Cupcakes, Eggs, The Zoo, Easter, Baby Lucy, The Masters, & Photo Insanity

Please excuse the amount of photos in this post.  We have been busy lately.  Last week was Masters week, which meant Nana was off from work as well as Kelly the last part of the week.  We got together one day for making some Easter cupcakes as well as egg-dyeing.  While we were doing our eggs I had a de-ja-vu moment of dyeing eggs this time last year...it was the same day I went into the hospital for early labor with the boys.  What a year!!!  Praise the Lord for health.

Making cupcakes

Can't wait to try one!

Yum...

Kate started off with a pink egg...her fav color :)

Notice Will's blue teeth?  We forgot to tell him the dye was for COLORING the eggs...NOT for drinking! Lol!!  He quickly discovered vinegar and water are not exactly tasty :/

Little Joshy getting in on some of the fun...Matthew and John were napping

Proud of her beautiful pink egg!

Dyeing eggs is fun!

Fruits of our labor

The next day we decided to visit the zoo.  This was Kate's first trip so I was excited.  No, I was not quite ready to take two teething 8-month-olds AND my 2-year-old, so I left the boys home with Kathryn.  Yes, I am a chicken and I am ok with that.  Kelly was brave and took both Will and Josh.  All the kids did wonderful and had a great time, including Josh!

Our first stop...checking out the zebras

Had to get this photo of Kate looking at the turkeys for Daddy.  When she told him she saw turkeys, his first question for us was, "Did you hear him gobble?"  Yes, Daddy, he did gobble.  Turkey hunters.

Looking at the monkeys

All day long Will could not wait to see the tigers.  Everywhere we went he kept saying, "I want to see the tigers."  When we finally saw them, it was a little anti-climactic, to say the least.  He saw the tigers and said, "Where are the elephants?"  

Josh wanted in on some photo-ops

Will and Kelly checking out the bears

Kate said, "He's tired."

Looking at the HUGE turtles

Josh-y loves the zoo!

We were making our way through the aquarium when we looked down and saw Will and Kate holding hands running through looking at all the animals.  Sweet lil cousins!

Looking at the...well, what is that thing?  Giant lizard??

Fishies

Easter came and went this past Sunday.  We had a wonderful day at church, at home, and just being outdoors and enjoying the beautiful weather.  We heard a fantastic Easter sermon Sunday morning. Our pastor reminded us that not only is Easter about the cross, but most importantly it is about the resurrection!  Lots of great religious leaders have died...Buddha, Ghandi, etc.  But Jesus is the only human being in all of history we have record of as being risen from the dead.  Grandaddy and Grandmama joined us for lunch after church.  While we were at the table Grandaddy started talking about his Sunday School lesson that day.  They were asked, "What does Easter really mean to you?"  Definitely an interesting question to ponder.  What a blessing to hear "what Easter means" to my 83-year-old Grandaddy.  To quote him, "Easter means life!"  How grateful I am that He sent His only Son to die for me, but how truly AWESOME that Jesus rose again on that first Easter morning.  How great is His love for us.

Everybody checking out what the bunny brought...

How did he know my shoe size?

John was more interested in the grass...

Everybody got new sunglasses

;)

Family shot after church

I think she's in love...  :)

Good-lookin' men

My precious nephews

Kelly with her boys...minus Billy.  He was on a mission trip in Belize for Masters week. 

Matthew and Lo-wie

Hunting eggs

Matthew was NOT feeling it

What else is hiding in here?

More grass!  John loved the grass.

And one final special Easter treat to wrap up the day...Brent and Liz were passing through Augusta on the way back from visiting family in NC, and were kind enough to swing by to see us so we could meet PRECIOUS baby Lucy.  They were here about an hour and I never gave her up.  She never made so much as a single sound.  Precious, PRECIOUS baby girl!!!  How quickly I

forgot the tiny-ness...

Another reason this was a fabulous Easter was because of this guy.  Easter Sunday happened to also be Masters Sunday here in Augusta, and what a thrill it was to watch Bubba Watson putt to victory on the 10th green during a play-off with Louis Oosthuizen.  A Georgia grad, not afraid to shed a few tears, family guy, but most importantly, a heart for Him.  Great Masters 2012! 

