HAPPY EASTER!

Sweet babies ready for church Easter morning!

 After church in front of our pretty roses!!

Sweaty kids coming in from playing outside, to decorate some yummy Easter sugar cookies for the Easter bunny (this was Saturday- sorry photos are out of order!)!!! 

Nate ate most of the icing, as per usual..

 

 So glad Papa and Me-Ma got to come visit us from Colorado and spend Easter with us this year!!  We had so much fun with you!  (They have been asking me "can we go to Colorado today?" about every 20 minutes since you guys left!)

 Awesome family photo.  Nate and I are clueless, Lilly is pouting about who even knows, and Brian is the only one aware there is a picture being taken.. Geeeeeeez!!!

 After church we hid a few eggs in the front yard and the kids had a little impromptu Easter egg hunt..

 We didn't get around to decorating eggs until Sunday afternoon, but we did it!!

That about sums up the Easter festivities! 

Daddy and Grandpa spent a good portion of the day on Saturday putting together a wooden swing set for the kids (early birthday present), so hopefully Daddy will have time to finish it soon and we will have lots of pictures of the kids having a great time in the backyard!! YAY!

What would Spring in Texas be..

..without throwing your kids in a field of bluebonnets and taking a hundred pictures?!?

Don't have time to edit these pictures and the time of day was horrible for photos, but I couldn't let the spring get away from me without getting a few photos of them next to our pretty state flower!!

 This one is for your amusement only.. I thought it was so funny, he was running and just fell in the middle of the flowers, making a big Nate-shaped hole in them.. (sorry blue bonnets).. hehe

Love Texas, Love the flowers, Love the kiddos!!!

Friday at the Zoo!

My friend, Mandy took off work on a weekday last week so we could go take the kids to the Fort Worth ZOO!!  It was a beautiful day outside (got a little warm for March, though), and we had a blast!!

Pardon the cruddy old camera pics, but they will do for now!!

Look who was brave enough to touch a big snake!!  There was a man holding onto it, and talking all about what kind of snake it was, etc.  We have been watching a lot of shows about snakes with Daddy, so Nate was all about it!

 Nate, Lilly, and Gage.. hanging out on the big lizard!

 So happy to ride the Merry-go-round!

We were there that day from about 10 until about 1 - that is the longest we have ever stayed at the zoo with no melt downs!  Well, we may have had a couple there at the end, which is why we called it quits. :) 

What an awesome way to spend the day!!!

Nate's first family portrait!

Big man drew his first picture of the whole family!  Didn't he do such a good job?! 

 By the way, those things on Lilly's and my head are NOT horns, they are "pony tails"! 

Bounce House!!

Last week was Spring Break for the kids, and also for my good friend, Lindsay, who is a teacher, so we took the opportunity to have a play date with her and her cutie pies, Logan and baby Laine.  Of course I had fun talking to my sweet friend, but I was so excited that the kids had so much fun jumping around in the bouncy houses.  In the past month or so, we have been to a couple of birthday parties with bounce houses and the kids really started opening up and having fun jumping around, so I knew they would have a great time and I was RIGHT!! (We've come a long way baby!)

Forgive the nasty quality of these pictures- it was taken with my little camera from about 7 years ago! I didn't want to lug my big ol' camera but I wanted a few photos.. I can't wait to get another IPhone so I have another way of taking pictures!!

 

Climbing up!

and sliding down!

 Best buddies

I took these in the front yard the same day (with my better camera!).  Lilly is putting some "bite-lip" on Nate.  I have no idea why they have always called chapstick that.. NO IDEA.

 Lilly was loving her new threads.  Especially her "sprakely" shoes!!

Play date at our house!

I've been trying to have at least a play date or two a week, I think it's good for the kids and it's GREAT for me too!  I'm bad about bringing my huge camera when we go to the park or over to someone else's house or something, but this one happened to be at my house and I actually remembered to snap a few of the kids. 

We've hung out with my friend Tiffany and her girls several times, but Nate and Lilly are just now starting to warm up and talk around them!  They love playing with the little girl that is closest to their age, I'lea.  She is such a sweetheart!!  The day they came over was actually her 3rd birthday!  The next day we got to go have some fun at her birthday party, but of course I don't have any pictures of that!

So let me explain what they are doing here- They are all lying in a circle in our living room floor, watching Dora and playing with educational apps on the new Kindle Fire that I'lea had just gotten for her birthday (it's on the floor in the middle).  Those are the coolest things ever, and I am TOTALLY sold on getting them for the kids so they can grow with them.  Now it's just deciding when exactly to get them, and then saving up the money for them! :)

 They LOVED it!  Absolutely entranced!  I could not believe all the educational kids games and movies, music, children's books..  so awesome.  Thanks for sharing you cool new Kindle Fire, I'lea!!