Easter 2013

We spent Easter weekend at Ross' parents house.  We all had a great time.  Easter egg hunt on Saturday, and then Easter baskets on Sunday (not pictured).  I think we've got enough candy now to last us until Halloween!

This first picture cracks me up.

Happenings around here

This cute boy celebrated his 5th birthday this month.  We started the day 

with our traditional Krispy Kreme doughnuts.  Yum.

I asked him if he'd rather have a birthday party or go to 

Legoland, and he said, "that's a real place?"  He was super excited.

He and Grandma decorated his birthday cake. 

Grandma and Grandpa Terry made Ethan's 

birthday a special one with lots of legos.  

And then Grandma and Grandpa Honey and Sam and 

Kia came for the rest of the weekend.  

We're lucky to have family so close.

Ethan has grown up so much in the last year.  He has come out of his shell in unfamiliar situations a lot more, which I think he learned in preschool.  He has started reading 3-4 letter words, and he loves simple math.  He has become a really hard worker when he wants to be.  He is so affectionate.  He also loves mario kart and anything to do with star wars.  He has a silly sense of humor, and sometimes we just laugh at each other, and at how ridiculous Leah is.  He is a sweet, sweet boy, and I'm so glad he's my firstborn.

Here's some more random pictures from the last little while. 

Kia and Sam came to stay with us for a couple of days 

over spring break, and Kia is such a good aunt! 

 Leah is very demanding of her, and she always happily obliges.

Sam helped Ross do some work in the basement- 

we are trying to finish it before this baby comes, 

so we can make some room for a crib in the kids bedroom.  

Sam was a huge help!

Here we joined friends for a sunny day at the park.  

Can't wait for more days like that one!

We went to an Easter Egg hunt last Saturday before it 

started snowing.  Ethan had a lot of fun, despite being in a 

group with kids who were almost all older and 

much bigger and faster than him.

Ross has been out of town for the past couple of days so we made a 

quick trip to Manhattan to see my parents.  This play place is our

 favorite spot.  Leah was totally decked out and 

tripping over all her clothes.  Darling girl.

And lastly, I've been trying to stop being a 

slacker and start teaching Leah some more writing 

and her alphabet.  It's kind of all new to me, because Ethan 

pretty much picked it up on his own without much 

prompting; he has been way more interested than she has!  

But I think as long as I keep it kind of 

short, Leah does great and enjoys it.

TADA!  You're welcome, family. :)

Orlando

Duh I totally forgot to post about our trip to Orlando last December!  We won tickets to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, and then discounted tickets to a resort, through this kids convention where we had to enter our names in a drawing to get in.  We had to listen to a spiel about timeshare though, and that was kind of lame.  But we said no!  So anyway, Ross' parents watched our kids for us for almost a whole week.  It was a really nice break.  I was still feeling nauseous, but there was so much to see and do that I was pretty distracted the whole time. I just went to bed at 8 or 9 every night.  Sorry Ross. :)

 We started the the trip with an Airboat Tour on a huge lake.  It was really fascinating, and we went in the early evening, so it was gorgeous light.  Our tour guide new everything about all the surrounding wildlife, and we saw a lot of alligators!  They were all pretty small. 

The airboats were so awesome.  It could float right over just about anything.  We kept thinking we'd get slowed down or snag on something, but it just flew right over the 4 ft weeds/sticks.

The airboat, and one of the alligators:

The highlight of the trip for me was definitely Harry Potter World.  Oh it was so fun!  We went to Ollivander's Wand Shop, had Butterbeer and Cornish Pasties at The Three Broomsticks. (For those who are really nerdy: They sort of combine Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade.)   Butterbeer was delicious. It tasted like cream soda, but it had this creamy caramel-ly froth on top that was so yummy.  

The castle itself was pretty amazing too.  The ride was fun, but even the line was quite the experience with Dumbledore's office, and talking and moving portraits, and the sorting hat, etc.

And Honeydukes was pretty awesome as well.

Oh and the other parts of Island's of Adventure were pretty cool too.  Jurassic Park was probably my second favorite area. And Suess Landing was fun too.   We were glad we didn't end up going to Disney world because we would have just been thinking about the kids and how much fun they would have had if they were there.

We also went to the Blue Man Group.  Which was pretty unforgettable. (Not pictured) And also to Canaveral National Seashore for an afternoon.  We saw dolphins!

 Such a fun trip.  It was really nice to spend time together one-on-one and not worry about a schedule. I do hope in a couple of years we can go back though and take the kids to Disney World.  As always, thanks to Rhonda and Roger for watching the kids for us!

Sledding

Grandpa Terry made their day over Christmas break when he pulled them up the hill and pushed them down over and over again.  Actually I think he did that several times that  week.  Thanks Grandpa!  They loved every second!

Hilltop

So another highlight of last year was I made my photography business official.  It has gone really well and I stayed pretty busy in the fall.  The problem is, I was feeling super nauseous during the entire fall, when I was using my camera the most, and now every time I look at my camera I feel sick and want nothing to do with it.  Oh man.  I hope I can get over it soon, because obviously that would be crappy if I didn't want to take pictures any more. So I hardly have any pictures from Thanksgiving or Christmas... but I think I have a few floating around that I can post. 

These are from our Annual Hilltop Excursion last year.  

We always have a good/very very windy/sunny time.  

And thanks to my dad who took a lot of these!

Yay, a BABY

Another highlight from last year, is that we found out WE'RE HAVING A BABY!  Which most people know by now.  But anyway, we are really excited.  I'm due in June.  I've been a lot more sick with this one than I was with the other two.  I still have it better than a lot of people I know, but it has not been fun or easy.  This last week or two has given me a lot of relief though, at least during the day, and I hope it will continue to improve.

Ross has pretty much carried the family the last few months.  Getting his own chores around the house done, coming home from work and taking over kid-duty right away, finishing my chores for me (laundry, mopping, etc.), making dinner, and putting kids to bed most nights.  He's been amazing.

Here's their reactions to finding out we were having a baby.  It's the tail end of the conversation.  And it's mostly likely interesting to just family members, but there ya go.  

Halloween

Well... I'm still here.  My family is getting very impatient with me and this blog.  So here I am, updating!   The highlights of the last few months of the year include Halloween:  We found these really cheap princess costumes for $5 each, and Ross found the ninja costume for Ethan on his travels to San Francisco.  Honestly I felt really lame about them, but the kids were perfectly happy with them and didn't care that they were not very creative, or very well put together.  They just LOVE candy.