Happy Easter!

We had a fantastic Easter weekend.

We spent a great evening with friends the night before we left out of town for Easter. Mandy hosted. The main reason for gathering was to dye Easter eggs with the kids. We made homemade pizza. Mandy and I shared a bottle of red. Sarah and her beautiful pregnant self brought the cheese and plastic eggs filled with goodies for an Easter egg hunt. Luckily Holden's mood improved and Tara and Arabella were able to join us too. Poor Chris ended up being the only guy but as we all know... he is a good sport. :) Zach chose to go out of town a day early with Nana and miss the gathering so we missed him!

The kids waited patiently before wandering the yard looking for the eggs. They were each given a red solo cup to collect their finds. Joseph started singing some red solo cup song??






The hunt is on


We then lined up more red cups to do the egg dye. We all agreed that doing this process as a group was definitely less stressful and fun for us all!




Mandy recently got the OK to have her chickens and this was their first day in their new house. They were a little sketchy over the kids chasing them trying to pick them up and then all these eggs. They kept trying to jump up and peck at them.


At the end of the night the kids were happy that the chickens were tired and they were actually able to carry them to the coop.

(Jackson - he said he is going to marry Hannah and brought her a flower to school :) )

I think technically Arabella picked up the chicken(s) and handed them to Hannah but she was SO excited to hold them




The tree got a workout this evening. Only 1 incident that was fixed with kisses and a band-aid.


The next day we headed out to my hometown and had an early Easter dinner at my grandmothers house. GG is 88 this year! It was nice and relaxing and I failed to take many pictures so here's all I got.





The next morning we had an egg hunt and brunch with Chris' mom and step dad.

We had an uneventful drive home and we spent Sunday afternoon home preparing for the week ahead.

I definitely feel blessed this year!! Hope you all had a memorable weekend as well!

My birthday - 34

A couple months back I was thinking ahead and mentioned to my mom I would like to go wine tasting for my birthday this year. It came up in conversation with my aunt who said "Oh, I won this free lunch and antique limo ride thing through Cass Winery, we could go that day".

It became a fun relaxing girls day out. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a balmy mid-70s day. Cold enough for a sweater in the early afternoon but warm and refreshing as the afternoon wore on.



Seriously... look at this car. It was a 1947 Chrysler Windsor Limousine. My mom told me about a car that her and my dad had when my brother was a baby that this car reminded her so much of. My dad wanted to sell it to get a motorcycle.





I would love to rent out this space for an event



We had an amazing lunch at Cass and we got in the limo for a 5 hour trip to some of the local wineries. We got in the car and Erykah Badu's "Live" album was playing. (It was funny because my niece and I just loaded this album to our respective ITunes when she was in town visiting us 3 weeks ago. But I hadn't listened to it yet on my ITunes so to get in the car with this 60-something chauffeur playing this album. Priceless!)

My mama and I



My aunt and the chauffeur up front chatting about how he was picking up Drew Barrymore the next day for the film festival at Hearst Castle. We thought that was pretty cool.



We drive out several miles through the gorgeous hills around the wineries listening to music and chatting. As we start pulling into the next winery the car makes a funny noise and starts smoking. Luckily it made it around the parking lot and was able to safely park. We went in to wine taste and they had to call back to the winery for another car to pick us up and take us to get our car. Luckily the wine was good and the view was gorgeous so it did not put a damper on our day.







Left to our own transportation, we continued on to several wineries. I didn't get pictures at every stop (I think there were a total of 5), but here are a few from our day.









When we were done it was about a 20 minute drive home.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE where I live??

2011 - Year in Review - Part 4

October-
Of course, Halloween! We went to a few events so Hannah had a couple different costumes that she wanted to wear out of her dress up clothes. Zach was Batman!







One big milestone happened in October. We took our first camping trip as a family! Now granted, we were only about an hour away and we only went for one night, but it went pretty well. Chris hasn't sworn it off at least. That is a good sign. We went with a few families of friends so we all shared cooking duties and kept an eye on each others kids. We got a great campsite right by the playground and there were so many deer that would walk up so close to us. The kids were in awe and truth be told, so was I! We had beautiful weather and the kids had a blast playing in the lake.














This is the "but I don't want to leave mama" face












The next morning the girls were playing in our tent and Zach walked over there. There was a little baby fawn going potty by our tent! Zach had to show the girls.


The girls looking at the deer on the grass next to our campsite




The deer were curious while we ate breakfast


OK this post became really picture heavy. So really... the next one... Final Installment!

Christmas

Another Christmas has passed us and as always, we had a great holiday. The kids really embraced Santa and was excited about him bringing them presents and filling their stockings. On Christmas Eve, Zach was convinced that Santa was not coming. He explained to us, numerous times, that one of the elves had a cough and Santa had to stay at the North Pole to take care of him. Because of this he did not want to make cookies for Santa or put out carrots for the reindeer. Later that night, Zach came down with croup and we sat in a steamy bathroom helping him breathe. In the middle of the night on Christmas night, it was Hannah. So.. needless to say.. that was not a fun part of the holiday yet seems fitting after the year we have had. Christmas day itself was nice so we are left with some great memories.

Here are some pictures from our holiday season...

The kids on the carousel at our towns "Winter Wonderland" celebration


Meeting Mr. and Mrs. Claus. While in line, Zach insisted that he would not be speaking to Santa or taking a picture. When it came to be our turn.. this is what happened...






Hannah had her first chance to ride on a horse and she LOVED it


Hannah and I making cookies for Santa (yes, I used break and bakes... don't judge.. it was a busy day!)


Hannah putting out carrots for the reindeer




Hannah putting the cookies out for Santa. This picture makes me laugh... as she was walking the plate over to the table.. one of the cookies fell... I told her she could eat it. Then she wanted to eat them all. I told her she couldn't and this was the face I got


Digging into their stockings on Christmas morning


After opening presents, having breakfast and playing with toys for awhile, we drove over the hill to Nana's house (my mom) for more presents and Christmas dinner.

Zach helping Nana make gravy


Zachary having an after dinner nap with Uncle Brian (and yes.. they were both really asleep. In fact, there was snoring)