Easter

Ok, so I may be qualified as one of the worst bloggers ever.  I know it is usually a month in between posts now.  I seem to not be able to balance blogging weekly and then I am so far behind that I blog about things a month past and then it doesn't happen again for a month.  Beware, this is the longest blog in history with tons of pictures and no I am not going to proof it.  I am possibly a binge blogger.  

Apologies aside, we have been busy in April and May.  April brought about Easter which is my favorite holiday!  I was so excited to share it with my favorite girl for her first Easter.  I love pastels, I love the decorations, love celebrating that Jesus conquered death...it is my fav.

Barrett and I traveled on Good Friday to Barrett's mom's house for a few hours.  We enjoyed a meal and Aunt Britney took off for the day to see the little missy.  Of course, Kennedy had her shots the day before and had been up in the middle of the night with a fever so she was not her best and of course mainly wanted her momma.  Friday night Barrett and I had Spurs tickets and were excited about a date night.  Well since Kennedy had not been feeling well, I thought it was best that I put her down like I always do.  But, Barrett didn't want to miss the beginning of the game so against my better judgment and maternal instinct we left.  An hour after we left and in the 2nd quarter of the game I get a text that Kennedy kept crying and was not going to sleep.  Sigh.  We were having a great time and then I was kicking myself because I KNEW better.  As soon as I got to the house my mom had her asleep in her arms but Kennedy kept crying out.  I took her, held her for 5 minutes or so, but her down and that was that.  My mom said that she kept feeling my mom's face and realizing it wasn't me and then would cry.  The strange thing is that she knows my mom since she keeps her every week.  But, I can attest to there is nothing like your momma when you don't feel well.

The next day our long time friends Guy and Renee Cornett drove down from Austin to meet our little angel.  Kennedy was thankfully in better spirits during their visit.  Kennedy really enjoyed playing with Pa's head and she kept kissing and trying to eat it.  Here is a video of her eating his head.  Please disregard the conversations.

Kennedy with Aunt Britney.  You can tell by looking at Kennedy's face that she was not feeling well.

Renee holding Kennedy

The weekend was jammed packed.  Sunday we had big Easter hunt plans so right when Kennedy got up from her morning nap we grabbed her bottle and then headed out to take bluebonnet pictures.  It is a Texas tradition that will be an annual event, so get use to it Kennedy.  I might not make you take them when you are in college.  The picture shoot didn't go great, but at least it was documented that she was with the bluebonnets. 

This picture just makes me laugh....she was so in to taking pictures.

Let the festivities begin!  The Crafton gang came over for our annual Easter celebration.  Cascarones, egg hunt, lots of dessert, running, laughing, hide and seek are the annual staples.  New introductions:  ice fight (may or may not have been instigated by me), a piñata, and a silly string fight.  How much fun could be jammed into one day?

Ice fight in progress.

Gicki eventually got a tubberware to keep the ice in.

This was so funny.  I think it was Linden who put ice down Gibson pants and you should have seen Gibson's face and the way he was walking with a freezing honey!  It was hilarious.  But, Stefan could never find the ice?  I guess it had already melted?

The long awaited egg hunt.

Grammy had hid eggs on the porch filled with baby safe things for Kennedy but Kennedy was not so interested in the eggs.

Can you tell she was not wanting to go to anyone else?  Look at that death grip on my shirt.

Gibson was having more fun with Annie.  He kept saying "dog!" "woof-woof"

Barrett's dad's family came and here is Granny C with Kennedy.  Sadly, Kennedy would not go to Papa D this visit.  She doesn't take to men as well as women....especially when she isn't feeling well.

Documentation of how much fun Randy has at our Easter celebration.  It wouldn't surprise me if he flew down from North Carolina next year just for Easter.  This was his second year to participate in our craziness.  Last year we introduced him to cascarones, he was not a fan.  During the fight he leaned over to me and said, "Cara, when does this end?".  Then he really LOVED how confetti is found in body crevices and clothes for weeks after.  I can only hope that some confetti made it to North Carolina with him.

