Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter weekend!  Saturday we had our neighborhood egg hunt.  It was such a pretty day!  Both girls were excited too.  Kate had caught on pretty quick on putting eggs in her basket.  She would get so excited when she saw an egg and then would move right on to the next one.  We had the kids separated by ages and there were plenty of eggs for everyone.  I think both Cohen and Kate had filled their baskets up!  We are not short of candy now at our house!  I was so glad it turned out to be such a beautiful day.  I was afraid we would have to get all our outdoor egg hunts in on Saturday since it was supposed to rain on Sunday.  It all worked out great though.

Group shot...even the dogs were getting in on this one

That night we went to the Bold Springs BBQ chicken dinner.  We look forward to this every year!  They have it twice and it is always the best chicken.  Cohen looks forward to the cake walk.  I loved it too growing up and still do!  She was ready to go when it got started, and she wanted to walk by herself this year.  This made me a little sad because it just shows how fast she's growing up but she was so cute to watch.  I started her out with a $5 bill and when they gave her 5 ones in exchange you would have thought it was the best thing that ever happened!   She thought she had so much money.  It was so cute.  Kelly won a cake the first time he walked with Kate and later he won again but he motioned to Cohen and she was able to pick out what she wanted which was a big Easter basket full of cupcakes.  I was so thankful to see her get that because it was about over when she finally won.  It was a fun night for sure!

 Nanny & I watching everyone walk & playing with my phone                                              

Cohen's new face she loves to make :/

WINNER WINNER!

Sunday morning we were up early to get ready for church.  Kate was up first and she went right to Cohen's room and crawled up on the bed to wake her up.  When Cohen rolled over Kate just waved at her and said "hey sissy".  She is too cute!  They both were excited to see their Easter baskets.  Cohen was super excited about the bath fizz tablets that would change the water colors and how they both had new TOMS that looked like "Easter eggs".  They even got new toothbrushes that spin!  Cohen told me she just loved it because it tickled her teeth.  In her words..."its amazing."  She also got some new, bigger "plugs" (aka headphones).  Everything was a hit but we still wanted to stress the real reason for Easter had nothing to do with the Easter bunny or eggs, it was all about our Savior Jesus Christ and how he died for us.  

At church all the kids had a special service that we attended as a family.  They got to make several crafts too.  Since it had rained in the night and the ground was so wet, the Easter egg hunt was turned into stations with baskets to get eggs and prizes out of.  Cohen was off to all the stations in a flash and Kate really loved going to each bucket to get an egg or prize out of.  She was putting each item in her basket until she found the sucker basket and that was not going in the basket...it was being opened and eaten!  She was sweet to watch.  Its hard to think that this time last year she couldn't even walk!   Things change so quickly in a year's time!   

After filling their bags we made our way to the cross to take a few pictures like we do every year.  The cross wasn't as full of flowers this year as it has been but with Easter being so early there haven't been as many flowers to bloom yet.  It was still pretty and meaningful!  I was glad to be able to be out there with no rain :)

Going for an egg

Cohen & Josie

Sug & Pop

Big Family shot!

After church we headed to Athens to Nana's house.  We had such a yummy lunch!  Holidays bring the best food, don't they!?!  Holidays also make me want to take lots of pictures and Thanksgiving and Easter seem to stick out.  I think Easter must bring out those pretty spring dresses and just makes me want to get pictures of my girls!  Well taking a picture of Kate has turned into an act of Congress.  You have to be sneaky and ready!  I wanted a picture of the girls together and she was having no part of it.  I took several of Cohen by herself and later spent some time on the porch with Kate alone and snapped several but nothing of them together.  I did get her little mischievious face though!  She is such a little mess!  I do love it.  

This one is always ready for a picture!

The face says it all!

sweet cousins

My beautiful baby is growing up too fast!

I loved it in b/w too :)

The rain came off and on but the girls were still able to hunt for eggs outside.  Kate knew immediately what to do and went to town.  Of course the big girls did too!  After they finished the girls all happened to sit on the porch steps and it was so funny to see them so spread out doing their own little thing.  This just describes them to a tee!  All 4 girls but all so different!  It was the perfect picture moment.  We decided to have Cohen go sit by Kate and lo and behold Kate let her!  We acted crazy for about 5 minutes to get Kate to look at us and I got a picture of the 2 of them TOGETHER,  and both LOOKING at the camera!  Score!  

