Birthday Party Fun!

After many months of avoiding my blog, I finally decided to post something. When I began posting, I quickly remembered why I had avoided it for so many months. It consumes more time, than I enjoy devoting to it!

Last weekend Luke and David celebrated their birthdays together. Luke turned 4 and David will turn 2 next month. We decided to combine their parties since it is quite difficult for Daddy to get a Saturday off. It worked quite well and may be a new tradition.

The birthday party was a blast! There were more activities than there was time to do them. The kids had so much fun. I think I even saw a few adults smiling, which is unusual for a childs party...ha ha! All jokes aside we really did have a good time. My only regret was running out of memory on my camera. Thankfully my family was able to capture the moments that I couldn't. So, here are just a few of the many smiles shared that day.

Beautiful day.

Petting the chic and turkey.

Luke feeding the horses.

David riding "Sarge".

David on the zip line.

Many thanks to all of our wonderful family and friends who made this birthday very special. Some of you traveled a long distance to be with us and we certainly appreciate it. We love you all!

Our 4th Anniversary/Sigma Chi 40th

We just celebrated our 4th Wedding Anniversary! It is amazing how fast time flies! I got out our wedding album to reminisce. The memories of our wedding day were so vivid. In our four years of marriage we have grown a wonderful relationship together and I anticipate how great it is going to be as the years pass.

It was a coincidence that CJ's fraternity is celebrating its 40th Anniversary. A few weekends ago we traveled to Kentucky to celebrate both anniversaries! Looking back I regret not having taken more pictures! I am really bad about that. So I included the few pictures that I did take. We had the opportunity to see a lot of friends that we rarely see. There were a few that we missed that were unable to come. While the entertainment at the dinner was a little lacking we managed to have a lot of fun anyways.

The entire weekend that we were there, it snowed. It was beautiful! At first we had a hard time getting used to the cold, but by the end of the weekend we seemed to adjust to it. I only snapped a few pictures and it was while we were in the car..enough said. On our last day CJ took me by his hometown and showed me the house where he grew up. That was so fun! I loved getting to see his home, schools and friends houses where they grew up. It meant a lot to get to see a part of his life...then.

The Family at Easter

Everyone was at the ranch for Easter, except Mike, Casey & AbbyKate whom we missed terribly. Bill recently came hom from Iraq and so we were all excited to see him. Matt, Beth & Josh came to stay for the weekend. It was Josh's first Easter. He looked so handsome in his little outfit which looked a lot like Luke's so they looked really cute together. Unfortunately the weather was not exactly bright and shiny. So, we did not hide eggs in the yard for the kids.

I decided that being pregnant during holidays is not a bad thing. Ginger made a huge lunch which included lots of snacks and of course desserts! Yum! So I was a very happy girl. At Easter I was 33 weeks along so those of you who are or have been pregnant can relate to my appetite.

Part of the day we spent introducing Bill to the world of Rock Band. He had never played it before so we had to bust out our musical skills on him. It was a lot of fun. Beth did a wonderful job on vocals as usual..hee hee! The rest of the day was kinda low key since we were still stuffed. Despite the weather we had a great day and we look forward to family coming again soon.

Papa & Nana with the grandkids.

Cousins Luke & Josh playing.

Easter Egg Hunt

On Saturday Luke went to his first Easter Egg Hunt! He had so much fun. The Blackstones (from church) host a hunt every year. They have children from toddler age up to 6th graders. With a beautiful home in the country, they were able to divide the children into seperate groups by age. They obviously had a lot of experience with hunts because the older children were much more aggressive and determined than the smaller children. It was so fun to watch the toddlers hunt. They were very cautious and curious about what might be found inside a plastic egg. Most of the children stayed occupied with eating candy. Luke on the other hand took great joy in picking up every rubber duck that he could find. Of course the ones wearing hats were his favorite. After several hours of playing on the swingset, hunting eggs & eating yummy snacks...we decided it was time to go home. It was a beautiful sunshiny day with good friends.

Luke enjoys his hard earned sucker

while mommy just enjoys sitting.

Luke made friends with a ceramic cat.

It's about time!

I decided to bite the bullet and start a blog! So many of my friends and family have suggested that I start one. I feel like this is just another something to keep up with, but I will give it a try. So many of you live far from us, so it will be an easy way for you to keep up with our family happenings. XOXO