lunch with my family and had dinner with Trey's family. Easter also happened to fall on my sister, Rachel's, birthday so we enjoyed a birthday celebration at my Mom's house that day as well. Rachie-Roo, there couldn't be anyone more sweet, loving, kind, and funny!! She is so full of life and full of hilarious comments!! We love you so much, Rachel!!
I cannot think of anyone who it is more appropriate for the 'candy' holiday to fall on than Rachel. She is quite possibly the biggest candy-lover you have ever met (other than maybe myself!!) Emily very appropriately made her this 'dirt cake' with gummy worms instead of a birthday cake. It was so cute...and delicious!!!

Cousin Love...I love this picture!!!!
(Except that we're missing Andrew...he was already down for his nap. And you know the saying...never wake a sleeping baby! Especially when there's 7 kids in the house under age 7!)

All 'the cousins' enjoyed an Easter Egg Hunt in Mimi's back yard....

And Mimi makes this cute bunny cake every year for the kids...it is so cute and delicious!!
(On a side note...I think Abby looks just like her Mama as a little girl in this picture...same adorable dimples...so sweet!)We had such a fun day celebrating with the ones we love!!
(**And I have to add a disclaimer...believe it or not, Mimi and Pop were present at all of the festivities. I just somehow managed to not get any pictures of either of them. AND, we did celebrate with Trey's family that night. I just somehow managed to not get any pictures of that either! I have GOT to get better at this picture taking thing!)

Easter 'Eve'

Later that day, we colored Easter Eggs with the boys. Even though they are still young, they really seemed to get into and enjoy all of the 'festivities' this year.(I think Logan had just taken a big gulp of the dye mixture in the above picture. That boy will eat/drink anything and absolutely loves it. He is such a hoot!! That was our biggest challenge this year...was keeping Logan from drinking all of the dye!!)
They were very excited to be coloring these eggs 'all by themselves' and were very opinionated on what colors they wanted each egg to be. ;)
They were so proud of these eggs!! All we did this year was color them solid colors...no fancy stickers, crayons, patterns or anything, but you would have thought they were done by Picasso as proud as they were. (And to me, they were even better than what Picasso would have painted on an egg...ha!)
For whatever reason, this has become like a 'tradition' to me....I go around the night before Easter and take pictures of everything laid out. Probably because I'm the only one that really cares what they are wearing the next day....or the only one that really cares what was picked out for their Easter baskets. I think it's also because the clothes are so much easier to 'photograph' when no one is wiggling around with them on. I laugh at how hard/frustrating it is to get a good picture with boys these ages. And I love being able to look back and see how tiny they were and how cute their little clothes were!! And I also go around and take pictures of them quietly sleeping...oh how I love these little boys and their sweet little sleeping selves....blessed beyond words!

Easter Egg Hunt

Our next big event was EASTER! The Saturday before Easter, we went to the Easter Egg Hunt at our church. We have gone to this one ever since Jay was tiny...he actually wasn't even walking the first year that we went! This year was so much fun because Sarah, Todd, and their kiddos joined us...as well as all of the other Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents. Our kids had quite the support system, cheering section, and fellow egg-hunters.

My three little egg-hunters all geared up and ready to go!!

Jay explaining how it works to Logan and maybe even giving him a few pointers.....

Sarah helping Andrew....sooo cute!!

Grammy and Mimi making sure that their grandkids did not miss out on the 'goods'...they were making me laugh so hard this day. Both of them were making sure that their grandbabies were walking away with full baskets!!! I love them both so much!!

Sarah with her kiddos and all their 'loot'!!

Sweet, sweet boys! Neither one of mine understood the 'process' of collecting the eggs and putting them into their baskets. They just wanted to pop those eggs open and eat as they went. I have to admit...I was always the same way!! ;)

This was Noah's first Easter and first Easter Egg Hunt!!!
And I know I'm biased, but I think he was the cutest 'spring chick' there!!

Uncle Todd, Aunt Sarah, and Aunt Emmie displaying their treasures...I'm sensing a little bit of sarcasm from Todd in this picture!!

Jay and the Easter Bunny....Jay was the only one out of the entire crew that would have anything to do with the Easter Bunny...and that was ONLY if I was holding him!
Mimi, Pop, Grammie & Grandad...I say it all the time, but we are blessed (and spoiled!) beyond words to have both sets of grandparents in the same town with us!

'The Sisters' and all of our significant others....this is a special picture because this was the first time that we have a 'completed' picture with all 4 of us having a 'significant other'....more on that to come later!! ;)

Logan happy to get home and bust into those eggs!!!

And since this blog is all about documenting fun (and funny!) memories of my children...I have to include this story on here. Thankfully, I DO NOT have a picture of this one for all to see. As always, names have been withheld to protect the GUILTY!!
At one point in the Egg Hunt, I was on the playground visiting with a friend and Rachel rushed over to me and said, "Christina, Christina, go get your child!!" She sounded somewhat panicked so I turned thinking that he had fallen or had somehow hurt himself. I looked over in his direction and my husband's child had his shorts and his underwear at his ankles and was unashamedly going to the bathroom as the other kids around him shrieked and were faced with the dilemma of whether to grab the eggs from within his range or just take off running before they got sprayed! It was truly one of the most humiliating and embarrassing moments in my parenting history to date. We looked like those 'crazies' that have not communicated to our children where and when it is appropriate to go to the bathroom. Oh well, I guess you live and you learn and Trey had a l-o-n-g talk with him that night about how Easter Egg Hunts are not exactly the most appropriate place to relieve yourself!! Oh my....the things the Lord uses to keep us humble!! ;)

We're Still Here!!!

It has been forever since I have 'blogged' but I am going to try my hard, hard, hardest to get my blog up-to-speed in the next few days because we have been super busy but we have also had some SUPER fun things going on (since my last post in April!!) that I definitely want to get documented!!! So, I'm going to just pick up right where I left off and do 'updates' of the happenings around here. And, unfortunately, after the first few posts....all of my pics will sadly (and embarrassingly!) be poor quality phone pics because Trey accidentally ran over my purse which was sitting on the driveway which had my camera in it which has never been the same nor worked since that night!! I'm still not sure how that entire event took place, but we have still not replaced my camera!!

So, first up is Disney on Ice!!! In April, we had a 'Girl's Night' and all headed out to see Disney on Ice Princesses!!! It was Mimi, Sarah, Emily, Rach, me, Abby and Emma. (Although somehow, I did not get one picture of Rachel....sorry Rach!!) We had so much fun!! It was such a great show and the girls (young and old!) loved every minute of it! I absolutely adore my sweet nieces and it was so much fun to get to sit and watch them enjoy the magical moments of watching these real life princesses!!

Mimi & her grand-girls!

Aunt Emmie & 'Abs'

Aunt Kiki & Emma-Boo

Beautiful Emma-the-mermaid & Princess Jasmine....Emma had me take this picture about 4 different times to get Jasmine just right ;)
(And I also have to mention that I love how Emma was trying out the 'closed-mouth-smile' on this night...it is always funny to me to watch kiddos go thru different phases of smiling and I have been cracking up looking thru all of these pictures noticing that Emma was definitely trying out a new smile on her big night!! Love you sweet Emma-Boo!)

3 Generations....Mimi, Sarah, Abby & Emma