Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  We were home Easter morning to attend our church's beautiful service and enjoy what the bunny brought us.  Here are some handsome boys all ready for church.

 And Mama too

We kicked off Easter weekend by dyeing some eggs.  I call them "yolk eggs" and ask for these almost every morning.  We decided to dye 1 dozen eggs and since I insisted on using the cheap-o metal egg holder, about half of those were cracked and dented by the time we were done!

We didn't have the patience to do anything too fancy.  We mostly just dipped and plunked them in the holder.

 This was pre-haircut which happened the next day.

I am going through a phase where I like to act like a total weirdo during pictures (or else I plaster on the most fake smile EVER).

Always goofing around...BOYS!

 Ta-da!  Our finished beautiful plate of eggs, ready to eat!

 The hospital had a special family night at the Children's Museum complete with an egg hunt, pictures with the bunny, face painting, and lots of play!  When I saw the Easter Bunny, I told Daddy, "that is SO not a real bunny."  Can you tell by my face that I just wasn't amused?!?!  Nevermind the play clothes we were in--- we had no idea that picture opportunities were going to be offered there, oops.

We were so thankful that we could stay a few minutes past closing to get our faces painted (perks to having Daddy be one of the hospital employees volunteering that night!)  We were in a long line earlier, and decided not to wait.  We kept seeing super cool Ninja Turtle face paintings, so we decided it would be a great way to end our night.

Even Super Heroes get tired... Cooper fell asleep on the car ride home.  We both wanted to keep our Ninja faces painted until the next morning.  It then took Mommy over 10 minutes each face to scrub off the paint... worth it :)

 This is one of our favorite pictures from last week.  Cooper and Liberty have such a special relationship.  Truly best friends and Mom quickly grabbed her camera for this sweet picture.

 On Saturday, we went to the cities to visit Grandma, our great-grandparents, and Jim/Karri/Jimmy/Ava.  We smiled for a 4 generations picture (above) and then Grandma had some grandkid time :)  Our other cousins were in Mexico for spring break, so it isn't quite complete without them.

 What do you know?!?!  The Easter Bunny knew we would be at Grandma's house, so we ventured outside for an egg hunt.  We found eggs in many silly places and soon enough, we had plenty of sugar and treats (nothing new since afterall, we were at Grandma's house).

Busy Boys!

Mommy loves this picture.  It might surface around the time I have senior pictures... Mommy keeps reminding me to stop growing up so fast.

Cooper is in love with Ava.  He LOVES babies, kids and pets.  He is just a....lover!  He couldn't get enough of Ava.  She was petted, kissed, and held by Cooper.  Me on the other hand, I was "too busy playing."

 Cousins... LOVE

Easter morning at our house involved finding our bunny bait and carrots eaten in the yard, baskets full of candy, trinkets and a few toys in the living room.  We polished off about a half pound of chocolate prior to breakfast.

 Pinterest inspired breakfast

Mommy's OWN creation...yay, it was adorable and yummy at the same time!

And we end with this picture from last year in Captiva... 4 more days until beach/pool, 80 degree temps, sunsets, trolley, all in the most beautiful place on Earth!  If you haven't viewed our blog in a while, Mexico pictures were posted a week ago (see older post below!)

Hola Mexico and Ava!

Hola!  We kick off our blog post with a few quick pictures from St. Patrick's Day.  No, we are not Irish, but being an imposter once a year is always fun!  We wore our lucky shirts and delivered a shamrock shake to our favorite dentist/neighbor (a promise from when I had my tooth knocked out).

Mom and Dad signed up for the Shamrock Shuffle with some friends.  As you know, Mommy tore her ACL so Dad ran while Mom cursed the runners and grumpily took pictures.  On a good note, Dad ran FAST (he did not train for this 5K) but he was in the top 25% of runners... way to go!  Afterwards, they had green beer which made the run even better.

 Our parents left us at home while they escaped to Cozumel.  They have been to Cozumel once before, when I was just 10 months old (it was a quick 5 day visit that time).  This vacation was a full week with 3 couples while we stayed home with the Grandma's and had school all week.

Cozumel (from what we hear) has the most beautiful turquoise water.  The snorkeling/scuba diving is unbeatable, the weather was perfect, and they really had a blast all week.  

They stayed at El Cozumeleno, an all-inclusive resort on the north end of the island.  The resort had numerous pools, a swim-up bar, a nice beach area, plenty of food and drinks, and some cheesy entertainment.  A photographer at the resort took pictures during the week, these were a few he took of Mom and Dad the day they arrived.

The group- Ruth and Jeff have traveled with Mom/Dad in the past.  Mommy's other close friend, Cory, has traveled for girl trips but has a "serious" boyfriend, Jim, who joined the crew this time.  Laura and Gene (good friends of Ruth and Jeff) also came with the group, but had their daughter and her friend along for their senior year gift/trip, so they joined the group off and on throughout the week.  It was a super fun, easy-going group~ they are all planning their next trip for Spring Break 2017.  

We only sent a few pictures to our parents during the week.  One of those was a "Good Morning from WI" message as we were surprised by several inches of snow.  Without a speck of sympathy, they sent us these pictures in return...

 Rarely, do our parents do touristy excursions while on vacation, but they decided to do a Jeep island tour.  They had a great time traveling via Jeep around Cozumel.  They saw things that were breathtaking and heartbreaking that day... again, a reminder of how blessed we are to live in the US!  One of the excursion stops was at a snorkeling reef.

 PS... drinking a cerveza in a car is legal in Cozumel... don't worry, they were being safe!

 The whole crew

 Snorkel time- something that was cool to do and was also an activity Mom could do with her bum knee!

They saw many colorful fish, shells, a stingray, and apparently some saw an eel (thank God Mom missed that creature).   On the jeep tour, they also stopped at a Mayan ruin (snore) and then stopped at a beachside restaurant for lunch.   The rest of the vacation was beach, pool, food, and drinks.  Here are some of their favorite pictures from the week....

The girls after a "friendly" game of miniature golf

Mommy found this shell in shallow waters and made Daddy retrieve it.  It made it safely back home and is now on our jacuzzi tub with some other favorite shells from beaches all around.

 Final toast on their final day... 

 They spoiled themselves with a beachside massage on their last day

Sunsets were hit and miss all week, but they did capture a few amazing ones.  Our parents would like to thank everyone who helped make our week run as smooth as possible.  We missed each other like crazy, but now have refreshed and happy parents :)

 The day before our parents return, our cousin was born!  Jimmy welcomed his little baby sister, Ava Lola on Friday morning.  Ava was just under 9 pounds, 22 inches long, and has a FULL head of dark hair (Auntie Karri said she had the same hair at birth).  Ava's first name was chosen as a name they loved, her middle name, Lola, is in loving memory of our Grandmother (Papa's Mom) who died unexpectedly from a brain aneurysm at the age of 39.  It was one of our parents top names if they had a girl, so they are SO happy to know Lola's name is forever in our family.

We are so excited to welcome our last cousin (everyone says they are done having children)... for now, we will enjoy spoiling this little princess.  Here are a few pictures we "borrowed" from her photo shoot...