Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful weekend with all of the festivities, but Easter Sunday couldn't have been more amazing. We got up and let Sophia go find her basket on the front step. She was thrilled that the bunny ate most of the carrots she left.

She played with her basket goodies for a bit and then we headed out to church. The service was wonderful and the music was excellent! After church we had my parents over for brunch. It was so good, and I could hardly stop eating.

We were so happy to have my parents back home in MN. Sophia was thrilled to see Papa and Nana too. As evidence from the photo above!

Sophia loved finding all of the eggs in the yard, but loved the treats even more. We barely came inside and she had cracked one of the eggs open and indulged in a little melty chocolate candy.


My parents left for the afternoon and we played a bit outside with Sophia. Then she went down for a nap and I cleaned up after our brunch. I also took the decorations down. I felt a little guilty considering it was still Easter and here I was taking down the decorations before the day was over, but I needed to clean.

That night we went to the park and it felt a little like summer. I commented on this and Hal agreed. It was a beautiful day and a wonderful end to a fun-filled weekend!

Egg Mania

Last night we colored eggs with Sophia in preparation for Easter on Sunday. She had quite a bit of fun doing this, but kept wanting to touch the color dye in the cups. Being the over paranoid person that I am, every time she reached for the cup I thought in my mind here it goes. To my surprise, we made it through the whole process without any dye spilling on the floor or her clothes.

Sophia ready with all of the colors out

My happy little bunny

Today we went to the first annual egg hunt for our neighborhood. One of the neighbor mom's put it together. It was just AMAZING! Each of the kids found so many eggs and they had such a wonderful time. I was shocked at how many eggs Sophia found and brought home all filled with different treats.

Ready to hunt for eggs


The whole crew posing for a pre-egg hunt photo


Sophia hunting for eggs (the entire time she hunted she was singing the song, "A Hunting We Will Go")


Sophia post-hunt with all of her treats

While hunting, Sophia found an egg wrapped in silver tin foil. We were unaware, but there were only two eggs that were put out like this. Sophia was thrilled when she found out that this egg entitled her to a special surprise. In family tradition, one of the neighbors has done this for years and put together the special surprise for the two lucky finders. Here was prize:

We can hardly wait to have the egg hunt again next year! What a success for everyone. The kids loved it and found tons of eggs. The parents had a great time watching all of the smiles and happy kiddos.

A meeting with the bunny

Last weekend after our flight got in from Florida, I got Sophia all dressed up to go and see the Easter Bunny. We did the same thing last year and it didn't go nearly as well. She loved all of the activities provided last year, but when it came to meeting the bunny she was deathly afraid and cried.

This year was a completely different story. She could hardly wait to meet the bunny. She loved doing all of the activities provided and wanted to sit with the bunny, "just one more tiny time."

Here she is with the bunny

A dream come true

Well it's official, we took a dream vacation and I will never forget it! Yesterday we got back from Disney World in Florida. It was the most amazing time ever. We were gone for 7 days and the weather surely did cooperate with us.

We stayed in a house with my parents at a gorgeous resort. It was nice to have the resort amenities, but be able to have our own kitchen and such too cook in. We mainly had breakfast and lunch at our house and then ate dinner out at night. All except for one day did we eat breakfast at home. The exception was our breakfast at the Contemporary Resort with the characters. Sophia could hardly eat because there was so much going on. It was great to have each of the characters stop by the table, but I think her favorite was Minnie. Here's the proof:

The breakfast was quite fun and they even had a little party where all of the characters came out to dance and sing.

The first park we went to was Epcot. Sophia really enjoyed going to see the Monsters Inc Show. She also adored going on the Clam Mobiles for the Finding Nemo Ride. It was a great sunny day and we were all tired after the 12 miles of walking we did over the course of the day.


Sophia's favorite character that she met that day at the park had to be Marie.


