Easter and Grandma Koko!!

April 20th: Happy Easter!!

Rich was going to have to work on Easter, so we threw a big Easter party here at our house the Saturday before. The kids had a ton of fun opening Easter baskets from Gigi and PopPop and hunting for eggs in the yard.

I say "was going to have to", because  Rich ended up NOT working Easter. The last week of April was a disaster. First, Blakely and I got a terrible, no-good stomach bug with fever for 48 hours (did I mention that the washer is still in Charleston???). NO ONE could come to our rescue- Alyssa had just found out she was pregnant, Richard was on call and Gigi had Grandma Koko visiting (84 yo, recovering from a respiratory illness, experiencing new onset chest palpitations). Thankfully, Katy Ellis managed to squeak out without getting sick (go, go breastmilk!!). Rich got someone to cover his call, and came home to rescue us.... which meant he did get to be here for Easter morning, not that ANY of us were going to go to Church (ever heard of Typhoid Mary?).

Secondly, Katy Ellis and I took a lovely ride in an ambulance and got to meet Aunt Alyssa's co-workers. The Monday after Easter, I tripped on the stairs with Katy Ellis in my arms. She hit her head on the wooden steps and I completely lost it. She was totally fine. She only cried for like 2 minutes and then was smiling and happy. I, on the other hand, totally freaked out. I have seen too many head injuries and traumatic brain injuries to sit at home. The rational side of my brain said, "she's fine. She is exhibiting no worrisome symptoms. You just need to observe her at home for 4-6 hours." The mommy side of my brain said, "this is MY baby, and I will not let anything bad happen to my girl. I want the full court press!" Thankfully, by the time we arrived in the ER, my rational side had won out and I refused CT/X-ray as these would have been unnecessary radiation. Rich and I stayed up most of the night watching her on the dropcam, and the angel slept through the night as usual. No worries. Praise God!!!

Thirdly, the DVD player stopped working in the car. I know this sounds minor, especially when compared to our health scares, but at that time it was a complete disaster! Since the move in November, I have driven I-26 two to three times per week. It was no big deal when it was just me, but since February I have had Blakely and Katy Ellis with me. We NEED that DVD player to work!!!

Finally, I returned to work. I'll leave the details of that for the next post.

Blakely and Banks LOVE a good Easter Egg hunt!! There wasn't even anything in these eggs, but they ran after them anyways! We even kept the eggs out for a week or two and had daily Easter eggs hunts.

Banks and Blakely love to hold hands. When you ask them to "hold hands," they usually try to hold both hands. Always funny to watch them try to walk into a store sideways.

At first, I was a little disappointed that Blakely had on a Minnie Mouse dress in this picture (courtesy of Gigi's Easter basket surprises). I had her in a really cute pastel outfit which would have been super picturesque... but I feel like this is typical of who Blakely is today, and I know that someday that is EXACTLY what I'll want to see. Not a beautiful picture, just Blakely as she really was. Future Lauren, You're Welcome!



I thought Banks was eating Chocolate in this picture. Unfortunately, that is actually a sweet gum ball. You're Welcome, Future Alyssa!!

The kids got these great Easter baskets from Gigi and PopPop which are really stylish laundry hampers. So cute.

Gigi also made these adorable bunnies!! She is super talented!! I cannot believe that these were made on an embroidery machine!!

Blakely is MAJORLY into princesses and all things girly right now, so her Easter basket was a MAJOR hit!!

She pulled this out and yelled "Princess dress!!"

Gigi also made then Cousin T-shirts!! So adorable. Thank you Gigi!!



Yes... this is her response to the Minnie Mouse dress!!

She IMMEDIATELY wanted to put ALL of her gifts on- big bow, "pretty dress", and "nu shoos!" Gigi really knocked this one out of the park!!

The best part of the party was Katy Ellis got to meet her Great Poppy!!

Poppy with three grandkids and three (four?) great grandkids!!

Easter Morning: This year the Easter bunny didn't wrap anything. He just had to throw it out there as fast as she could!

That hair... what are we gonna do with it?

One of the saddest things that happened with our GI illness was the loss of Puppy. During Toddler week at Edventure, Blakely got to decorate this small, white puppy (see above). She was SO, SO, SO proud of "Puppy!" She slept with it, ate with it and carried it around. Puppy even led to a health scare due to some of his water soluble, purple paint coming off on Blakely during her nap (can you say weird purple bruises on neck and chin?). During our illness, Puppy became soiled and had to be washed. All of the paint and decorations Blakely had lovingly applies to Puppy came off in the wash. When we tried to give her a now clean, white Puppy back at bedtime, she yelled "not my puppy!" It was heartbreaking!

So the Easter bunny made sure to load Blakely's Easter basket full of the same art supplies they had at Edventure, and then she got to decorate Puppy all over again!! Puppy was again restored to his former glory!!

Katy Ellis getting to meet her Great Koko!! This baby loves to get snuggled by her Koko!!

This picture is a miracle!! The fact that we got all 4 to look at the camera (Grandma Koko included!!) is miraculous!!
All three kiddos are rocking their Gigi creations and looking super cute!!