Easter Egg Hunt (4/4)

Our church hosts and Easter Egg Hunt every year, but we are usually in Minnesota. Amelia's arrival so close to Easter made the trip impossible this year, but we finally got to be a part of the Easter celebration here!

The kids and the Easter Bunny. Our friend from church was the bunny, but William wanted NOTHING to do with her. Luckily Amelia was a little more laid back. I wasn't really planning on being in the pictures...but I guess sometimes that is how it goes!

Still unsure, tears are gone...

Warming up....showing the Easter Bunny his butterfly craft
Amelia's first Easter Egg Hunt
Also William's first Easter Egg Hunt (William in green/black jacket). We've never done the eggs with him before because he was so little (read:and we are lazy)
Putting his eggs into his bag with Daddy. Luckily Daddy was there to do the running around with William! William wasn't really sure what to do at first so we were a little slow getting started. All the big, excited kids were pretty overwhelming. Once they were out of the way, he relaxed and had a great time!
We were also lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa there to help with Amelia so I could do a little slow walking after the boys (and Nicole, yes these are jeans. MATERNITY jeans with the stretchy panel on the front)
Amelia found an egg!
Every time he found an egg, William would immediately try to open it. John had to be paying attention and get there quick to catch the loot inside otherwise it ended up in the grass. We couldn't convince him to leave the eggs shut...it was just too tempting!

Running around looking for eggs!
Opening up another egg...the funny thing is he doesn't even really know what candy is (besides M&M's), so it wasn't because he was excited to get the candy.
Look! An egg up in the tree! Thanks for the boost Daddy!

They also had a few crafts for Grandma and Grandpa to make...
(they honestly were trying to help William complete 1 craft, but his attention span isn't very long...) Nice job Grandma and Grandpa!

Daddy and William working on the "Guess the Flavor of the Jellybean" game - and Grandpa won! Go Grandpa!

Matching Kids

I know, I know. If I was a kid, I would have thought this was lame. But, I'm doing it anyway. There won't be much opportunity for me to do this in the future. Finding identical outfits for a boy and girl just won't be happening much. So, humor me here!

Look at the matching jammies!
William noticed that Amelia had her knees bent. He would NOT straighten his legs out then. He wanted to be just like the baby...
Silly Billy!
Look baby! A truck!
Two of my favorite people
Hmm....I guess they weren't looking at each other adoringly after all. The big one was looking at the little one and wondering if there was a place for his fingers....turns out the answer is yes!
Enough smiling. Time for some serious truck driving.

Mama's Photo Shoot (4/3)

Newborns are terrific photographic subjects. They hold pretty still and are game to try any position you put them in. They don't whine and will sit for long periods of time. As long as you don't mind them snoozing a little here and there.

However, 2 year olds do not make great photography assistants. They steal your props, stand in the good light, make a lot of noise, try to get in the picture with the baby, tip the baby basket over and generally make things difficult. Note to self: all serious photo shoots should be done during nap time. Other note: locate good light source during naptime inside the house.

These pictures really need to be color corrected and edited a little. The light was great, but there wasn't enough of it in big enough patches to get the job done. So, I'm disappointed and don't have time to go through each pic and make it perfect. But, I'm posting them anyway because...well maybe sometime I'll have time to come back through and fix them up right. When I'm 100 years old.

A sweet baby in a laundry basket
Snuggled in tight- she isn't going to fit into this basket for much longer!
Still has a little jaundice
A tiny smile - at least she has happy gas.
Patience is wearing thin...
Sweet baby girl
Stretch!
Trying to eat her hands...
Stretch the other side!
Thinking hard...about something.
You think it would hurt to put your finger in your eye
Tiny feet! Her feet are so much smaller than William's ever were. But, she has the loooooonggggest toes ever! They are so beautiful (for the record, all parts of her are beautiful!)

Playing with Grandpa (and Grandma)

We always have a lot of fun playing when Grandma and Grandpa come to visit. The time was no exception!

We played a little golf in the yard
We built some neato tracks for the new remote controlled train to run on
Amelia was a good obstacle for the train to run around.
Although she was a little bored because a certain 2 year old wouldn't share the remote.
This would be the one. It sure is a good thing he is cute!
And we rode around on cars. With our special driving glasses.
Life sure isn't ever boring around here....

Good thing that is how we like it....

Meeting Grandpa!

Grandpa Kevin arrived from Minnesota to meet Amelia on April 4th (I'm slowly catching up)!

Amelia meets her Grandpa Kevin for the first time!
She is wrapping him around her finger as we speak...also appears they have similar hair in this picture.
What Amelia thinks about her Grandpa
Grandma, Grandpa and their grandkids! Sorry this isn't a great picture..honestly it was the best one of the 4 of you!
And what trip to St Louis would be complete without a trip to the Texas Roadhouse? Amelia's first night out on the town with Grandpa and Grandma!
Most notably here is William kicking back and relaxing while we wait for our food to arrive.

PS I thought we had more pictures of this (like on our camera? but I can't find them...maybe later!)

1st Trip to the Library

With the help of both Grandma and Daddy, it seemed like a breeze to take a quick trip to the library to see their baby chick display on Thursday (4/2/09). The chicks weren't as exciting as they made it sound, but it sure was fun to play with their train table and read books with Daddy in the log cabin!

The train table

Peeking out of the log cabin with Daddy

Amelia is unimpressed with her first trip to the library. We'll have to work on her attitude.

Checking out the baby chick display with Daddy