A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

Today has been our first REALLY nice day. It's in the 70's and just beautiful. Our first plant started blooming yesterday, so I thought I'd share a picture. It's just a boring daffodil, but when you've had the winter we did, it's so much more than just a little 'ol daffodil!




Last Friday morning we flew to Missouri for a long Easter weekend. We were hoping for some nice weather, but we arrived to a cold rainy day! On Friday night we had a yummy chilli dinner at Jason's parents house. Several of Jason's friends from highschool stopped by with their kids, so it was a lot of fun. Ellery kept a close eye on her Papa all night!

Saturday was a much better day. The sun was shinning, so we went outside to enjoy it! Ellery had a new ball, so we played around in Jack and Joanne's yard. Ellery kept saying 'ool....aka pool. She wanted to go swimming! She remembered swimming there last summer and wanted to do it again. On Saturday night we headed out to Jason's aunt and uncles farm for the Knott family Easter. We road with Jeremy, Cooper and Adyson...so Ellery loved that. The highlight of the night for Ellery was taking a truck ride out to the pasture to visit the "moo moo's" and horses! Ellery also got to experience her FIRST Easter Egg hunt. She did great!

Ellery had a lot of fun running around Jack and Joanne's yard chasing the kitty, kicking her ball and asking to get in the pool.


Ellery's first Easter egg hunt. She filled up her basket twice! There was an area for the little kids and area for the little kids.

I helped Ellery find a few, but for the most part she did it all on her own. She's a master hunter!

I love this picture of Ellery with Daddy.

This picture cracks me up. It looks like she's doing stretchs between egg hunting.

The Knott family grandkids. Adyson, Ellery, Jonah, Bailee, Elijah, Jake and Cooper.

You can see from this picture how much Ellery adore's "Aah-De".

I'm not sure Ellery's face could look more square. She kept doing weird things with her jaw...lol!

"Oo-Per, Ellery and Aah-De"

It was cold and rainy on Easter morning. So the Easter bunny was nice enough to leave Ellery's Easter basket and eggs inside the house. We went to church with the George's. We were amazed that Ellery sat still in my lap for the entire service and never made a peep. I think she was still worn out from playing with Cooper and Adyson. After church we went back to Jack and Joanne's for Easter lunch. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur. I just remember staying in, eating a lot and giggling at Ellery "holding court" with everyone. She got a lot of love and attention!

She loves her Mrs. Potato Head bunny.

Our little family sitting in the Easter lillies after church.

The one and only "Jelly monster" sitting in the Easter lillies.

This is my favorite picture from Easter morning, she looks so sweet.

Jenny's camera was dead, so she asked me too take a picture for her. I thought it turned out really nice. Joanne, Jenny and Julie.

I was trying to get a picture of Ellery in her Easter hat with the beautiful stained glass window....this was the best I could do. She was a moving target!

This is the one and only picture of Ellery wearing her Easter hat.

On Monday we picked up Cooper and Adyson and headed over to Mema Knotts. Jason's mom went with us too. It was nice to spend some time with her. Ellery had a lot of fun checking out all of her Easter decorations! At 3 it was time for us to head to the airport. Jason's parents, aka Ma-Me (Ellery says that instead of Mema) and Papa, drove us into Springfield. When we arrived, we learned that our flight had been cancelled. So we all went to dinner and found a hotel close to the airport since our flight left at 6AM the next day. Ellery noticed the pool down from our room right away, so we headed to Wal-mart to get her and Jason a swimming suit.

You can see the excitement and anticipation on her face.....but it was short lived! The water was freezing, so they spent less than 5 minutes in the pool! But, Ellery did jump into the pool to daddy twice!

On Tuesday morning we flew out of Springfield headed to Chicago. We thought Ellery would sleep since she got up at 4:30, but no such luck! But, I shouldn't complain because she was still really good. When we got to Chicago Jason walked us to our gate and got us on our plane before heading to his gate. He had a prescheduled business trip that he had to get to. So, we flew to Moline and Jason flew to Kalamazoo. He was able to get on his original flight, thank goodness! Mom, Emily and Reagan met us at the airport in Moline. I'm not sure how I would have gotten the car seat, pack-n-play, suitcase, carry on and the two of us to the car by myself!

We had a lot of fun, but it's always nice to be home. We're worn out and still trying to catch up on sleep. Jason flew back from Kalamazoo that same night, then had class until 9:30 on Wednesday, so it's been a really long week for him. We I arrived back at work on Thursday I had A TON of stuff piled up on my desk....so the day went quickly.

Today I went to Target to buy a new gazebo for the back yard, since ours collapsed a few weeks ago, but they were sold out of the one we wanted. So, I have one on hold to pick up in Davenport today or tomorrow. I find it very annoying when a store has something on display, but none in stock but they won't sell you the display! I think we'll also get Ellery a little tykes playhouse/slide this weekend....she'll love it! Jason is planning on tilling his garden, planting his strawberry pyramid and turkey hunting this weekend. We're expanding the garden again this year, it's going to be about 1/3 of the back yard now! I suspect that Jason's going to have a personal assistent with his gardening this summer. We got Ellery a gardening set that includes gloves, a hoe, a rake, a shovel, hand tools and a rolling bucket with a handle....she's all set. I'll take pictures this weekend and post them next week!