Let me start by apologizing for the length of this post. We had so much holiday fun, and these two are so darn cute, I couldn't help myself. Also, I mentioned the other day that I would share the pictures from Katie's place the other day. You can see them on this blog. Seriously, they are the cutest pictures. EVER. You have to look! You know you want to anyway ;).

I had two sessions yesterday, and it lasted later into the evening. On top of that, I've been pretty sick with the spring cold going around. I braved it like a champ, but it definitely delayed Easter preparations. Thankfully, I had purchased everything already for Jeremy's care package. Alyx slept in a bit this morning, so I worked around Kate's breakfast to get these baskets filled and set out, along with filling eggs and placing them throughout the yard.

If you can see in the photo above, Kate was having a bit of a rough morning by this point. That tends to happen when we get started with breakfast a little later. She also didn't care for the dress once she realized the amount of layers it had on the bottom, it seemed to freak her out. Normally, she's very excited about "pretty dresses."

She got into the basket idea with her brother, but lost it immediately after that.

Then Alyx and I showed Kate the idea of finding the plastic goodie filled eggs and placing them in their baskets. It took her a few eggs to really catch on to the idea of it, but when she did - all was happy in their little world :).

My trees and flowers are starting to bloom - it's a beautiful sight! Jeremy planted this apple tree, along with its mate adjacent to this one, November 2011. We picked them up from the pumpkin patch. They had their first apples last year! So excited for this years batch!

The, um, Easter Bunny, got clever with those eggs :).

Alyx was too sweet and shared many of the ones he found, even though we let her get all the 'easy' ones.

Searching for the last few really stumped him!

Getting a little discouraged...

Score! He learned what getting 'cold' and 'hot' meant. When I first said, "Cold. You're getting cold." He'd look at me puzzled, "No I'm not."

Jeremy and I went crazy at our favorite nursery last year, and I planted all over the front and back yard with beautiful flowers and plants. That was also when he built our back patio and the arbor in the front yard. I'm so happy I've managed to keep them going well enough to last and see new blooms! I'm nearly as excited as an expectant mother! Hahaaa! I'm also excited to have family BBQ's this summer, all together, on our patio. We haven't really had a chance yet.

Egg hunt was completed in about 15 minutes, then it was on to exploring the basket goodies :).

Kisses!

They both said, "Mom! Cheese!" After Alyx did it, Kate ran over to me and said, "cheese. cheese." 

Give bubba a hug. Then he runs off, and she runs to give me a hug too! So sweet.

The new neighbor dog. He's so funny! Him and Bear really want to play together- as you can tell from the missing fence post. Alyx smiled and said, "Hi puppy." Kate smiled and said, "Hi puppy. So cute. Aww ww."

Then we were off to church with Grandma..

Then decorating our eggs. Kate was taking pictures on my phone :).

I've never seen this before this year, but dyeing the egg whites was pretty neat! We tore them up a bit trying to take them apart, but we salvaged a few.

Between sneezing, coughing, and congestion, I was spent. So the kids relaxed to a movie and play time while I dozed off and on. I kept feeling terrible for being so sick and not wanting to do anything, so I made up for it and did everything I could. I wanted them to really enjoy the holiday and feel special. I haven't been the best with holidays since Jeremy has been gone, but knowing this is the last holiday without him, gave me a lot of hope. After my cat nap, I made cupcakes while they played outside.

We cooked all the eggs for decorating, so I didn't have any to use to bake with. I ended up altering the recipe quite a bit, even using applesauce in place of half the butter and 1/3 less sugar. I'm not a baker by any means, and honestly, I thought I screwed them up, but was so happy to discover they turned out pretty darn good!

Kate munched on candy nonstop. No matter how much I tried to limit their intake (hoping they'd eat real food), they managed to annihilate it :) - but you know what, they're kids, they're happy and healthy. While all the food was cooking, they played Pin the Tail on the Bunny.

Alyx wanted hot dogs really bad, but discovered last minute that we used them all up for Kate's birthday party. So we settled for chicken and veggies. While the food was cooking, they watched a movie for a little bit.

I steamed the vegetables on the BBQ. I've never done that before, but they turned out well!

And finally, cupcake time before baths and bed. I got a thumbs up from each of them :).

Happy Easter friends! We had a full day of blessings, and I'm so thankful for these two, and for giving me this incredible day - because without them, I wouldn't have done it. Missing Jeremy was certainly hard today, but I'm excited for how quickly this deployment is coming to an end. 

We love and miss you babe! See you soon :). Muah!