Easter at the Grand-Baileys

Remember when I said in my last post that I don't take any photo's when I'm stressed out?  Well I took NONE of our kids in their Easter dud's, nor did I take any with their Easter baskets.  I'm telling you....Easter morning was not good to me.  After things calmed down a bit (after church), we drove over to the Grand-Bailey's for their annual Easter Egg Hunt for all the grand kids.

I only took a few shots, but you get the idea, right?  Check out all those kids.  They're up to 16 with 2 on the way.  (Me and Crew's wife.)  It was a fun afternoon.

Here's Gage....funny kid.

Getting ready with the colored ribbons....(that way they all get their OWN prizes)

Crede talking to his cousins (this kid never stops talking.)  Grace is sitting on the right in the blue shirt.

Our kids look thrilled.  I love that face that Crede's pulling.  I think he's surveying all the "goods" out in the yard.

On the hunt.

Grace's Birthday Bash

Grace lucked out this year.  She was so excited that THIS year was HER year for a birthday party.  You wouldn't believe how stressed out I was about this.  See, her birthday was the DAY before Easter.  The Sunday before Easter our family starts a "Easter Week" where we talk about Christ and all he did for us during that week.  Each day is like a mini Family-Home-Evening lesson.  So that was stress #1.  Stress #2 was the fact that I needed to make and photograph an incredible cake for her baptism book that I am starting to work on.  Stress #3 was that on Saturday (her birthday) was the Easter Egg Hunts in our city, so we had to pack up and do that, plus all her birthday celebrations for the day.  I also had a meeting that night to meet with a bride for a wedding reception shoot, and after THAT we had to get ready for the Easter Bunny to come the following day.  Yay for stress!!

Whew!  All you Mom's out there might be thinking, "That's no big deal.......I do that in ONE day at MY house."  Well I don't handle things as well as most people I guess.

Sorry, I digress.

ANYWAY, Grace woke up Saturday morning super excited that it was her birthday.  We made her a yummy breakfast, sang "Happy Birthday" to her, and Chance opened up her very own Caffeine Free Dr. Pepper to sip right along with her toast.  She snarfed down her breakfast and then promptly asked to open her presents.

The cake.

The presents.

More cake shots.

Grace excited for her big day.

Opening presents.  She got some squinkies, some books, some cute pajama's, and some necklaces and bracelets.

That night, after all the chaos, we sang to her, and she blew out all those candles.  Every year I crack up at all the OTHER kids watching her blow.  I love those empathy blows...haha

The INSIDE of the cake.

Her mark on the wall.  She is getting so big!  She's just about as tall as Morgan was at age 9.

The following Tuesday, we held her birthday party.  You can always tell when I'm super stressed about an eventful day because that's the day that I don't take any photo's.  I got some of the party details, but NONE of the actual party.  Yay Mom.

Grace invited some friends from school, and some from our neighborhood.  She had 8 friends show up, and they had a blast.  I was so thankful that it was such a beautiful day because we were able to do it outside.  Here is our front door with the notice to come around back....

The kids all sat and colored right when they arrived, then we played a ring-toss game with glow-sticks.  After that we had an Easter Egg Hunt, played a skittles game with straws, and then ate cake and ice cream.  I set up a "photo booth" where the kids that wanted to could have their photo's taken.  THOSE are the only shots I got of SOME of the kids at the party.  At least I got some, right?

Here are the "photo booth" shots.  They turned out fun.

Here's the GROUP (minus about 5 kids)

Silly Grace.

The group WITHOUT their glasses...

Crede...

Aaand Morgan.  (Don't you love her haircut?)

Crede and his friend Alyssa.

After ALL of that, I would just like to say how much we love our Grace!!  She is the sweetest, most thoughtful person I know.  She is always looking for ways to help me and the rest of our family.  She loves to serve others, and she has the most tender heart of anyone around.  She loves to smile, and laugh, and loves playing soccer.  I love watching her play soccer because of the smile she has plastered on her face the ENTIRE time.  She is smart, and loves school, and we are so proud to have her as part of our family.  We love you Grace!  I hope you had a very Happy Birthday.

