Let the celebrating begin!!!

April 23, 2014

As most people reading this blog probably know, we are in the middle of our busy busy birthday season with all 5 of our birthdays within 20 days of each other.  The first of which is ALL three of the boys on April 24th.  

The Brown's weren't going to be able to make their birthday party, so we kicked off the celebrations a day early with an old favorite...dinner at El Mirasol!

^^ With our babies ^^    

^^ and the standard picture of us and our girls!  We were recreating the picture of the 4 of us 6 years ago when the girls first met at just a few day old.

Cousin time!

My sister and her family stuck around all of Easter day so we got some good cousin time for all SEVEN of them!

We tried, but it's hard to get three babies at the right time...this was Owen's nap time.   Seeing Asher next to these two it almost seems weird to call him a baby.  :)

^^ Erin with her sweet family of SIX! ^^

Easter brunch

This was our second year to host Easter and we love having all the family at our house!  We had 26 people over and were so lucky to have BOTH of our families here this year, missing only one person, Uncle Lawrence.  :(  

We do a pot-luck style brunch/lunch, then a big Easter egg hunt and this year we heated up the pool for our first big swim of the season!!

^^ Easton spilled his milk as I was trying to get a picture of the kids table...I thought this picture turned out pretty funny! ^^

On your mark....

Get set...

GO!!!

Poor Asher was the easiest target for Ella and Easton!

Easter morning

Asher was up bright and early like most mornings and quickly found a hidden egg, right on his level. :)  As the other kids woke up, Easton was the first to notice the Easter baskets and he yelled, "Ella, you've got to come see this!!"  They were so excited!!   

After breakfast, we got cleaned up and snapped a few family pictures while waiting for our Easter guests to arrive!

^^ The best picture ever of my mom and kids!!^^

We LOVE the years when Easter falls AFTER tax season!  Unfortunately that won't happen again for another FIVE years! :(

Ella lost her FIRST tooth!

March 19, 2014

Ella first noticed her loose tooth at the end of March.  About 3 weeks later it got noticeably looser and we knew she would be loosing it very soon!  A day or two before Easter she really hoped she would lose it so that she could surprise Mimi when she came to visit.  We also talked about how cool it would be if the Easter bunny AND the Tooth fairy were here on the SAME NIGHT!  

So there we were the day before Easter and I heard Ella calling me with a worried tone to her voice.  There she was, holding her tooth about to cry saying, "Mommy, Asher knocked out my tooth!!"  I reminded her that she WANTED to lose it. I think it just freaked her out that she was playing with Asher and the next minute he must have bumped her in the mouth and out it came!  So funny.  She was still soaking it all in and then when she looked in the mirror she got even more upset about it.  It was her TOP tooth and all of her friends had lost only their bottom teeth so she definitely looked different and she was really embarrassed at first, even saying that she "was never going to smile ever again!".  (a bit dramatic)  But after wanting some alone time in her room, falling asleep, and then moping around for another hour with her mouth closed she FINALLY told Daddy what had happened and showed him her missing tooth.  After that she got over her embarrassment and now loves her missing tooth! 

She was in fact extra special getting a visit from both the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny that night!