Fourth of July

We are the Easter people

Even though I woke up 30 minutes earlier than my usual Sunday wake up time, we were still racing out the door 90% sure that we'd have to sit in the balcony at church like we did last Easter. (Surprise of all surprises - we arrived well before the opening hymn and were able to squeeze into a pew in the main body of the church!) When I set my alarm the night before, I was sure that we'd have enough time to take a family picture in front of our newly blooming tree, but the breakfast of attempted bunny-shaped cinnamon rolls must have taken up more than its allotted share of time because we had to reschedule the photo shoot. We were so busy having fun with family in Yates Center the rest of the day that we ended up taking our Easter Sunday pictures on Easter Monday evening. Fake it until you make it, I guess!

Max has grown up just a little since last Easter:

The Easter Bunny knew we were going to be out of town for Easter, so he came to our house Saturday morning.

Happy Easter Monday, everyone! 

"Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people, and hallelujah is our song." -- Pope John Paul II

Easter Eggs

We didn't color Easter eggs last year because we were a little preoccupied with four-day-old Max, so we were excited to dye them for the first time with Natalie this year. We weren't sure how big the mess would be, so we took it outside.

Luck o' the Irish

Two pictures because I couldn't get them to both smile at the same time.

Here they are answering their phones. Max puts his hand up to his ear every time he hears someone say, "Hello," and Natalie likes to join in on the fun.

Fat Tuesday

Natalie and I made our first ever king cake this afternoon."King cake" or "circle of cinnamon rolls topped with sprinkles." Tomayto tomahto.

Max's 9 Month Pictures

The drive to and from Wellington to get the kids' pictures taken is getting so so so much easier. This time it was especially fun because we went on my birthday and stopped for birthday lunch at Cracker Barrel on the way home.

Natalie was really excited about going to Susan's because she loves to play with all of the props while Max gets his pictures taken. Susan had a Valentine's Day backdrop set up for Valentine mini sessions later in the week, so we got to use that and take Valentine pictures too. Here are a handful that Susan posted on Facebook. She never ceases to amaze.

Christmas!

Today both of the kids were sick and the temperature outside was 14 degrees - nothing too blog-worthy. Christmas, however, was wonderful and definitely blog-worthy, so here you have it:  Christmas, five days late.

Christmas Eve

Opening presents,

eating wrapping paper,

breaking in new high heels,  

baking cookies for Santa (in Max's new pajamas),

smiling to try to make up for the fit thrown at church,

 and waiting for Santa in new Christmas jammies.

All in a day's work.

Christmas Round 1

We hosted Christmas with my dad's side of the family at our house on Sunday. It was our first time hosting a holiday family get-together, so I was a little nervous, but it all seemed to go fairly well. Natalie and Max are currently (until April!) the only kids in the family, so they ate up all of the attention.

The Theology Lesson Continues

This morning Natalie (complete with bed head and Halloween pajamas) read This is the Stable to the nativity scene. She especially wanted the wise men to hear the part about them.

Then I saw this later while she was napping:

The little stack of books are "baby books" that she was reading to Baby Jesus.