Easter Sunday

So I'm a bit behind in posting this...sorry. It's been a busy week :) We had the kids' Easter baskets and outfits laid out so they would see them as soon as they got up.
I'm pretty sure Leah didn't notice hers...

...but when Eli came out he noticed his right away. As I was taking this picture I noticed giant red spots all over his face. He got eaten alive by a mosquito in the night...lovely. He looked like he had gotten in a fight. Oh well...

I don't think he realized there was candy in the eggs. There were some cars hidden in the grass, though, and he played with those that morning while we got ready. (pretty sure I ate all the candy) That boys loves his cars...

We tried to get a family picture before we left, but my dress and Leah's dress totally washed out and we look like we are wearing glowing white dresses...

Jennifer took this picture for us...but Eli was working on, um...well...we had to take a break from pictures to have a little diaper change...

While he was getting a diaper change, Leah and I got some pictures taken :)

Eli's buddy Olivia.

I'm thinking this is a pretty typical family shot when you have a 2 year old...

After church we headed to Abuela's house. Eli fell asleep on the way there and slept through lunch. He got up and still looked dashing in his suit :)

I couldn't pick my favorite...so here are a bunch of Leah.

She really enjoyed the ribbons on her dress...eating them, that is...

Sticking her tongue out at mommy :)

Yes, this is the dress I made for her :) I made a skirt for myself out of the same material...but I don't have a good picture of that skirt. It wasn't nearly as 'ruffle-y' as Leah's :)

The cousins :) Eric & Leilani couldn't make it, so Isaac wasn't there :(

Eli wasn't too thrilled about taking this picture either. I think by that point he was tired of pictures, and tired of being in long-sleeves. It was fairly warm out.

So he got out of his church clothes and played in the water table at Abuela's house for pretty much the rest of the afternoon. He LOVED it. (And he did have a shirt on at one point, but it got soaked.)

Abuela making Leah laugh.

Eli even had a car for the water table :)

I'm not sure why I found this so funny...but Edgar was explaining something to Eliott and needed this sketch thing to do it...

We had such a nice, relaxing Easter. The service at church was beautiful, and the fellowship of family was so nice.

This Easter season has been so wonderful. It has been so amazing teaching Eli about Jesus and what He did on the cross for us. Our prayer is that we will daily seek to serve and love God more faithfully and raise children that live in the light of His resurrection.

Race Day!

I've been running. Slowly, but I've been running. One thing that really helps motivate me to keep running is to register for a race, so when I found a race right near home I went for it. Krista signed up too, and we were excited to run a race together. This would be Krista's very first race. I was excited to run it with her :) As we trained, however, it was clear that I would not keep up with her...but at least we'd start together. Race day came bright and early. We thought both of our families would be there, but Eliott had worked the night before, so he stayed home with Katie, and Edgar wasn't feeling all that great, so he stayed with Eli & Leah. It was okay, though. We had fun just the two of us. Because it was just us I didn't take my camera, so this is the only picture I have...the 'before' picture. Krista got some with her phone, but I forgot to have her send them to me. She got the 'after' picture...not sure you want to see that anyway :)

The race was good. My goal for the race really was accomplished before I even started. I had registered for it to motivate me to run...and it had worked. Unfortunately, however, I think because I had very low ambitions for the race, I lived up to them. I wouldn't say I'm disappointed, but I really thought I'd do a little better. Oh well. The course was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It was off-road, which I knew about...but there were a lot of sandy spots, and several inclines. (As a side note...the race was the route that Edgar and I used to run years ago before we were even dating. It's really where we got to know each other. It was a bit sentimental...for about 100 yards...then it was just painful.) As soon as I started I knew it was going to be a long race...my legs felt tired from the very start. I ended up walking quite a bit and finished with a time (by my watch) of 37:49. I didn't feel like I ran super hard, or gave it my best...but my legs WERE tired the next day, so I must have done some work :) I also forgot my mp3 player, so I ran without music which I don't usually do. I think I might just blame it all on that :)

Krista did great. I don't remember her time, but she was waiting at the finish line when I crossed, which was super nice to see. Because it was off-road and in the woods, there really wasn't anyone cheering for you, so it was fun to have someone cheering me on at the end :) We have plans to do another race together...that is on the road.

Afterwards we went to Einsteins and got bagels and coffee-YUM! That always makes a run worth it :)

After that Jennifer and the kids came over to decorate cookies and cupcakes. I didn't take any pictures of that either...but you can see the pictures Jennifer took HERE. They were yummy and very fun to decorate.

That evening we went to Eric & Leilani's house for a Passover Seder. It was a nice evening. Always a very interesting evening to attend a Seder. So neat to see how Jesus fulfilled so many of the things that Passover represents. Again, however, I did not take pictures. Such an eventful day, and I only took one picture...

I got home and put the finishing touches on some things for Easter Sunday, and went to bed excited to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus the next day!

Easter Egg Hunt

Thursday some of my friends got together so our kids could have a little Easter party. I was able to switch my class to the earlier time slot so that I could go. We were still a little late, but there were still lots of eggs to be found when we got there :) Eli was pretty excited to find them.
By the time we got there most of the kids were done looking, so Eli had the field to himself...which was probably good. I'm not sure what he would have done if someone wanted the same egg he did. Sharing is a skill we haven't even come close to mastering...

His basket was pretty full by the time we were done. I do think, however, that I ate more of the candy than he did. We had a bowl of it on the counter...and yesterday it disappeared. I'm honestly not sure where it went. I have a feeling Edgar threw it out...maybe he's hiding it. I should ask him...

