Happy Birthday Ashley!

I will post a few more pictures today, but I thought this was such a cute and sassy picture (incredibly representative of her personality) that I would share right away.

Date night

Sometimes you just gotta have one, ya know? Remember why you got married in the first place.

This week has been hell-acious. I don't mind sharing that because I think I appreciate our date night from last weekend even more.

It's the small things that often stir up the most profound sense of self and others.

Like the lady who waved me out of my driveway yesterday. Not once in four years and change of living here has that happened. I was grateful for that. Truly.

Happy Easter!!! Stand by! Photo explosion in 3...2...1...

This morning I woke up to the sound of rain. Not the pleasant, soothe you to sleep rain, but the pounding, whipping into the glass pane sounds. It had to be around 6:15 or so and we were supposed to get up at 6:45 to get ready for 8:30 mass.

Fortunately, the rain stopped (though it was ominous looking for most of the morning) in time for us to get to mass without incident and the kids were surprisingly well behaved for the extra 35 minutes they had to wait until mass started.

The rest of the day was spent searching for Easter baskets, gorging on the loot, eating an early Easter dinner followed by a hunt outside, which was nice. We postponed the hunt so that the sun could dry out the backyard enough that the kids could enjoy running around looking for eggs.

We came back in and settled in to watch The Ultimate Gift, which was just as awesome the second time as it was the first.

{this is all you get with Miss Tween-soon-to-be-teen}

{Princess Paige and her booty}

{Paige and 'sister' both got stuffed bunnies in their baskets}

{After looking for a WHOLE FIVE MINUTES, Jonathan found his loot behind the book baskets}

{YAY! Drew found his own basket!!}

{We can't really tell - do you think he likes that Peep?}

{"No, Drew. We don't eat candy *with* the wrapper on!"}

Drew's first Easter egg hunt!
The kids were told to give Drew a few minutes so that he could get the gist of the game. He loves to throw most anything, so our biggest challenge was getting him to simply put the egg in the basket. His arm is too fast for my camera. He chucked a few before finally putting them in the basket!

{I'm going to throw this!!!!! Muwahahah your camera is tooooo slow!}

{Oh? I put them in here? Well, if you say so...}

{Two more! I'm getting good at this!}

{Ok, so let me see if I have this right...they go *IN* the basket...AHA!}

{Two more DAD!!! I'm on a roll!}

{Jonathan read the memo wrong. The memo read: "We will be looking for hidden Easter eggs." NOT "We will be HIDING from the Easter eggs." Oh well, he had fun!}

{Is he still trying to hide from those pesky eggs?}

{da kids}

{Almost done!!}

{The casual and yet ever so bored look of the tween bordering teen...YAAAAWN!}

{Paige standin' around...waitin' for eggs to hop in her basket? I think I felt that way once about a fishing trip as a kid}

{Well, may as well give a little sass if she's going to stand around waiting for those eggs to jump in!}

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AND NOW THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR! SMALL HEART ATTACK IN

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{No worries! He loved all 50 times he was tossed in the air!}

*YOU* say no to this face...

...while doing a quick edit (now that my 7 p.m. ban from the computer has been lifted I'll be back later today to post about our Easter), I noticed two pictures of Paige that I just could *not* resist posting.

So, if ya gots any ideers on how to say "no" to this cute little face, please tell me!

What an UGLY doll!!

A few months before Christmas rolled around I came across the ugliest doll I had ever seen before. The company had appropriately named them Ugly Dolls. I decided I *had* to find a way for them to become family members.

We went to visit Neil's family in Houston for Thanksgiving and we did our usual shopping. I was able to get some Christmas gifts for the kids and saw those Ugly Dolls at this cute little boutique-y store. It was decided. I got one for Jonathan and one for Neil. Ashley got one in our annual cousin exchange from cousin Grace.

Paige's baptism birthday is on my birthday. So, I used the opportunity to get her her very own Ugly Doll. Bop and Beep.

Here is a picture of all of us (minus Neil, the stand-in photographer for the day) together on the swing yesterday.

{All of us together with our Ugly Dolls - I'm holding Neil's - Sun Tan Target - that we renamed Hairy Scary}

I can always make time for friends!

{Holly and I have been buddies since 8th grade}

Lately, I've been on a social kick. I think it's all tied to that Spring fever I get each year.

You know what I'm talking about.

The urge to purge. The need to organize. Going through closets and finding what doesn't fit, hasn't been worn, the style is so outdated it won't come back anytime soon.

Spring tends to bring with it a lot of feeling like you're ready for change. As the cooler months close out I find that I'm ready to reconnect with friends and see what's been up.

As it turns out, the timing was perfect for meeting up with one of my longtime friends from 8th grade. She's in town through the week for work and we decided to meet up for a quick lunch today.

So, now's the time. If you're around and we haven't gotten together, give me a call and let's put something on the books.

It can be your choice of lunch, dinner, meet up for mani/pedi's or do a little shopping and chat along the way.

I'm just sorry we didn't have more time to visit today. Holly, you'll have to come back for a visit with the family so we can hang out some more!

FINALLY! A 'do-do-do-do' among other cute things!

Enjoy!

Not a 'do do do do' but still very cute!

So, I'm doing my best to get myself back on track with blogging. After a good solid year of keeping up, I've been slipping into a bad habit of *not* blogging.

This morning Drew learned a new word (well, more that he pronounced it perfectly). The funny thing is I've been incorporating it into nearly every post on ELW this past week. How could I not when we're a group of ladies who love to talk about food? Cupcakes is the central theme (along with delicious butter cream frosting!) but this week we branched out into meatloaf with mashed potatoes, Tillamook cheese {and even ice cream - I have yet to try that!} and even got to some yucky food situations that warranted free pizza + delivery and a missing tooth found in the WRONG place. What's the word I incorporated into each post?

Watch the video!

Hey! I know you!!

{Neil and Drew}

On Wednesday of the kids' Spring Break, we decided to pack lunches and head to my favorite park as a kid, Zilker Park. I first stopped at the flagship Whole Foods store to grab something for myself. Neil called and had a gap between appointments and happened to be in the area so he joined us just as we arrived. The kids and Neil were ahead of me as I got the last of our things from the car. Then I saw three familiar little faces and the grown up looked awfully familiar too. Then I yelled out 'Hey! I know you!'. It was my cousin Leslie and her three kiddos! I hadn't seen her in a long time so we got to chat while the kids played and then headed down to the "free" side of the springs to let the kids splash and cool off. It was a lot of fun and a really nice surprise.

{Bella}

{Dad tries to tell Paige goodbye before heading back to work}

{he can't even fake a smile here!}

{Paige, sporting the mismatched yet ever-so-cute look}

{David, Leslie's oldest}

{Bella with my cousin}

{all the kids, minus Drew and Ashley}

{Me and my cousin courtesy of Ashley}