March 30

We celebrated an early Easter today with a family brunch and egg hunt at our house. What fun we had!

The ground was still a bit soggy from the foot of snow we had less than a week ago, so the kids all wore their rain boots for the egg hunt.

I can't remember the last time I saw Max this happy. He was thrilled by the hunting, the eggs, the trinkets inside...

Ryan helped Daisy find her eggs, so of course she was happy as can be. This was the first year that all three little ones actually understood the concept of an egg hunt. Heck, last year Daisy wasn't even walking yet!

Sweet boys!

He may look disgruntled, but Caleb was actually really happy about the egg hunting.

After Daisy gathered all of her eggs, Chris and Ryan gave her a quick swing.

She loved it!

Daisy also loved opening her eggs. My mom helped her open them, and for each new egg, Daisy would clap with joy and reach eagerly for the little trinket.

She was so excited to show her toys off to Grandad! 

After the egg hunt, we headed inside where the kids discovered Easter baskets that Mom and I had prepared for them. 

Because most candy is off-limits for Caleb and Daisy, we had to get creative. My dad found these funny head lamps at Costco, and the froggy magnifying glass was another big hit.

(This picture cracks me up!)

Grandad helped Daisy open the goodies in her basket. Can you tell? Girl had a fruit leather in one hand and an organic, natural-sugar sucker in the other. And when she finished that sucker, Grandad promptly opened another for her. She's not quite two, and she already has him wrapped around her finger!

OK, this picture cracks me up too.

Max is enthralled with his sucker.

Daisy isn't quite sure if she's been caught with candy in each hand or not.

Caleb, well, that head lamp is just killing me!

I'm too tired to go crazy photoshopping pictures tonight, so I'm just posting this one of our sweet little family.

Emily and Billy, and her Baby #3 who will be joining us just a few weeks after our Baby #3!

Aren't Mom and Ryan sweet?

Daisy still prefers Ryan over almost everyone else. I'm so glad he doesn't seem to mind!

My goodness.

 My happy children melt my heart!

You a have no idea how hard we had to work to get all four children in a picture at once! First Max wouldn't cooperate, but Caleb and Daisy were smiley. Then Max got in the picture, and Caleb and Daisy were stone-faced. Then Caleb ran off. Then Max ran off. Finally, I just gave up.

In addition to all of our Easter goodies, my dad brought over an early birthday gift for Daisy: a sweet little rain coat and matching umbrella. Amazingly enough, when the kids woke up from their naps, it was raining! Daisy was so excited to try out her new gear.

There were plenty of puddles, but these two fought over this one little puddle like it was something special!

Daisy knew she was something special in her new getup!

Splashing in the puddle.

Cutie pie!