Easter and Reality

Here are some pictures from Easter. I'm back to work already so we are a few days behind in posting. We decided to take the plunge this year and offer to host a holiday. We have an acre of land so we thought it would be a great place to hold the Easter egg hunt. Of course it rained. So we had to keep the kids inside for the hunt but they still had a lot of fun.

We attempted the family photo again. At least one turned out okay. I do love how happy Abby looks in this photo. She's such a happy kid.

Noah had a laid back Easter. He enjoyed some quality swing time chatting up his bears. And he slept through the Easter egg hunt.

Each kid was assigned an different color, making it more fair for the younger kids.

Sally came in for the last time before finals, after that she's back to MN to work all summer. Abby doesn't realize it will be July before she sees her Auntie again. Sal also brought her roommate from first semester Kat. She's on William Woods Volleyball team and is from out west. She hasn't been home since Christmas and very much enjoyed the homecooking. I think they lookalike.

This was this years attempt of the grandkids/cousins all gathered with their winnings.

Abby showing what was in her eggs.

The face she made when she realized they weren't all full of money, and some only had chocolate.

So Literal....

A couple of days ago, I went into Abby's room to get her up from her nap. I laid down on the bed with her and gave her a big hug. We were just laying there, talking a bit, and the following conversation took place:

Abby: "I'm holding my baby!"
Me: "And I'm holding my baby (referring to Abby)"
Abby: "Where's your baby?!?"
Me: "You!"
Abby: "I'm not your baby, I'm Abby!!!"

She says the same sort of things in other situations. For example:
When we say to Abby "you're silly!" She always replies, "I'm not silly, I'm Abby!"

Adult Easter Egg Hunt

So a few weeks ago I suggested we host an adult easter egg hunt for our friends.

We have a huge yard, that is perfect for finding eggs! So we sent out an email and started planning. We had 9 people hunting and Dave hid the eggs while I made sure no one was peeking out windows. We hid almost 140 eggs, 10 bottles of liquor and many cool prizes.

Kai and Ryan running opposite directions, hoping they've found a good egg.

The best part of the night was that Grandma and Grandpa agreed to keep the kids overnight. So we were able to stay up late and not worry about getting up every few hours to feed Noah. Although Noah did have Grandma and Grandpa up every hour all night, sorry guys.

Jane and Kevin running after more eggs. Jane was a big winner, 2 target gift cards, a candle and a dvd, way to go Jane!

Anyway we did a big potluck dinner and delicious desserts before the hunt began and the whole thing was over in about 20 minutes.

Kevin, Ryan and Linda all on the hunt.

We had a fire afterwards to burn some of the wood from the trees the guys cut down a few weeks ago.

Sally's attempt at a self portrait of the two of us.

Checking our their winnings.

Everyone loved the whole thing and it will definitely become a tradition.

Go! Weekend

It was the first weekend of April, and thats a big deal around here. It's time for the Go! St. Louis Family Fun Weekend. Abby ran her first race! She ran the 50 yard dash with over 100 other St. Louis kids on Saturday morning.

She was unsure of the whole idea on the way to Forest Park but once she got there and saw all the other kids getting ready to run she was ready.

Getting pumped up for the race.

I love this picture, how you can see Bobo in the reflection of the glasses.

The officials can run with an adult so Bobo ran with Abby. Halfway through the run she even let go of Bobo's hand and took off on her own. I was a one man band at the race so I taped the race, video to come.

Noah was unimpressed with the whole day. He woke up to eat and get a new diaper. He slept through the actual run.

We got there a little early because we registered on the day of and I wasn't sure about parking. Which means we had a lot of time to kill. Thankfully Abby is easily amused by dirt and dandy lions.

Post race, I tried to grab a shot at the finish line except Kung Fu Panda was there. A giant panda mascot.... this is Abby running for the hills. You can barely see the Panda on the right hand side of this picture. She doesn't like mascots.

Sunday morning we were downtown by 6:30a. Bobo was running the half marathon. Abby wasn't too happy about the early morning loudspeakers.

I love the embarrassed look on Abby's face. She isn't too sure about Dave's cheering methods.

