Easter

Today was a great day! A wonderful reason to celebrate!! We went to Church an hour earlier today to participate in Easter Breakfast on the porch. Then after church we went to the White's house for Easter dinner. And when we got home, we found the Easter Bunny had made a visit to our house ;)!

Our Cinderella!
She said several times "K K Pretty" after I told her she was so pretty in her fancy dress.
Thanks to Sadie for letting Katelyn wear your pretty dress!

Breakfast on the porch before church

Second Easter egg hunt of the season.
Neither of the girls were too into it....
Emmalyn only wanted the eggs that had candy in them and if they were empty,
she would throw them back down.
And Katelyn didn't want the eggs that were laying open.
Lose Lose for both girls.
Oh well!

Since the hunt wasn't a big hit, they turned the sprinklers on.
Now that was a hit!
I can't say I ever remember being able to run in the sprinklers on Easter....oh wait - I lived in Kansas!

Katelyn would make this face every time the water caught her like it was the first time each time!
Crazy girl!

The Easter Bunny had a very Dora themed Easter basket this year.
Katelyn loved it and was sad when the presents were all opened.
She's going to LOVE her birthday.....in 2 weeks :(

The Easter bunny brought Dora water colors.
She couldn't quite remember that you had to put the paint brush from the water,
to the paint, to the paint book.
She kept wanting to go from the cup to the paint and back to the cup again.
Needless to say, the water was very colorful! ha!
Soon she'll get it figured out!

I hope y'all had a great Easter!
It was wonderful to be able to spend Easter as a family and I'm looking forward to more holidays in the years to come!

Wheels Day

April is the Month of the Military Child and the Child Development Centers have lots of activities planned throughout the month. Today was "Wheels" Day at school. Katelyn didn't go to school today because Jack is off, but it was open to post so we went anyways. There were different pieces of military equipment, ambulance, police car, firetruck and several tractors. She was a little too small to be excited about the vehicles, but they had a train and some bounce houses that were a hit! She was excited about the train and kept saying "Choo Choo" while we were waiting in line, but the conductor tried to talk to her and she freaked out. So when we got on the train she wasn't too happy, but as soon as it started moving she was saying "weee." We had to ride the train 2 times. The bounce houses were nice because they were for the smaller kids AND one of them was Dora! There was also a Sesame Street one, but it was old and smelled like mildew! Needless to say, she didn't want to leave!

These red things are called "Bye Bye Buggy's" and the younger aged classes have several of these that they load all the kids in to take them out and about. I just think they are the coolest thing!

Sleeping with her girls

I check on Katelyn every night before I go to bed.

There is just something about a sleeping baby!
I just love it!
She just looks so peaceful and adorable!

This is how I found her the other night!
Such a little Mommy to her dolls! ha!

Happy Party Day Daddy

Last Thursday Jack had a big birthday. I won't say just how old....but the second number was a zero! Katelyn and I had a little something up our sleeve. I was planning on getting his key to the office and decorating it up on Wednesday night so when he got there on Thursday morning it'd be waiting, but he spoiled that plan when he didn't get home until after 8 on Wednesday night. So, we just got some balloons, a cake and took it up to work in the morning to make sure everyone knew that it was his big day! I kept talking about it with Katelyn and she kept saying "Happy Party Day Daddy! Happy Party Day Daddy!" And if you asked her who's birthday it was she would say "Daddy, Party Day." She was excited and poor Jack didn't even get to open his presents. The minute I sat them on the table, she ripped right into them. Her birthday should be a lot of fun!

Katelyn's giving Jack the balloons she picked out for him.
You can't really see it, but there is an Elmo balloon in there!
That's the first one she saw when we walked into the store and wouldn't stop saying Elmo, so I figured what the heck!

Happy 30th Birthday Old Man!!
We love you!!
(Oops! Did I just say the number!)
I can give him a hard time about being old since he's older than me!

Sorry the pictures aren't the best; I should have brought my good camera instead. Oh well!

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's way!

This past weekend, Jack's parents were in town so we had a little Easter Egg hunt and Katelyn dyed some eggs. She did quite well with the coloring of the eggs and only got a small spot on her clothes (and by the way - it came out! Can you believe it?!?). She did however like to put her hands in the dyem so she had some colorful hands and a nice pink streak going down her arm. Oh well, it came off after a few days. I only had 7 eggs ready to go and that was plenty. After about 5 she was more interested in stirring the dye. I guess we kept a pretty close eye on things because only 1 egg turned out brown. We must have grabbed them before she could put them in every single cup. There's always next year and by then I'm sure it'll be even more of "I do! I do!"

"Not like this Mommy?"

See what I'm talking about!

So pretty! (Except for the ugly duckling!)

The whole time she was out "hunting" eggs, she kept saying "More eggs! More eggs! More eggs!"

The Easter Bunny brought a basket with some goodies too!

The E.B brought some Dora and Elmo bandaids!
Although she won't keep them on her "owie" long enough to do anything!

Decorating the cupcakes the EB brought too.
These are Melissa and Doug wooden cupcakes and you can draw on the "icing" so she has had fun decorating and "baking" them in her oven.

Bubble time with Pops!

Whew! You made it through! Congrats :)
Sorry it was a long one!

A chef in PJs!

Our lil chef in her PJs!
Wonder what this meal is going to taste like if she cooks like this?!

Big shoes to fill

Katelyn's pretty infatuated with Daddy right now and I couldn't be happier! She needs to know where he is at all times when he is home and gets VERY excited when she hears the garage door open. She knows he's HOME! He's been working some very late nights, so sometimes she doesn't see him much before I have to wind her down (Because he gets her all hyped up when he gets home) and put her to bed. Here's a little idea of what she does when she hears the garage door open. Usually she runs out and grabs his leg and then carries his lunch pail in for him....she wasn't on her A game the night I finally got the video out! Oh well, it's still adorable none the less!

Dance Dance Katelyn

Katelyn LOVES to dance! Her favorites are "Undo" by Carrie Underwood and "Wildflower" by Jane Deere Girls- she really gets down! Good thing for On Demand! She is starting to dance and clap more in the car; not sure why she isn't trying to bust a move in the car, maybe she is just too restrained!

The funniest thing about her dancing though...she has to have her purse most of the time. So the music will start and then she'll start saying "purse! Purse! Purse!" (But in Katelyn talk) and run off to find it. Then she'll dance a little with it and hand it to me. Such a goof ball!

Jack's Change of Command

On March 15, Jack took command of HHC 2-3 BSTB. He commanded E/1-30 IN for about 10 months, but the company was merged with another engineering company in January and Jack got to be the lucky one (sarcasm) to be the new HHC commander. HHC is just a different kind of group than a "normal" company. For starters, there are about 220+ soldiers in the company! That's a lot of folks to keep track of! I'm very thankful that this command is during a non deployment time, because I thought keeping up with about 50 spouses was bad, I can't even begin to imagine the work involved in a company this size. So anyways, the fun begins. Let's just say, he's been at work more during the last 2 weeks than home, although it seems to be quieting down a bit. On his first day, he didn't get home until 9:30!

Jack taking the guidon for the new company

Jack with the BN Commander and outgoing HHC Commander

Jack with the new company (or about 50 of them!)

Reception

Time to cut the cake
(Do you see Katelyn in the background just having a blast?!)

She was the entertainment at the reception
and was the best little girl that we could have asked for that day!

Wearing Daddy's hat!

Congratulations Jack! We're so proud of you!
We love you!