Happy Easter!

We had a really busy, but really great Easter weekend! Matt had a major project due for one of his classes, and also taught Sunday school Easter morning. I had a great time with the kids leading up to Easter weekend, and we had a really fun time going to our church's annual Easter egg hunt together as a family on Saturday! Easter is such a special time to celebrate in the life of a believer, Jesus's sacrifice on the cross and vanquishing of sin and death, that we really load up on the excitement around here!

At Home:

I didn't feel brave enough yet to let Kenna loose with real dye, so we stickered some plastic eggs instead. And since Sundays are so wild and crazy in our family at this stage of life, we opened our baskets Monday morning (the day after) so we could take our time and take fun pictures!

The Color Wonder markers were a favorite with Kenna, and definitely the Hello Kitty stamps and chocolate bunny!
Finn of course, looked on with approval. Sweet brother.
My two little bunnies!

With Friends:

And we filled up a few with candy to take to our friends the Bryants' annual Easter egg hunt (here are last year's pictures). Kenna had a great time with the "candy eggs" and after she picked up the first one and discovered chocolate in it, I wasn't sure she was going to pick up any more!
Sarah's mom dresses up like the Easter bunny and I wasn't sure how Kenna would react this year... but she LOVED it. I had a hard time prying her away so that other kids could take pictures! I was so bummed that I forgot my camera, but a good friend took some photos and emailed them to me later:

At Church:

Even the threat of chilly rain (and some falling on the drive out there!) was not enough to deter us from Bayleaf's awesome Easter egg hunt.
It was so cute to see Kenna and Beckley old enough to really get into it this year... they were putting eggs in each other's baskets and Kenna helped him pick them all up when his bucket fell over. So sweet.

Our big girl took one look at the giant slide, took her shoes right off, and climbed all the way to the top by herself. I both love her brave independence and at the same time am incredulous that my baby girl could possibly be that grown up.
My little blue Easter egg snuggled up with Mommy all morning while Daddy took Kenna to all the bouncy houses. He is growing like a weed too- from the angle I was holding him, I coouldn't tell that his little newborn hat barely covers half his head anymore!

With Family:

We had our traditional delicious lunch at Matt's parents' house after chuch. Ansley helped Nana B. pick out everything for the kids' Easter buckets... they opened them in a total blur of chocolate bunnies, bubbles, play dough, and crayons. All the fun stuff!
Granddaddy had left a strip of his yard unmowed so that it would be long enough to hunt eggs in. It worked out perfectly and the weather was just gorgeous! The kids could not have had more fun finding all the eggs and inspecting their treasure (Granddaddy and Nana helped spot a few):
I wanted a cute sibling shot of my two cuties all dressed up for Easter, but it just might not be possible at these wiggly little ages. Kenna was wearing a dress my mom made and smocked for me when I was her age. Finn's was an outfit I bought when we first found out we were pregnant with Kenna- I bought a boy outfit and a girl outfit (see them here on my crafty blog!) and this was the boy one!
Granddaddy and Nana B:
The Edwards:
Us:
A sweet one of just Matt and I that Leanne took for us:
And guess who was left holding the giant chickie when it was all said and done!

Easter is one of my favorite holidays, and certainly not because of the eggs and chicks and bunnies. We serve a risen and living Savior and King! Without his death there would be no atonement for our sin, and without his resurrection, no promise for an eternal life restored to our heavenly Father.

For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
-Romans 6:9-11

I hope everyone reading had a wonderful and worshipful Easter with their families as well!

Sweet Little Fingers & Sweet Little Toes

I can't get enough of them! If there were one thing that could surely make you want to have babies, it's their sweet little fingers, toes, eyes, nose, and precious sweet baby smell.
Pictures are so necessary to remember these tiny little days, the ones that go by so fast in such a haze of busy-ness and sleepiness. My boy's legs already stretch across my lap as I nurse him, instead of curling up in a little ball on my belly where they came from only a few short weeks ago.And this was his response to my prolific photo-taking of him... precious in its own way.

Wordless Wednesday: Laundry

Dirty on the left, clean on the right.

It's procreating at an alarming rate.

Family Outings.

These are some older photos from when Finn was just a few days old. We went out to our local Goodberry's for a little treat! It was a little chilly for ice cream, but only because the sun had started going down... with hints of spring in the air.

Kenna alternated between running circles around the water fountain & eating all of her Daddy's vanilla with strawberries and blackberries instead of the chocolate with strawberries that we thought she'd love.
Well, then she ate that too. This girl can put away some ice cream!
Her own ice cream. Such a big, big girl.
Still high on the sweet sounds of new life in our home (and not yet showing the signs of going on 2 months of sleep deprivation on our faces!)- Mommy and Finn asked Daddy to take pictures since bringing her camera was one more thing she forgot to remember.
It felt like the first real family outing, just grabbing a bit of good ice cream after dinner. All four of us!

Finn at One Month Old

I was about to take a quick 1 month photo of Finn the other day (hah... 2 weeks ago!) when Matt encouraged me to use the "big" camera and get some good ones. I'm hesitant to pull the big one out with the good lenses because i get all perfectionist and it takes me forever, but I'm always glad I did!

Here are the ones I took of his first few weeks:
And here are my favorites of the 1 month ones I took with the good camera:

This one won out for his baby announcement:
And here is Kenna near the same age- at 2 weeks old. I think they look so much alike!
Of course, I'm getting all these pictures soreted just in time to realize that my baby is already 6 weeks old! I've heard the second one grows up more quickly, and I definitely think it's true. He looks less like a newborn and more like a baby every day.

Personalities!

After living over 2 years so far with little Miss Personality and getting to see her blossom into the little person that she is, it's no surprise that Finn is all sugar and spice of his own. We love seeing a little more of his tiny personality each day- both in ways similar to Kenna and different. Here are some his fun personality traits we've noticed so far:

-He loves to be in the middle of the action- he doesn't like to lay down, but much prefers to be sitting up in the bumbo chair or up over our shoulders watching the world go by.

-He loves to snuggle and is SUCH a people person already. He loves to be held and talked to, and responds with sweet little nuzzles to our faces. Kenna is over the moon when he mouthes little kisses on her cheek when she kisses him night-night.

-He is super laid back, but has a big temper when he's hungry. He holds his head up really well and will stand on my lap or try to climb his little feet up my belly when he's really hungry! I think Matt will have his rock climbing buddy sooner rather than later.

-It really is uncanny how incredibly much Finn looks like his Daddy. I have joked that we didn't have a baby, we just cloned Matt! It's hard to really capture it in a photo, but in person I'm just astounded by it. He is such a Brogli boy! I've only had one or two people tell me he looks like me, and not until this week which just goes to show you how they change a little each day at this age!

It's funny how such a new little person can so instantly become part of your family. So much of taking care of him reminds me of when Kenna was a baby. He is such a treasure (both kiddos are!) even when having two is a little stressful. He's our big little guy and we are loving watching him grow!