Easter 2011

After church on Sunday we went to my mom's. First things first - a family picture. Since it was raining, we took it on the porch swing. I love this swing and if we ever move to a house with a porch we will have a swing just like it.


My favorite part of the pictures we took.


Then it was time to open Easter baskets from Grandma and a Easter bag from Aunt Tara. They were pretty much bursting with excitement to do this, which is probably why they were so willing to sit for photos. They knew what was coming next - baskets filled with candy.

After we ate, mom and I hid eggs for the girls to find. I love watching them look for eggs. I love how excited they get each time they find one.



Then it was time to eat more candy. And cheesecake. Really good cheesecake.

Ten on Tuesday

1. Tonight I was watching CMT's countdown of the top 40 country songs of the decade. I was doing this while rocking Ryan. Watching country music videos while holding your still-new baby boy means there will be tears. Just saying.


2. Have I mentioned I think he's cute? I do.


3. The above picture was taken on Thanksgiving at my in-laws. We were out in my father-in-law's workshop watching the trains. The kids love it. They all got to pick out a train car from Grandpa's collection to take home. Which means the train around our tree will be three cars longer. And since our track isn't that big, there's a good chance the first car will be meeting up with the last.

4. Impressed the girls are looking without making faces and Ryan's awake.


5. Mackenzie's really into reading. And reading to Ryan.


6. All the Sweeney grandkids.


7. Sigh. I love him.


8. I mentioned the love of reading. I have a love of seeing them read books.


9. Also, I love hearing her read aloud.


10. Funny Ryan sleeping pictures.

The End.

Back to Halloween

It's never too late to get the Halloween pictures up, right?

Our Halloween festivities began the Thursday before Halloween when we met up with all my workout girls for trick-or-treating at First and Main. It's an outdoor shopping mall, very cute, and many of the store employees dress up to hand out the candy.

I had no chance of getting them all to look at me. And this was only half of the group. It was crowded, and near impossible for everyone to stay together.

Next up was the Halloween parade and trick or treating at Emma's preschool.

Mackenzie dressed up too, and was the candy-hander-outer.

Emma was Belle. We tried hard to find Strawberry Shortcake, but it wasn't meant to be.


And Ryan just looked cute in his spider hat and slept.


Then on Halloween Sunday, we had trick-or-treat. Lisa, Tim, Bree and Ava came over for our 3rd annual Halloween trick-or-treat party. We missed having Larry, Beth, Caroline and Jack there though. It wasn't the same without Beth's super cute mini-cupcakes!

Ryan was a football. Hee.


And underneath his costume, he had a pumpkin butt. Another hee. Also, he was 6 weeks old that day.


Hello Dora, Belle and Football.



Bree was not wasting any time.


At our next door neighbors, Bob and Stacy's.



Ryan slept through it.



After we hit a few houses, the boys took the girls for more trick-or-treating while Lisa and I sat by the fire pit. Much warmer there. But by 7:30 they were done, I took Ryan in and Michael and the girls handed out candy until it was over at 8. Emma is now Cinderella, as she tripped on her Belle dress twice and fell face first onto driveways. But she's tough -no tears, just wanted to switch costumes.


And you might've noticed Dora was blonde up above. She should've looked like this:

But she wouldn't wear the wig. I got it on her once, when we tried on her costume, and that was it. I wish she would've worn it, so stinkin' cute.

Happy Mother's Day

So we started off the day with church, then brunch at Doogen's. Yum. Prime Rib, veggies, potatoes, ribs, chicken marsala, turkey, salmon, pancakes and other breakfast items (which is what the girls ate), fruit, omelet station, desert. Yum. Yum. Yum. We were full. Really really full.

Attempted a picture when we got home. This is the best of the bunch.


But we also got these.




All the moms got a rose at brunch. One flower. Which meant two little girls had to share. It didn't always go well.


This afternoon while Mac slept and Emma snuggled with Daddy for a bit, I ran out to the mall to exchange a shirt. It's always nice to be able to get in and out of some place, without buckling small children. When I got home I napped. And apparently I was sound asleep, because Michael said Mackenzie got right in my face to tell me she pooped and I don't remember it. I'm glad I was asleep. We had pizza for dinner. Yum again. Love Papa Johns. And now I'm installing Photoshop Elements 8. I will now be able to use Pioneer Woman's actions and I'm happy.

Friday my mom and sister came over and we took our mom out to lunch for Mother's Day. Emma took this for us. It was bright out. Hence the squinty eyes.


But before we got that winner, we also got these. Emma just snaps away without really waiting for us to say cheese, or anything.

(since my sister doesn't read this, she'll never know I posted that. hahaha.)

She's also learning about centering, as in not cutting off grandma. More lessons are needed.

We celebrated Mother's Day with Michael's mom yesterday at Claire's birthday party. I really should've taken a picture of Michael and Marty with their Mom but I'm just now thinking about that now. Oops.


It was a fabulous day. Happy Mother's Day to all my friends. Thank you to my awesome husband and amazing children. Today was wonderful, I loved it and I appreciate it. I am mom to two absolutely wonderful children, with baby boy (who is kicking me) on his way. I cannot believe how blessed I am and thank Him every day for my girls, this (still can't believe it!) baby boy and Michael.

Happy Easter!

Easter was great. We went to Michael's parents after church, well after coming home and letting the girls open their Easter baskets, for lunch and and egg hung. I think this was our best attempt at a family picture. I love the smile on Emma's face - she just saw her Grandpa after he came out of the garage and she was very excited. Mackenzie, well, she just wasn't a fan of the picture taking. Plus she had blisters from her new sparkly princess shoes. But hey, Michael and I are looking!


Mac checking out her eggs.


Emma with the first one she'd found.


And this look of joy on Mackenzie's face is just awesome. She was having a blast driving the jeep. Although she's a bit of a wild woman in it.


I actually tried to get this up Sunday. I have a great little video of Emma singing her Easter song, one she made up. It's awesome. But for the life of me I can't get the YouTube video to post. I also wanted to put up a couple videos of two of my favorite songs, ones we sang in church that day but they won't go up either. Hoepfully I can get them up soon.

This year, we've got pumpkins.

Last year, while we went to a pumpkin patch for a fall festival, we didn't get pumpkins. No real good reason why, just didn't. But this year, we've got some. Four to be exact. Sunday after church we went to a local farm that had pumpkins, a hay ride, some animals, lots of fall fun.

On the hay ride.



Picking pumpkins.



Yet another attempt at a family picture.


The girls with their pumpkins. Mackenzie ended up trading hers for a bigger one, though.


Another attempt at a picture of the girls smiling.


Mac went in the bouncy house. She was only in there for a few minutes, but she loved it. Emma just watched. No surprise there.


Emma as a witch.

Today it feels more like winter than fall. It's cold, overcast, supposed to rain. But we've got pumpkins!