Easter

Happy Easter! It's a good thing Easter lasts for 50 days, isn't it? Darren took all last week off of work and we spent most of that time out in the gardens! I am so thrilled with how much we've gotten done so far. I've plenty of pictures of our work, but I'll save those for another post. I just wanted to quickly share this morning a few of my favorites from Easter!

Coloring Easter eggs on Holy Saturday

Easter morning! Kristen found a cute, sweetly scented Strawberry Shortcake doll in her basket. Dylan was thrilled to finally receive the Lego Star Wars Visual Dictionary he had been wanting, and Caitlyn was so happy with her new earrings! Meghan was so excited to see that the Easter Bunny had brought her a new Veggie Tales movie, and Austin had his very own little basket, minus the sugary treats. :)

Our best attempt at an Easter photo. It probably would have been a better idea to try this before Mass, but we were running a little late that morning! Poor little Austin had just had enough by the time this was taken. Still a cute picture of my Easter sweeties, though! :)

Snuggling with Daddy

Hunting for Easter eggs

Mmmm, chocolate!

For the Grandparents

Well, it's not the best video, but so far it's the only one I have of Austin smiling. It's something he's deliberately doing on a regular basis now, and it is so cute!!! You can also sort of hear him cooing in this clip, if you listen beyond the overwhelming noise of my other children and my own voice. Also, I'm attaching a super cute picture of my super sweet Caitlyn, looking quite Spring-y today. Enjoy! :)

Kristen's Two!

Her birthday was on Saint Patrick's Day, but I just realized I never posted these pictures here! Looks like I've got about twenty minutes left in March, though, so it's all good. :)

She really did have a great birthday...a Polly Pocket ice cream sandwich cake, some new LEGO duplos, a beautiful new whacky ball game to replace the broken one she loved so much, her own magnetic drawing pad...and a classic monchhichi doll. What more could a little girl want? ;)

My little rockhounds

I am such a bad blogger. I just found all these wonderful photos in a drafts file I started last week. I don't remember now why I never published them! Anyway, I have to just preface this post by saying that my darling husband is a serious rockhound. We used to love going out collecting together before we were married (and even after, before we had kids) but he just doesn't take the time as often now to go out into the desert like he used to. He still loves his mineral collection though, and is always on the lookout to buy or trade with other enthusiasts that he knows here in town, and he is really hoping that our children will share his passion for rocks and minerals! So, he was more than happy to take them out rock collecting in the desert one day during "R" week, and, for the first time ever, we ALL went to the annual "Rockhound Roundup", a gem and mineral show hosted by the Deming Gem & Mineral Society, Inc. That was so much fun! The big kids were especially thrilled with all the free goodies being handed out by so many of the participants. :)