A Step Back in Time

Last night I was laying in bed watching TV, and Kevin was in our sitting area on the love seat, on his computer.  He was softly chuckling to himself.  When I inquired what he was doing, he was looking at the blog.  At OLD blogs.  At photos of Jacob when he was a baby.  At pictures of Shiver when she was a puppy.  At our family, as we eagerly awaited Hannah's arrival.  When we got up this morning, we were down one tyke, as Samuel is currently on his 10-day whirlwind grandparent tour.  It was just us, and the "babies" as we call them.  As we cuddled in bed, and Kevin and I were trying to get motivated to get up and hit our morning workout, he pulled the computer out again, and all four of us sat and looked through old pictures off the blog. 

And it hit me.  This blog really is a lot more than just a way for our far away family to keep up with the goings on of the Two Tykes and the Princess.  It's a way for the five of us to remember and reminisce and try not to forget the little things that seem to slip away with time.

So again, I am going to try to do better.  And even when the frustration of the picture uploads gets me down, I will opt to post without pictures, for the sake of posting.

So tonight, we're going to step back to what we missed.  These posts will likely be shorter, but hopefully they will at least capture a little bit of the things we want to remember and to share with anyone who might still be logging on every now and then to see if we've updated.

We'll start with Easter. 

Like last year, we invited our neighbor friends to an Easter egg hunt at the Lonestar Cowboy Church.  This church is exactly what it sounds like...it is a big log cabin style facility, with full on cowboy decor.  There is a rodeo arena at the front of the property and a huge expanse of open fields in the back.  In other words, perfect for a community Easter egg hunt!  We have gone to their hunt for the last three years and enjoyed it every time!

The kids, of course, loved meeting the Easter bunny.

They were ready to go with their Easter baskets!  We like to have prime opportunity for egg collecting...so no small baskets for Team Irving.

This was Hannah's 2nd Easter egg hunt, and she was ready to "bring it".  She was a force to be reckoned with!

While Hannah didn't have quite as much competition, Samuel's age group was out for candy!  It was a fight to the finish!  But Samuel held his own and had a great time!

Samuel's best friend Hailee came with us for the 2nd year in a row.  They were both pleased with their egg collecting!

Jacob also had a challenging group, that was a little more used to the egg collecting game!

But as you can see, he and his buddy, Hannah, came out just fine!

Next, the crew headed to our house, where we decorated eggs on the back porch. 

We also enjoyed confetti eggs, which is what you see in Hannah's hair!

Our eggs weren't quite as pretty as they were last year....but that's ok, because it turned out they weren't quite COOKED either!

Our crew of egg decorators!

Our friend Kinsey showering Hannah with a confetti egg

Kinsey's big sister, our beautiful friend Ciarra

Samuel wanted to make a special treat for his friends.  So, we got out the cookbook that Aunt Silly got him, that is filled with kids' recipes.  We made special sparkly popcorn, that mixes popcorn and Trix, with edible glitter.  I got this Easter buckets and bright napkins, and everyone had their own snack for the afternoon.  The kids loved them, and Samuel had a blast making them for everyone!

Samuel and his friend Drake did some riding around in Drake's go cart.  I think Samuel wants one...

And it wouldn't be Easter without a dip in the pool

Seriously, it was warm enough that all the kids wanted to go swimming!  So most of them ended up in our pool!  Of course, it was still a bit chilly for the adults!

Easter morning, the kids were thrilled to see what was in their Easter baskets.  Can't go wrong with a chocolate bunny!

Jacob got a new book to read

Hannah got - well, all kinds of stuff

Most importantly, we headed to church to worship our Savior, Jesus Christ and celebrate God raising Him after He was crucified.

We had a wonderful Easter.  It was so nice to be able to spend this time with our neighbors, who have become such dear friends.  We are really blessed to have made some close friends down here.  The kids have loved decorating eggs and hosting their friends over the last two years - so who knows.  Maybe we have started a tradition!