The next day we spent the entire sunny, hot, day at Magic Kingdom. We had such a great time riding on all of the rides. Our favorite as a family was probably Small World. Sophia adored the Dumbo Ride and going on Peter Pan. We saw the parade in the afternoon and Sophia got to meet Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora. That was the most amazing sight. I teared up just a bit watching her face as she met Cinderella. I knew that this would be a memory that I would cherish forever.

Sophia on the tea cup ride

Our third park day we went to Animal Kingdom. This was a new one for our whole family. We all had a great time on the safari seeing the giraffes and all of the animals. Hal and I loved going on the huge roller coaster. After finishing at the park, we went back and went in the pool.

For our final couple of days, we spent time by the pool, going down the water slide, and hanging out on the lazy river. We went also went to Down Town Disney which was really quite fun. Sophia loved it because she got to pick out her souvenir.

All in all, I can honestly say this was the best vacation ever. I would highly recommend going with young kids and I can barely wait to go back. Hal and I have already started planning our next trip back!

I took a million more pictures, but couldn't fit them all. Until our next trip.....

Sophia's first baby shower

This weekend has given me a chance to relive some wonderful memories. It all started with watching an episode of the Office believe it or not. Pam and Jim and a baby girl. As Hal and I watched the episode we talked about when Sophia was born. We had some laughs and tried hard to remember some of the little details. It amazed me that it all went so smooth. I felt sad watching that Pam and Jim were struggling. Then I started thinking hopefully we will be as lucky the first time as we will be the second time if we have another baby.

On Saturday, Sophia attended her first baby shower. My girlfriend Christy had a baby girl on February 13th. Little Lilly was about the most precious thing ever. Sophia couldn't get over how "beautiful" she was. At one point she even looked at me and said, "I just love her". It was quite adorable.

It was a great chance for me to hang out with some wonderful friends and spend an afternoon celebrating Lilly's little life so far. Sophia was very gentle with Lilly and just loved holding her. It made me realize that she will be a wonderful big sister if and when the day does come.

We are getting geared up for a busy week at both school and home. I am in the midst of doing the summer laundry and putting everything together for Florida. We leave for Disney World on Saturday and couldn't be more thrilled.

Fun filled weekend

Wow it was quite the fun filled weekend. What was going to be a weekend of no plans surely turned into a busy one, but luckily most at home. Friday night Hal worked very late and didn't get home until we were in bed. Saturday morning we got up and Hal made a great breakfast. Sophia must be going through a growing spurt because she ate a huge meal. We spent most of the day in our jammies hanging out around the house. Our new computer arrived on Saturday too which was quite exciting.

Hal spent most of the day trying to get the new computer hooked up to the Internet. Sophia and I played toys and then my friend Lisa stopped by with a whole bunch of clothes. Sophia spent the majority of the rest of the day playing dress up. She really took a love to this bat girl costume and a rain jacket with matching rain boots. After Sophia went for a nap I went and did my long run for the weekend. It felt so great to have 12 miles done! When I got home we had a lazy evening and went to bed early to gear up for the zoo.

Today we got ready and made the trip out to the MN Zoo. Sophia could barely wait to see the monkeys.

Sophia on the turtle

She loved seeing all of the animals and it was amazing to see her reactions compared to being at the same zoo only a year ago.

Checking out the fish with daddy

After a couple of hours, Sophia had seen the animals and was done so we headed home. We had some lunch and then it was time to try the rain boots outside. Sophia had the greatest time splashing around in the puddles.

Once she was completely soaked, it was time to go back inside. We played for a bit more before nap. After nap we got ready for the family dinner.

Hal's mom is in town from Utah so we had his parents, sister, and our niece over for dinner. The girls played a ton of toys together and had a great time.

Sophia and Abby playing kitchen

We had a wonderful dinner and then everyone headed home.

Potty Princess

Sophia has finally done it! She made it through her first entire night from start to finish dry wearing her big girl panties. This morning I made a huge deal out of it and made her a crown that said Potty Princess on it.

She was not completely thrilled with me taking pictures so early in the morning, but once she saw the crown her eyes lit up and started twinkling.

We are so very proud of our little girl and can hardly believe that she is potty trained now before the age of 3!