Guess what… I’m behind again this Spring. Shocking, right. =) Just too much going on. At least I’m making an honest attempt to play catch up. And this weekend I decided to tackle another item that was collecting dust on my to do list – Taking Jillian’s 18 month pics. I got them in 1.5 weeks shy of 20 months. Opps.

We are only in the house for a few more weeks so I wanted to have one last photo shoot in the light I have come to know and understand over my years here. I haven’t taken Jillian’s pics since September, and man has she changed since then. Back then she loved the seamless backdrop paper. This time when I put her on it she’d scurry away. When I asked her to walk on it, she’d say “No” in her little mousy voice. I finally got the bathroom stool and she sat on it.

The beginning of our session started like this:

Eventually I got the squeeze packet out of her mouth. I was able to get some semi smiles out of her:

Then she refused to get back on the paper and would only stand against the wall. At least her daddy got her to smile and then burst into her Jilly laugh/squeal.

But Michael got her back on the paper, and some how made her laugh and she looked up at me with the sweetest smile and I got THIS! LOVE!!

At the end of the shoot, she ended her hate for the seamless paper and fell in love when I let her color on the wrinkled end part I cut off.

It wasn’t my worst time taking pics of my kids, but she made me work for what little keepers I did get. At least I was able to catch her expressions that I love which is the main reason I like to do this. I love my sweet baby girl!!

After our breakfast with Mickey and his pals, we headed over to Epcot. I have a love/hate relationship with this park. There isn’t a ton to do for kids and they aren’t many rides, but there are so many neat things to see in all the countries. And my favorite ride was in this park… Soarin’. So neat.

Owen and Ben enjoyed the park more than I expected. They loved Test Track and Turtle Talk with Crush. Owen {and Mike as the parental figure of the human =) } was actually picked by Crush to be the main kid he talked too. It was a special thing for one of our kiddos to be picked out of the big bunch.

They also loved being Agent Interns for Perry the Platypus and picked to complete their mission in China.

The big funny of the day is Ben comes up to me and says “Mom, Dad showed me something I’ve never seen before and I’ll probably never see one again for a long time. It’s a pay phone!” HA HA HA!!! They got a kick out of them. So funny the things that use to be a daily part of our lives are no longer part of theirs.

We got Jillian her first Minnie doll when leaving Epcot and when we gave it to her, her face lit up. She hugged it and kissed it and looked at us with eyes that screamed Thank You. Worth every penny.

I love all the pics of Mike and Jillian I took this day. Especially the one of him giving her a raspberry kiss. I think he adores her more than me and I’m OK with that. =) Seeing how he loves Jillian makes me love him even more.

Benny sat by the sidelines for two years watching Owen play t-ball, now this year, he finally gets his chance. Now that Owen is older and more skilled, he moved to Ponies. This is a little tricky for Mike and I as the boys game times over lap and are going to be at different fields, so we will have to take turns watching games.

Today, O’s game started at 10, so Benny and I got a chance to see one inning of the game before heading off to his game. And, O finished before Ben’s team, so he and Mike got a chance to catch the tail end of Ben’s game.

The boys did well. Looks like they are going to have a good time this season.

When I dropped Jillian off at daycare, her teacher was putting the kids favorite song on so they could dance – “The Freeze”. I turned around and saw her busting a move. It was hilarious so I had to get out my phone to record it. I started part way through and just as she did a freeze move. If you listen to the music closely, you can tell she must dance to this often b/c you can see her know when the music will stop an start a second or so before it happens.

I love this video. I must have watched it 10 times at work today and cried from laughing so hard. It’s adorable.

And if you watch it, please ignore my laugh in the middle. I couldn’t help myself.

If the embedded video doesn’t work: Click here to watch the video on YouTube.

This year, Easter was a big family affair as we had our last big hoorah at Kent Drive. 21 people total. 13 adults, 8 kids. Lots of yummy food, cousins playing, siblings making memories, grandparents enjoying their grand kids, and a wet and rainy egg hunt in our back yard with over 100 stuff eggs (courtesy of my sister) for the kids to find. The Easter Bunny even showed up and made an appearance.

A great family day. The way all holidays should be. =)

Oh – but don’t be fooled by my kids adorable faces… those boys. Yeah, I woke up to hear them going through their baskets BEFORE mom and dad woke up. Naughty Boys. Naughty naughty boys. I made them go back to their room while I fixed the baskets and they had to wait for Jillian to wake up to come out. Then they had to wait until she was done going through her basket before they could get theirs. As Mike said, at least it didn’t happen at Christmas!