Cooper's First Easter!

We had a wonderful first Easter with our sweet Cooper! The girls were so precious in their matching dresses. We weren't going to get new Easter clothes this year, but Granny surprised us and I was able to go shopping and find dresses for the girls to match! That is one of my most favorite things about having two girls - I love for them to match! I think probably more than Kendall does...ha!
Sunday morning before we met Randy at church, I got all three of us ready and was able to take a few pictures before we loaded up!

This is one of my favorites - I love the two of them looking at each other! (And I have no idea what is going on with the formatting of this post! Sorry!)

Precious girl! I kept sitting her up on the blanket and she kept getting down and crawling towards me. I think she looks so pretty in blue!

Big sister! She is just looking so old and getting so big!

We decided this year to host dinner with the Sanders and the Mitterlings and Amy - all our friends that didn't have family in town. We planned it for dinner time, so that after church everyone could take the kids home for nap and then they all came over around 5:30. I loved it! It was so nice to have a slow afternoon and then the kids were rested for dinner and the egg hunt! After we ate, the dads went out to hide the eggs and we got the kids ready to hunt. Cooper slept through dinner and the hunt! Here, Holly had gathered all the kids up and was giving them a pep talk about getting the eggs! So funny! They were locked on and so serious about it!

She told them to show their muscles!

Then they did some stretching! :)

And then finally, one last picture before we set them free! Kendall, Caleb, Sarah, Ethan, and Ella. Best friends!

And they're off! They had so much fun hunting in the backyard!

(Sorry you missed out on all this fun, Coop! It sure was nice that you were sleeping, though! Next year!)

Another group picture with their eggs!

Here's a picture of all the girls! Mary, Amy, me, and Holly.

The Sanders

The Mitterlings

And us! Cooper woke up just in time for a family picture.

We missed being able to see our family on Easter, but we had a great day hanging out with sweet friends and starting new traditions. Happy Easter!!

Easter Presents!

Cooper and Kendall were so excited to get lots of mail this Easter season! Thank you Pops and Kiki, Granny and Papas, and Gigi and Peeps for all the fun cards and presents!

This bunny waves its arms and hops along to the song "Here Comes Peter Cottontail!"

Disney Princess CD - Kendall loves it! It has all the princess songs on it from all the movies. She has listened to it every night before bed and at nap.

Bubbles and a chick that lays bubblegum eggs!

Bunny mask! Kendall didn't want to put it on so I showed her what it looked like. :)

On Easter we didn't do the girls' baskets outside their doors in the morning, because when they woke up Randy was already at church. Instead, the Easter bunny came while we were eating lunch and then they got to go see what was inside their baskets! Kendall got some candy and the movie Tangled! She has been asking and asking for it and was so excited to get it! (Sorry for the naked pictures - I took their dresses off to eat because I didn't want them to get dirty!)

And Cooper got some puffs and a mirror for the car! I think she was excited.

This girl loves Puffs!

Easter Eve

Saturday night we planned to go to dinner with the Sanders and then head back to their house to dye our Easter eggs. Before dinner, some church members who live on several acres and have animals invited us out to see their week old calves and two week old baby goat! Kendall said she was excited to do this, so we went. When we got there, she changed her mind and would not go anywhere near the animals. Ella did, though - she loved that goat!

Randy took a picture to show how far away Kendall stayed. She wouldn't even stand on the other side of the fence!
Cooper, on the other hand, enjoyed getting to see the goat. Holly kept trying to get it to kiss Cooper, and she didn't seem to mind at all!

Kendall finally asked if the goat could come out of the fenced-in area so she could see it - I guess on her turf! She still would't get too close!! Sweet girl: look at those hands. She just kept wringing them around or sticking her fingers in her mouth. So nervous!

After we left we went to eat dinner and then got back to their house to dye eggs. I brought mine and Kendall's aprons we got last year, but when I put mine on she decided she didn't want to join me! Ethan was a good sport, though, and said he wanted to wear Kendall's. Ella went and got her Dora apron and we took a picture. :)

Patiently waiting to dye eggs!

Cooper was a happy girl, of course! This may have been right before she pulled a whole cup of pink dye down on both of our laps! Oops!

Finished products! The kids got disinterested real quick, so mostly it was just Randy, Holly, Aaron and me dying eggs. We had fun!

We had a fun "Easter Eve!" More pictures soon of our Easter!

Beach Babes

We

love
the

beach!

I took the girls to the beach this week by myself! We met Holly, Mary, their kids, Karen, Debbie, and Fonda out there and had a great time. I was proud, being able to go out there with both girls by myself. It is definitely more work than with just Kendall, but we had so much fun and the girls did great! We just stayed for about two hours, which was a perfect amount of time for us. We are looking forward to many more beach days this summer!

Thankful

Here are my sweet girls after their nap the other day.

I am so thankful my days are spent playing with these girls, letting them take naps, teaching them, changing diapers, and seeing their sweet faces.
Even though it gets routine sometimes and may not seem exciting to anyone else,


I love it so much and wouldn't trade it for anything!!!

First Trip to the Zoo!

Randy came home from work Thursday night and asked us if we wanted to go to the zoo on Friday! Of course we were super excited - Kendall has been talking about wanting to go to the zoo for a few weeks now. Last year we went in April also and it was such a great time to go because it wasn't too hot and on a Friday it isn't too crowded yet because kids are still in school.
So, Friday morning we packed a lunch, loaded the girls up and headed up the road to Houston. That is for sure one thing I miss about living in Ft. Worth - we were so close to the zoo! I think we would totally get a membership and go tons in the summer if it was closer, but since we have to drive an hour to get there, we make it a one time a year deal. That's ok - instead we go to the beach! :)

The first animals we saw when we got there were the sea lions! We saw them again on our way out and Kendall got to watch them do all their tricks. It made us excited to go to Sea World this summer and watch all the shows!

Cooper rode in the stroller before lunch and in the Baby Bjorn after lunch and Kendall rode in the wagon with our ice chest. It worked out great!

We loved getting to see the elephants and there were two babies! This one was so cute. It was eating and then...

...it layed down and started eating laying down! So funny.

Cooper loved seeing the animals and being outside. It was a beautiful day to walk around!

There is a new African section of the zoo where they put all the giraffes, monkeys, etc, and Kendall and Randy took a break to play some drums.

I'm not sure what caught her attention about these, but Kendall has been talking a lot about rhinos lately. So she was pretty excited to get to see them.

After lunch (in an air-conditioned pavillion!) we saw the giraffes. There were so many of them and they are so pretty! There were baby ones, too!

I think she was happy to get out of the stroller and be able to see more. I love that happy, smiling girl! She just smiles all the time!

Kendall and Daddy checking out the flamingos. This was about the time that Kendall started telling us she was ready to go home. :)

And, before we could get to the car, Cooper was out! She had so much fun and then just gave up. She was asleep pretty good, too, because I took her out of this and put her in her car seat and she never woke up! She slept almost the whole way home!

We had so much fun taking the girls to see the animals!! Thanks for a fun surprise, Dad!!