Leah was there too...though this is a terrible picture of her. She looked so cute with her little bunny ears :)

We had a nice time. It is already getting super hot here, so by the time we left we were pretty sweaty and tired, but it was a good tired :) (There's no such thing as a good sweaty)

The Dress is Done!

I am sure you are wondering why I have been so negligent in documenting our family's every move. I have been working on Leah's Easter dress. Now, a normal person probably would have finished the dress in a day or two...it took me over a week...I ripped out a lot of seams, and re-did a lot of things, but it is finally done! I finished it on Monday. I'm so glad to have it finished before Easter :) So my evenings, when I usually find the time to post, have been taken up with that. We really haven't done an enormous amount of exciting things, but I do have a few pictures of a couple of things.

On the 8th we went to a nearby park. I love this park. It is so beautiful and peaceful. Eli enjoys the boardwalk, and I love just letting him run on ahead-there is no way off the boardwalk, so he just runs around, and I can't loose him :) Unless he tries to jump in the water...but surely he would never do that. He had BETTER not anyway. That water is kinda swampy. Anyway, this is pretty much what I saw of him while on the boardwalk.
I love it when you can't really tell where the trees stop and the water starts...

Eli checking out the view

Leah came along too. She did fall asleep fairly early on, so I really didn't take many pictures of her.

Apparently he has thought about it...this is as far as he got though :)

So beautiful...

There were a few people enjoying the scenery and quiet...until Eli started shouting for a squirrel...he was walking all down the boardwalk yelling 'squirrel! squirrel!!!' It kinda broke the peacefulness, but it was pretty cute :) And the squirrels seemed to be listening...

Eli discovered near the end of our walk that there were cracks in the sidewalk, and for a bit seemed to be afraid that he was going to fall through. It was pretty funny watching him walk trying to avoid the cracks...

'Hello'

Then he tried shoving things down through the cracks.

Like I said...Leah was asleep for most of this.

After the boardwalk Eli decided to collect some sticks...because that's what boys do.

He got a few. Fortunately (this time) he didn't feel the need to take them home with us. It was a very nice morning. We were there for a couple of hours before heading for home. Eli took a good nap that day :)

Since then we've gone a few places...like the mall, my class, BSF, and the playground several times. We've been getting ready for Easter-SO looking forward to this Sunday!!

Last night we got out one of Eli's Christmas presents.

He wasn't sure what to think of it. He wanted to run through...kind of. But the water was pretty cold, and it was 6:30 at night, so not super warm.

Daddy helped him go through :)

When we turned the water off, Eli was so sad...He went over and stood right over it to check it out, and Edgar turned the water on...here is his reaction :)

RUN!

Okay, so the pictures don't really do it justice. It was pretty funny. Eli didn't really think so. Somehow I think someday he'll 'get us back' for that one...

Today was BSF again, and then Krista came over for lunch. Eli had loads of fun playing with Katie-he loves his cousin :) It was nice to hang out for a little bit before they had to leave.

Oh...and Edgar ordered our tile for our kitchen tonight. We really did it. We will soon have tile on our floor. Well...we'll have the tile that goes on the floor in the house. We'll see when we get the chance to actually lay the tile.

Oh yeah...at some point in the last few days, I discovered that Eli can read the words Eli, Stop, Go, and Dog. I don't remember the day he did it, but I was pretty impressed. I wrote the word, asked him what it said, and he read it.

And that is the end of this post. I need to go to bed. What's that? You wanted to SEE the aforementioned dress? You will. On Easter Sunday :)

This and That

This is one of those random posts where I throw pictures from several different things and smash it all into one entry. I just don't feel like spliting it up :) These two are so much fun. They really do like playing together...as much as they are able to anyway. Eli was trying to steal Leah's pacifier, so I gave him his old pacifier from a long time ago...before he found his thumb. Leah checking Eli's out.

They are so funny :)

Eli trying to give Leah a 'pacifier kiss'. He loves giving her hugs...they are a little scary for mom sometimes :) But so far he hasn't really hurt her, so hug away :)

On Tuesday of this week I came home from my class and the electric pole in our back yard was buzzing and sparking...I could see little flames coming off of it, and smoke was coming off of it. I called the electric company, and they told me to call 911...so I did. We had a big 'ol firetruck in front of our house. By then it was no longer sparking (of course). I felt kinda stupid for calling 911, but in my defense, the electric company TOLD me to...this is what the pole looked like:

So they came out and fixed it...leaving nice ruts in our yard. But at least there is no fire threat :)

Here is the repaired pole. I am sure you were interested :)

This week was a cookie week for me.

Eli was checking them out. I'm amazed he didn't sneak one. Obedient boy...

When I asked Renae what cookies Keira wanted, she just said 'pink'. So, I made 3 shades of pink and made her some flowers :) (The lightest shade of pink looks white in this picture...but it is pink)

Happy Birthday Keira!

Kristi said that both Julean and Matthias were Lightning McQueen fans, and that they both would enjoy them. So I made a bunch of these :)

This is the third year I've made Lightning McQueen cookies for Julean...every year they get a little bit more detail. Kristi said they would like Mater cookies too, but I just didn't have time to get that together. BUT, next time I go up there, I will have to make THESE for them!

I also heard that Julean loves ducks right now, so I made him a few of these :) Super easy, but I thought they turned out cute.

That's really pretty much been our week. Playing, and making cookies. I've been enjoying listening to the Tigers over the internet-so glad baseball season has started! However, the game I'm listening to right now is not going well. Perhaps I should just go to bed...but then, what kind of fan would I be? Plus, it's the ninth inning...