Signing off this post with a shot Joe took this past weekend.  This is Kate giving the boys their bottles.  I mean who says you can't put your 2-yr-old to work when you need to get a few things done?  I need to get some pics of Joe and I feeding them like this...whenever we're by ourselves and we have to feed both at one time, this is how we have done it the past 8 months.  Guess we've done it so many times Kate has learned how!  It is getting exceedingly difficult to feed them like this, however, because they are ALL over the place these days.

Egg Huntin'

We tagged along at an egg hunt last weekend put on by Kelly and Billy's church.  We had a fun time!  

Geez...I am rockin' the tired, haggard look these days.  Need some sleep :/

Daddy duty

Matthew practicing walking.  Quick...knock him over!

Great shot of Will!  I can't believe how much he has grown :(  Definitely doesn't look "baby" anymore. All "little boy!"

Golden egg!

We laugh all the time about who does my nephew Josh look like?  We are still not really sure.  He really doesn't look much like Will, although the older he gets the more similarities I see.  When he was tiny-tiny he didn't really look like either Billy or Kelly, and certainly not Will.  He's having moments now where I see a lot of Kelly's baby pictures in him, but also a lot of Billy at other times.  Hmmm...

Sweet little Josh-y...getting so big, too!  He is soooo sweet...always smiling!

 Kate and Will had an egg hunt at their school last week.  What a fun time they had!  They were super excited when I went to pick them up.  We have been hiding eggs around the house all week, having little mini-hunts.

Sporting their bunny ears

Trading eggs---Will happened to have a pink egg that Kate was eyeing...she gave him a blue one and they called it even :)

Just some randoms:

PJs.  There is nothing quite like the smell of a freshly bathed baby...except maybe TWO freshly bathed babies! :)

Love this shot of Matthew...see him reaching for Kate's shoe?  He is reaching and grabbing for anything and everything he can possibly get to.  Changing his diaper these days is just short of impossible.  Don't even so much as attempt to eat a meal with him in your lap.  It. Does. Not. Work.  Yesterday I was walking through the kitchen and he almost took a total nose-dive out of my arms to get to a glass of water I had sitting on the counter.  Luckily I held tight onto him, but the [plastic] glass didn't make it.  Result:  soaking wet Matthew, kitchen, and Mommy.  Ha!

This guy is SUCH a mess...already.  I can only imagine the things he will get into once he's mobile.  I LOVE his spunk and feistiness.  He is hilarious!  He keeps things extra interesting and busy in our house!

And THIS little guy is SUCH a sweetheart.  He is into everything just like Matthew but seems to be generally a little more subdued.  When I put him to bed at night and down for naps he has started laying his little head on my chest and just letting me rock him quietly for a few moments.  My heart melts!

Both boys have their second bottom tooth coming in this week.  John is sitting up quite well on his own now...he was just taking his time.  They both still love to be outdoors, particularly walking up and down the street in the stroller or out on the back deck in the walker or Jumperoo.  Both of them love and have gotten really good at blowing raspberries...particularly while eating.  It's a lot of fun ;) 

Kate is still saying some really funny things.  I try to keep a mental record as best I can until I can get to another post, but I'm sure I've missed a few.  Today as I was heading up the stairs to her room I told her, "Kate I'll be right back...I'm just running up the stairs to get the sheets off your bed so we can wash them today."  She looked at me and smiled and said, "Oh.  Well, thank you Mama for washing my sheets for me.  That's so sweet." Lol!!  She loves to talk, read, and sing songs.  She is still really into "Beauty and the Beast."  Here she is singing her ABCs:

I don't know what caused me to think of this yesterday but at some point during the day I looked at the date (April 2) and remembered that this was the day that Joe and I were engaged...8 years ago!  My goodness how life has changed since that day!  I wouldn't change a thing about life as it is now, but oh how I do miss those simple evenings of, "Wanna go out for a date tonight?"  "Sure, what'd you have in mind?" "How about Calvert's and a movie?"  "Sounds great!  Can you be ready in 5 minutes?"  "Sure...let me just grab my purse.  Whose car should we take?"  Ahhh....life before kids.