Happy Easter!

Greetings all! This Easter has been wonderful. Above are the gilded eggs that Debbie and Donny made last night. ...Really, quite beautiful.

Speaking of beautiful, here I am NOT. This is my 6 AM shot that Lance took when I finally made it downstairs to see what the Easter Bunny brought a very bright-eyed Ella.

My Ella-Boo.

Mia made it downstairs and enjoyed the sugar-rush. This is her little hand with a purple jelly-bean!

I don't remember why Lance is so happy in this photo! Maybe because I'm so AWESOME.

This is my Easter Basket -filled with Cadbury Mini-Eggs (LITTLE DROPS OF HEAVEN) and my signature scent; Juicy Couture perfume!!! Good job, Lance! I got him a new alarm clock. Did I ever mention that I've hated the alarm clock he came with since day 1? 7 years later, I'm doing something about that! Go me!

Here is Ella's basket & new outfit. I (oh, the Easter Bunny) got her my favorite book from being a kid: Seuss' Wacky Wednesday! She loves it!

Mia's basket and outfit.

Sabrina/ My basket!

Here's my Easter Baby! Isn't that a sweet shot?!

Okay, we were in charge of rolls for Easter Dinner at the in-laws. I am QUITE impressed with my first attempt at from-scratch rolls!!! We're talking scalded milk, yeast, 2 rises, butter-dipped tops, the whole schmere!!! They were divine, if I do say so myself.

...I do feel I may have potentially set myself up for this specific requested requirement upon future gatherings, which may not be the desired outcome of my intense and loving labors.... Hmmmmmm.

WEIRD. While I was eating my dinner, Mia broke into a trance. I captured a few photos of the hilarity. We were giggling the whole time, and girlfriend never broke character.

Hee hee.

Ha Ha Ha Ho Ho Ho!

OKAY! She snapped out of it.

Moi! Hope you all had a fabulous Easter.

*My gratitude for this day of-course goes deeply beyond bunnies and even new perfume. I am so blessed to have the knowledge for myself that Jesus Christ rose again, and that someday I will come face to face with Him. Heaven knows I have a whole lot to do before I get there. My imperfections stare back from the mirror everyday, and I know I owe so many people so much more than I give.

...Work in progress...

April Fools

Okay, so the real joke was the fact that tonight was Ella's "SPRING" concert, mid-snowstorm. That's some serious bull*&^%. ...The snow, not the concert. The concert was actually cute. My adorable Mom came along to support me and kiddo #1. :)

Here we are! *HORRIBLE SHOT OF ME, but Mom looks great, so I'll give her this one!

Terrible lighting. I'm no fancy-pants photographer, so you can make Ella out by her "Girls Rule 24-7 top.

Oh, man it's so hard to see, but this little 1st grader was a HAM! SO stinkin' cute! The kids sang a song called "I like my feet" and he went out in front and danced in front of everyone! He went to the side and shook some kid's hand, he waved (see pic) to the crowd; he was the major talent of the evening. Precious.

...Makes me wonder what kind of parents he must have. How do you instill so much confidence in someone? How do you let them know that regardless of any prejudice a little boy like this could potentially run into -he's the bee's knees, and will probably have more friends than he can count? How do you nourish that personality so that that child will just sparkle and make other parents wonder how amazing you are?

Food for thought. Happy "Spring" Concert/ April Fools, my peeps.

Smiley girls

This is a blurry picture (kids move a LOT), but it is so stinkin' sweet! We were messing around with the camera yesterday. My sunshine.
Lance surprised me with these gorgeous roses. :) I am one lucky girl.
(more fun photo editing!) ...Indulgent/Token self-shot. :D

:(

Today I received a disturbing phone call from my sister Sarah, who told me that my niece Tessa (Rachael's daughter) was taken to the ER by ambulance because of a seizure -turning blue, etc. I burst into tears. I had no idea that my children's illness would affect everyone so severely. The girls were practically over it by the time we had the Easter party, so I didn't figure there would be any harm.

*Please see the comments from yesterday's blog post. :( Everyone has it. I won't post the scathing email from a very disappointed Dave, who's family is in the throes of illness as well. To each of you, I'm so sorry. Certainly this wasn't on purpose, but I feel terrible just the same. All I can say is -hey- at least you're not camping in CA, right?

