Easter

We had a busy (but good) General Conference Easter weekend with various family gatherings.  Sunday morning Noelle asked if the Easter bunny was real or not.  We told her it was just for fun--but once they had to hunt for baskets she was sure we were joking and there really was a bunny.  She has declared that next year she will wait and watch for the bunny.

Usually I just find baskets around the house for Easter (it's one more thing I don't have to store).  This year I did buy new baskets--but for the express purpose of corralling all of those little shoes!  They are usually everywhere and our little tiny basket was not keeping up with the mess.

She doesn't get puzzles yet--but still has fun playing with the pieces.

Emilia

Here are a few of Emilia at 10 months old.

I love my blankie!

And daddy too.

Why Hello!

What?  Corey graduates and I stop blogging for two years?  I don't know what you are talking about.  I'm going to start posting mainly pictures of our goings on so that I am better at taking pictures of our fast growing family.  How is Emilia almost 1 already?

The Final Graduation

You may or may not have noticed that last Friday the "days until graduation" counter on the blog has finally hit zero.  Talk about exciting!!

As graduation was in the evening we found a baby sitter to be with the girls so we could enjoy the ceremony.

Now my camera isn't great in low light.  Here's Corey parading into graduation with his fellow classmates. (ha ha, can't you see him?!)

I did get a half decent picture of when they called Corey's name.  Here is the grad shaking hands with the dean.

 

Here is Corey and his classmate friends.  We were really lucky to make some great friends here.  The wives of some of these guys got together often, which helped make the school years much more bearable!

Here's Corey in his fancy graduation garb.

Happy end of school Corey!  We are all very proud of your hard work.

Six Years

Today we celebrated our sixth anniversary.  We can't believe six years have gone by, which probably means we're old. 

I wish I could say we had a delightful day, but I'd be lying. 

We had a long week with sick or not feeling well kids.  Noelle had the brunt of it--fevers, bad sore throat, stomach bug, then consequences of dehydration from stomach bug.  Thankfully Noelle is finally feeling better tonight, she even asked to eat food and drink something (huzzah!).  She was even smiling and giggling before bed.  Sigh of relief!

Moving past the pitty party...this morning while were occupied (nap, movie) we snuck outside to take pictures.  We have to document these things or else we'll forget.

Love my flowers this year!  Such a fun mix of flowers, and it even has some bells of Ireland (the green flowers)--those were in my wedding bouquet.  Corey and Noelle picked out a great arrangement.  It was cute the florist gave Noelle a few daises that she happily brought home.

 
Even though we've had a stressful week with kids we're glad we're in this together and look forward to many more (and hopefully happier) anniversaries to come.  I think when the girls are older I'm going to go all out for Cinco de Mayo just for fun.  Even though we have nothing really to do with it we'll make it a family holiday.

Birthday Party

Noelle was so excited the morning of her birthday--if you couldn't tell from her pictures.  We decided to do a "Hello Kitty" theme, as she loves her right now.  I made a Hello Kitty themed flower garland, and then Noelle and I colored some fun birthday pages we found online.   

The splash park just opened last week so this was the first visit of the year!  Noelle was so excited to go, and was really excited to share some birthday treats with our playgroup friends. 

Ivy loves water, but the splash park isn't super for her age (you get splashed everywhere!).  She did like playing with the fountains bubbling before they got bigger.

Noelle was very excited for her kitty cake.  I think it turned out pretty well!  Probably my best kid cake so far.  Noelle only ate the jelly beans.  Goof.  Our kids don't like cake which is funny.

Now I'm just going to dump a lot of pictures.  Excited birthday girl!

The moment she has been waiting for!  Singing and blowing out the candles.

Noelle got some play kitchen accessories.  I finally got pictures of the play kitchen, I put them over on my craft blog, here.

After getting close she would say "next present!".  I don't think clothes are very exciting to her :)

Corey showing Noelle's puppy purse from Grandma Darlene.

Noelle's favorite gift from mom and dad was the little paint set.  She got right to work painting pictures.

Noelle is Three

Our little Noelle is not so little anymore!  She's the big T-H-R-E-E today and is completely ecstatic.  She's so excited for her birthday.  We have fun plans today.  Our play group is going to the splash park and we are bringing birthday treats to share.  Corey gave Noelle flowers this morning (a tradition we started last year) and she was so smitten.  I think she said "thanks dad" and "such a nice daddy" about ten times.