Despite the best poop scooping efforts, Annie had to go to the bathroom during the fight.  This was Barrett's way of keeping everyone "safe" by covering it with a water sprinkler.  Gibson kept pointing and saying "yuck".

This was Barrett's mom's first time to come to the party.  She brought an egg cake that Barrett's Nana always made.  I love traditions.

I am just sad that Channing didn't have any fun.

All the kids...this was as good as it got.

Then it was Linden's turn to hold Kennedy.  Oh how I love these children.

Aunt Britney bought Kennedy this Easter egg basket that was purple.  Kennedy preferred to eat it.

Even the grown ups have an egg hunt.  Channing was helping me.

My cousins, Kyle and Carter, came for the hunt too.  They are both in college and I think they enjoyed themselves.

Barrett had a helper too.  Linden was so proud of some of the places he had hid the eggs.

Kennedy really liked checking out Pa's head. Yes, these pictures uploaded out of order and no I am not going to fix them.  I am on a time crunch and just want these memories documented.

Sneaky, sneaky Hadley buried the eggs in the herb garden.

Kennedy thought the feeling of the bush on her feet was the weirdest and coolest thing.

Look how proud Linden is of his hiding spot!

Let the silly string fight begin.  Sadly I missed this part of the day as well as the Piñata because Kennedy needed to nurse.  Thanks Britney for documenting the memories for me!

I love this picture of Linden getting Sherry, hilarious!

I think we have found a new tradition.

Proof that fun was had by all, as my mom would say.

This picture is the best, check out Linden's face.  He obviously got so much joy out of moving the piñata!

Batter up for and finish off the bunny.

I liked this action shot of Randy throwing an egg.

These next pictures are so funny on the attack of Randy from my dad and Hadley attacking Pa, meanwhile my mom trying to save herself.

I think my mom successfully made it out.

I got proof that Randy does like kids.

Linden being a sweet brother and letting Gibson get him.

So then I look over and my goofy cuz has the bunny ear on his head.

Britney's hands were stained from the sweaty cascarone fight.

Gibson is such a sweet mess.  This is him getting the biggest kick out of kicking the bunny ear.  Notice the progression...

Then all of a sudden I could tell a light bulb went off in his head and he took the ear and hid it under the bush.

And then walked away like "my job is done here".  That was that.

This tire swing is so old!  It was Blake and I's when we were little and it is still kicking.  It has gotten a lot of use.

Next, it was baseball time.

My sweet mom made tons of sugar cookies, also a tradition.  But, this year she bought a jet cookie cutter and made Randy his own cookies with the number 77 on it, which was the number of the "boat" (what pilots call ships) he landed on (I can't remember the professional term for it).

Oh goodness at the sweets.

Cue the family photo shoots.

I guess I didn't get the shot of my family's picture on my camera.  I need to get that from my mom.  Also, did Barrett and I get a family shot of just the 3 of us??  NO!  We are horrible about taking pictures as a family.

Sad day, this is documenting that Randy was leaving us.

Documenting the after party.

How many easter baskets does one little girl need?

Another family tradition is driving Pa's truck.  I am kind of sad that Kennedy never got to drive his old orange Titan that all the other grandkids drove.  The tradition started with Hadley and has been passed on to all the kids.  

I think she enjoyed herself.

Recent Adventures

Look at this sweet girl.  This picture was on one of the 5 cold days we had this year.  A lot has happened since I blogged last and I think I found out why blogger would not upload the last videos of Kennedy eating, because iPhoto made them disappear somehow and now we are concerned that are hard drive might be corrupted.  When I download pictures I have been importing them into iPhoto to be the good new Mac user that I aspire to be.  Well, I was going to upload videos etc. and it never worked.  Tonight I went into iPhoto to open the photos and it said that the photo could not be found, which is awesome since they have been deleted off my camera.  I called my dad in a panic and he was unable to help me find them either which means they are gone.  Where did they go??  I have NO clue, but I always go through the same steps.  Another weird thing is that within an album, that was downloaded at the same time mind you, some of the pictures open and some "are not found".  How exactly does that happen?  here I am buying a Mac because I am tired of this stuff with Windows and all the problems that go with that and here iPhoto up and deletes some pictures that it feels like deleting.  Now we have to take our computer in to see if a Mac genius can figure out what is happening and pray that our hard drive is ok.  Of course when and how is that going to happen exactly.  I just love to think about our expensive Mac computer on a car ride to SA since of course Corpus couldn't have a Mac store.  Sigh, after much frustration and tears I am still LIVID.  But here are some salvaged pictures to enjoy.  