My turn

Oh maaaaaaan. I thought I'd skid by on this whole sick-kid crap. No such luck. This morning about 1 hour after Lance went to bed, I felt like CRAP!!!

I had the full-on body aches, and I was absolutely freezing. I had perma-goose-bumps, and couldn't justify touching the heater again! GOOD THING I DIDN'T SHAVE THIS MORNING!

There have been other unpleasant aspects to the day, but the deets are unnecessary! I called my mom and promptly began to cry. Bless her heart, she brought me a huge crystal light from Mooches (my PEEPS! LOVE that gas station!) and took Ella to school for me! She even picked her up and brought her back, which meant that my day really was spent on the couch (and bathroom) feeling cold and sad -trying to deal with 3 little girls. Mia took a decent nap, as did Sabrina, however. They love their mom, and I truly think they could tell I was in misery.

I'm feeling a little better this evening, and hope that tomorrow brings some freakin' ENERGY (thus the super-tired Sat & Sun explanation) so that my kids don't think I've abandon them! Sick moms are no fun.


*Thank you to MY mom who wins the award for 'cares about Becca the most today'! You're the best, Mom.

Le' NFEE/ (unofficial)SFEE!!!

Okay, since my last name isn't as secure as it used to be on this blog, and my "give a crap" is broken, it's the NOLAN FAMILY EASTER "EGG"STRAVAGANZA!!!

This weekend has been JAM-Packed with all kinds of sugary-excitement and festivities. Okay, so when I downloaded pix, I had 96 for the weekend alone. I will try to keep it to the minimum, and not blog-shop my family and steal theirs! :D

Following is the (unofficial)SFEE for my in-laws. Mo' Easter Madness.

This picture SCREAMS Easter to me!!! It's the duckie that Granny painted, who comes out EVERY year to the delight of me and my siblings... How cute is that?! It's pretty much the beginning and end for the Easter-ness for my generation, but we've expanded for youngster-enjoyment; see following.

Funny shot of me in Mom's mirror! :)

Cute Ella with sugar-faced joy.

This is the kiddo-luncheon that Rachael put together.

Complete with bunny-desserts!!!

Mia loved it.

...So much that she sat in the fruity-marshmallow salad. CLASSIC.

After lunch, the kids headed out doors for the hunt!

Mia found lots of eggs, and towed her sippy-cup in her bucket to boot! That girl is hydrated!

Egg.

Left to Right: Phoebes, Noah, Tessa, Ella, Lily, Mia, Benny.

...And Sabrina slept. Her cheek was naturally that rosy. Sweet!

Me with Mia in the back.

Kids doing more crafties.

It was mayhem. There was a LOT planned, and a LOT of effort (from every adult involved!) that went into the occasion. I was pooped (you can see it on my forehead!) and took a royal load of crap for not being able to keep my eyes open in the late afternoon. We did have a lunch earlier for which I'd provided my yumo-breakfast casserole. We had dinner at my parent's house too. By then, Mia's napless day had taken its toll on every blessed soul in the house, and we left in as big of a flurry as we came in, minus one Mia-shoe.

Where was Lance, you ask? He'd taken off before 2pm for golf and was asleep (screening my calls). It was ruff ruff ruff!

SFEE!!

The Sortors had a fabulous Sunday planned.

Here's Ella mid-sugar bite.

Chaedon decorated some fantastic-lookin' cookies.

Sabrina mowed on a plain sugar-cookie.

My messy Mia!

Candace looked graceful as she helped kiddos decorate cookies and eggs!

Left to right: Chaston, Chaedon, Candace, Aneesa.

Egg mess.

HAPPY WEEK-BEFORE-EASTER!

Sick kiddos!

Here's my little Mia- on the mend. She's doing much better now.

This spantatic picture was taken around 2 AM, when Ella had barfed in her bed, and we were up in the middle of the night waiting for laundry and playing Super Mario Brothers (Wii)!
Ella got the camera and snapped one of me and Bri. ...That's the game on the TV in the background.
Ella spent the day on the couch, just like Mia had the previous day. Poor kid!
Token self-portrait! :D You gotta love 'em!

Poor Mia

Yeah, we seem to have a pretty nasty little bug hanging around our house. It's mostly lethargy/ the runs/ puking up knee-caps. Mia has been lounging on the couch for the weekend, but finally perked it up today. Seems to be a bit of a 48-hr. bug.

So sweet.