Surprise! (No not the baby)

About 2 weeks ago we got quite the surprise when on Monday John sent me a text saying he was heading to Brazil the next day! Now earlier in March we knew there was a chance that John might go to Brazil in April but, the Friday before he found out he was going, he was told he wouldn't be going till June. So yeah it came as quite the surprise when they said "back your bags you are out of here tomorrow."' Luckily, we had a reward ticket on Southwest (I can't say enough about how much I love having Southwest credit card, but I won't go off on that) and my sister Sarah has a very flexible schedule this semester, so we were able to fly her down for basically the whole week and a half that John was gone. I don't think I physically could have done it without her help. Not pregnant it would have been hard, but doable without live-in help, but at 35-36 weeks pregnant going it alone just wasn't an option.

The kids absolutely loved having Sarah here. She has much more energy and mobility than I do and Netta loved having someone she could climb all over. It also worked out well for Sarah, because her and her husband both got into grad school at University of Texas and she was able to meet with her advisor, apply for some jobs and even meet up with a high school friend who lives in Louisiana. Not to shabby. One of the things we did was head to the neighborhood park. You would think I could do this a lot by myself, but my kids still kind of scare me on big playgrounds and my reaction time just isn't that fast. I am glad we went though, because little did I know, our park is basically a hug field of blue bonnets, which make for excellent pictures.

Sadly, this is the only picture I got of Sarah. I guess at least we have some proof she was here.

I love this picture because it says so much about how goofy EZ is. I plane flew overhead and he had to plug his ears, but Netta didn't even flinch. It seems to be this new thing he is going through where he has to plug his ears if there is something even slightly loud around him.

As I said in the last post, EZ loves baking and we finally got to make the sugar cookies I had planned on doing Easter weekend. Netta kills me because she never ate a single cookie. All she would do was pick the sprinkles out of the icing and eat them. So eventually I just started giving her sprinkles on a plate so she wouldn't make such a mess.

The kids were sooo excited when John came home. Of course he came with gifts, which added to the excitement level. EZ and Netta loved their presents and actually a favorite of both of them is this Hello Kittie backpack. On Saturday EZ insisted on dressing himself and wearing the backpack all day. He never ceases to crack me up.

It was hard having John gone, but it was a blast having Sarah here, so all and all things worked out pretty well. Any other aunts who want to win over the kiddies better step up their game, cause Aunt Sarah is definitely the fave right now.

Easter Fun

Well I am finally getting around to posting about Easter. Other stuff has happened since the last time I posted at the end of February, but let's be honest it is a miracle I am finally getting this post up. We did all the traditional Easter activities: Easter egg hunt, dying eggs and finding the Easter basket. We had an awesome Easter egg hunt just with our weekly playgroup. Of course I forgot the camera, but the kids had a blast and it was great because it was just a small group of us and we didn't have to fight huge crowds for a few eggs. The kids also really enjoyed dying eggs. Now that I think about it we didn't even get around to dying eggs last year, so this was the first year EZ was old enough to really get into it. He was very proud of his eggs.

We basically just let Netta put stickers on eggs for fear of her making a frickin huge mess if we let her near the dye. If you will notice in this picture she is wearing a tie. This is the tie EZ wore on his first Easter and somehow it made its way out of storage and for days Netta and EZ fought over who got to wear it.

EZ loved his eggs so much that he actually started carrying one around like a baby. He took the shell off and took a bite, but decided it was gross and would make a better baby. He wrapped it in a "blanket" and carried it around most of the day, continually pointing out how cute it was.

Finally, the kids got to do some baking with dad. EZ has become obsessed with helping out in the kitchen ever since he went to this little cooking class over spring break and of course Netta wants to do whatever EZ is doing. EZ is lucky I am pregnant and not dieting because this way I actually bake somewhat often.