EASTER 2011

the day before Easter :) ~dying Easter eggs!

Easter morning!
Biruk's first Easter with us ~he was pretty excited to get all dressed up. :)

our family

my "baby" -she's getting too big!

We hosted the family Easter gathering at our house this year.

After lunch we let the kids swim, slip -n-slide, and jump on the trampoline!

yes -it was warm enough for water fun ~but it was breezy so made being out of the water pretty cold!

10 of the 13 cousins in the pool!

baby Joshua chose to nap instead of play in the water :)

getting ready for the Easter egg hunt

we hid an egg in Ginger's cage...she didn't seem too happy about it.

BECCA'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

Rebecca declared this birthday as "the best birthday EVER"....not because of all the great gifts or outpouring of love. :)

The evening of her birthday we picked up my sister's chihuahua, Mia, and her youngest, baby Joshua to baby sit for the weekend.

My sis and her husband were going out of town for 3 days and we had volunteered for babysitting duty (my mom took on the 8 older kids!)

he's such a happy little guy!

if you saw the previous post about Becca getting a puppy in a purse for her birthday-you'll get how perfect that was ~instead of her stuffed puppy, she was able to carry around Mia in her purse. :)

we took her out for Ethiopian food on her birthday, the 24th, and got home too late to do cake....so we did her cake on the 25th. :) she asked for a fun-fetti cake with green frosting -sounded odd to me but I made it anyway.:)

My sister sent clothes for Joshua, but I dug out our box of favorites from when Andrew was a baby ~found this Ohio State onesie that Joshua just HAD to wear. :)

nothing cuter than watching a baby watch himself in the mirror!

MARCH BIRTHDAY PARTY

Between my sister and I, we have 5 kids born in a 10 day period in March.....instead of individual parties, we just get everyone together for 1 big celebration.

Josiah turned 4 this year!

everyone waiting for the gift opening to begin!

Janae and Julia opening up a gift together.

Becca opening up her favorite gift....a puppy in a purse.

oh my. this is SO her.

we bought Jeremiah and Josiah a set of 3 little dart guns (so all 3 little boys would have their own gun)....pretty sure my sister was happy about that. :)

little fireman

Happy Birthday Josiah, Janae, Rebecca, Jeremiah, and Julia!

We love you!

ST. PATRICK'S DAY 2011

John took a week off in mid-March to install a radiant barrier in our attic (supposed to help reduce the heat that gets to your house -lowering your electric bill). the kids were so inquisitive about daddy's ventures into the attic that he let them go up with him. :)

(Biruk had chosen to go on an errand with me, therefore he's not in the attic. :) he got to go on his own afterwards!)

and of course, you know you live in the desert when you can go swimming on St. Patrick's Day!

We had 90 degree weather (even over 100 2 days) in mid to late March -so swimming sounded awfully inviting! The pool is about 70 degrees.....still too cold for mom and dad!