Happy Easter!

We hope everyone has enjoyed this day with family and friends remembering the sacrifice and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour. We had a great day, as you can see from the following pictures...

Our little Easter Bunny enjoying her Easter baskets.

Posing with the tulips in the front yard of our house.

Walking with daddy on the way to the Easter Egg Hunt at the park where our church is currently meeting. We have been helping launch a new church here in Richmond and this was our first Sunday with a corporate worship service. The building we are leasing won't be ready for another two weeks, so we are enjoying the weather and worshiping outside for now. We had a great launch with about 60 adults and 21 kids!

Once she understood what she was supposed to do at the egg hunt, she really liked it. Every time she saw an egg she said "o mowr eit, dad-dy!" (Translation: one more egg, daddy!)

Examining her "eits" on the way to our next big Easter event -- The Helicopter Egg Drop!

My parent's church sponsored this event and it was pretty cool to see. If you look closely at the picture, you can see the eggs coming out of the helicopter. Laura was a little too small to participate in the egg gathering, but she still had fun watching!

Next we headed to Monument Avenue for Easter on Parade, a Richmond tradition. There is not a real parade -- the people walking up and down the street are the parade. And many people had on crazy Easter bonnets and dressed up their dogs with outfits and bonnets, too. Every time Laura saw a dog (and there were many, many dogs) she pointed and said "A dod-dy! A dod-dy!"

Posing with momma during Easter on Parade.

Playing in a garden in front of a beautiful house we saw while walking down Monument Avenue.

Feeding her new baby that she got from Nana and Granddad for Easter. At least she is using the bottle for this picture -- earlier she was using the watering can on the table behind her as a way to bring nourishment to the baby!

Happy Spring!

Spring has sprung here in Virginia and Laura has been taking advantage of the nice weather by playing outside quite a bit. Here are a few of our favorites from the last few weeks...

Laura never gets tired of running around in the yard. In a few weeks she will have a new swing set to play on outside...she won't know what to do with her very own "whee!" (her word for slide and swing)

Pushing the stroller is always more fun than riding in it!

While chasing Shawn, Laura says "I wide, Dad-dy!" She is really starting to talk more and more!

Laura's very own seat on mommy's bike. She loved every minute of her first bike ride, including hitting my legs saying "Do, mom-ma, do!" (Translation: Go, momma, go!)

Springtime brings rainy days as well and Laura has found a way to beat cabin fever...

Enjoying the fort daddy made in the living room.

And never underestimate the fun you can have wrestling a huge teddy bear while wearing Mommy's shoes!

Playtime!!

Laura loves to play. If she is awake, you can be sure she is playing. Some of her favorite things to do are wrestle with daddy, get tickled and laugh until she can't breathe, climb around on us and the couch, and play with her babies. Shawn snapped these pictures the other day when he and Laura were playing on the couch:

She has an infectious laugh...and we hear it a lot throughout the day!

Taking a break to smile for the camera.

No play session is complete without a hat!

And since Laura loves to play so much -- we decided it was time she had a playroom of her very own. Shawn and I spent the weekend moving furniture out of our downstairs guest bedroom and moving Laura's toys in. We can't believe they ever all fit in our living room! She is really enjoying having her own space -- and we are too!

As you can tell, she is seriously deprived of toys!! (Just kidding) And, no, this room hasn't been this clean since we moved everything in:) I just thought it would be nice to clean it up one last time...it might be years before we see the carpet again!!

Snowing, Swimming, and Swinging

We have had A LOT of snow this season and Laura has loved it...

Laura enjoyed actually being able to walk in the snow this time...we only had about 6" and once Shawn and I walked around, it was firm enough for Laura to walk.

Laura and daddy built a little snowman -- once Laura decided to hug and kiss the snowman and then got very upset when her face got covered in snow!

Laura loved to look at the snow on the ground and the snow flakes falling -- every time she noticed the snow (many, many times over the 2 weeks it was on the ground), she would point and say "I see snow!!" in a very excited voice. I'm not sure anyone could understand her but us, though!

We have also started a parent/child swim class on Saturday mornings. Laura is a little fish and doesn't even mind getting her face wet! We are having a really good time together in the pool...

Here we are learning to use our hands and arms to paddle.

And here we are learning to walk along the edge of the pool using our hands.

Laura thought it was great fun to cup water in her hands and then let it out on my head or hers!

Lately, Laura is really into playing with her "babies." She takes them most everywhere, rocks them, puts them in time out, and puts them to bed, telling us "shhh, babies night-night!" These pictures were taken on a Sunday morning on our way out the door to church...

Apparently, we couldn't go any further without the babies getting to spend a few seconds on the swing.

After that, babies and Laura were ready to head off to church!