PW in Seattle

On Saturday we did something pretty exciting. Tom will try to deny it but I KNOW he was a little bit excited. We went to Third Place Books in Seattle to have our Pioneer Woman Cookbook signed, again. I say again because my sister sent her book, Tom's and one for their school auction to PW to have her sign them. We found out she was coming to town after we had already gotten ours back. I figure our book is extra special having 2 autographs in the one book, right???

Our signing tickets, thanks to my sisters friend Charlotte, put us in group D, which meant we only had to wait an hour (which really wasn't that bad) or so before getting to "meet" the one, the only, PW! When we got there at 5 they were handing out tickets in group H, so I'm thankful that Charlotte went the night before and picked them up.

I thought for sure that Hannah would mention something about how we call her Tom's girlfriend but she didn't and I'm positive that Tom was relieved. However, he did get a little flustered when she said to him "you look like a handsome version of Philip Seymour Hoffman, but I bet you hear that all the time" to which he replied "who?" and "that's the first time I've ever heard that" and "I've already purchased your book, you don't have to butter me up". I LOVE MY HUSBAND. He seriously makes me laugh! When he talks about it, he just mentions how she called him handsome. :)

Testing the camera...Hannah's test picture.Emerson's test picture.We can see her...so close.Yippee...Doesn't Emerson look thrilled? Becky chatting with PWBeck, Charlotte & PWHannah loved her. She was thrilled when I asked if she wanted to get in the picture. I tried REALLY hard to get just a picture of Tom and his girlfriend, but I think he was still flustered from her handsome comment. :) I think he'll be a bit sad when he finds out she didn't include him in this post... Unsung Heroes

Tulips

On Thursday JJ and I took the kids up to Mount Vernon to visit the tulip fields. Hannah and Jacob missed a day of school, but we called it an outdoor science lesson...JJ taught them about hybrid flowers. She's smart like that. We got up there pretty early which was good, we beat the crowds. There is nothing like seeing the rows and rows of beautiful flowers. It's really hard to not smile or be happy when you are surrounded by all that color.

These two crack me up. They were always willing to smile for the camera.Whereas these two, not so much.

These yellow and red tulips were amazing.I had grand ideas of getting pictures of the girls with the flowers, but, that didn't happen. I was able to get a picture of Emerson in the flowers. Hannah wouldn't go down the path...there were bugs in the flowers. *Sigh*

Love these.I'm not sure what these were, but they were beautiful. We couldn't decide if they were tulips or peonies or a hybrid. :)

Again...too cute!I laughed when I saw this. The girls' hair just blended right in. My little angels. :)

I guess if you're going to skip school this is the way to do it.

The after party

After the shower the boys joined us for a birthday celebration for Sevi and Madison. The kids were quick to jump into the hot tub as soon as they got the OK from Auntie Julie. I made sure that Tom brought a life jacket for Emerson after Hannah's track record with the tub. :) Thankfully, there were no incidents this time. I think that was a first for us.

All the munchkins...Madison, Cole, Hannah, Ashlyn, Sevi, Jake & Emerson

Ashlyn and Cole got a few gifts from those of us who weren't at the Easter/Birthday party.

Oh these two...they have the potential to be big trouble together, but I can't seem to get past their cuteness...I could eat them up!

Sevi's frog cupcake.

Emerson really loved the baby shower cake toppers. :)Happy birthday to you...no you...no you...Make a wish...Caitlin got a little embarrassed when we all decided to sing Happy Birthday to her. She definitely wasn't expecting that. I don't think I've ever seen her so red. :) It was a long day but it was so much fun. Both girls were fast asleep before we even got out of John & Julie's neighborhood.

Heather and baby S

On Sunday we had a baby shower for my beautiful cousin Heather. Her and her hubby, Jeff, are expecting their first baby around the first of June.

When Hannah found out they were having a boy she had my mom send Heather a list of boy names....Jacob, Reign, David, Jack, Sam, Ashton, Alexander, Landon, Jesus and Sven. All names of boys in her class. As soon as she said Sven, she knew that would be the one they picked. Sven Schweinfurth...talk about a mouthful. Heather and her sweet self told Hannah thank you for the names and that her and Jeff would have to think about it. Since then, Hannah has been calling him Sven and apparently the name has stuck...at least for us. :) I'm 99.9% sure that his name will NOT be Sven, but we like to call him that in our house.

It was a Bielser function so there was no shortage of food. :)

Because it's my blog and I don't know his real name, I'm just going to call him Sven. :) Baby Sven heard his "Granny Joanney's" voice and kicked just for her. What a good little boy. Heather and the two Grandma's.The shower throwers (minus a few) and the Mama.

I HAD to include this next picture and I am wishing I had the events that followed this moment captured on my camera, but I don't. I don't exactly remember why we ALL have the same puzzled look, but what happened next was a serious case of the giggles. It makes me laugh just thinking about it. I love Beck's face. (Sorry Beck)Jeff's mom made this for Heather & Jeff. If I am remembering right, this is one of Jeff's old boots. So cute.

Jeff is a BIG Ohio State fan.

One of Jeff's old blankets...

Melissa and Jeff (Heather's brother) made this for Sven. We joked that they could probably get a picture of Sven wearing the helmet soon after he is born. It was so cute to see all the baby boy clothes after looking at baby girl clothes for the last 5 years. *sigh*

Heather made out like a bandit. I was certain they would need a truck to get it all home, but the guys managed to get it all into their two vehicles. I cannot wait to meet baby Sven and to learn what his real name is going to be. Until then, we'll keep calling him Sven.

Easter

This might just be picture overload. And to think I've already scaled it back some. Easter was a non stop day of fun for us. It started out at 6:30 with us getting up and ready for church. The girls were excited to know that the Easter bunny had in fact been to our house. Hannah insisted on putting on her Easter dress before going downstairs to see the treasures.

Hannah laughed when she saw the mess the EB left behind.

These pictures makes me laugh. I just wanted a picture of the girls together. Hannah noticed that Emerson was about to take a bite of the Peeps (they'd been instructed that they were not allowed to eat candy in their dresses) and pushed them away. And the rest is...well...see for yourself.Oh, they make me laugh!After church we went to Kevin & Judy's for brunch. I had every intention of getting a picture of the girls with Kevin & Judy but we didn't get around to it.
We had a nice morning/afternoon. After brunch Hannah and Emerson took an impromptu nap while we sat around and chatted. Once they woke up we headed to Sue and Dave's for Easter dinner.
The kids...not really sure what's going on here...or here for that matter. I don't recommend this look in the year 2010.

Emmie checked each egg as she put them in her basket.Emmie took to Alex today. Until today she's been a little shy around him. She played with him on the slide, they hunted for eggs together and then they shared a moment on the swings. Watch out Caitlin. :)Howie, Donna and Emily made it up from down South. It was fun to have them with us. These two crack me up!

It was a wonderful day, however, we were more than ready for bed by the time we left Sue's house. :)