Easter Sunday...

Happy Easter everyone! The Easter Bunny brought the kids some good stuff this year! They each got a Disney movie, some fruitfulls (fruit leathers), a bag of their favorite snacks or chips, and some bars (granola, fruit...). They loved their baskets!

This morning we went to Mass and afterwards we went home to have our little egg hunt, the kids were OK with the Easter Bunny not doing it the regular way (with real eggs in the back yard) because we had just moved to this house. I explained that Granny told me that the Easter Bunny had come to their house and left eggs for them. So we did the hunt there later on. Meanwhile Grandpa came over and brought them some baskets of candy. They love candy. Then we went to the Easter lunch at my parents house, they live 3 miles away now! The food was delicious, the kids had a great time, they got more candy, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

We met up with my family after Mass this morning and caught the kids in their good duds before they went tearing off and getting messy.

The dogs playing around.

My Great-Aunt Doris with Corey and Rebekah

Nanny and Rebekah

The chef JP and Mom being silly in the kitchen

Ready, Set...GO!

I found one!

Marissa and Hannah finding eggs by the jacuzzi

The basket pass

Grandma R setting out her couscous...yum!

Some of the spread

And yes, the kids went swimming in April!

Egg dyeing...

We went to my aunts house today for the yearly egg dyeing fun! We take turns hosting this event every year and it always turns out to be pretty fun for everyone. I think we'll host next year and make it a contest to see who can do the most creative egg. That might make the kids sit longer instead of dropping their eggs into the dye, pulling them out and running off to play. Hannah, however was the last child at the table, she sat there with the adults dyeing their eggs after all the kids were done.

We also got a chance to get all the cousins together and take a picture. We haven't had an opportunity like that in a long time so all the parents stood out there like the paparazzi shooting pictures of the famous kids. ;)

Cousins Ben, Levi and Joshua

Noah making his really dark blue

Hannah is the last one standing...sitting and still dyeing eggs!

All the cousins together! (yes there are only 3 girls, two of them are mine!)

Baby birds...

We have a few nests around the house and this one is occupied with three baby birds. I had to get on a step stool to get this picture and this baby bird tried to peck at me. I think it was trying to tell me to go away.

Baptism...

Rebekah was baptized today! Yay! She is almost (2 more days) 2 months old and it was perfect. Since we have moved :) we still go to the Mission. We will continue going until the kids are out of Sunday School in May. During the summer we will look for another church closer to home to attend to see where we will feel comfortable. 

The ceremony was so personal (like Noah's) and special. Most of our family was there to help celebrate and afterwards we invited everyone to our new house for refreshments. My Mom made the family celebration cake that her Mom used to make all the time. 

Rebekah wore the family Baptismal dress that has been passed around my family for almost 150 years. It has travelled the world. Rebekah was the 118th baby baptized in the dress. It's such a special tradition to take part in.

Rebekah and her Godparents (Heather and Dennis)

With the kids

"I baptize you..."

We're in!

We're in! We can't believe it! We have a couple things to do (like order propane) to be completely in this house but we are sleeping here and everything! It is heavenly and so big with lots of space for all of us. We finally officially got the keys on the 1st (Wed) and we gave our other house keys up that day too. That was a total race to get the rest of the stuff out. There was a lot of last little stuff that was left and no one knew what to do with it so we had to box it up and get it out. We cleaned as we left and (again, thankfully) Rebekah slept while we did. The owners brother showed up as we were putting the last thing in the car and we handed the keys. We ended up having the moving truck for 3 days and filling it up a couple of times. It was a crazy move and one we don't want to have to do again for a long time...if ever.

So we'll have a house warming party at some time, we're thinking at the end of summer. But in the meantime, we have a few events coming up that some of the people we know will already be coming over.

the kids in the master tub

Hannah was playing with the flowers and Rebekah. I don't think she looks happy about it here.

Critters...

We moved another truckload from the house today -there is soooo much more!- and while we were moving we found some of the resident critters living here. There are gopher holes everywhere and we saw one today! He was pulling the weeds (go ahead, I say) and taking them into his hole. The lizards are expected but we didn't think we'd see one on the inside of the screen! Ah well, we don't really mind actually, and the kids loved it!

Moving day...

Today is moving day! We haven't closed yet but we hope to on Monday. We got the approval to move our belongings into the garage until we officially get the keys. So we got a truck for a couple of days, we have that much stuff, and we're packing it up today. We have help, and thankfully Rebekah slept for a good amount of time to let me do some work. So we got a whole truckload and a few more vehicles packed and unloaded but there is so much more to go! The kids had a blast with the truck and its' lift. They loved showing off the house to everyone too. We'll be staying here tonight and hopefully at the new house soon!!

Pics...

I don't know, I just think this picture is so funny.

