Easter

Lots of Easter fun took place at our house last week. I have so many pictures I could vomit, so I will mostly let them speak for themselves! I dyed eggs with the boys on Good Friday, and Daddy got to help paint them that night.

Practicing our egg hunting skills...

I see one!!!!!

Easter bunny brought Sweet Baby a new teething toy.

Love suckers!

We rock. We ate breakfast, hunted eggs, began our candy glutton-fest, and made it to 8:30 am church all in one piece with a few minutes to spare! Had to take a photo before the chaos began and outfits were ruined with chocolate. :)

All of my side of the family came to our house for an egg hunt and lunch. Sweet Mom made the yummiest shrimp enchiladas and salad, which made the day sooooo much easier for me.

Ardie was a good helper to the "novice" hunters.

Hmmmm. Snicker, snicker. Wonder what that's about....

My Dad's mother, Elaine, is 90 and such a trooper to endure the noise and chaos!

So, even though I don't have pictures of most of the parents, I at least got all the kids. We had a super fun day, and my crew was exhausted to say the least. Happy times, and many more to come!

Shep at 9 months

Where does the time go???? Shep is just over 9 months now, and I feel like his infant-hood is slipping away from me! :(

At the doctor last week, this is how he measured up:

Height: 26 inches (5%)

Weight: 18 lb. 2 oz. (10-25%)

He rocks on all 4s a lot and can go once or twice on them, but always resorts to the army crawl. Guess it's faster. (I remember Charlie being the same way...then he finally crawled one day, and walked the next). Shep is also pulling up on some lower things, but not quite the coffee tables and whatnot. He puts everything in his mouth. Still no teeth, which is fine by me because there isn't much I love more than a toothless smile!!

He of course is perfect and precious, and I can't even remember life without him!

This step was way overdue, but for sanity's sake I postponed it until now....We graduated Shep to the big boy tub with William and Charlie! He felt so big, and big brothers thought it was sooooo funny!

Washing each other's hair...William washing his and Charlie's, Charlie was washing Shep's.

Big Cedar Fun

The weekend before Easter, MiMi and Grandad treated everyone to a fun filled weekend at Big Cedar. It also happened to be MiMi's birthday on Saturday, which made the weekend that much more special! We were the first to arrive on Friday around noon since all of the other cousins had school that day. We walked around, Charlie napped, and William and I built Lincoln Logs while we waited for the rest of the crew to arrive. We ate dinner with MiMi and Grandad while all the others were stuck in traffic, and then the boys had to check out the jets in the bathtub...

William was terrified of them on the first trip to Big Cedar a few years ago. He and Charlie thought they were hilarious this time.....one of the funnest parts of the trip. You've never seen such pruned little bodies in your life!

So Charlie is my little Mr. Independent. He has never been down a slide in his life. He will sit at the top of the one at home and then chicken out and climb back down the ladder. He doesn't want help or anyone right there by him. I've tried to show him how to go down backwards on his belly and he will have NO part of that. We took them to one of the little playgrounds on Saturday, and I guess their slide was just the perfect size. I turned around, and look what Charlie did! All on his own, no one was even looking when he first sat down. He just got up the courage and did it. Again. And again. And again. He felt sooooo big.

Before MiMi's birthday dinner....

All the cousins.... this picture was taken with my phone and isn't that great. I guess our activities were pretty different than the "big kids" so I don't have many pictures of the cousins. :(

The Grand Finale to the weekend.....a horse ride. William was sooooooo excited to get to ride a horse. (It was another thing he was terrified of a few years ago at Big Cedar). He did such a good job and was so big about it! I love this picture of him petting the horse. He looks so big, so sweet, so innocent, so perfect.

Here we go...

If Bubba is big enough, so am I...

We didn't intend to let Charlie ride a horse based on William's performance when he was the same age (actually a little older). However....

he did it!!

He looks so tiny sitting on that horse! He did not whine or cry one time, he was so good!

And this was my all time favorite.....William cheering Charlie on when he finished his ride. He patted Charlie's back the whole way back to the stable telling Charlie how good he did riding the horse. Sweet brotherly love.

And Sweet Baby did great at Mom's house while we were gone. Aunt Janie was there to help, and Shep was a perfect little angel, of course. He learned to go from belly to sitting all by himself!

Thanks MiMi and Grandad for such a fun weekend, we love you!!