Easter Weekend

We had a jam packed Easter weekend this year. The fun started with our community Easter egg hunt. This event cracks me up. The kids line up in a giant rectangle. The grass is littered with eggs. It's not so much about hunting for eggs as it is gathering as many eggs as you can before other kids get to them first. It's over in under a minute, but all the kids are happy with their baskets full of candy-filled eggs.

Jeff and Charlie before the hunt begins Grace quickly found some of her favorite friends. They walked hand-in-hand to find the best place to collect their eggs.

Waiting for the whistle to tell them they can start. Grace has her game face on! (Jeff took Charlie over to the 3 and under area so that he wouldn't get trampled by the 4-6 years olds. Sadly, the toddler area ended up being much more rambunctious, and Charlie got plowed over right away by an over zealous mom!)

And they're off! You can see that this is serious business for our competitive little girl!

Showing off his loot! Checking out all their goodies! And a VERY rare picture of the moms! I am SO thankful for these women (and the couple more who aren't pictured here)! We have been in a playgroup together since Grace was 13 months old, and I think I look forward to our time together just as much or more than the kids do.
Later that day, we dyed Easter eggs. This was the first time attempting this since the great red dye spill of 2008. The kids had a blast and we managed to keep the mess contained this time.
On Easter morning we woke up and had gluten-free bunny shaped pancakes as requested by the kids. We opened Easter baskets quickly and headed to church! The morning was so busy that I sadly didn't get any good pictures. We had an awesome time celebrating Jesus' resurrection with our church family. The BIG EVENT of the day happened just after the service when Grace came running up saying that she couldn't find her tooth. I was totally confused until I looked in her mouth and realized she had lost her first tooth! It came out while she was eating a strawberry, and she much have swallowed it because we couldn't find it anywhere. I can't believe that I didn't get a single picture of her toothless smile, but I will!

Then we headed to Grammy and Bops for a fun lunch. We started out with an Easter egg hunt for both the kids and grown-ups. My own kids were moving too fast and were too interested in finding their eggs to get any good pictures, but cute little Parker was quite happy to smile for the camera and show off her egg!

Once the hunting was finished, Grace has happy to sit with Parker.

Then all the kids got really fun Easter baskets!

Afterwards, we headed to Grandma and Boppo's for MORE celebrating. (Hey, if ever there was a time for celebrating, Easter is it, right!?!?) It's so funny how our celebrations have changed. It was a little complicated finding a time when no one was napping and no babies were nursing to open Easter baskets together, but eventually we got there!!
The "big" kids hid under Boppo's desk waiting for Grandma to hide their Easter baskets.

Time to open them up!

A rare (and somewhat random!) picture of me and sweet Olivia.

Then we had another Easter egg hunt!

Boppo and Olivia watching the hunt.

Then we enjoyed a delicious dinner together and laughed at how much "happy chaos" has come to our family gatherings. A few favorite moments from the dinner table...

• As we got ready to pray, Jacob held out his new Woody doll to Grace's new Jessie doll and said in a gruff voice, "Wanna hold my hand?" All of his new Toy Story action figures ate dinner with us!


• Charlie, who earlier in the day had learned from his big sister what happens to the food we eat, bit off the head of a peep, jumped down from his chair, and exclaimed, "I bit off his head, now I'm going to go poop it out!"
  

It was such a fun, joyous day!!

Siblings

There three munchkins sure bring me a lot of joy...And totally wear me out!I love watching the friendship between the three of them begin. And one of just sweet little Olivia. She started to giggle yesterday, and it's just about he cutest sound you can imagine. (And, as all worthy Tinkerbell fans know, every time a baby laughs for the first time, a new fairy is born. It has been a time of rejoicing around our house because Grace is sure there is a new addition to Pixie Hollow this week thanks to Olivia!)

Random Pictures

Olivia looked so sweet getting ready for church on Sunday. The headband didn't actually stay in for church, but it was cute for a short time! My two beauties... This picture makes me laugh because it's so true to Olivia's life. She's constantly getting poked and prodded by one of her siblings.

My new favorite of Charlie...

2 Month Comparisons

One of the most common questions I get is, "Who does Olivia look like?" Up until the last week or so, it was hard to say that she really looked much like either Grace or Charlie. However, in the last week, everywhere we go, I hear, "She looks just like Charlie!" I can see it, but I was actually thinking she looked more like Grace did as a baby, so I dug out the older kids' pictures to compare. What do you think?

Olivia, 2 months old

23 3/4 inches, 12 pounds 10 ounces Grace, 2 months old 24 1/4 inches, 12 pounds 4 ounces

Charlie, 2 months old

26 inches, 13.5 pounds

2 Months Old!

Our sweet little Olivia is already two months old! I really can't believe how fast time is going...although some days seem to last forever! Olivia is such a sweet little girl. She loves to cuddle and much prefers to nap in someone's arms than in her crib. She has such a fun personality. Her face lights up with a smile whenever anyone talks to her, but she is especially happy to get attention from her big brother and sister. She is not a great napper, but is a rock star at night! She has been sleeping a 10-11 hour stretch for about a week now! We had her 2 month check-up today, and she now weighs 12 pounds, 10 ounces and is 23 3/4 inches ong0. Grace and Charlie are settled into their new roles as big sister and big brother. They are quick to give her her paci when she needs it and love to snuggle with her any chance they get. Every night when they are going to bed, I bring Olivia in to lay beside each of them for awhile. She gets lots of hugs and kisses and is usually ready for the cuddle time to be over long before her brother and sister want her to go! And now for the picture overload. Be prepared to be overwhelmed by extreme cuteness!! :)

(I totally overexposed this one and tried to fix it in photoshop but ended up with this. It's a little funky but I like it!)

Charlie wanted to be in the picture with her. I love this one of them together!

But by the time Grace came to join in, Olivia was DONE having her picture taken. Too bad, it would have been so sweet!! One of these days I'll get one of the three of them!