Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend last week.  It was filled with great friends on Friday night, a visit to my Grandma's house on Saturday with lots of cousins, good food, an Easter egg hunt, and some kite flying.. and then Easter Sunday that included Ted taking Avery to sunrise service, followed by a visit from Ted's parents, a great church service, lunch, checking out progress on the new house, and more Easter treats! 

 All the kids opening their Easter baskets!

 Peyton and Natalie are so cute!

 Natalie found the golden egg! 

 Avery loved egg hunting this year!

 Avery is getting excited about our new house!



Sweet Natalie!  She has really had it rough the past few months with a persistent ear infection, teething, a horrible diaper rash from antibiotics....  I really hope she is over all of this!

Our New House!

After many years of looking, dreaming, planning... we are finally in the building phase of our new house!  We purchased our lot about 15 months ago, designed and drew up our plans last summer, and then finally closed on our construction loan and broke ground about 4-5 months ago.  It has been quite a process getting this house out of the ground.  There have been a few delays here and there, but now we are finally out of the ground, and our house is really taking shape this week!  We are so excited to be a part of this whole process!  Here are some pictures of our progress over the last several months....

Fun Comparisons!

I haven't done a comparison of the girls in a while, so I thought it might be fun to compare the girls in the bluebonnets! Sometimes, I look at Natalie and totally see Avery when she was a baby... and other days, I look at her and don't think they look alike at all. Let's see what you think!

 Avery (above) at 8 months old.  She weighed about 18lbs with stunningly big blue eyes, dark brown almost reddish hair, pale porcelain like skin, and two bottom teeth with the biggest smile on her face all the time!  I dressed her in lots of blues all the time to bring out those beautiful blue eyes. 

Natalie at 9 1/2 months old.  She weighs 22+ lbs with pretty hazel/brown eyes, lighter brown hair, pale but slightly tanner skin, two bottom teeth with chubbier cheeks, and a happy sweet smile.  I seem to dress her in pinks more than blues. 

Our girls definitely look like sisters, but are unique in their own special ways.  I enjoy looking back at pictures of Avery when she was Natalie's age and seeing what she was doing and wearing.  It seems like yesterday that Avery was 9 months old, playing in my tupperwear drawers, pulling out ziplock bags, crawling through the doggie door, playing peek-a-boo, pulling up on furniture, and doing all the cute little things that Natalie is doing now!  These months just go by so fast! 

Bluebonnets 2012

The bluebonnets are in FULL bloom this year, so we definitely had to take advantage of the beautiful fields of blue and get some cute pictures of the kids....

 A few of the girls...

 Avery - 2 years 7 months

 Natalie - 9 1/2 months

 It was no easy task, but we managed to get some of all of the cousins...

Courtney, Garrett, Avery, Natalie, and Peyton

And a couple pictures of our family of 4!

Grandma's 86th Birthday Lunch

Grandma turns 86 this week, so we celebrated with a little family lunch today.  We are incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful Grandma in our lives, who is always so loving, so supportive, so giving, so thoughtful.  And it is really something special to have a Great-Grandmother... our kids have no idea how lucky they are.  We are so thankful for everything she is to us!  Happy Birthday Grandma!  We love you!!!

 We finally got a picture of the whole gang with their Grandparents and Great-Grandma!

 The 5 Grandkids with their NaNa and PaPa

 PaPa and the 2 little ones, who look like they could be twins! 

Natalie and Peyton had so much fun playing together!

Little things...

Cherish the little things... because one day you'll look back and realize that they were the BIG things!

We've had lots of  "little" things happening at our house this week.

 Natalie started crawling this week!  She'll be 9 months old on Tuesday.

 Sweet girl... she's been kind of sickly for the past month.  Hoping she gets to feeling better soon!

 Ted says that there are 2 people in Natalie's world right now... Mommy and someone that is NOT Mommy.  She loves her Mommy... she made my day this weekend by saying Momma!!!

 Avery has really grown up this week!  She is pretty much potty trained now and is able to climb out of her crib now... so, looks like we'll be turning it into a toddler bed really soon!!!

 We just love our silly girl!

 2 1/2 is such a great age!!!

I just love my sweet girls!!!  I just feel so lucky to be their Mommy and cherish all of these precious "little" moments.  I know that I will look back in several years and wish for anything to be back during these days when the girls just think the world of their Mommy and Daddy, and life is busy but simple, exhausting but fun.