A Blessed Easter

Our Easter weekend started with an afternoon of appliance shopping. Since we couldn't leave the kids at home with a sitter (we had a couple appointments set for people to come look at the house), we took them out to Flower Mound and they had three amazing sitters--their second cousins! (or whatever relation Billy's first cousins technically are to them) (Ed. note--I believe they are first cousins once removed). The kids always have a blast with the Capps family!

Cate got dolled up by the girls. Here she is showing off her "pony" and her painted fingernails and toenails (her first time)





Poor cat...



This year we had a relaxing Easter Sunday at home. Our best attempts at a few pictures before mass...





While we were gone the Easter bunny filled baskets and left eggs--here are the kids ready for a stroll in their new outfits and shades



I haven't really posted any updates on the kids in awhile, so here they are in a nutshell...

Will is your typical three year old--busy, busy, busy. It's amazing to be able to be with him so much as he discovers the world. His imagination is WILD and watching him pretend play is a ton of fun. He has an ear for music and can pick out the sounds of lots of different instruments when he hears them played in a song. He is into drawing/coloring/tracing lately. Between his Magnadoodle and his new scented markers from Aunt K, he's been doing a lot of artwork (and his drawings are really starting to look like actual things). His favorite songs in the car right now are a few of the instrumentals off the Lion King soundtrack and Amazing Grace off one of my CDs (this version has an awesome saxophone solo at the beginning and end). Will has become a bit of a stickler for the rules and likes to point out Cate's indiscrepancies. And lately he has started sleeping pantless. Generally he goes to bedwith his pants on and sometime before falling asleep he calls one of us upstairs and we find him holding out his pj pants. Will is officially a perfectionist. He has always been very orderly and liked to line things up when he was very young (blocks, flash cards, toys, you name it). Now that he is a little older, it's even more clear. His teacher is always commenting on how precise he is in his work compared to his classmates and today he got very upset when he "messed up" the rainbow we were drawing by accidentally mixing two colors together. We won't even discuss who he got this fabulous trait from... Now, if only mealtime were neat and clean...

On to Cate...Miss Cate is a hot mess! She's not even two and she has an opinion about EVERYTHING! While buying shoes for church recently, she would say "Me no like it. Take it off." to just about every shoe I put on her, all the while running around and grabbing every pink and/or glittery shoe she could find. She is very headstrong, and her tantrums have ratcheted up over the last couple weeks--I know Gramma and Granny are smiling while reading this right now because they know she comes by this trait genetically. She spent most of dinner out the other night outside the restaurant. When asked repeatedly if she was going to sit or stand at the table, she stuck to her guns and kept repeating "I stand." She even stuck her tongue out at Billy the other night. Seriously, where does she get this?!? Her incorrect use of pronouns is absolutely adorable (i.e., "Hold you." "My all done.") and her verbosity, particularly her ability to carry on an actual conversation, still shocks me (If you'll remember, Will was saying about four words at this age). I can't wait to see her stats at her two year appointment, but I do know she has outgrown practically all of her clothes and is solidly in size 2T at this point. In sleeping news, Cate has gone from sleeping with just her original lovey, Lola, to adding Violet, Pink Bear, and her pink blanket (in addition to any other friends she can smuggle in).

Some say it's easier with number two because you've done it before. With us, our kids are about as different as their donut choices: Will only eats plain glazed while Cate always picks chocolate icing with as many sprinkles as possible (and proceeds to only eat the top half of the donut with all the extra sugar). Our lives would certainly not be complete without our sweet and caring big boy and our strong-willed, spirited princess!

In house news, stuff is really starting to take shape--update and pics to come soon...