Easter Time!

First we had our amazing neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt put on by our most amazing neighbor. So, so fun! :)

 

 Luke with two of his favorite friends, Emma and Cameron (brother and sister).

 Joey is READY!

 So is Elise!

 

 Getting Elise to not just stop and eat the candy on the spot was the key

 She caught on pretty fast ;)

(On a side note: yes, Luke may as well be wearing shorts! I know! First of all, they all put holes in their jeans in record time!! Seriously, it's unbelievable. Second of all, he loves them like that! Ugh!) 

Then our own hunt courtesy of the Easter Bunny:

So much fun!! :)

Happy Easter!

Last-minute to AZ!

So we had a little problem with our Spring Break. Lance had a big murder trial that was scheduled to start the first day of the kids' Spring Break. So going anywhere was out of the question. We were sad :( 

Heather's kids' Spring Break, however, was two weeks before ours. So while at dinner with them the Sunday before they were flying to sunny AZ, they convinced us to come! Bummer that we had to drive. It was long. And of course the trip was nowhere near long enough. But cousins and sun at the end of March? Yes, please! 

Of course, now I realize that I hardly took any pictures! I was too busy relaxing at the pool to think about it ;) Anyway, I did get a few at our temple trip stop: 

  Joey and Elise fell asleep on the way here so they missed out :(

But the rest make a darling bunch :)

 

 So cute, they are! Unfortunately, only a half family picture for us. Lance waited in the car with the sleeping ones.

 Lance hopped out just for a picture :)

The little lady woke up as we all got back to the car. She was a little grumpy for a bit. But as it turns out, her grumpy face is still kind of darling :)

(P.S. Lance's murder trial was moved to August...so we still had a Spring Break ;) 

New Aunt Amy

This year I got a new aunt! Actually, three new aunts and one new uncle. But we had the chance to meet my aunt Amy. This year has been very exciting for my mom. Through genealogical work, my mother has found and connected with her biological siblings. The Deseret News did a story on it, which I've copied below. Amy flew out from Georgia to get to know us. It was so fun! Such an exciting thing! :)

SALT LAKE CITY — Carol B. Moss was ready to know the truth.

More than 60 years ago, Moss was placed for adoption. She was raised in a wonderful family and has lived a happy life. But something was missing.

“As an adopted child, you always want to know where you come from, who you are,” said Moss, who is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

At the same time, in Georgia and other locations along the East Coast, Amy Starin Woodrick and her siblings knew they had a half-sister, but they had no way to find her.

Then through a series of timely events, the two women found each other by posting their family trees on Ancestry.com. They met for the first time four months ago and recently attended the RootsTech Family History and Technology Conference in Salt Lake City together.

“It’s been nothing but comfortable, so natural,” Moss said. “This fills in something that’s been missing my whole life. There is something very powerful about having natural relationships.”

Moss was born in Pittsburgh and placed for adoption through Catholic Social Services. She knew from a young age that she was adopted and has always felt she was meant to be in her adopted family. She had some non-identifying information about her birth parents, but she didn’t begin searching for her birth parents until her adoptive mother died.

“I knew she would not appreciate me wanting to know who they were. She raised me, and I respected that until she passed away,” Moss said. “It was a sensitive topic for her.”

A few years ago, Moss, a family historian of almost 40 years, was able to work through the Pennsylvania court system and finally obtain the identities of her birth parents. She immediately went on Ancestry.com and found pictures. She also discovered an obituary that said her mother had died in 2000 and was survived by four children, one brother and three sisters. Moss wanted to reach out to her half-siblings but wasn’t sure how.

“I didn’t want to call and introduce myself because (if they didn’t know about me) I didn’t want them to think any less of their mother,” Moss said. “It would be better if they found me. The best thing I could think of was to put myself on a tree and let them find me.”

Meanwhile in Georgia, Woodrick’s husband had persuaded her to post her family tree information, including several photos.

Five years earlier, a relative had finally revealed a big family secret to the siblings — that their mother had placed a child for adoption before marrying their father. Woodrick, the youngest sibling of the four, had always wanted to find this older sibling, but had zero information.

“They kept that secret for 60 years,” Woodrick said. “We were never supposed to know.”

As she uploaded photos to her tree, she noticed a person named “Carol” had taken copies of the photos. As she examined closer, she saw the name and remembered the lost sibling.

“I didn't recognize the name 'Carol.' Then I realized that her mom is my mom, and I’m like, 'Wait a minute,' ” Woodrick said. “ 'My gosh, this must be our half-sister.' It was amazing.”