Abby brought her princess camera with (it doesn't really take pictures) she takes lots of pictures just like mommy.

Mile 6, Bobo stopped to say hi, he was looking good considering that the temperature topped out at 91 degrees!

Abby loved Bobo's medal, finishing with a time of 1:54:42. Congrats Bobo!

6 weeks old

I can't believe Noah is already 6 weeks old. I kept telling everyone he had to be 11+ pounds and no one believed me. But let me tell you this Mama knows her kids. Guess what he weighed... 12lbs and .5oz! He has definitely earned the nickname Mr. Chubs. Although I looked back at Abby's weight at 6 weeks and she was 11lbs and 15oz, so they are still close in size. Noah continues to be an easy baby. He proved it again during his shot appointment, he fell asleep on the way there and didn't even flinch when the nurse gave him the shot. I never even took him out of the car seat so he slept until we were home. Amazing.

6 week photos

Friday Noah will be 6 weeks old. So I wanted to get some pictures to match the pictures I took of Abby the other day. And today Abby is at Grandma and Grandpa's so I thought I'd give it a try without my little helper. Side note, it probably would have helped to have Abby here. There was a lot of stuff to make this work and it was windy so the blankets kept trying to blow away. I'm sure the lady across the street putting out her mail was thinking "She's nuts." I guess I should have gone over and introduce myself but eh, whatever.

I know its just gas, but this smile is great. He looks so much older than 6 weeks.

He was sleeping when I started taking photos, but between the wind and the fact that I laid him in the mulch he didn't stay asleep long. Most of the pictures with his eyes shut are just luck.

Abby has the brownest eyes, Noah's look blue most days, but they maybe turning brown.

I love baby feet!

The beginning of the end of the photoshoot.

Most 6 week olds look cute swaddled, ours looks like a giant.

We don't swaddle him at night.... this is why. Such a boy.

"Sorry, were you still taking pictures? Oops, I just needed to stretch"

Still the cutest boy on the block!

Who is so done with this photo thing.

Work

Not mine, but Abby's. She is always telling us about her work. She loads her shopping cart and walks around the house telling us she's going to work usually she fishes at work but we never really know.

Today I took her and Noah to Suson Park, one of her favorite places. It's a county park that also acts as a farm. Pigs, goats, cows and the like. When we got there today she started talking about how we were at her work. She needed to see the ducks, which we did and she cried. They walked right up to us and started begging for food. It freaked me out a little and freaked her out even more. Once we moved on to the barn she recovered and told me all about the animals. It was hilarious. I should have brought the camera, she was on a roll. She knew all about the horses and pigs. It was great. When we left she told me we had to go back to work next week so she could see her friends. I told her that was a great idea.

Abby Stories

First here's a new picture of the little kiddos. This picture was Abby's idea. She loves laying on the couch with Noah and asking for their picture taken. Noah doesn't complain too much unless its close to mealtime.

I've been calling Noah "fatty" because he's such a chunk. Abby in return called me "fatty", it was out of the blue and she doesn't know what it means but I decided maybe Noah needed a different nickname. So today I started calling him "Mr. Chubs" Abby thinks this is really funny. I think she's already forgotten "fatty."

I'm pretty sure she was trying to put him in a headlock here.

I am trying to update some frames in the house and I knew it was a great day for a photo shoot because it was so overcast. Abby thought it was a little cold but she did a great job. Noah supervised from the front step.

I can't wait for the trees to start filling out with some color. Although I can't complain, I know much of my family in MN is still dealing with snow. Yuck!

It was a little windy but I think it actually helped. I attempted to trim Abby's hair myself last week, up close when there is no wind its quite a sight.

As I wrote about before Abby loves "The Little Mermaid" now she has started singing like Ariel. She sings "Part of Her World" and loves when Mommy plays along on the piano. She seems to think I know every song on the piano now that I played a few that she recognizes and doesn't understand why I can't play such simple songs as "Itsy Bitsy Spider." I can't wait until she's old enough to start playing. Right now she just likes to play really loud from the top to the bottom and back up the scale again.