Easter with the Cousins

After Easter morning at our house & naptime, we headed to Grammie & Grandad's for some fun with the cousins. Scott and Suzanne and family were in town and there was plenty of Easter eggs to be found. Colin understood better what to do after we had our practice run at our house that morning. The older boys were really sweet and made sure everyone was able to find at least 10 eggs to put in their baskets.

Colin also was pretty excited once he figured out how to pop the eggs open and get the candy. Apparently the eggs at our house were too "new" and he had troubles opening them on his own. He figured it out though, because it seemed like every time I turned around while we were at Grammie & Grandad's, he had a big mouthful of candy. I guess that's assuming his uncles weren't feeding him any (which might be a bad assumption!)

Olivia and Colin on the hunt

Counting his stash of eggs...

Pulling his eggs all around in the wagon

All of the older boys (plus the Easter bunny, minus Johnny, who was probably eating at the time...the kid eats all the time, poor Katie!)

The whole grandkids group. Can't believe there will be one more added into this mix before too long. Our baby will be grandchild #8 for Grammie & Grandad.

Easter morning fun

The whole family went to Easter mass at 7:30 on Sunday morning. We thought it might be a little less crowded seeings how it was so early, but no, that was not the case. Colin did pretty well, until we took him out for him to walk around a bit and he found the toy room. After that, he didn't want to leave the toy room and we had a little melt down. He is still pretty easily distracted though, and it didn't last for more than a few seconds.

When we got home from church, we had Colin open his Easter basket and look for Easter eggs. He had so much fun. We had a Zhu Zhu puppy, a slinky, some play doh, some candy, a magna doodle and a few sports balls in there for him. The biggest hit...the slinky and the play doh.

Colin and Daddy playing with the play doh. Colin taste tested each color...yuck!

Opening his Easter basket

Hunting around the house

Figuring out that there was actually CANDY in there!!

A great family picture. This, of course, was taken by a timer on our camera that Brian had meticulously set up on the mantle in our family room. Colin thought it was hilarious that the flash would go off with nobody around to push it the button.

HAPPY EASTER!!

Easter Eggs

We thought that Colin would have a lot of fun dying Easter eggs this year. We didn't even attempt last year and we thought we'd give it a try since he's 21 months old now. Plus, this would be a good trial-run for Brian and I seeings how it's been YEARS since we've done this ourselves.

We got Colin all set up with a grubby t-shirt and had the counter all covered with newspaper. The thing we didn't count on was Colin wanting to drink all of the dye that was in the cups and him wanting to eat the eggs that we set out to color. Oh well, at least the colors were non-toxic, we found out after we read the box very carefully :)

Yum, this yellow one tastes great!

Yum, this blue one tastes great, too!

Mommy making Colin laugh. He just loves laughing at different facial expressions that Brian and I make. So funny!

We sacrificed an Easter egg for a snack that morning.

Oh, and Brian got me some beautiful tulips for Easter. I LOVE TULIPS!

Jake is back at our house now that we have the house off the market. He hasn't been feeling well, being very fatigued and having no appetite. We took him to the vet and they said all of his blood work came back fine, just his cardiac markers were a bit elevated. They think he might have an enlarged heart, which could be causing some of his lethargy, but he is in no pain from that. Colin just ADORES Jake. Every morning he makes sure he has food & water and we let him outside. He will give him hugs and kisses and pet him whenever he is around. It's nice to see this caring side of Colin, because we can only hope he will be the same way when the new baby arrives.

Deanna Rose Farmsted

We had a great time at Deanna Rose Farmstead on Monday morning. The weather had been kindof hit & miss over the weekend, but for some reason, Monday morning was beautiful and we were so thankful! After Grandad passed away on Sunday, we weren't sure if we wanted to make the trip on Monday, but we were so glad we did. Colin is totally in LOVE with animals right now and we knew he would just have a great time.

Colin at the train, right past the entrance

There was a fun schoolhouse that we went into, and the "teacher" was so sweet. She got Colin a chalkboard with a piece of chalk and let him get to work.

Ringing the cowbells

The boys looking at the animals (pretty sure it was the cow that was mooing so loudly that Colin felt like he needed to be held) ...LOVE THESE GUYS!

Checking out the baby goats. There were tons of them there, very friendly and fun for the kids to interact with.

Colin really cracks Brian and I up whenever there are other children around. He just sits back and watches them. He's very curious these days.

There was also a small track where the kids could ride tractors all around. Poor Colin's little legs couldn't reach the pedals yet, so Brian had to push him.

We had a couple of our friends join us out there, the same ones that went with us to Lake of the Ozarks earlier in the weekend. Their little girl is 2.5 years old and is a lot of fun for Colin to play with. This is Colin with Madeline's dad Caleb (a very old friend of Brian's from his elementary school days)

Feeding the hungry big goats

This was probably one of the most fun parts of the day...feeding the baby goats milk from a bottle that you could buy for $1. It was still really early in the morning and so they were very hungry. Since they were all little, they weren't intimidating at all for Colin, except maybe when there were dozens of them wanting the bottle all at once. Good thing Brian was there to regulate!

Brian and Caleb attempting to use the tractor track.
Um...boys...the sign says ages 3-6 I think...

Colin "milking" a cow

We still can't believe this whole place had FREE ADMISSION! We are definitely going to be coming back and spending more time there now that we know what it's all about. So much fun for little kids (and for the parents!)

Rest In Peace, Grandad

Grandad, Brian, Colin and Me (June 2010)

Brian's grandfather, Grandad, Carrol Ewing Kemper, died on Sunday, April 17th. He was a wonderful, kind man, and always a fabulous grandfather to Brian (and I).
Brian and I were out of town with some friends at the Lake of the Ozarks and got a call on Sunday morning from Brian's mother asking if we could get home sooner than anticipated.
We are so glad we did, and got home just in time to see Grandad one more time and say our goodbyes. It might have been good timing on our part, or Grandad could've just been waiting until he knew we could get there, as he passed just moments after we saw him.

We have the visitation tonight and the funeral tomorrow. Please keep the Kemper family in your thoughts and prayers in this difficult time.

Grandad and Colin (September 2009)

Brian, Grandad, Colin, and Kathy (September 2009)

We have more recent pictures of Colin and Grandad, however they are on my work computer and I don't have access to them at home. I will try to post them when I get back to work.

WE LOVE YOU GRANDAD!!

Other weekend odds & ends

Colin really is beginning to get very curious about everything. He doesn't exactly just get into stuff, but wants to know what makes things work, what buttons turns things on, etc. He was digging through one of our cabinets the other day and next thing I knew, Brian and I found him trying to figure out how to get in.

Colin and the colander...it has been a hat as well

Colin got one of his first official "mom cuts" this past weekend. I have always been too chicken to try it myself, and had other friends/family members do it for me. I watched really closely when we took Colin to the barber shop last time, so I knew what lengths to cut things. I have a nice trimmer set and just zipped through cutting the back part, but the rest of his hair was a bit tricky. Luckily, he was distracted by the sprayer.

Other than his ears looking a little botched, I think I did an okay job. Only need his hair to look good for Easter, and that's still a little ways away, so maybe when it grows back a bit it will fix itself. Hopefully I will get more comfortable with it as I do it more. Wish me luck!