Happy Easter!

Okay, ya'll, in case you forgot, I have the cutest kids in the entire world.  See our annual bunny-ear photos for proof.  

Annie initially was totally uninterested in cooperating, but a little funny business from Grandpa, and she perked right up.

Finn took no convincing.  He pulled out his best cool-dude charm and we had our shot after about 3 seconds.

He even had enough smiles left over that I managed to jump in the shot.

Seriously, I don't think it can get any cuter than this.  But stay tuned for next year!

Flashback - Life before kids!

We were one good looking couple!  Thank you, Autumn, for sending this to me today - it brightened my day to see it! 

Stats for this photo, taken at Autumn's wedding: married almost one year, just 2 months before we found out Annie was on the way.  Happy and relaxed.  No idea about how our lives would change in less than year.  Stats now:  Married almost five years.  Happy and exhausted.  I can't remember the last time somebody took our picture without one or both kids.  Maybe it was this one.

A Very Dora Birthday!

I just can't believe Annie is 3. I also can't believe that we caved on having a Dora-themed birthday. Pre-baby, I would have insisted that we would NEVER do such a thing. And as further proof that our family believes in going all out, Toby planned an over-the top Dora extravaganza! He bought official Dora backpacks, a Dora costume for himself, a Boots costume for Finn, baby jaguars for all the kids to rescue, Swiper to try to swipe the cake, drew up one heck of an adventure map, and created a grumpy old troll mask.

As hoped, Annie absolutely ate it all up!

Map!

Reverse side of map - the kids had to go over the troll bridge, rescue baby jaguar from the slide, and find Annie's birthday party. 



Dora and Boots, ready to lead the explorers on their adventure!

You really should click on this one to enlarge.  Annie catching her first view of Dora.  She was in awe!  Then she started to look a tad uncomfortable until Dora revealed that she was really just Daddy playing dress up. 

That  made her laugh. Silly Daddy!

The Grumpy Old Troll who lives under the bridge!  AKA - Grandpa.  He sang a very nice troll song, and the kids had to solve his riddle before going over the bridge.

The explorers enjoying some Diego Rescue Animal Crackers out of their backpacks before continuing on their adventure.



What's that sound?  I think Baby Jaguar needs help!  Go rescue Baby Jaguar!

She could have run around with that map all day.  :) 

 Note to other parents.  When your child says they want their face painted like Baby Jaguar, the face painter may very well take them seriously.

Life-size Dora balloon - thanks Sammy Grace!

Happy Birthday, Baby Jaguar!

I love this photo of Annie blowing out her candle - or at least blowing right in mommy's face. :) A very fabulous time was had by all. 

And finally, the reason my back/shoulders/legs/everything seems to hurt all the time.  Can you believe this hunk is just 9 months old? Such a love...he did not appreciate the wind, but did his best to enjoy Annie's birthday party.

You can go your own way...

"Skunk!" 

This is the enthusaistic response I got from Annie when I asked her what animal she has choosen to be in the class play.  The theme is nature, and each child is supposed to play an animal that they might find on the school's playground (or at the fancy-pancy school we attend, the "playscape".)  I suppose there are some good things about her choice, such as the fact that a skunk is a real animal, unlike her first choice - the elusive chipmonkey.  I can also probably come up with a reasonably inexpensive and easy skunk costume.

But of course sweet Abbigail will be a robin, darling Sammy will be a little ladybug, and precious Emma will be a butterfly.  Even the boys are going to be dressing up like chipmunks and other cute little woodland animals.  But not Annie.  I just pray that she doesn't run around trying to spray people.  

Please let this be a sign that we are raising an independent, fiesty little stinker girl.

Crawling!

Okay, this is nearly too dark to be seen at all, but it is evidence nonetheless that Finn can crawl!  Hooray!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PZc_gCzvns

Photo Shoot in England

While we were in England for Christmas we decided to have a photographer come to try to capture all the little ones together while they are still little. To say that the one-hour session was completely exhausting is a fairly dramatic understatement.  There were tears and frowns from every single child at some point during the hour, and many of the grown ups considered joining in.  Okay, maybe that was just me.  But we DID come away with some really cute shots of kids and families. Here are some of my favs.

Finn totally hamming it up, Annie unsure what to do.



All the cousins and NOBODY IS CRYING OR FROWNING!  Total victory!



I love this one - all the Coopers.

This is my favorite of the Toshs, because Millie is giving that little coy grin.

At this point, my kids had long since resorted to frowning, but I still think it is cute.

Selected photos from Christmastime

Our pre-Christmas time in the states was very busy and full of lots of seasonal fun!  Below are just a few shots from the cookie decorating party we hosted for five 2 year olds (went of without a hitch, thank you very much!) and our Christmas celebration with Grandma and Grandpa.  We also took the kids to the Santa Wonderland at Bass Pro Shops, which did NOT go off without a hitch, but we did get one photo of the kiddos with Santa. It is not what one would call a good photo.

Merry Christmas!

Finally - a nice photo of Finn and Mommy!

Cute as a bug - thanks for the fabulous leg warmers, Grandma!

A little special Daddy-Daughter sing-a-long time.

Cute antlers - again thanks to Grandma!

All smiles!



Its hard to get these two looking the same direction in any photo, much less looking cute. This is how most of our photos seem to turn out - blurry Finn, cheesy-smiling Annie.

Pre-cookie decorating snack.  Let's front load with protein!

Thank goodness everybody had their own helper!  Annie's best friends all came - Sofia, Max, Nolan and Sammy Grace.

Note to other parents - little individual cups of decorations are a must.

 

Trying to get some photos of Finn on his 6 month birthday - with a a little extra "help" from Annie.

He loves Sadie!

Not too sure about the idea of Santa, though...

Our not-good photo from Bass Pro.  We'll take what we can get! 

More photos to follow from our adventure to England!  We had a very merry English Christmas, full of mince pies, cousins playing beautifully together and visits with old friends.