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.

Happy Birthday Morgan!

 Morgan's birthday was basically a two-day event.  It fell on Sunday this year, and seeing as we wanted to buy her a hamster on her big day, we needed to celebrate twice.

We didn't tell Morgan where we were going, just that we were running an errand.  We piled into the car, I grabbed my camera, and we were off!  It was a blizzard outside.  We pulled up to Petsmart (which happens to be right next to Sportsmans Warehouse) and told Morgan that we were going into Sportsmans.  When we all got out of the car we veered over to Petsmart and went inside.

Once inside, we decided to scope out the rodents.  Morgan fell in love with the dwarf hamsters.  They are the cutest little things!  But.  When we asked the sales associate about them, I guess they are pretty mean and don't let you hold them.  Here's Morgan falling in love with one....

 

That same sales associate brought out some bins with hamsters in them ~ Morgan got to hold a few and try them out.  She ended up liking THIS one.  Isn't she cute?!

 

Some more dwarf hamsters...

 

The hamster was boxed up, and we checked out.  Oh, do you think Lilah is teething?  This is how she spent her time at Petsmart.

 

Once we got home we decided to try out the exercise ball.  We all enjoyed watching that little hamster run around the front room for awhile.  I mentioned to Morgan that it looked JUST like those Hostess Cinnamon Donut's that are so yummy.....and she said, "Let's name her Donut!!".  So here's Morgan with Donut.

We also told Morgan that she could have a late-night with ONE friend.  She asked Breaunna to come over ~ so they ate pizza, played with Donut, and watched a movie.  Happy Birthday Bug!!

Here are the kids as we wait for Morgan to arrive after picking up Breauna at her house.

 

Aaah, birthday DAY.  Happy birthday Morgan.  You are one awesome daughter, and I am so proud of you!  You make such great choices, and are so smart, and you play one amazing soccer game.  I love you so much and hope that you had a super happy birthday.

 

My favorite photo of the day...

 

Day of PURE guilt.

Back in November (I think), I took the kids to the dentist.  They reccommended that we go to the orthodontist for Morgan and Grace because their teeth were looking a little scary.  (Darn genetics).  I made an appointment with one in January, and come to find out, Grace needed THREE teeth pulled.  THREE.

I remember back in my brace-face days how painful it was to have TWO teeth pulled, so I couldn't even imagine three.  We took the day off of school and drove to the dentist.  I insisted on laughing gas (they weren't even going to give it to her...sheesh!) and watched as they pulled three HUMONGOUS teeth out of my 6 year old's mouth.  She didn't cry once!!  I could tell that it was hurting her though, so I had to squat next to the dentist chair and squeeze her hand as they wrestled those teeth out of there.

How tragic!

After they were finished, they handed me her teeth, rolled up some gauze and stuck it in her mouth.  We then drove home and I let her rest with Dad and play my Kindle while I drove to the store buying about 35.00 worth of ice cream, popsicles, gogurt, and pudding.  What a day.

Grace was so stinking brave and I was so proud of her.  She is the funniest person....always taking things as they come, and not dwelling on it after the fact.  She is definitely a person to look up to in that regard.  Good job Grace.  No wonder the tooth fairy brought you 5.00 and a coloring set.  You deserved it.

Here are those awesome teeth.  Pretty tramatic, right?!  It makes me a little light-headed just looking at them.