Easter Sunday!

Praise Jesus; He is risen! It is Easter and today was a great day for our family. We started the day off perfectly by going to a church we recently began attending and the service was absolutely fantastic. I mean, if I am crying within just minutes of being in worship, then the Holy Spirit is really making His move....and God knows I need it; need Him.


After church, we came home to see what the Easter Bunny had brought Nico! Nico was a very good boy, so he got lots of goodies! Thankfully we got our egg hunt in before the rain came. Nico had a blast running around the backyard locating all the eggs that the Easter Bunny hid so well. I was very surprised, but the little man actually kept his bunny ears on during the entire egg hunt!











After a tiring but fun egg hunt, Nico came inside to see what else the Easter Bunny left for him. Much to his surprise, there was an even bigger basket full of lots of fun goodies, including his first play-dough set, a coloring book with new crayons and markers, Veggie Tales DVDs as well as a few treats! Nico also had a pretty good time going through his eggs and finding little surprises in the plastic ones...that is after he realized there was a difference between the real and plastic eggs. Overall, we had a wonderful Easter with just our small and precious family. I thank God for these two wonderful boys He put in my life.



Here is a video of Nico coming in to find his basket from the Easter Bunny.

Eggs, and more eggs

Today is the day before Easter, Easter Eve ! We started the day off early, with Daddy running a 5K race in the Fort Worth Stockyards. Even with the crazy winds, he did fantastic, and won the top place for the male Masters (40+ age group) group. Nico and I were right there to cheer him on and watch him get awarded with his medal.



While waiting for the race to start and for the awards ceremony, Nico was entertained by riding some of the mechanical horses, running around the old stockyards, meeting a cowboy Easter Bunny, and petting and visiting with the horses and Shetland ponies and the goats that were there.




After the race, we walked down the street, remaining in the Stockyards, to participate in an Easter egg hunt. Luckily Auntie Lisa and David were there and we had a place to stand and wait for the hunt to begin because there was quite a crowd. Due to the crowd and the space allotted for Nico's age group, the egg hunt lasted only minutes. I think Nico may have been a little apprehensive once the crowd really set in and the hunt started, but he knew what the objective was, did a great job and still had fun. Next year I am thinking that we may go back to the egg hunt we took Nico to last year or find one that is a little bit more organized and little less crowded.









For the rest of the Easter eve, Nico and Mommy made Easter cupcakes and then Nico was able to experience his first year of dyeing Easter eggs! When we told him he was going to be coloring eggs, I could tell this did not make a lot of sense to him. After a couple of minutes, I KNEW he needed some more information. Nico was at his coloring table using crayons to color his candy eggs he had gotten earlier in the day! Nico got the hang of dyeing eggs and now understands that the Easter Bunny is coming tonight to hide the eggs he made so that he can go out and find them tomorrow.

Easter Party and Mommy's "ha-doo cake"

It is not very often which Easter weekend falls within just a few days of my birthday, but this year it did. Being that Nico's school was closed for Good Friday, the class Easter Party and egg hunt were scheduled for yesterday, which was actually my birthday. However, the egg hunt ended up being canceled due to the rain we got that morning, but the kids still had a chance to find eggs around the school with their class before the parents arrived. The Easter Party was cute and I am glad both Daddy and I had the chance to go and be there for Nico. The little ones ate quite a bit of food, and believe it or not it was all healthy; they also sang songs and just enjoyed having their parents at school with them.







After Nico's Easter Party, we came home for a little birthday celebration. Of course, this was before the adult birthday celebration where Ed treated me to martinis, sushi and a new Coach purse....what an awesome evening I had.
Back to Nico.....Lately Nico has gotten very excited whenever he hears about birthdays, see balloons, cake or anything else that could be related to any birthday type of event. He has his own version of singing Happy Birthday and automatically exclaims, "My Ha-doo cake!" when he hears the B word. After lots of explanation, Nico finally understood and was ok with the idea of Mommy having a birthday too...as long as he got some cake! On top of eating cake, he particularly enjoyed blowing and re-blowing out the candles. Here is a video and a couple of pictures of birthday cake time.

Zoo Run and Zoo Fun

This weekend Daddy ran one of his many races. It was the Annual Zoo Run. with over 6,000 participants, Daddy did very well (even if he doesn't think so), by coming in 4th in his age group even with a pulled hamstring.


Nico's Big Sis, Amber and Jeremy came to town for the weekend and they accompanied us to the race to cheer Ed on..."Go Daddy go!

After the race, Ed and I took Nico into the zoo for a visit. Fort Worth has a beautiful zoo, and it has been too long since we said hi to all our animal friends. Although, this was the 6th time Nico has been to the zoo, it seems like it is a brand new experience every time. He loves seeing the elephants, giraffes and of course the ....fish. Our little man was nervous about the dinosaur exhibits set around the grounds and oddly enough, he was also scared when we found the lions. I suppose his awareness is becoming more of a reality.


The best part about the zoo for Nico besides trying to find Nemo in the aquarium, was feeding the birds in the bird house. Nico had so much fun letting the birds jump around on his hand eating away at their bird seed. What a great day we had!

Toy Story 3 On Ice

I would have posted earlier, but Nico and I have both been a little under the weather. Friday night Nico began telling us his ear was "hurtme," so Saturday morning Nico and I were at the doctor's office. It turned out that my little guy had come down with his second ear infection, and simultaneously I came down with a yucky cold.

However, ear infections and cold couldn't keep us away from the Toy Story 3 on Ice, which we bought tickets to 3 months ago. The show happened to be Saturday afternoon. We had the perfect plan of hoping on the train to Dallas, watching the show, then grabbing some dinner nearby and riding the train home. Poor Nico was all kinds of drugged up on Motrin, Tylenol and antibiotics, but despite not being 100% he still had fun and made some good memories.

On top of two out of three of us being sick, the train idea turned out to be a not-so-good-idea. It seems that everyone going to Toy Story 3 lived in Tarrant Co and had the same idea! Luckily we got on the train at the first stop and were able to get good seats. After just two stops, not only did the seats become full, but standing room only on the train ran out quickly! It was loud and slightly uncomfortable, but we made it there in piece.



Toy Story 3 On Ice was a great show overall, and Nico was in awe the entire time. Thankfully he had really good seats near the ice; that and the souvenirs helped add to the fun. I think Nico was so amazed at everything he was watching, that his facial expression seemed to remain the same: wonder and disbelief.



Here a couple shots I was able to get during the show. It was hard to take pictures with the characters' constant moving and the lighting.