I don’t think I have ever been so excited for Spring weather!  Emma has just been begging to go outside to play and now we finally can!  We’ve been having a ton of fun outside learning new things.  If only those pesky allergies wouldn’t bother ALL four of us… yes, including Foster.  We all suffer from pretty severe seasonal allergies.

Back to fun things though… Nana got Emma a cute Dora kite for Easter and Emma has been begging me to take her outside to fly it.  I couldn’t figure out how to hold a 5 month old and fly a kite at the same time though!  SO, we waited until daddy came home from work and then we called Nana to join in on the fun.  Nana will be so embarrassed that I posted these pictures because she is in her workout clothes, complete with jean jacket.  She came for an impromptu visit.  These pictures are too sweet not to share.

I LOVE this picture because Emma is running in the opposite direction!  SO, Nana is just flying a Dora kite by herself. :)

Discussing their game plan… I think we needed a little bit more wind on this particular day…

We were having so much fun outside that we decided to try to ride the bike next.  I bought this little bike for Emma at JBF about a month ago and this is really the first time she’s given it a good try.  She’s slowly getting the hang of pushing the pedals around and around.

Emma was having trouble figuring out how to push her feet around and around so Nana decided to demonstrate! :) 

Tulips are my FAVORITE flower so it goes without saying that I love Woodward Park when the Tulips are in bloom.  The only thing that makes the tulips prettier is my children sitting in front of them! :)   I have loved taking Emma to see the tulips each year and this year we got to add Foster to the pictures!  Here is a picture of Emma with the tulips in April of 2008 when she was about 15 months old.

My how she’s changed in just 2 short years…

Foster is either sleeping in this picture or just feeling the breeze at his blows on his face…

Yes, I brought a bumbo seat to put Foster in for the pictures… I realize I may be the first person to ever do this.  People were looking at us with funny faces.  How else do you pose a 5 month old who is not quite sitting up?  I wasn’t going to just lay him in the dirt! 

I got really excited when I saw the picture below because I thought Foster had a little spike of hair sticking up on the top of his head… nope, it’s just a blade of grass in the background. :)  I love my little bald boy. 

On Monday morning Emma said to me, “Mommy, I don’t want Easter to be over.”  I explained to her that we could be excited about Jesus every day of the year.  I think what she was trying to say, though, was that she wanted the festivities to continue (you know: egg hunts, egg dyeing, candy, candy, candy.)  So, we were sitting in her playroom playing with new stickers and coloring when the doorbell rang and it was our sweet Post Lady!  She had a package “To: Emma and Foster Curry, From: Pops and Gigi Curry”     Hurray, the Easter festivities continue one more day!!!

Emma got an adorable sheep basket, play dough, and jelly bean egg.  Foster got a great teether/soft book-in-one toy that he has chewed on every day since (I think he might be teething by the way.)

Here are some pictures of Emma with her new gifts from Pops and Gigi.  You’ll see in the bottom pictures that she chose to use her new Easter basket as a hat.

Emma had so much fun at the Easter Egg Hunt with Aubrey that we decided to have another hunt at home on Sunday afternoon.

Here is “the Easter bunny” hiding eggs before the hunt.  I just love the irony of Robin wearing a tie holding a pink frilly basket…

 Yeah!!! Gumballs in the eggs!!!

The Easter bunny hid some of the eggs in tricky places…

Cousin Haley helped Emma out towards the end of the hunt…

Aunt Judy trying to clue Emma in to the pink egg on the car hood… see it?!

I can’t remember what happened here but something was obviously very funny! 

Look, two hands!…  

Nana got Emma the book “Here Comes Peter Cottontail!” set to music… Nana and Emma have been singing this song all month long.

Aunt Judy got Emma some awesome stickers (2000 to be exact!) and some cute hair clips.  She also got an adorable frog lovie for Foster.  She got a bunny lovie for Emma for Easter when she was almost 18 months old and now Emma sleeps with that lovie every night!

SO… I take a LOT of pictures.  (too many probably.)  Unfortunately, Easter morning ended up being pretty rushed and I did not take a single picture of our family or the kids together on Easter morning.  However, our church did something really cool this year.  They had 6 photographers set up in and around the church to take pictures of families dressed up for Easter- what a COOL idea!  We did have our picture taken and I look forward to getting that within the next week or so. 

In the meantime here is what I have! (Emma was really tired on Easter morning and you can really tell in these pictures…  I guess the Easter egg hunt from the day before really wore her out!)

I loved Emma and Foster’s Easter outfits.  My mom was so kind to get both of them for us.  Emma’s was a blue and white floral dress with a white sweater.  Foster’s was a coordinating Blue and white sweater vest with seersucker blue pants!  They looked adorable.  Luckily, I had their pictures taken together at The Picture People a couple of weeks before Easter.  I must have known I was not going to have time to get a picture of them together on Easter morning!