The packers...actually they're just playing around in the boxes.

Rebekah

The chaos of the upcoming move.

Some pics and update...

Well we didn't close escrow today like we had hoped so it looks like it will most likely be on Monday :( it's a big bummer. We are still moving and that is good. We have been busy packing up our stuff and the house is becoming more and more cluttered with piles of boxes. We hope to move our boxes into the garage on Sunday, get the keys on Monday and finish moving in next week sometime. Corey has taken most of the week off to make the transition. It should be interesting and s l o w with a newborn attached to me. We've got plenty of time though. No rush.

Rebekah is growing so fast, tonight I noticed that she may be moving to the next size in clothes...we've been using disposables for the past week or so because it helps my laundry sanity with the packing and chaos. So when we are settled into our house and using cloth again she'll definitely need some bigger clothes. Not to worry though because we have all of Hannah's old clothes (we saved them, just in case) as well as a few new outfits she got as gifts :)

Ben, Hannah and Noah have been so excited about moving it doesn't seem real to them...until today when we told them that we are packing a truck on Sunday. They are super excited. Hannah can't wait to have her own room. Ben and Noah can't wait either. They have their rooms all picked out. We also cannot wait to start our gardens. We have plenty of room in the yard for everyone to have their own.

Tonight the notary came by and had us sign a million papers. As she was leaving she said "thank you and you have beautiful children, they've been incredibly good. You homeschool? [I said yes] I can tell [I say: you can tell? how? there is no school stuff out] By the way they behave." So, I can take this two ways. They were jumpy on the couch but also watching TV and quieted down after a while. Was that a nice compliment or...not? I'm choosing to think it was.

That's the update about us, I'm going to do some back posting with more pictures so please read back a bit too.

The kids

goofing around

Hannah with Rebekah in the car seat...she's yawning

a day in the park

with Mama

Remembering?

Having fun...

Dreamcatchers...

We signed up for a class on how to make dreamcatchers today. It was awesome! It really helped that Hannah had learned about dreamcatchers in Daisy Scouts last fall so she knew something about them already. They weren't easy to make, especially the knots but knots are what Ben like to make. So he loved the project. They have them hanging over their beds now.

Yes it was a busy day but so much fun for the kids. We hope to take some more classes and learn some more about Native American art and traditions.

Musical zoo...

We went to a friends house today for a 'musical petting zoo'. She invited our homeschooling field trip groups to her house so that the kids could explore with the instruments that she owns. It was a great experience for the kids and they learned a lot and really enjoyed themselves. Here are a few pictures from the morning.

Ben with a rainstick

Hannah on the harp

the band

Noah playing something (I forgot the name)

Breakfast and more...

Here's Noah making breakfast. He loves to help in the kitchen and today was his turn to help with their favorite meal of the week. Pancakes! We have to double the batch these days, they just love them so much!

Pancakes!

Rebekah at park day yesterday:)

Rebekah and Mommy

Hannah sitting in the weeds in the front of the house. Lots of weeds!

Moving!

Just a quick note to update here, we are in escrow and are due to close in 2 weeks. We got the acceptance back from the bank yesterday and it wasn't soon enough. I was going out of my mind with all the waiting and not hearing anything. It was about a month of waiting. Now we'll have a short escrow and be able to move in by the end of the month...that's the plan, at least! So we had a home inspection today and it went well, nothing hugely wrong or broken with the house. It isn't perfect but we can move in and work on it as we want. We need to buy a new fridge and new washer and dryer so we are going to shop and just look tomorrow and see what is out there. We haven't had to buy any of these since we bought this house (8 years ago) and we're sure there are some new features on appliances that we don't know about. We are so excited.

And to leave you with a cute story about Noah. The other day, I was nursing the baby and burping her almost every time she unlatched because I thought that maybe she had a little bubble. She would cry when I would move her to my shoulder to pat the burp out. I made a comment about how she's sad and crying. Noah sat next to me and casually looked at me and said: "Mommy she's crying because you keep hitting her on the back."

Big sister...

I have said it before but I have to say it again. Hannah LOVES her new little sister. Her big thing this week is wanting to hold Rebekah while standing up. She has even experimented a little (without my approval) and walked around with her. It really is the sweetest thing ever. It scares me to death that she will trip (over the mounds of toys on the floor) or that she will drop her.

This morning has been a hard morning for Hannah and she just wanted to hold her sister for a while. Rebekah wasn't cooperating by going to sleep for me so I let her hold her. She picked her up from where she was lying and carried her (while I spotted her head) to the couch where...she fell asleep! Hannah got Rebekah to sleep :) That was awesome. Hannah wasn't finished though, she stood up while holding her, walked with her and put her in bed. Rebekah didn't wake up! Hannah was so proud of herself.