Easter Joys

First of all, YIKES! I realize it has been a very long time since I last posted. My apologies! We are in the thick of things with the basement, trying to finish up before the baby comes. It's so fun to see things coming along so well! So exciting. But my blogging has suffered because of it. Sorry, sorry! But I actually took some pictures of our fun Easter festivities to show you all we can still have fun, even when it's busy! I sure love this time of year. I just love the Spring!! And I especially love when we can celebrate the life, Atonement, and Resurrection of our Savior!


We had our traditional coloring of Easter eggs. I really think Vince enjoys it just as much as the kids do! Here is everyone with their favorite eggs! They're all so typical of each person, too. Brooke's is purple with a pretty butterfly. Evan made his into a death star (of course--has to be Star Wars)! And Vince colored and dyed, and colored and dyed his egg to make it into a gorgeous globe! He's so artistic!

Here the kids are looking for their eggs and candy! So much fun!

The kids have Spring Break this week, and Vince was out of town for work as usual. So I decided to take the kids and head up to visit Grandma and Grandpa Hogge for the week! Of course, we're the only crazy ones that leave town and head NORTH for Spring Break instead of SOUTH where it's actually warm! We were welcomed into town with a snow storm! And it's been the same weather since! But at least we're more welcomed by the warmth of the Hogge Home than the blizzard outside! We love being here, and the kids have non-stop fun!

Grandpa took the kids for a four-wheeling ride, and taught them how to drive (aak)!! They were both timid at first, but were whippin' around after, oh, 30 seconds or so!

Look at those smiles!

Then Grandpa had to "smooth out the horse poop" as Evan put it. So he taught them how to "drive" his pickup! Sheesh! They learn everything here! You can kind of see Evan at the wheel on Grandpa's lap here. Apparently Brooke got those turns pretty well!

We've also been swimming at the YMCA and to the pizza buffet and arcade place they love to visit. We've played games and eaten s'mores with marshmallow bunnies, and watched a movie on the big projector! Whew! And we've only been here 2 days! Sure is fun!

And to finish off, we had a wonderful photo session in our backyard on Sunday with the kids' Easter outfits Grandma made. Don't they look adorable?! (Thanks, Grandma!!) I sure love these kids!

Of course, Brooke wanted to take some "silly pictures" and yup, pretty silly!

Evan wanted to pose just like Brookie:

Aw, good friends!
Standing by the apricot tree! (Look, it really IS Spring!)
I love this picture! So typically Evan!
And doesn't Brooke look like a sweet little angel? What a great girl!

And yes, because you know I was feeling huge before. Well here I am MANY weeks later and even huger! (Do you like the lovely expression on my face in the first picture?)

I'll be 33 weeks tomorrow! Woohoo! And I've already gotten the comments about how I look like I'm ready to have this baby any day now. But I still do have another month and a half. The baby was measuring bigger for about 6 weeks. They were concerned about a couple of things, so I've had two more ultrasounds. She went through a bit of a growth spurt, but seems to be evening out and she's right on track now. I'm still measuring about 2 cm bigger, but not as big as before, so that's good. Now we're trying to finish the basement so we can get the baby's room situated upstairs and all ready. I've got the big box of newborn clothes to wash and put away. That was fun to go through those old clothes! Haven't done that in many many years! We're all starting to get excited and anxious to see her! And I wanted to add that the best part about last week's ultrasound was the technician actually saw HAIR on her head! I had no idea you could even see that on an ultrasound! But she showed me, our little baby has a head of hair! Can't wait to see it in person!