Happy Easter

We had a great Easter. We started with the 3rd annual Maehl Easter Egg hunt at Rachel and Ryan's house. The kids had a ball finding over 450 eggs in the yard, trees, porch, fence...pretty much anywhere eggs could be hidden! Then Sunday AM we went to church at 7:00 and even managed to peek at the baskets and take a few photos looking spiffy in the easter outfits before church! We spent the day at Mark and Pat's enjoying the company of the family, eating, and playing games and outside. Then we were off to my mom and dad's house for dinner, more playing and visiting. We all hit the hay exhausted last night! Here are some photos of those celebrations and dying eggs. Hope you all had a blessed Easter and are feeling particularly thankful for the gift of forgiveness.

Claire is 3!

Claire enjoys her Elmo cupcake on her birthday!

This is one wild party thanks to Aunt Rachel!

Claire's new John Deere bike!

Yum!

Claire eating her rainbow cake at her 3rd birthday party

make a wish....

One gorgeous (almost) 6 year old!

He's getting so grown up and handsome- doesn't he look just like his Dad?!

Happy Birthday to Claire!

Brett's turn...the trick candles didn't work very well much to my dismay!

Happy Birthday Thompson children!

Claire's present from Nan and Papa (Sarah has one at her house and Claire loves it!)

Claire turned 3 on March 29th. We had a birthday party for Brett and Claire together with Dan's family (we are trying a new thing with my family- doing a BIG party for all of the grandkids in the summer). Here are some pictures of the fun- we had that party on Dan's birthday (poor guy- after you turn 21, I think birthdays lack excitement anyway- right?!). Then we gave Claire her gift from us on her birthday morning and celebrated again that evening...the celebrations seemed to go on and on!! Never a bad excuse, right. Now Brett can't wait for his ACTUAL birthday (April 28th) as he's been telling me he's 6 now "since he already had his birthday party!" Love the logic of a 5 1/2 year old!!

March is here and almost gone!

Well- I was about to title this post, March is here...and I realized it's almost over already! It has been a whirlwind month. Claire got glasses, Dan and I went to California for 5 days for a work trip and the kids and I went to Chicago for 5 days to meet my sister's new baby, Maggie Lynn. And we'll round out the month with Dan and Claire's birthdays....It's been a great month!

"Snow" much fun!

Winter is getting a bit too long for me this year....but the kids think it's snow much fun! Here are some photos of the kids enjoying our abundance of snow this winter (and one of me and some girlfriends out for an adult night!)

Popsicle princess!

Sarah (my friend who watches Claire during the day) took this picture of Claire and it was soo cute I had to share. Pink sunglasses required to eat a purple popsicle!!

January fun...

Well....it's cold and snowy....and we are still having fun! Brett lost tooth #2, we like playing dress-up, and I took some outside pictures on a beautiful, sunny, Sunday morning on the way home from church.

Christmas 2009

Gorgeous Claire on Christmas morning! Age 2 1/2

One sweet 5 1/2 year old relaxing on Christmas morning!

Claire and Brett before Brett's Christmas program at church on Christmas Eve

We almost forgot to put out cookies, milk, and carrots...

"Look what Santa brought!"

Christmas at Mark and Pat's

Ramona, Elizabeth, Claire, Gma, Brody, Zachary, Gpa, Lyndey, Ben, Brett, and Lainey

Dan and I

Claire showing off her balance!

Brett with his gift from Santa

We had a fantastic holiday season spent with family and fun. Despite the frightful weather- we had many celebrations but not always when they were supposed to be! The kids thoroughly enjoyed the festivities...from cookie baking/decorating to the Christmas program at church to opening gifts...they loved it all! Here are some pictures of all the fun (maybe even a couple from Thanksgiving since I've been a TERRIBLE blogger the last couple of months!) Guess that leaves room for improvement in 2010! Happy New Year to all :)