Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Easter Night

My mom's side of the family came over Easter night. My mom made fried chicken and then we had an egg hunt with the kids. During dinner Brian was eating biscuits with gravy and honey...gross! Port said "yuck" and had to try a bite!

Our second egg hunt for the day. Ella rethought her original plan of no coat...
On your mark...get set...go!
Ella's personal helper...Daddy!
Megan, Chase and Kinsley Grace
Ella loved getting to play with sweet Kinsley!
They put the ducks in the pool to swim, but then had to get them out. Always entertaining to watch....Nice work Logan!
Sorting our eggs, actually a pretty good project!
1. Open your eggs
2. Put candy in the basket
3. Close the egg and put it in the other basket
Ella did an awesome job at this!
We had the kids sort their eggs because Josh put a golden egg out there with a message in it. It said to "find Champ for your prize." The funny part was Champ didn't know he was the prize...good laugh for the adults and Port ended up with $5!

Easter

This tradition really makes no sense at all, but then my husband might say the same about some of the other ones we do too:-) My dad always got me a corsage for Easter so my mom made Ella one. I've just decided it'a a sweet way for a daughter to feel loved by her daddy...really has nothing to do with Jesus and Easter:-)
When my Poppy came to see Halle at the hospital she was in the nursery so he hadn't ever got to hold her yet. Since it rained on Easter we had our egg hunt and lunch at my parents instead of at the farm. While we were thankful for the rain, it did put a few dampers on our plans! We had to cancel our "sunrise service" but we can't wait to do it next year!
Ella sure misses her paci, so I am super thankful this sucker dissolves quickly!
Hunting eggs in the rain with our ducks!

Pizza and Easter Eggs

Sweet Halle's first Easter
This was the little dress I bought her to wear home from the hospital. She is now 8 weeks and getting a little bigger each day!
We headed to Lolli and Champ's to make pizza and dye eggs...not necessarily a great idea to do together! The idea was to make pizza and dye eggs while waiting= a big mess!
My kids LOVE helping in the kitchen, almost too much!
Ella making her pizza crust! She made her whole pizza and ate most of it before we were able to cook it! She did a great job!
Port tossing his dough like the guys at Hideaway!
Haynes couldn't hardly wait to dye eggs. If you know Haynes very well you know that means that he literally asked when he could start about every 30 seconds!
Port and Ella decided to dye their hands too! Ella loved that her hands were pink...
Haynes eating his pizza-it looked great!
Some of our finished product!

Hartsock Cousins

We actually got a picture of all the cousins AWAKE! All 12 kids in one picture and it wasn't too awful getting the shot:-) We are expectant that #13 will be here before we know it...we can't wait to meet you little one!
These cousins got to spend the weekend playing...Friday swimming and playing and Saturday lunch and egg hunt. It's so fun to see the older ones getting bigger and play so well together. Then we have our little ones Ella and Elizabeth who just LOVED playing together too! Next is sweet Emma and Halle who will be playing together before we know it! What a blessing to have such amazing cousins!

Liddell Easter Egg Hunt

Haynes and Emma

One of our favorite family traditions is the Liddell Easter Egg Hunt. It's so fun getting all our friends and family together each year. We never know how many people are going to come, but it seems to grow each year. We've been filling 2000 eggs...
we might have to add some eggs next year!
Ella and Champ
The weather predicted rain, but we just had a cooler and cloudy day. When I asked Brian what they did when he was little when it rained he said, "It's NEVER rained on an Easter Egg hunt!" Ella didn't want to wear a jacket, but the rest of us were pretty chilly!
Sweet Angie, me and Halle
I'm learning how to use this little wrap as a carrier. Still working on it:-)
Elijah's first Easter Egg hunt...next year he will love getting those eggs!
Sweet friends!

Happy Birthday Marci!

Blake and Marci got to come in this weekend for Easter, so Blake planned a lunch to celebrate Marci's birthday. They will be in Lebanon for her birthday so it was so fun to celebrate her a little early. Happy Birthday Marce! I pray God's presence and peace over you as you travel with your little ones over the next two weeks!

Just passing time....

So our pace of life has slowed down a bit with our newest addition needing some extra attention. Feeding Halle can take up to 45 minutes when nursing and giving a bottle too...about 7-8 x's a day! I've had to get creative with ways to spend time with my kids while feeding so we started taking pictures of our different faces for each emotion.
(Don't you just love digital cameras!)
Scared
Happy
Happy
This is the silly face Ella makes ALL the time! She usually can get a pretty good laugh from me even in the most intense moments of discipline.
Surprised!
Angry Port!
Mad Haynes!

Cousins!!!

We met Dax, Crew, and Luke at the park the other day. We were taking pictures of Luke and Halle when the older boys wanted to join in on the fun.
These sweet babies are just four weeks apart...can you believe it! They are on opposite sides of the growth chart:-) I can't wait to see them grow up together, much like Ella and Crew!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Buddies at the Park

Friday afternoon we spent at the park with the Noles boys and Elijah. I decided to lay Halle next to Luke for a quick picture. These two are 4 weeks apart, but you probably wouldn't guess that from the picture! They are going to be great buddies one day soon!
Angie and I were telling Port and Dax that we used to take pictures of the boys like that too when they were little. They decided to jump down and get in the picture too. Port and Dax are best buddies and 8 weeks apart.

Breakfast Date with Asher

Monday and Friday's I get to spend the morning with Haynes and Halle. We usually head to Target on Monday's to treasure hunt and run errands. Friday's we stop at Starbucks for some quality time before Mom's prayer. We got to take Asher with us this week and it was such a treat.
Haynes decided that he needed to try the Starbuck's chocolate donut. I think he was pleased...and quite a mess! Don't worry Brooke I threw away most of the donut:-)

Date with Daddy

Brian's week was really full, so to make up for some quality time he joined us for treats after school on Thursday afternoon. The boys were thrilled to see him in the pick-up line at school. We decided to go grab a snow cone at the permanent location so we could sit inside and eat, unfortunately there is no indoor seating! We froze while we ate snow cones, but loved our sweet time with our great daddy!

Easter Parties

Thursday both boys had thier Easter parties. I managed to make it to both of them between feeding, supplementing, and stopping off at the doctor's office for Ella'a staff infection. Haynes was so excited to see us, even if it was for just a few seconds. These ear hats are some of my favorites!
Port was pretty excited to see us too. When we got there I went to find him playing and when I got to the door he was walking out of the bathroom. He had brought a pair of shorts to wear at school and I had caught him changing. He was so surprised and trying to figure out if he was going to be in trouble or not:-) My boys would love to wear shorts every day, and don't understand when I tell them it's going to be cold.
These boys have the best time playing together at Gingerbread!

OU Baseball game

Last week my friend Alicia's husband coaches baseball. His team came to Norman to play OU so we decided to take the kids out to a ballgame. I had actually never been to an OU baseball game...seriously!
(How do you like Lolli's new hair?)
Daddy got everyone dinner while we watched a little baseball.
Halle enjoyed her first game snug inside her car seat.
The kids couldn't wait to roll down the hill. Unfortunately, the security guard was not going to let that happen...they tried really hard to convince him they could do it though!