My Only Thanksgiving Pictures

Cousin Natalia, Joshua, Aulora, and Julia all acting silly

Does Joshua ever NOT act silly? No, not really. =)

All the kids minus John David, who feels too old to hang with the kid crowd.

Happy Easter!

Today we were joined at church by my mom and dad and my grandma, Meema. Afterwards, we came home and ate a traditional Easter meal - traditional for us anyway - complete with coconut pie and chocolate truffle cheesecake. We took pictures right before our egg hunt. There were over 700 eggs! Thank you, Grandmamma! It was a wonderful day....

Egg Hunting

My parents arrived Saturday morning and even though it was their 35th anniversary (wow!), they decided to celebrate Easter with us for the weekend.

They took us all to IHOP for breakfast, then they took the kids to see Hop while I came on home and cooked an anniversary meal and hid eggs.

We did half of the egg hunt in the front yard and half in the back.

Joshua decided he only wanted green eggs.

Aulora was enjoying a big lollipop with Grandmamma. She smiled and said she would always remember that moment because I was taking a picture of her and Grandmamma.

Joshua and Aulora traded licks.

It was a happy Easter!

Attempted Easter Pictures

Easter was wonderful.

Easter pictures, however, not so much.

We tried.

And tried.

But between bright sunshine issues, cranky children, and one child who thought funny faces would actually be funny....

This is the best we could do.

Other than Joshua, the picture with my parents turned out pretty well.

Aulora felt the need to take a bow.

Thank you, Gran, for the beautiful clothes!

John David - of course he doesn't make the goofy faces here.

Julia is usually the easiest to take pictures of.

She's getting so tall!

Joshua, on the other hand, had NO desire to have his picture taken. He turned his back on the camera.

He hid his face with a stuffed animal.

This is what I was finally able to get.

I bet you can't guess who the cranky kid was.

Easter 2010

We did Easter all by ourselves this year. No grandparents in sight. I was sad we couldn't be together, but I felt so grown up at the same time! (You would think I would feel grown up by now. Good grief.)

Julia and Aulora had matching dresses.
(of course)

John David and Joshua coordinated in pink, black and grey.
(John David was NOT pleased about the pink. Life goes on.)

Yea! I got in a picture!

My three handsome men.
(Joshua did not enjoy the tree so much, hence the lack of smiling.)

After changing clothes we had a hunt.

There were a few eggs out there (which only Joshua and Aulora were allowed to get), but they mostly hunted.......

Peanuts! Yellow and pink painted peanuts!

Something different, a little quirky, and memorable I think. The beginning of a tradition. A peanut hunt!

When the hunt was over the kids traded in their peanuts for one "Reester Bunny" each. It's a Reese's Peanut Butter Bunny and they were beyond happy.

While we were taking pictures and hunting peanuts our lunch was in the oven. We ate chicken spaghetti and salad and french bread (no ham here!) and then homemade pound cake with strawberries and ice cream for dessert.

It was a wonderful Easter and I think I'm officially grown now. Boo.