Easter at the Ranch 2013

We once again headed out to my aunt and uncle's ranch for Easter this year, and as always, we had a wonderful time! Great food, good family, beautiful weather, and time to just relax and "be"...you can't beat it.

 Hanging out on the porch.

 Tryin' out the hat.

 Cousin Ash came in and surprised everyone! :)  We LOVED getting to see her!

 P playing with Ash.

 Takin' in the view from the porch.

 Pretty flowers.

 1 of the 174 times we played with bubbles while we were there. :)

 The best Eater egg dying party on record at the ranch.

 Took a short break to see "the grub found in the garden."  Sounded harmless.

I was wrong.

This is the stuff nightmares are made of (sentiments of a woman who handled Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches in her science classroom).

 Whit making an egg for P.

 Eggs ready to be dyed using silk ties...it works! :)

 Abby egg by Whit.

 G. Sue - the master at work.

 Aunt Jan and Ashy...

 Eggs in progress.

 Libby making a detailed egg.

 Elmo egg by yours truly.

 

 Blowing the vinegar out of the blown-out silk-dyed eggs.

 See!  It really works!  We used old silk ties that Whit found at a consignment store for $0.50 a pop.

 My silk tie egg.

 Final product.

 Eggs up close 1.

 Eggs up close 2.

 Eggs up close 3.

 

Eggs by G. Sue.

 Love my grammy.

 

 Easter basket 1 for P from Whit and Aunt Ann filled with his current favorites -

Elmo and cows.

 Easter basket 2 for P from Share Share filled with books, including two new favorites:

Peep and Ducky and Counting Cows.

Easter basket 3 from mom and dad...can you sense a theme?

 Papa helping P get some shoes on to go and play.

 Easter brunch.

 Yum!

 We never have enough food out here. :)

 Again, yum.

 Pretty berries.

 Boys around the table.

 P eating Easter breakfast.

The garden:  the scene of P's first Easter egg hunt.

 A "well-hidden" egg.

 Coming in and ready to hunt.

 Since the kid doesn't like sweets, each egg had one bunny cracker in it. :)

 Except for this egg that held an Elmo and an Abby...

 Find an egg.

 Immediately eat the contents while your adoring fans watch.

 Repeat.

 

 Repeat.

Repeat.

 Repeat.

 Get rid of empty eggs, as they have been rendered useless.

 A boy and an egg.

Yum...crackers!

 Checking out his singing, dancing, egg-laying chicken from Gigi and Gramps. :)

 Libby and Auntie Jan looking on.

 P doing some grooving while the chicken sings "Whoomp...there it is." (Speaking of her egg, of course.)

 Share Share helping to reload.

 P taking his turn at reloading.

 Happy boy.

 Strike a pose.

 Throw your hands in the air.

 Cheese.

 Playing with his new Abby and Elmo.

 A good egg hunt follow-up is playing in the dirt.

 Easter 2011..............Easter 2012..............Easter 2013

My how time flies! :)

Hope you had a wonderful Easter.

He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!

The Best Cupcake I've Ever Eaten...

K & B went to the doctor yesterday morning and found out they were having a healthy little...

Now hold your horses!  You're going to have to find out like the rest of us did. :)

 Last night I experienced my first "gender reveal party," and it was awesome! :)

 Inside each of these cupcakes was either blue or pink frosting announcing the gender of sweet Baby L.

 What will it be?

 Baby girl?

 Or baby boy?

 Share Share's stoic guess...girl.

 My guess...girl.

 J says girl, and P (not pictured :)) said girl.  Whenever asked, P would say that the baby was going to be a girl.  How can you argue with that?  Maybe he can sense things...

 Papa (the man with 4 sisters and 2 daughters) thinks it's gonna be another girl...

 B's mom (Lolli) says girl.  B's dad (Pop) says boy...

(Also pictured on the iPad is B's sister and her family who live in Nepal.  How cool is technology!?)

 Group shot.  All pink plates except for B's dad.

 (B's mom is holding her iPhone with B's other sister and her family joining in the festivities from outside of Austin.  So fun!)

 Big bites...

 My mom now knows... :)

 Mom's starting to react...

Dad now knows...

My bite didn't reveal an icing color!!!  I had to pull it apart to find out! :)

 LOVE K and B's reactions in this picture...and of course B's mom's face is priceless!

 B's dad was the ONLY ONE who got it right!

IT'S A BOY!!!

 He's very proud of himself. :)

 So excited!  My parents' sweet neighbors came down to take pictures for us, and I'm so glad they did!

 Excitement.

 K confirming that it's a boy...

 So happy. :)

 There was fist pumping...

 Hugs and dancing...

 Laughing and tears...

 Inappropriate amounts of clapping... :)

 And more hugging...

 This is me telling my dad that now he's going to have to buy 2 fishing poles...

The night before we went to the doctor to find out what we were going to have, my dad said that if it was a boy, he was going to have to go and buy a fishing pole...so when I called him to tell him it was a boy, I told him by saying that he was going to have to go and buy a fishing pole.  I think he was in disbelief after having 4 younger sisters and 2 girls of his own to find out his first grandson was going to be a boy.  Now he's gonna have 2! :)

 The winner with his blue-filled cupcake. :)

 The grandmas were SO excited! :)

 But let's be real about things...we had to stop for a moment and actually enjoy the cupcakes.  I mean, we had to.  In fact, I was so excited that I might have had to eat more than one cupcake.  The number of cupcakes consumed was directly proportional to the amount of excitement felt.  Eating two cupcakes was the least I could do...

 The best cupcake I've ever eaten. :)

 The parents-to-be.

 K showing off the sonogram pics.

Already looking at baby boy nursery stuff...

 Opening baby boy presents...bring on the blue! :)

Here's the beautiful mama proudly holding pictures of her Baby Boy! :)

It was SO WONDERFUL to get to find that out with the grandparents and the aunts and uncles and cousins...it was like Christmas morning. :)  Of course, we are so thankful for a healthy baby, but I must admit, knowing that P is going to have a little boy cousin to run around with just warms my heart!!!  I can't wait for all of the adventures they are going to have together. :)

We love you already, sweet baby boy!  You keep on cookin' in there, and we'll anxiously await your arrival in August.

A New Addition to the Family...

Aunt KiKi and Uncle B are gonna have a baby!!! :)  We're so excited to be an aunt and uncle for the third time, and P is pumped that he's going to have a cousin who lives in the same city...he just doesn't know it yet. :)  Congrats, K & B!  We love y'all and are so excited for you!  You're going to be such wonderful parents, and this baby is going to be SO loved! :)  God is good. :) 

Sorry for the smiley face overload...I'm just really excited. :)