Easter 2010 (aka the longest post ever!)

We woke up Easter morning and the kids immediately went looking for their baskets.

Ben found his in the fireplace. (yes that's a pink basket. The week before when we had company I allowed Ben to play with his basket and it has mysteriously vanished! I have NO idea what he did with it!! So he had to use an old one of Elizabeth's!)

Those look like happy kids - huh? No one felt like smiling I guess :)

That's Ben's beautiful "cheese".

My tired girl Easter morning. Both of the kids are eating a Cadbury egg - it used to be my favorite Easter candy - we would always buy one the first day they came out.

All the eggs the kids found during their hunt. Elizabeth was much faster than Ben at finding eggs, but she very kindly shared some with her brother.

After church we headed to Tom's parent's house.

The kids all got a fun present from grandma and grandpa - they were so excited! We had to get a quick picture right after they opened the presents. (zach and amelia hadn't come over yet)

Here we are trying to get a picture of all the kids. It's fairly impossible! :)

This was the best we got - and I didn't even get Zach! He had crawled up the steps.

After playing inside for a while we went out back to have an egg hunt (with hard boiled eggs). Elizabeth was my partner. Tom was Ben's partner.

Ben then had fun with Uncle Mark throwing the egg around.

Amelia in her pretty Easter dress.

We had a fun morning over at Tom's parents, and after a great lunch we headed over to my parent's house.

The kids are standing at the ready - waiting for the ok to hunt for eggs.

Each child had their own color so here's Ben finding his blue egg.

Finding some by the diving board.

After the hunt we got some pictures of the kids with their loot.

He will never stay looking at the camera!

Cooper's off in the back because he was just getting over a virus...still a little contagious :)

Then it was photo shoot time with Jackson. Aren't they cute in their matching outfits? I LOVE Jackson's expression. He could be a gerber baby!

My kids love to play and talk to Jackson - Jackson's wondering what the heck are you doing, Ben?

Here's our attempt at a photo shoot with all the kids.

We never really got a great one ;)

It was a great Easter,

and we ended it with a bang!

Confetti eggs are always our favorite!

The day wouldn't be complete without a great fit! Ben was throwing a fit because Cooper was on the bike he wanted. If you have never seen Ben throw a fit it's quite funny. He runs around in fast little circles crying with his eyes shut. I guess his shorts were a little big around the waist because all the sudden his shorts were around his ankles. He had to end up on the floor and we were all laughing hysterically. It was too funny! Great way to end the day (nap time anyone?!)

Happy Easter!

Our baby is 5!

Our little girl is 5 today! I can't believe how fast those 5 years have gone. She's moving from our little girl to our big, school aged girl!

Happy Birthday to our sweet, loving, caring, thoughtful, and lovely little girl!

Elizabeth's Easter Party

Elizabeth had an Easter party at her school - and any time they let the parents come for an event I am there! Unfortunately Ben was pretty tired, it was right at his nap time (not that he ever takes a nap but he needed one this day) so he was a little cranky and wanted to be held the whole time. We still enjoyed ourselves though.

We got outside and the teacher asked the kids to spread out and this is what happened :) She was telling them to do airplane arms and spread out - they had no idea what she was talking about!

Elizabeth was off finding her eggs. Each of the egg cartons had the words Happy Easter written inside and the plastic eggs had the corresponding letters. The kids had to find the eggs with the correct letters - which made it last a little more than a second since there weren't too many spots for us parents to actually hide the eggs.

Still searching. I was trying to get Ben to go help her, but he was permanently attached to my leg.

She found them all!

Then it was playtime until school was done.

I signed up for iced rice krispie treats (normally I try to get something easy like juice boxes but those spots were all filled:) so I decided to make them a little Eastery.

Ben and I had a great time with Elizabeth at her party.

Next up, Easter!

Ben - the Bull Rider!

Last week when some of Tom's MN family was in town we went to the stockyards for traditional Texas fun! One of the last things we did (some of us) was ride the bull! Ben was ready to hop right up there. Since Tom wasn't there (had to work and all) I took lots of pictures to document this big event :)

When our family asked Ben why he didn't fall off he said "it went too slow to fall off!"

They did a great job of going very slow and he loved it!

The other cousins were not so lucky. They all got thrown!

Here's John (one of the cousins who stayed with us) on his turn.

Matt's about ready to start.

Now it's Nick's turn.

They got the big kids going fast! I think everyone loved it though.
I missed taking pictures of the rest...Amelia needed a bottle! :)

We also did lots of merry go rounds and "rides". I think Ben's waiting for this to go in the air!

If you're wondering, Elizabeth had preschool this day so she missed on all the fun! :(

Josh and Ben on the merry go round.

Maria, our niece, Linda, Tom's sister, and Mike, our brother in law.

Oh no, it's starting very young!

And of course, watching the cattle run. The highlight of the day.

Here's Ben and Sharon, our sister in law who stayed with us! (we miss you guys!)

It was a fun and busy day.