I can’t believe how fast this year is going by. Just a few months ago, we celebrated Elsa’s first birthday, now Easter Sunday is almost over and we’re heading in to May. It’s been a while since our last update (as usual lately…), so I thought today would be a good day to finally post something out here.

Last weekend was busy. We went to Kevin and Erin’s to celebrate Kevin’s birthday on Saturday. The kids had a great time over there, and the parents did too. (Thanks for having us Kevin & Erin!). The next day, we went to Palm Sunday mass, then had two Easter Egg hunts. We were all tired at the end of that day! Our little Elsa has started walking (just last weekend, actually), so she was able to walk around and get some eggs. She’s still pretty clumsy, but it is fun to watch her. She really gets going, and her big belly is always leading the way – and keeping her balanced when she starts to topple backwards

Yesterday, we colored Easter eggs. Elsa is still not quite old enough to have any interest in this, but Lukas was excited about it. Then in the afternoon, we went to Kevin & Erin’s again to celebrate Caroline’s birthday. Once again, a fun time for us all. And of course, we celebrated Easter today. We went to church this morning, then had Heidi’s parents over for Easter dinner. All through the service this morning, Lukas was talking about how Jesus’ body wasn’t in the tomb when they rolled the stone away. And where did he go?? He is risen! I love that he is so interested in this, but just wish he had a volume control for places like church, the car, at home, pretty much everywhere. We asked him today to turn his volume control down about half way, and he responds (loudly), with a laugh, “But daddy, I don’t have a volume control! That’s silly!” “I know Lukas, I know…” I replied… And this evening, we started to notice that Elsa is probably just as bossy as her brother. Granny took her shoes off and had them in another room. Elsa brought them over and tried to get them on Granny’s feet as best as she could. Then pretty much every time Granny took her shoes off after that, Elsa would bring them around to put them back on. Everything has to be in its place!

Anyway, I have some videos I’ll be posting soon, but in the meantime, here are some photos from the past few weekends.

Lukas found an egg – collecting in the Home Depot bag

Green egg in one hand, other hand holding on to Mommy… Now how do I get this yellow one?

I have a bunch of eggs now!

Mommy loves when I make this face

Checking out the loot

Just out for a stroll…

Checking out the colors – orange is almost done!

Always putting on a show for the camera…

Elsa in her Easter outfit

So ladylike

Happy Easter!

All kidding aside, it is really handy – for instance, if it is a Sunday night, and you are out getting groceries, and really need to get some Sudafed (the real stuff that’s protected behind the counter, not the “PE” garbage on the shelf) for your cold, you can do a quick search to look for all the 24-hour pharmacies around you. Granted, you may discover that there are none within a 20 mile radius, but it is still handy.

And I really do like having a pretty decent camera nearby too.  You can capture some moments that otherwise probably would have been lost while running to grab the DSLR from the camera bag.  And Lukas doesn’t automatically come running up to look at the screen on the phone like he does with the real cameras (yet), so it is actually possible to get pictures of him doing his thing without him realizing it.

Here are just a few of Lukas and Elsa that I’ve gotten recently.  Enjoy!

Monkey Boy

Oh yes, this is how most meals go when there are vegetables involved

1 9-month-old + 1 serving of Pureed Carrots = 1 Big Mess

Elsa sure loves Lukas – wherever he’s playing, she is always close by

The site hasn’t moved. We’ve just moved. Twice. This year. And we had a baby in February. And we decided it would be a good idea to do some remodeling in our new house before we moved in June. This year has moved by so fast, but we do have a lot of memories with Elsa and Lukas that have made it a very special year amidst all the chaos. Even though those little stinkers are the driving force behind most of the chaos…

So here are just a few moments we’ve captured – there are plenty more this year, but it would probably take me a year to get them all included here… We promise that this time it will not be so long before our next post. Really, I’m serious, you just wait and see.

Our little Elsa is sure growing up fast!

Smiling 3-month-old Elsa

Just chillin’ in the pack-n-play on the deck

Elsa escapes from her PJs like Houdini escaped from a straitjacket

Not too sure about these carrots mom, you have any fruit for me?

Happy little girl in her Marshall gear

Sometimes we wonder what happened to “baby Lukas” – he’s all boy now!

And he sure loves his sister, and she can’t get enough of him and his antics either.  It’s so much fun to watch them together.

Can’t you just see the love there?

Riding in the helicopter at King’s Island

Just out for a drive

Having a snack by the fountain

And just a few shots with mom and dad – this was our trip to the pumpkin patch.

How do we look? I’d have to say not too bad, considering…

Mom and Lukas and Elsa at Shaw Farms

Dad and the kids and the pumpkins

Oh, and I just had to post this – Lukas has become quite the daredevil on his Strider bike that Maria and Marcos gave him last year. Once he gets pedaling down, he’ll be ready for a “big boy bike”, no training wheels required!  (You’ll have to excuse some of the baby sounds and general shakiness in the video – I was holding Elsa in one arm and the camera in the other, while Heidi was rustling up Boone since he was going nuts outside)

So we pretty much hung around at our house and had Lukas hand out candy to all the little (and some not so little…) trick-or-treaters. He had a good time, I think he just wasn’t ready for actually going out to the houses yet. Maybe next year.

Lukas the Fireman with his candy bag

Fireman on the move

Checking out the pumpkins

Mom, Lukas the Fireman, and Dad the Browns Fan

Elmo Pumpkin

Mickey Mouse Pumpkin

Jack-O-Lantern

Anyway, we did manage to capture a few moments from our outing.

This was actually a big yawn, but looks like a scary face

Come on Lukas, lift that pumpkin up and put it in the wagon already

That’s a heavy wagon full of pumpkins

Granny is helping with that heavy wagon

Now we’ll load up some mini pumpkins, and we’re all done