We had this picture taken 2 weeks before Easter…

As soon as the kids woke up on Easter morning, we all went to the kitchen to see what surprises awaited us in the Easter baskets.  I’m thinking next year we may do this AFTER church because Emma really wanted to eat ALL of the candy in her basket before church… which was not an option!!!  I debated whether or not to fill a basket for Foster this year because I know he’s not quite old enough to truly appreciate it, but how can you leave one child out?  Here are Emma and Foster’s Easter baskets on Easter morning…

Emma’s loot (she had already consumed some of her loot by the time this picture was taken!)…

Foster’s loot…(yes, that is Rice cereal you are seeing.  We will try it sometime in the next week or so!) 

Sleepyhead Emma…

Sleepyhead Foster…

Nana came over for some egg dyeing on Easter Eve and boy did we have fun!  Here are some pictures from our dyeing EGGstravaganza…

On Saturday, April 3rd, we had a wonderful day celebrating Easter with our good friends, The Webbs, at The Oaks Country Club.  Emma and Aubrey have been best friends since birth.  It is so fun to watch them together- they share such a special bond.  The girls were SO excited about the Easter Egg hunt.

Emma before the hunt…

This is Emma’s excited face waiting for the hunt to begin…

Coming up with a game plan before the hunt…

and they’re off…

coloring before brunch…I’m very sad that I did not get a picture of the girls when they were UNDER the buffet table giggling… remember, we were at a Country Club!

the guys…

We told the girls to stand by the bushes for a picture… but they thought it would be fun to get IN the bushes.

the girls had fun running full force… I think we need to sign this girl up for soccer!

Putting flowers in their baskets…

We had my mom come over to take some pictures of our family with Koby before he went to his new home.  I’m so glad we did this- I know we will cherish these pictures.  Thanks mom- you did a great job! (and please do notice that both kids have puppy dogs on their shirts in honor of Koby!)

I like to call this picture, “Foster in a basket.”  Some day he’ll be mad at me for this!

and while we were outside and mommy had makeup on (rare these days!) Robin took some pictures of me with the kids!

Have you ever seen a cuter puppy in the entire World?  I didn’t think so.  This was Koby at 8 weeks old, shortly after we went to pick him up in a small town outside of Houston.  Koby’s Birthday was April 1st, 2002, yes, April Fool’s Day.  Ironically, Koby went to a new home ON his Birthday this year, April 1, 2010- when he turned 8 years old.  While this has been one of the hardest things Robin and I have ever had to go through, we know that it was the best situation for Koby and our family. 

Up until Emma was born- Koby was our WORLD!  Just ask our family and close friends… he was our BABY!  I let him lick my ice cream bowl, I put a warm towel in the dryer for him after he played in the snow, he slept on my pillow, etc.

When Emma came, our time and attention for Koby lessened and he became depressed.  We still loved him dearly, but he was no longer our only child. 

Koby was the most unique dog ever… he had many quirks that we adored.  If I go into too much detail here, I’ll start sobbing again and I don’t have time for that today. :)

He has been an amazing pet and we will never forget him.  Here are some pictures from his early years (not great quality…)

skinny Robin with Koby after his first bath…

one of my favorite pictures ever…

Koby LOVED food… he had just tried to lick the bottom of our Jason’s Deli sack to taste any remaining crumbs from our dinner.  He got his head stuck.  Don’t worry, we quickly rescued him after taking a picture.

Koby thought he was a person, NOT a dog.  Here he is looking like royalty…

4th of July 2006, 5 months pre-Emma…

Christmas 2006, Emma was 1 week old and Koby made sure that we still had room on our laps for him too…

best buddies… 

this picture really cracks me up!… 

the day we brought Foster home from the hospital… Koby and Emma are looking at each other like, “What do we do with this kid?”…

Foster and Koby…

We feel very good about Koby’s new life.  We contacted the Cavalier King Charles rescue agency in Tulsa.  They have 20-30 applications from families in Oklahoma who specifically want a Cavalier.  The coordinator came to our home to meet Koby and fell in love with him.  She didn’t feel that it would be difficult to find a home for him.  He will be at her house for a couple of weeks until she permanently places him.  She has 10 acres of land and 3 other Cavaliers.  Koby will be in heaven with all of the love and attention.  She even let Koby ride in her front seat in her 2010 Toyota Sequoia with leather seats…. that showed me that she cares about him. :)  She said, “I want this to be an easy transition for him.”

Luckily, this will be a semi-open adoption… she will send us pictures of Koby with his new family in a few weeks!

Here is a picture of Koby’s toys before I packed them up… this was the most emotional part for me!

I bawled like a baby as she drove away with Koby dog.  

Koby will forever be in our hearts!