Happy Easter

We celebrated Easter in Texas this year. We went down to "dress up" our house. Yes, it is still for sell, and yes, we are sooo ready for it to sell. Upon walking back into the place, we did feel like it could use some sprucing up. We have started the process for new carpet and painted, painted, painted all over.

It was a blast visiting all of our friends. We didn't have enough time to see everyone, so please no negative comments. We tried our best, but with a kid that still requires 2 naps a day (or at least one long nap) and trying to help Skip out as best as we could at the house, we really didn't have enough time to see everyone. We did enjoy an Easter egg hunt with our old PTA group. We "camped" in our old house. It was a lot like camping but with running water and electricity. This proves that I don't think that we are ready to take Calvin camping yet :) It was a long drive back, and Calvin should really learn to sleep in his car seat more :) 20 minutes in 9 hours is not very much.

Please, keep praying that we sell the house soon. It will take such a burden off our shoulders. Hopefully the right person will want the house soon.

Happy Easter! Easter has always been a special time for us. 2 out of the last 3 Easters we received the most precious gift of all, our children. Easter is also the moment when we decided to get married. We remain ever grateful for our many blessings.

Happy Birthday Emerald!

Our little girl is 3 already! We can't believe that we have had our angel in our lives for 3 years. In fact, yesterday was her "Gotcha Day" as well. Sorry we didn't post earlier. We had tons of family in town and then went to Texas. More on that later.

Emerald enjoyed her party and then had a blast visiting with both sets of grandparents. To top it off, she got to go to Texas and see all her friends. It was quite the extended birthday celebration.

I couldn't figure out how to arrange these pics in chronological order. These are some of my favorites of just Emerald over the last 3 years. Although, for me, it is hard to pick just a few, there are MANY more. We love our little girl and are so proud of how she is growing up. It has been quite the year for her, and she has taken it in stride (for the most part). Adding a new brother, a new house, another new house, and all the chaos of the move, wow!!

Giddy up, Cowgirl Emerald!

I know these are the same 2 pictures, but the tears in the second picture reminded me of "it's my party" I can't believe she is already turning 3!

Calvin thought we were celebrating him. He is such a ham for the camera (unlike his sister).

Ella, Jessie, and Emerald had a good time.

Brian is such a good sport.

Nolan, you make a good cowboy!

Reese and Lon look like they are used to smiling for the camera.

We celebrated Emerald's 3rd birthday this weekend. We had a house full of people and smiles all around. Emerald was in heaven playing with her friends. Calvin also enjoyed his time with Reese and Noah. It was funny how he thought we got the balloons for him. Emerald showed her friends her new house and how to drop the snake in the boot. Her cake was "DEEEEEEEEElicious" (thanks again Aunt Heidi)! We feel fortunate to have such wonderful friends and family in our lives. Thanks for helping celebrate with us. Sorry to post so many pictures, but I could't decide which ones I liked best.

This weekend we had Nana & Pop Pop here, then Grandma came for the week. Grandpa comes Thursday and Nana will come back next weekend. Pop Pop is here for the week, too, helping with Jeff's roof, and then helping us with our fence. It is a house full and we love it! It is finally warming up outside. That fence will be up just in time to let the kids and dog outside to play in the beautiful weather.

All dressed up

We were sporting our Sunday best and had to pose for some pics. Thought we'd share! I just love those cute smiles! Emerald and Calvin have been playing really well together lately. Their favorite game is to crawl under Calvin's crib and play peek-a-boo & hide-and-seek. I love watching them develop their sibling relationship together.

Sledding fun....toddler style

In our recent "big snow" we went "sledding" in our backyard. It was a beautiful snow, covering all the limbs on each tree. It was Calvin's first time to really play in the snow and he wasn't sure about it, happy and then not all that thrilled about it by the end (too cold I think) :) Of course our fearless Emers was continuously asking for MORE! It was just a small hill, but we had fun. There was a lot of snow that fell, but by the time we got in the backyard, most had melted.

We are gearing up for Emerald's cowgirl party this weekend. Can't believe that next week she will be 3! Happy belated birthday to Jacob and Riley and soon to be Ellie's birthday. We got to see the Bohannon's this week. We LOVED meeting their new baby, Eden, and Emerald was so thrilled to have a friend to play with. We are fortunate that some of our Texas friends have family here in Kansas and it forces a visit to the cold, north land. We miss our Texas friends.

Calvin fell, twice last week. Poor kid ended up with 2 different places about an inch apart on his forehead. Emerald will repeat our phrase, "Calvin is called Scar Face." He is all boy!