Happy Birthday Annaliese!

Annaliese turned four on Sunday, April 19th. Out of all our children, I have never seen one so excited for a birthday! All day she was running around telling everyone it was her birthday and smiling from ear to ear. Starting off with church in the morning and then off to Brown Bottle for dinner, cake and ice cream at home afterwards with presents. Now, if you ask her, she will tell you she is "fohwa" - at least that's what it sounds like with her New Jersey accent. So cute! She had a great day as you can see.

Annaliese opened a few presents at the Brown Bottle - including a gift from Great Grandma Mildred - lots of tape on that one!

Brad and Jackson.

Grandpa Ron and Anderson - the kids waiting to blow out the candle with Annaliese.

Happy Birthday Annaliese!

Easter

It's been a while since I have posted. I figured that I finally needed to get these pics up. I was a little slack around Easter as I had back surgery the week before. I wasn't really moving around that well until Thursday night or so. The pictures aren't that great, but the kids had a lot of fun. Mom and Michelle helped them do Easter eggs on Saturday. They all really enjoyed that. We went to Orchard Hill for service on Saturday night. It was an awesome service reminding us why Easter is so important. The little ones weren't that thrilled with sitting through the whole service. But it was nice for all of us to be there together.

All the kids getting a little messy. They all look pretty rough - remember, I wasn't really up to dressing them and making a nice picture.

Hunting on the farm at the Block's. All the kids got into it and there were a ton of eggs for them to find. Tried to get a group picture, but it's practically impossible to get all the kids to look at the same time.

Anderson trying to get in the picture. I love his little smile!

The girls always smile so pretty.

I tried to get all four kids, but Jackson is going through this phase where he doesn't like to have his picture taken. So, it ends of being more of a hassle to convince him to smile nice. (At least I am hoping it is a phase!)

The girls got sunglasses from Grandma Bev. That and their matching coats, so cute!

Sunday we went to brunch at Grandpa Les and Grandma Mildred's. All of Brad's cousins were there with their kids. A great egg hunt for the kids, even though it was sooooo windy! Later in the day we headed back home and had another egg hunt and dinner. The kids were exhausted by the end of the day and the sugar high made them crash hard. I can't believe how much candy they have!

Happy Birthday Hailey!

Hailey is now 8 years old! I can't believe where all the time has gone and how much has happened in the last eight years. She is such a big girl now and we are so proud of the little lady she is becoming. I am savoring all these moments because I know they won't last forever.

Beautiful Butterfly cake that Grandma Hazel made.

We celebrated her birthday at the bowling alley with some of her friends and Grandparents.

A very happy Hailey!

Brad and Annaliese. Brad helped Annaliese and Anderson bowl. They loved every minute of it! The only picture I have of Jackson was him pouting because he didn't get to bowl as much as he wanted to, so I thought I would leave that one out.

This would have been a better picture if one of her friends hadn't put their fingers up behind Hailey. But what can you really expect from eight year-olds?

All her friends made a great party for Hailey. So happy for her!

St. Pat's Party

We celebrated St. Pat's this year at the Thomas home. They always throw a fun party and we definitely had fun!

A great pic of all the ladies, Jenny's in the shaker - a great drink John!

Love the glasses we got at Galena. We even brought back a pair for Ann and Buffy. You have to have props!

Gettin' Jiggy Melissa! Ann will get to show off her side pony in full glory at the Landsgard 80's party coming up!

The happy Irish couple :)

A short backtrack here. Right before we left to go to the party, Anderson fell off the couch onto the magazine rack. His eye started to swell up right away. This picture was taken the day after and he had quite a shiner for a while. Of course I took a picture and he smiled for it. Such a trooper!