AUBIE

I got to meet Aubie today!

I wasn't so sure about him at first!

A Hog Cookin'?

Tonight was a first...for all of us! We traveled out to the Marvyn community for a hog cookin'. It was a sight to see -- luckily, it was eating time when we arrived. I don't know that I could have handled it had I been there for cooking time! But it was a blast complete with music and lots of food! Fun to see a little country! Thanks to the Hoveys!

Clapping to the music!

I love swinging with Pitty Pat, Hendley, and Mary Avnor!

PINK

Leave it to a family member to point out that we rarely have Kirkley in anything besides pink. As I scrolled down the page...I had to agree! So this post is from today at the park for Aunt Judi in Texas. See, Kirkley really does wear something other than pink -- sometimes! And she misses you and loves you!

Happy Birthday to Bonnie!

Last week on St. Patrick's Day, my sweet college roommate Selwyn had her third baby! I was so excited it was my spring break and we could scoot up there! We made a little day trip out of it to meet the newest addition to the Kelleys. Low and behold, another girl. So meet Bonnie Stewart Kelley -- just as precious as the other Kelley girls! Congrats, Selwyn and Wes! What lucky girls to have such amazing parents! And what a lucky baby to have two fabulous big sisters! Happy one week birthday to Bonnie!

St. Patrick's Day Baby!

Big sisters, Lucy and Annie

Resurrection Day

He is risen!!! Today was just gorgeous and full of more Easter fun. Here are pics from today. It was a great day and so wonderful to get to spend time with family!

Easter Egg Hunt 2008

tWe didn't do much hunting at the city's Easter egg hunt, but it was a sight to see! We got there a few minutes before it started to see circles of children everywhere ready to pounce on the 20,000 eggs scattered throughout the park. Kirkley was not all that impressed with the festivities and snacked for the most part whilie visiting with friends who came out to enjoy the beautiful day!

Fun in the Park

We met up with a few friends today at the park for a little while. It was so gorgeous outside and the company was even better! Check out Brooke's slideshow of everyone! We played on the blanket, stole Cheerios and Goldfish to snack on, did some swinging, and had lots of fun! It was such an exciting time that Kirkley was asleep within minutes of our ride home! We will all definitely have to make this a routine a few afternoons a week this spring!!!

Easter is upon us

For some reason with each holiday, I think long and hard about traditions I want to start for our family. Now that we have Kirkley, it's even more extreme. I spent some time today researching Easter traditions other than the usual egg hunting and dyeing, bunnies and chicks, etc. Not that I don't love all of those things (we have had lots of egg/bunny/chick fun already as you'll see below), but I want to add more traditions that emphasize what Easter is really all about. I've found some really neat things on my search: traditions, a few age-appropriate ideas from Focus on the Family, Resurrection Eggs, and this is probably my favorite new idea I found, Easter Story Cookies. I love the Easter Story Cookies. I can just imagine the day that we make these as a family, talking through the scripture with each step. I thought the visuals in that activity were great.

I also have a book I love, Creating Family Traditions by Gloria Gaither and Shirley Dobson. It had several neat ideas that I think will be age appropriate for this Easter. One was doing your own Sunrise Service. Grab a quilt, breakfast, your Bible, etc. and head out somewhere pretty as a family. What a great idea as Kirkley is not quite ready to attend a sunrise service. It also has an idea for resurrection buns -- you make these with refrigerated biscut dough, put a marshmallow in the center, roll in butter and cinnamon sugar, and they come out hollow.

It's been so interesting looking through all of this. We're excited to add some of these to our usual traditions of Easter dinner, bocce tournaments, and dyeing eggs. Please share any sweet family traditions that you have -- we may steal yours!

So sweet to endure a photo shoot sitting in your own Easter basket!

Checking out the Easter chicks

Liking the grass more than the Cheerios in the egg

I gave in...

I can't believe it...I gave in. After lots and lots of making fun of everyone's blogging, I've started. I'm on Spring Break this week so I've had some time to investigate it. My big issue was safety -- I wanted to make sure that we weren't releasing too much information for the entire world to see. But after looking into it, I see I don't have to post my city, and I can keep this off of google. So I feel better about it! Crazy I know, but I'm an extremely cautious mother who is married to an even more cautious attorney!

I hope this will be a great way for our sweet family and friends all around the country to keep up with us better. We've been good about taking a wealth of pictures of Kirkley...now you get the story behind them too!