4 years ago...

Four years ago, it was the Friday before Easter and I was busy doing this:

It's A Girl!

Update on the big 4-year-old will come soon! (After all the festivities of course...)

Julianne turns 4

 Julianne has been counting down to her birthday since Mason's in January and it finally came!!  As requested, we had a Star Wars birthday cake (thanks to Mason sharing is figurines :)).

 She was one happy kid all day.  We played at the playplace, went out to lunch and watched a movie all the while watching the clock to see when everyone would be home and she could open the rest of her presents.

 She wasn't the only one who was excited.  Mason told her "Happy Birthday" about 5 times in the 15 minutes she was up before they went to school.  It's pretty awesome how excited they get for each other, if only their excitement didn't equal everyone getting all riled up....

 This was before cake.  You have to have a picture with the big 4-year-old!

 And the singing, she Loved the singing!

 FINALLY the presents!  She had unknowingly helped me pick them out one day while we were browsing the toy store.  She was happy, though, and that's all that matters!

 Another Lego Star Wars?? Oh, Julianne was in heaven!

And Dad with the big girl!  This girly is definitely a Daddy's girl!  We spend a significant portion of every day talking about when he will come home and stay home for the evening. 
Julianne is such a sweet girl.  She's always willing to play with anyone and loves, loves, loves to play Legos with Mason.  I think she plays with his toys as much as he does!  She is also very sensitive to getting in trouble.  Even in a calm voice, telling her something is naughty will cause her to break down in tears.  If she even thinks she may be in trouble, the water works start.  It's very sweet when you're not in the thick of things, LOL :).  She can be very head strong, too.  It's her way or you are seriously wronging her in some way :).  We love our Julianne and can't imagine how life would be without her :). 

Happy Birthday, Babe!

Easter Happenings

 Thanks to my amazing ability to keep up with Blogging, we're going to start slightly before Easter.  Back in December I got some gift cards to Amazon and could never decide what to do with them.  Finally, I decided I really, really wanted and ice cream maker.  I wanted one enough to use my gift cards on it!  When I was growing up, for every birthday, my Dad would freeze homemade ice cream.  Technically, my mom made the base and my Dad sat outside with the freezer, making sure it kept spinning and had enough ice.  The freezing was the only part I paid attention to, so I've always associated the making of ice cream with my Dad.  Anywho... I loved that part of having a birthday.  As far as I'm concerned, it's the best part!  Even now, as there are around 35 of us, ice cream is still often on the birthday bash menu.  So, I needed an ice cream maker!  I made the base just like my mom did (thanks to a little coaching from my siblings), and it turned out GREAT!  Yum!  I wasn't prepared enough to have bought more toppings than chocolate (which I always have on hand), but it was still way good and everything went smoothly....

 Next, we finally scheduled some haircuts.  Julianne's only had one other cut in her whole life (which she screamed during the entire time....).  Brooklyn hadn't had a trim since we chopped it off last February....

 They were definitely in need.  These are the "before" pics.  The after pics are below...

 Finally, the Easter festivities.  Dying eggs is  must and the kids asked almost every day last week if that was the day we were going to color eggs.  Finally on Saturday, we did.  As usual, a dozen just wasn't enough but we were having some trouble keeping a hold of those eggs so I wasn't brave enough to break out the fresh eggs and what the heck would I do with more than a dozen boiled ones??

 Brooklyn is very "expressive" with her eyes these days.  She's going to love these in about 6 years....

 The after trim.  We only cut off about 4 inches but it still seems kind of short to me; and we cut off the last of her baby curls (sniff)....

 Easter morning found us with some hidden eggs and goodies from the Easter bunny.

 We went to church as usual and enjoyed some warmer weather.  That evening we enjoyed a traditional Ham dinner.  We had been given a 10 lb ham back at Christmas and just frozen it, not knowing what to do with so much ham.  Finally we baked it, but I still don't know what to do with 9.5 lbs of ham! This morning it got refrozen...

I tell you what.  I was delicious! :)  Happy Easter and Spring!