Thankfully, Kennedy and I went to San Antonio because I had a speech conference in SA.  The conference was good and I got to see a good friend, Michelle, which was a blast.  We had dinner every nice and got to catch up and have girl talk, I felt like an adult.  But the really good news is that I downloaded pics off my camera while I was in SA.  So my mom is going to download them and bring them with her next week when she comes and I am praying that most of the pictures are there.

While in SA, Kennedy went EVERYWHERE and saw EVERYONE.  My mom took her to a baby shower at Wetmore where she was held by every teacher on campus I heard.  Then she went to the Elam's house where Jaime and Jill came over with their kids to see Kennedy.  Jaime's husband Ben even left work to come by and see her.  My mom reported that she loved visiting all the people.  For a while Kennedy went through the stage where she was not going to anyone she did not know, but recently she has come out of that a little bit.  She still really won't smile at strangers when we are out, but at least she will go to more people than just mom and dad.

Then Nanna stopped by to see her on Friday while I was at the conference and Aunt Britney stopped by later on Friday as well.  She was loved, loved, loved on.

 Also while in Sa, she got to swing for the first time and you can tell by her face that it was a big hit.  She was so excited!

Later, Pa and Kennedy played dress up.

THis is one of the only pictures I have in this outfit until my mom brings the flash drive down because this is one that iPhoto lost.  Check out how long this girl is.  The pants fit in the waste, but are almost shorts because this girl is so incredibly long.  It is impossible to fit her because 9 months fits her length but is too big in the waste.

Randy's Winging

Our friend Randy is officially a Marine Pilot for Harriers.  Randy moved to Corpus a few years ago to begin his pilot school and we became pretty good friends.  It is a long story but we grew up with the Leupold family who use to live in SA.  They now live in Seattle and go to church with Randy's family.  When he moved to Corpus, Karen Leupold told him to find us at church and then we started hanging out. Several meals, laughs, trips, and "sleep-overs" later we had a good friend who had to leave us.  Randy had to move to Kingsville for the last part of his schooling and so would often times spend the night at our house on Saturday nights.  He said it was so he wouldn't have to drive back to Corpus for church the next morning, but I know it was so I would feed him.

These pictures are horrible but this is what we got from the back of the ceremony.  Randy's brothers, parents, aunt and uncle, and grandma all came in for the ceremony.  He had his brothers wing him.

  Brazile Brothers

 This is the only shot we got with him or of Barrett and I, which made me made because we don't often have a reason to get dressed up and then when we do we don't even take pictures!

 The weekend started out with the winging ceremony on Friday, dinner at Waterstreet, and then a party on the Lexington.  Then Saturday night his brothers, sister-in-law and parents came over for Chicken Fried Steak.  I could not have prepared this meal without the help of his mom and sister-in-law.  The boys were out at the shooting range and I had to go to the store and cook chicken fried steak for 8 people while feeding/bathing/nursing my child to sleep.  Thankfully, the girls came over while the boys were shooting. Randy's mom was sweet enough to be on Kennedy duty and then switch and finish up last minute touches like the gravy while I speed bathed Kennedy and got her to sleep.  The boys walked in right when I was putting Kennedy to sleep....how do they have such perfect timing?

Here are some pictures from the shooting range to document the weekend.

Randy got an over under shotgun for his graduation.  I meant to get a picture of the whole gang at the kitchen table....but was so distracted that I forgot.  The next day we got to enjoy the Brazile family at church and at lunch and then they headed back home.  We got to see Randy for another week and he came to SA with us for Easter one last time.  He currently has moved to North Carolina and is currently being tortured during his POW training.  We are gonna miss this guy.....