First Comes Love...

We had a great time celebrating BOTH Easter and my Mom's birthday this year!

If I wait much longer, I could write about this and next year's celebrations...  Life with pup, kids, and home projects has been busy, but I'm back to share stories from Easter. Holidays get sweeter each year as the kids are growing up and better able to understand each holiday's meaning.  Both Abigail and George were very excited for Easter this year between their class parties with egg hunts (George's was class-only, Abigail's I was able to partake in), dying Easter eggs, going to church (Abigail practically begged us to go, then ran up to Fr. Todd TWICE to hug him, both before Mass, and during the recessional 🙈), and our Easter celebration with family. We decorated eggs a couple days before Easter, then on Saturday, Abigail decided we needed to go to the mall to see the Easter Bunny.  In year's past, I have only done this on a child's first Easter, but since she asked (and we didn't have dinner planned that night anyway), we headed to Bellevue S...

Easter was so much fun this year! Sure, it was harder to decorate, prepare, and celebrate with three kids on board, but we managed to do pretty well considering it all. A couple days before Easter, I told Abigail we were going to decorate eggs after dinner one night.  We completely forgot, but then next morning, she comes running into our room, "Mom!  We need to decorate our eggs!!" So here's what 6:45am looked like that morning! A couple days later we went to visit the Easter Bunny at Bellevue Square with Ashlee and Trace. Abigail had spoken with the Easter Bunny (thanks, Reid!) a couple days before, letting him know she wanted Elsa and Anna dolls for Easter.  As it turned out, she ended up requesting a Barbie from him in person (so back to the store I went, to return the Frozen dolls and grab a Barbie) George REFUSED to wear his dress shirt.  So Kevin cued his Sir Topham Hat voice to seal the deal (George would jump off a bridge ...

We had a delightful time celebrating Easter this year and two things in particular made it extra special: Hosting our families, and surprising everyone with a gender reveal! Since Spring isn't a busy season for us, I found it really relaxing and enjoyable.  We had baskets waiting for the kids when they woke up, made it to church early in our Sunday best, and had lots of time to prepare for family coming in the afternoon. We decided a while ago that finding out the gender of this baby would be fun to do in front of all our family.  And since we knew we wanted to start the traditional of hosting Easter, it was the perfect time to share this news. As some of you may remember, we're notorious for Easter surprises :) So I talked to the baker at our local QFC who took the sealed envelope we'd received from our doctor to made gender reveal cupcakes for us!  The idea is that you bite into the cupcake, and on the inside is a huge dollop of pink or blue frosting. ...

We were plagued by the flu last week and unfortunately my Mom, Mamie, Papa, and Uncle Mike had it too.  Since my Mom was hosting Easter, we decided it was best to cancel the party to ensure no more germs were spread. Instead, we spent a fun-filled weekend at Mamie and Papa's (the flu hit them at the same time as us, so we were good). What fun we had!  The kids stayed with Mamie and Papa Saturday afternoon while we went house hunting, then we had a big family dinner that night with Anne, Ian, and the kids. Sunday morning Anne & Ian hosted an egg hunt for the kids.  Abigail had a great time finding eggs and eating candy; she kept saying "I have egg" in between mouthfuls of Cadbury Mini's  :) The kids waiting to open their bags from Mamie The hunting crew Later in the morning we went to Bethany (Mamie and Papa's church) and put the kids in Sunday School.  Abigail did great (I just told her she was...