Monday, April 20, 2009

A Photo Dump of Easter Festivities

I would spread the following photos over several days, but Easter was over a week ago and I'm thinking you're probably over it by now. So, these are the benefit of family and close friends who really like my daughters.

One of the ladies in our church made this dress for Sarah and gave it to us at the shower. She also made a pinafore to go with it, but I didn't want to cover the pretty lace and ribbons. Next time, she'll wear the pinafore. The bloomers underneath are so cute!!
Sarah is talking to Miss Eva and thanking her for the dress!
Here are Abby and Sarah in what I like to call "Easter Dresses Take Two." They wore these this past weekend. Abby's dress was worn by her cousin "Doodle Bug" when she was five or six. Do you recognize the shoes from Christmas?
Back up a week to Easter morning, the girls found their baskets cleverly hidden on the kitchen island. Abby was excited about her $5 movie from Target.
She already is playing with her little toy. I guess it helped that she played with it in the store before I bought it for her.Finding CHOCOLATE!
Coloring with new markers.
Sarah got some new washable markers, too. What fun!
A little chickie that cheeps when you hold it in your hand.
She ate the whole bunny for breakfast! Yum!
Fast forward again to last Friday. That's when we had our egg hunt. We have to wait til we know it's going to be a nice day and that's not always Easter weekend. We did it at a local park with my sister's children and another family I invited.



"Little Buddy" is on a roll.
Maya and Doodle Bug.


We'll be eating this candy for a while.
Abby and her friend Maya playing after finding the eggs.


I think that's it for all the pictures of eggs and baskets and dresses. Whew!

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Bathroom Update

Two weeks ago, you saw here the destruction of our bathroom. I am happy to say it no longer looks that bad. In fact, I did get to take a shower in my own house before Easter! And I LOVE the new shower!! Yay!

My niece came over to help with construction. Here they are putting the insulation in the wall behind the shower.
The tub sitting in the middle of the floor. It is about three inches deeper than our previous tub. I have yet to take a bath, but I'm looking forward to it.
The tub and the walls are being installed.
The plumbing coming up from the floor. I am so proud of Billy figuring all this out. After he got it all hooked back up, he turned the water on and it was spraying everywhere. After a couple more fixes, he got it right. Last time we had a leak in the shower faucet, it cost $350 for someone to come fix it. Now that Billy knows he can do it, it will save lots of money!
The inaugural bath with the girls. The water came in and went out without leaking! Praise God! (don't the girls look great in their blue swimsuits? I know my photo editing skills are making you just weep with envy! or just weep.)
After about a week, (and lots of thinking about it) he finally got some drywall installed on the bare walls. NO, that is NOT our new paint color. The drywall is the moisture resistant kind so hopefully we'll not have mold problems anymore!
The access panel in the back of the shower in case we ever need to get back there and adjust anything. Notice the toilet tank lid. It broke when removing the cabinet above. I think a little super glue should hold it. What do you think?
The nice BIG arrows mark where the studs are in the wall. I guess he just wanted to make sure he knew. :)
We're getting there. He started the mudding today and after that process is complete, we'll paint. I'm hoping to be finished with this project by next weekend. All except the tile, that is. The cement board is down and I can live with that for a few more weeks.

I'm ready to have this DONE and start on the next project!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Cousins

Last week, my sister drove up from North Carolina with her four children. Brave woman! We had lots of fun playing together for the short time they were here.

Little Peanut had her birthday party while they were here. Here is the Birthday princess enjoying some outdoor play during the party.
Big brother, AJ.
Sarah enjoying some chips and salsa. (I had to soak that shirt for a day to get that stain out!)
Little brother "Grasshopper" getting in some hang time. He LOVED this! And wanted it over and over! Of course, I had to take several pictures to get this one timed just right!
Later in the week, we went over to hang out with them at Nana's house. Trying to take a group picture of this many children is challenging, to say the least! So we stuck them all on the couch and promised them each a cookie if they would cooperate. This first one was a little rough. Grasshopper was not happy.
Oh, no. The little ones are escaping.
Yep, she broke free! Notice Abby's expression. Priceless! I guess that first one was the best after all.
Then they were playing in the back room and called for us to take a picture of this. How cute!
One of Abby's favorite cousins! We sure do miss you, AJ.
We were sad to see them go, but we're looking forward to them being here for a few weeks this summer!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Easter Eggs

Coloring Easter Eggs is a tradition in our house. One year, Abby started asking about "when" on Christmas day. Thankfully, this year she started asking only a few weeks ago. I kept telling her "on the Saturday before." But she wore me down and we ended up doing it on Good Friday. But I did make her wait for Sarah to get up from her nap. (Hence the bed-head look that Sarah is sporting.)

This was Sarah's first experience with the process and she thoroughly enjoyed it. She just likes doing anything that her sister gets to do. At one point, Abby accidentally dropped an egg and so Sarah threw hers on the floor as well. Nice!

Here they are hard at work!
Once again, I took too many pictures (is there such a thing?) and so I didn't want you to have to scroll through 20 pictures of the girls so I put it in collage form.

I love all Sarah's expressions!
For Abby, this is serious business and must require lots of concentration!
Here are the results of all their creativity!
I have eaten SO MANY eggs in the past five days between these hard-boiled ones and the Easter brunch and the MOPS breakfast and the deviled eggs I made from the left-overs. I think I might need to have my cholesterol checked.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter Dresses

When we were in China, Abby picked these dresses out for her and Sarah. I knew at once that I would save them for their Easter Dress. Abby really does have good taste in clothes.

It is so challenging to get Sarah to stay in one place while trying to take pictures. One tactic is to hold on to her, but that sometimes backfires with tears and screams.
Here is a good one of Daddy and Abby. I cropped out Sarah running away. Or maybe she was running back to the picture.
Typical expression for both girls!
Me with my girls!
Then I resorted to having them sit on chairs. Not too bad.
Sarah had picked up her phone and was listening to it ring.
I think she's had enough.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Fun at the Park

One day last week, during all the construction, we decided to take a little breather and go to the park with "Hantie" and "Little Buddy." Sarah had picked up one of Abby's tiaras earlier in the day and kept it on the whole time we were at the park. Cutie Patootie!
I continue to be amazed at Sarah's personality just coming to life. She was fearless at the park. I went down the big slide with her but after that, she wanted to go on her own. Hantie stood at the bottom of the slide to catch her because she was flying! A couple times, her foot would catch on the slide and she would go head first. It did not deter her at all.
See for yourself!

Little Buddy trying out the monkey bars.
My little (big?) sweetie!
Abby is so different from Sarah. She has always been cautious in trying new things. She slid down slides on her belly, feet first for the longest time. But once she masters something, she goes with determination! She decided to be brave and try out the fireman's pole. After a few times of me holding onto her, she was ready to try it herself.

It is so cool watching my two daughters. I feel so blessed to be their Mommy!