Easter Surprises from Gramma and Papa

Gramma and Papa sent Easter surprises in the mail. Ella loves getting packages!

 Bug collecting kit!

 A cute unicorn purse!

 Ella found Tinker Bell bandaids inside the unicorn purse!

A candy necklace! The girls have never had candy necklaces before and loved them!

 Emma, unpacking her box

 Emma loved the candy necklace!!!

Thank you, Gramma and Papa for the Easter surprises!!!

Mama's Birthday

I had a wonderful birthday. Sead got up extra early so he could slip out to the store for flowers and quietly sneak back into the house through the back door to place them on our dining table so I would discover them when I woke a little later. :-) 

It was a beautiful day today and the girls and I even got to enjoy a short thunderstorm this morning. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant I've been wanting to check out (Moe's) and cream soda floats at home for dessert.

 My parents sent several gifts. These are the Twilight movies. Can't wait to watch them and that means Sead has to watch them too, of course! ;-)

Sead found this awesome tripod for my camera and he pre-ordered my college professor's (Gregg Frazer) book that will be released at the end of May (The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders: Reason, Revelation, Revolution).

 My mom sent this beautiful dragonfly box! I love it!

 This one is priceless!!! My parents framed this baby picture of me being held on a pillow by my dad. It's in such a beautiful frame and I'm so happy to have this photo to put on our mantle. Ella was very excited to see Mama as a baby. Thanks so much, Mom and Dad! I love all the gifts you sent!

 Of course, every day is a great day when you have such adorable girls and such a sweet husband to spend it with!!!

Our Backyard

Here are some pictures I've taken in our backyard this March.

We're going to have lots of pine tree pollen dusting everything very soon.

 Strawberry!

The little tree climber!

Tinker Bell and Pocahontas

 Emma's starting even earlier than Ella with dress-up play. She sees her sister dress up and wants us to put dresses on her too. Most of them are too big for her and drag the ground, but I got her this one that is just her size and she's quite thrilled with it. :-)

 She makes a perfect Tinker Bell. :-)

Ella loves Pocahontas! She has watched the Disney movie so many times now that she knows all the characters. She's been calling herself Pocahontas Ella, climbing trees in the yard, and pretending to run through forests. :-)

I told her that she has some "Pocahontas" in her, a great, great, great,... (not sure how many greats exactly) grandmother on my mom's side of the family.

Eating Lunch

There are many moments now when I realize that Emma is my last baby and I'd better enjoy (and take pictures of) all the cute baby/toddler stuff she still does.

 I love how she rubs her little feet together when she's enjoying what she's eating! This picture reminds me of Pooh eating honey from his honey pot. :-)

She doesn't look too messy here, but she loves to get her hands into the food. She'll occasionally use utensils, but pretty quickly tosses them aside and dives in with the fingers. She also loves to lift her shirt to smear food on her belly and likes to rub it into her hair as well. ;-) I frequently take her straight to the tub after her messier meals.

Shannon

Our little friend, Shannon, left this world on Saturday morning. She will be very missed! Praying for her mama, Saeko, and father, Mike!

We love you and will never forget you, Shannon.

Wrightsville Beach

We made our first beach trip on Saturday since we moved to North Carolina. We decided to check out Wrightsville Beach first. It's a little more than a 2 hour drive from where we live. The girls had a great time there. The sand is so soft and the water is beautiful.

 There were so many sea shells on the beach!

Checking out a sea shell

 Daddy and Ella had fun building sand castles.

 Emma just loved rubbing her feet in the sand and dropping handfuls of it into little puddles of sea water.

 Happiness is having a daddy who removes the sand that's stuck between your toes! :-)

Ella got a little cold after being in the water, so I put her in dry clothes, bundled her up, and pulled out lunch. :-)

Emma Loves Winnie the Pooh

 Emma frequently watches the Winnie the Pooh movies and absolutely loves them! She's learning to say all the characters' names with the figurine set we have and today stuffed versions of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger arrived from the Disney Store. I have the "classic" versions of these characters in stuffed animal form, but Emma didn't recognize them as the ones from the movies she watches, so I ordered these. She absolutely loves them and has been carrying them around all day, squealing when she sees them, hugging them, and even gave them a ride in her push car tonight.

A very happy little toddler!