Easter 2011

Now that Lucy has been alive for a full year, it's exciting to experience each holiday a second time around with her (ok, so Easter was the first time we experienced this, but I'm excited for all of the holidays coming up to compare this year to last year!) Here's a look at our sweet baby girl one year ago...


And now all grown up!




Showing off our Easter dresses... even though it was cold and miserable here, we dressed for spring!


We started by decorating some Easter cupcakes at home (ok, only I did that, but Ben helped make a casserole while I was hard at work making icing "grass)


Then spent the rest of the day with family, first at Grandma and Grandpa Wehners for a big Easter lunch (and the best shot we got as a whole family)


Then to Nani and Poppi's for Easter baskets, an Easter egg hunt and dinner. Here's a shot of Lucy finding her basket...


And then moving along, totally uninterested in it


Ok, maybe the egg hunt will be a little more interesting... She's spotted one!


Reaching for it...


Victory!


In all actuality she wasn't that interested in this activity either, she was more excited about being outside and watching all her crazy cousins run around. This was the one egg she actually went after, the others she just walked right by!

Dyeing Easter Eggs

Even though she is a little young, I thought it would be fun to dye Easter eggs with Lucy this year. She didn't really get what we were doing, but I think she had a good time trying something new! Here are a few pictures from our adventure...

Getting our supplies ready...


Inspecting all the materials (love that serious face)


Dropping the eggs in (Lucy was not that interested in this part, so that was mostly fun for mom)




Waiting for the eggs... so we snagged a quick picture with dad after his 9 mile run! (he thought it was pretty cute that they both didn't have shirts on)


Pulling the eggs out - Lucy actually liked this part a lot, so I think we re-dunked all the eggs twice so she could pull them all out again!




Ta-daa!

Cruising

Ben and I just got back from vacation - we took a 3 night cruise out of Port Canaveral to the Bahamas and CocoCay (an island owned by Royal Carribean). It was our first trip with out Lucy, which also included our first night away from her and basically the longest time we've been apart from her. As hard of a decision as it was to leave her, we both wanted to set a precedent of putting our marriage first and we felt like a long weekend away was just what we needed. Hopefully we will have more mommy-daddy only trips in the future!

Lucy stayed with her Grandma and Grandpa Wehner while we were away, and they loved having her! In fact, they even said they'd keep her an extra night if we needed some time to recover from a long day of traveling home... we appreciated the offer but couldn't wait to get her back in our arms! What a relief... I was so nervous that they'd be itching to give her back to us when we got home, afraid she wouldn't sleep or would be a bother, but they said she was a perfect baby!

Our first day of vacation we flew into Orlando and stayed the night there. I have to admit, leaving Lucy was much, much harder than I had imagined! I figured I would miss her, but the first 24 hours felt horrible - and I kept telling Ben I wish we hadn't left her. Fortunately the feelings wore off, but I was so shocked at how empty those first couple hours without her felt. Once we were on the cruise ship, Ben and I got into the swing of just being us and completely relaxing (i.e. watching TV, laying out, and eating... repeat)

A couple highlights from our trip:

Getting off the ship in Nassau (I swear I have a shot that is almost identical to this of Ben on our honeymoon, he has the same jersey and bathing suit on that he wore 4 years ago!)


We tried to keep the trip pretty cheap, so didn't do any excursions. The first thing we did in Nassau was head to a beach within walking distance from the ship:


Then walked around the town and grabbed a beer and some hot wings (I know, I know, we have all you can eat food on the cruise... but hot wings sounded soooo good!)


Back on the ship... one of the many things we love about cruising... towel animals! Also, a shot of our cabin... it was much smaller than the other two times we cruised when we had a balcony, but neither of us seemed to mind.


Formal night... and the only shot we got with both of us in it!


The Atlantis at night


A little wind blown... and sun burned! We really only had one good day of sun, so we made the most of it!


Day 2 - relaxing at Cococay! Well, first we took an extremely long walk, trying to make it around the island but then turning a wrong way and ending up on a gravel road in our bare feet... ouch! So this is what we did when we got back... (Ben and I were both reading Harry Potter on the trip)


And one last shot, wanted to include this fashionable hat I got... ok, just kidding... wanted to include this one because we had a long day of travel on our way home. We got off the ship about 7:45am, but our shuttle wasn't supposed to come till 9:30am and then our flight wasn't supposed to leave till 2:30pm. So I decided to make the most of sitting outside in Orlando, and tried to get some more sun! But did not need anymore on my face...


Fortunately the shuttle came early and we were able to get a nonstop flight home, putting us in Indy an hour earlier than we thought. The whole day I was so excited to see our baby girl, it was so great to be back together as a family when we got home!

A Chance to Slow Down

So... I haven't posted lately, but not because I've been too busy or stressed, mostly because we haven't been up to much... which has been AMAZING! After painting and re-doing a lot of the downstairs, then planning for Lucy's party, I needed a break. But I did want to get some pictures that I've taken over the past couple weeks to show how big our baby girl is getting and share some of her favorites lately...

Helping Dad mow the lawn (don't worry it's turned off!) Lucy has been loving pushing things around, like her stroller, almost the entire way home from the park... so naturally she loved help her dad push the lawn mower (and by the way, yay for having enough sunshine to have to mow the grass for the first time this year!)




Getting into everything! On this day I was getting ready in the bathroom and peaked down to find I could no longer see Lucy. Somebody had sneaked into the cabinet...


And this isn't a great picture, it's hard to snap a baby that's on the move with my iPhone, but just had to show off these adorable new shoes we got Lucy...


Other cute things she's been up to - going over to the pantry, pulling out the cheez-its and saying "cracker", as she looks for me to give her some, calling everyone a baby (especially pictures of herself and her baby dolls), saying "owwwww" a lot, even when she is clearly not in pain, and finding her head and toes when we ask where they are.