Easter Egg hunts

 The day of the Easter Egg hunts. (Which happened to be the exact same day as Grace's birthday!  What a fun day for her.  Be sure to see her Birthday post for all of the festive shots. :) )  The only thing that broke from tradition this year was that Chance didn't hide any eggs around the yard for "practice".  Maybe he thinks that the kids all know what they're doing by now, eh?

Here are the stink-pots before the hunt:  (typical Lilah shot)

Chance spraying the "fast-running spray" on each kids shoe (notice one more pair of soccer cleats in the mix this year?  Next year there will be yet another...)

 

Meeting the Easter bunny....

(notice Morgan isn't anywhere near this guy.....her love of mascot's is pretty low.)

One last coaching session before breaking up into our smaller groups for the actual hunt....

Messing around before the air-horn.  I'm a sucker for a cool sky, so I think one of my favorite shots of the day has to be that top left one.  See the firetruck ladder up in the sky?  That's where they blow the horn from.

 

Aaaand they're off!

 

Grace's baptism book

It's so weird to say, but the time has come for me to work on Grace's baptism book!!  She is turning eight next year, and with our new baby coming, I really feel like I need to get started on it.  One of the photo's that I needed to take was for "A is for Accountability".  The photo of the birthday cake I used for Morgan's book was totally not what I had in mind, so I decided on THIS.  I can't decide between these 2 photographs, but I think either one will work great.  What do YOU think?

Do you like this one?

Or this.....

St Patricks Day!

St. Patricks Day.  

This year it fell on Sunday, which was fine....I had fun finding clothes for all our kids to wear, and once everyone was dressed, I thought to myself, "it would be nice to have a photo of my kids all decked out."  Chance was at a meeting that morning, so I was the lone parent left to do everything.  Well as you can see, our kids (okay.....let's be honest.  MORGAN.)  were NOT in the mood for photo's.  This is the best group one I got.  After getting super frustrated, I sent Morgan to her room and then proceeded to take a few more of the rest of them.  They are all so much fun, and I just think they are the cutest kids around.  Yes, even you Morgan, and even when you are in your most ornery mood.  I love each and every one of my kids.

And Lilah?  You are a little stink.  This little girl does NOT sit still for anything.

Don't you love how Crede's yawning?  Grace and Gage look like they are the only ones that want to be there.

Aren't they all cute?!

Yep....this was the best of the best.  You'd think I'd be able to do better than this.  Oh well.

Happy Birthday to ME!

I had a great birthday this year.  Chance surprised me with a custom-made Birthday Banner hung right in our front room!  Imagine waking up to THIS sweet sight.  Yes, those are all girl-scout cookies, and yes, they are hung from our ceiling.

One of my birthday presents (that I ended up buying for myself) was a roll of seamless background paper (for my photography habit).  Chance, being the kind and talented and super thoughtful husband he is, rigged up a system right in our front room that allows me to hang that paper from our ceiling.  I had a few people ask why we had those awesome hooks in our ceiling (and a few guesses as to their uses.....one of which suggested Chance use them for his deer...).  Anywho....Chance found yet ANOTHER use for them on my birthday.  Thank you husband of mine!

And of course each time I take out my camera to shoot ANYTHING I have these 2 standing right there asking for THEIR photo as well.  

 

When Chance got home from work, he took all of us out to dinner.....and then we came home to some GLORIOUS Mrs. Backers cake.  (Thanks Mom).  It was a fun day, and I had a lot of fun visitors at my door giving me cards.  What a great day to help me feel so lucky and blessed to have so many people I love in my life!

My favorite.

 Pretty much this was the greatest find of the day.  I found Grace reading books to Gage.  What a sweet moment.