Bunny madness!

A few years ago one of our friends made us this DARLING Easter bunny. For some reason I got into my head that I could re-create it! So a couple days before Easter I was on a mission to made a few cake bunnies. The girls each made a list and my 'few' became eight. Wow! Uh, okay, sure I can make eight cakes. I agreed and off we went to find the ingredients. I searched high and low to find those stupid, hot pink 'Sno-balls' that are made by the same people who do Twinkies/Ding dongs -- ya know, the nutritious company. No one had them (that I could find). So we forged ahead and made some relatively cute bunnies - minus their cute, puffy bums. The girls had a blast which is all that matters. 

Tae is quite the perfectionist. She would pick who got which bunny according to the families likes/dislikes. I love that at almost seven she recognizes the amount of work that goes into this stuff!

Aliya, was a little less perfection-based. She just had fun and enjoyed the process. These two kids couldn't be more different yet they are each so stinking fun and good!

This is the lovely preggers picture. Yep, I am dressed horribly, I am covered in frosting and this is how I delivered the bunnies. Luckily I didn't have to get out at too many houses. I think this is one tradition I am going to try to forget. I doubt the girls will forget it but I'm trying to!

Easter morning

Flaky Mom strikes again! So Easter morning comes and bright and early the kids were out of bed. Aliya was the first one up (which never happens). She came running into our room "Mom, the Easter bunny came. He left me treats by my bed". Now, it wasn't even 7 a.m. at this point (even worse, the church behind our house did a sunrise service so I had been listening to some pretty awful singing for 30 minutes or so -- it probably wasn't bad at all but I don't tend to be too happy about much in the morning). I have a stern 'no-talking-before-7' policy at my house. Poor Aliya doesn't know how to tell time so I told her "yep, he did but its too early, go back to bed". Unfortunately she was quite loud when she energetically rushed into my room and woke up Blake along the way. We decided we may as well wake up Tae too and start the day! I had all the kids go into our room with Tony while I grabbed the video camera and digital camera. Tony and I gathered at the bottom of the stairs to snap pictures as the kids came meandering down. I got this picture: 

Then my camera died. Of course! But wait, I remembered I had my back up junky one in my purse. Went to grab that and found that it too had a dead battery. LOVELY! Here is a brief idea of the type of pictures you missed out on:

Our Easter bunny likes to leave a trail of candy leading to the kids Easter baskets. The girls did a great job following his trail until they came to a  section that Blake had gotten too first. I've told you before that he's our scavenger and sure enough, he found candy on the floor and assumed it was manna from heaven. Little dude had eaten their jelly bean trail right up! I got a kick out of it, the girls, not so much!

Eventually, they found the other section of the trail and found their Easter baskets. The girls were excited to see they got a scooter for Easter. Poor Blakers only got a copy of Pinocchio. Soon enough he'll be getting all the fun, big-boy toys!

Also, you wont get to see a picture of the kids in their Easter clothes. With 9:00 Church and getting everyone ready, taking a picture was the last thing on my mind. Then after Church, I was so ready for a nap, it didn't happen. Who knows, maybe I'll grab a random picture of them one Sunday and say its their Easter clothes! But they looked cute, I promise!

Whoops!

Don't you hate it when you forget to download pictures? We've got two cameras: our nice one and our old one I keep in my purse. If its anything major I always take the nice one. Well, I forgot to bring the big camera to Aliya's preschool Valentine party but had the old backup in my purse. Problem was I forgot about these pictures until now! Whoops!

Aliya was so excited to hand out her Valentines. She would pick who got what treat and tell me which name to write on which card. It was really quite precious to see all her excitement over a little pack of sweet-tarts!

She was so excited when it was finally her turn to fill each kids Valentine box with her treats. I love that the little things still get her so happy. She is a jewel and we are lucky to have her. Love you Aliya-loo!

Ladies man

We had some friends, the Pingree's, over for dinner the other night. Since we were both 'Weekday Widows' while Tony was doing his work in Vegas, we'd get together each Wednesday for dinner. Our kids are almost all the same ages and play surprisingly well together.  This Wednesday night, their daughter attacked poor Blake. He didn't seem to mind too much!

Way to go Blakers! And with an older woman too! BTW - Addison is 2 and Blake is 16 months. Jen and I are okay with this! We at least like the future in-laws!

Its a . . .

What do you think? As if these faces don't tell all. Three thought it would be one thing and Aliya thought the other. Needless to say, its a . . .