On the hunt! 

When there are no more eggs...get leaves

Just sittin' on the porch steps

MY GIRLS!!

We left Nana's and headed back for another yummy dinner at Suzy's and yummy it was!   We were lucky again to be able to have our egg hunt outside.  All the kids were certainly pros by this time.  We had some good hiding places too.  I got a big kick out of Kate...she had on about 5 long necklaces and believe me, these were not coming off.  We were calling her "little granny" as she hunted her eggs.  We got a picture of the great grandkids and Kasey and decided to get a picture of Kate & Gavin.  We had gotten one of Cohen & Taylor who do so well for pictures so we thought we would try the little ones.  I think they bonded well over the basket of Easter eggs!  

Sweetness!  Cohen & Taylor

Kate with all her beads

I pushed my luck trying to attempt a picture of the girls with my mama.  Kate is a pro at throwing a fit when things aren't just her way.  We are in that terrible 2 stage already...a little early for me!  So here is what I got...a cute one of Bebe & Cohen

 ...and Kate...

Happy Easter!!!!

Preschool Easter Party

Today Cohen had her Easter party at preschool.  Its days like today when I can actually get her up in the morning without much whining or without it taking forever!  Baby girl loves her sleep just like her mama!  She was so excited about her egg hunt.  We have been hunting all week here at home so I was glad for her to actually have a real egg hunt, and have it outside!  Kate and I went early to school to help Mrs. Amy with all the Easter fun.  Everyone decorated their baskets, played some fun Easter games, and Mrs. Amy used the resurrection eggs to tell the Easter story.  Kate thought she was just as big as everyone else and sat right there listening to the story and even did the "Bunny Hop" with them. They all think she is great too so it works out pretty good.  After their Easter snack everyone went out to the playground for the egg hunt.  It was a fun day at school and at least it wasn't near as cold as it had been earlier in the week.

Doing the bunny hop

Kate listening to Mrs. Amy tell the resurrection story...she liked the little donkey

Kaylyn & Cohen were amazed at the story and how many times Jesus was whipped

Guess who got in on snack time too! 

ready, set, go!

Kate wanted to hunt too.  She had one egg that she would carry around but it kept dropping out of her bucket:)

So many eggs!!

Egg Hunting!

The weather this week has been just down right COLD!  I think we are having the coldest weather we've had all winter and the wind just makes it worse.  Monday was so cold that we had a fire going most of the afternoon.  Since this week will be full of Easter activities I decided to get out our plastic eggs.  Kate enjoys just sitting and opening all of them one by one.  While she was napping I decided to hide eggs for Cohen.  She was loving it!  We would go room by room through the house having an egg hunt.  I've created a monster by the way because now she wakes me up holding the basket full of eggs and begs me to hide them all day long!   It was a fun way to enjoy the afternoon.  When Kate woke up she joined in too, in her high heels of course.  That night when we were back from dance we did another egg hunt and this time she also wanted to hide them from me, with Daddy's help.  I think by Sunday Cohen may be a pro at this for sure!

Going to hunt in her heels

Yesterday I took Kate to the library for our regular story time day, and this week was the Easter egg hunt.  Luckily it wasn't quite as cold as Monday had been.  After their  story, the kids made little bunnies while Mrs. Emma Lee hid the eggs.  Kate's bunny is now without a nose but it was cute while it lasted.  She really got excited hunting the eggs.  She quickly found 2 in the grass and would shake them in each hand.  When I got her to go toward another egg she would squeal and pick it up and put it in her basket.  Then she would run to the next one.  It was extremely cute to watch.  We did our best to get a quick group picture before everyone got too cold.  I really am hoping for some warmer weather very soon!  I'm beginning to think we may trade our Easter dresses in for Easter sweats!

making her bunny

Dragging the basket along with her

Kate & "Lina"

Group shot!