BOY! Yep, we are now officially a house divided. We are split right down the middle. Who'd have thought I'd have two girls AND two boys. I always thought I'd be the mom to girls but nope! Needless to say we are thrilled and even more excited that everything appears to be perfect. Don't worry about Aliya, once she gets to see the kid, she'll be a little mother hen all over again!

Taking all three kiddos to the Dr provided to be a rather eventful experience. I had rather grand ideas about it in my head. Yep, they all got smashed to smithereens! I pulled Tae out of school early then we were to meet Tony at the Drs (I kindly asked that he try to be early since I'd be fighting three kids in the waiting room -- he said he'd try to be there as early as possible but was in a meeting so who knew when he'd get out. I should have known right there that it was a bad sign). 

Being an ever prepared Mom (insert a 'psh, yea right') I had brought the girls their travel backpacks filled with new, fun and exciting things so they would be entertained for the eternal wait. I even came prepared for Blake (and that never happens, poor kid). Well, we got there, I checked in and they immediately took us back. What, no 30 minute wait? Also, no hubby!

Back in the little room I all but drop my drawers trying to get ready for the ultrasound while holding a squirming 16 month old. I have the girls each sit on a chair (having been threatened with their lives) and Blake is sitting on my chest. Yep, heavy elephant sitting on my chest. The first five minutes were not too bad. He was so entertained by the man that he didn't notice much else going on. After a bit, he noticed Mom had some funny jelly on her belly. He proceeded to lovingly rub it in (it was actually quite cute). The guy said it was no big deal, it didnt affect any of his measurements. After a couple minutes Blake thought it was hilarious to smack my belly, making the goobery jelly go flying (not too cute). FINALLY after having a moose on my chest for 15 minutes, my knight in shinning armor arrived.

It was the most thorough ultrasound I've ever had. We could see the kid swallow, blink and who knows what else. He was quite modest at first but after a few quick jiggles, he finally changed position and spread his legs WIDE open for a great little whacker shot (we actually have it on a CD, when Tony gets home I'll probably add it to this post. This poor kid is going to hate us when he gets older. Oh well, that'll probably happen anyway!) The guy did his measurements for almost 30 minutes then the Dr did another 10 minutes. The kids were all but swinging from the ultrasound machine by this time. We escaped with no major catastrophe and the knowledge that the teams are equal at our house! Wahoo!

50/50 chance

Tomorrow we find out what this little squirt is. We're debating showing up to the ultrasound with the other three heathens in tow or just the two of us. Either way it looks to be an adventure. So, any ideas what we're having?

Blakers surgery

Slacker Mommy that I am, I've forgotten to post Blake's surgery pictures. Everything went AWESOME! I took him into the Surgery Center bright and early on a Tuesday morning (6:00 a.m. people -- I  must love this kid!). They took him back to the pre-op area at about 7:15. There I changed him into this super cute little gown. I love the little gowns. It made him look so grown up yet so little. 

Blake was EXHAUSTED! This picture is mid-yawn! He was tired and cranky and just wanted his juice (which he couldn't have). He kept trying to go through my purse searching after his sippy cup!

This is a good picture that shows how bad his eyes had gotten. The Dr came in and re-did her measurements and went over what they were going to do. Then they had me leave through one door and took him out another. Blake was just like my girls -- perfectly content to go somewhere with a stranger. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing!

He ended up only being in surgery about 45 minutes. The Dr came out and said everything went great and he did really well. I wish I had grabbed a picture of him laying there in the bed in recovery. He was totally bundled up and looked so little. It took him a little while to come out of anesthesia but he did great. I got him dressed and out we went. I was thanking the nurses and said Good-bye, with that Blake started waving. I love that even drugged he was still a happy kiddo! On the way out the door he rubbed one of his eyes and it immediately started to bleed. I was totally nervous that he had pulled out a stitch or messed something up but the nurse said it was normal for a day or two. Yeow!

Once we got home he slept for a bit but other wise, he was right back to his energetic self. I was sad to see his IV bruise but was relieved to find out that they give kids some gas that knocks them out, then they put in the IV. Tony loved the cuddles that he gave afterwards.

For a week or two the inside corners of his eyes were blood shot but otherwise, you couldn't tell anything had been done (well, except that BOTH eyes were looking at you now).  He did great and we are so thankful that everything went so well! Way to go little dude!