Woodrick wrote a message to Moss: “I noticed that you’ve been using our mother’s picture. We learned five years ago that our mother had a daughter before she met our father. Would you be that daughter? If so, I’d like to correspond with you.”

Moss responded, and the rest is family history.

“I felt it was inspired. It was the way it needed to happen. The fact that they already knew about me was really great; they were prepared,” Moss said. “The timing of it all just seems amazing.”

The half-sisters met for the first time last September when both women happened to be in Washington, D.C., at the same time. They went to dinner and discovered they had several things in common, including a love of lobster, the “gift of gab” and physical appearance.

“We were waiting in the lobby, and when I saw her coming down, I knew right away," Woodrick said. "She looks just like our mom."

Because both women have a passion for family history work, they attended the RootsTech conference together in early February and openly shared their remarkable story many times, often shedding tears of joy in the process.

“It’s been wonderful; we feel at home here,” Moss said. “This is the community where our story means something and is appreciated. It’s been really fun.”

Moss said she feels a strong connection to Woodrick and the other siblings and they hope to have a family reunion soon, possibly in Atlanta. Although she was nervous about the unknown and how it might change her life, she is glad she found her half-siblings.

Moss also has tremendous sympathy for her biological mother. Two months after giving birth to Moss, she met her husband (Woodrick's father) of 50 years and had four children, which meant she went on to have a happy life.

"That has given me real comfort. I admire her so much. I'm a mother of four and think of the agony she must have gone through. It must have been a painful time, but she did the right thing," Moss said. "I have nothing but respect for her and hope other people do, too."

When asked what people might take away from their experience, the women talked about the powerful connection of families and the blessings of adoption.

"I would encourage anyone, if they are considering placing a child for adoption, to do it. It's a great blessing to that child’s life; make that sacrifice," Moss said. "I would also encourage people if they want to know who they are, don’t be afraid to ask. It’s definitely worth doing it because it’s incredibly fulfilling to finally get the answers of who you are. … There is something that is sanctified here by being natural relatives. It expanded my family circle. … It was OK to do it."

"It was meant to be," Woodrick said. "It’s like my universe has shifted, almost like we have been together all our lives. We haven’t, but it seems like we have."

"A curtain was lifted," Moss said.

Basketball Season

At this point, we are half way through the soccer season, but this happened last winter. Both Mikey and Luke loved playing basketball.

Luke, #3, in action:

 Celebrating a basket!

Mikey, #15, in action:

 

Not sure if they like the trophy or the game more ;)

Elise turns 2!!

I can't believe my baby is 2!!! It just keeps going faster and faster. Oh my heck. The ways in which we love this girl, knows no bounds. She's all the boys' favorite. For example, The other day the box of stuffed animals had been dumped out. While I was having Mikey clean, I asked him to pick up the animals. He whined a little about them being dumped out and asked who had done it. I said, "Joey or Elise." Mikey said, "if it was Joey I am SO mad at him!" I said, "but not if it was Elise?" Mikey said, "no." I said, "why? Because Elise is so cute?" Mikey said, "yeah." I said, "but Joey is so cute!" Mikey said, "no, he's not." (Poor Joey. He IS, in fact, adorable. But 8-year-old Mikey and 6-year-old Luke, are a little too close to him to realize it ;)

As another example, after driving some place, Joey and Elise both need to be unbuckled and it is Mikey and Luke's responsibility when they are in the car. They both cry when they are NOT the one who gets to unbuckle Elise, and both whine when they have to unbuckle Joey. Again, poor Joe. He is beyond funny and charming. But that post is for another day. :)

Lately, this little lady LOVES Minnie Mouse, princesses, fairies and all other little girly things. She loves chocolate milk, "juices", "cheeses" (also known as Cheez-its), and fishies. It's almost all she eats and drinks. She never eats real food! But she's two. She's not the first 2-year-old to abstain from eating. :) She doesn't really answer questions. She just repeats what you say. For example, "do you want milk or juice?" "Yeah, milk, juices." It's a little difficult, but then she does this little shoulder wiggle and dance every time she responds and it's just the cutest thing ever. 

She is quite the talker. Again, like so many toddlers, she does not like going to sleep and always yells "no tired! No tired!" whenever we try to put her down. Another favorite of mine is that she does this "hahaha!" evil villain laugh, and then says, "never!" I don't know where she got it, but it's hilarious.

But my all time favorite thing right now is that she and Joey just love the heck out of each other. They play all day every day unless Joey is at school or Elise is asleep. Joey is pretty much always coming up with these elaborate stories about lava, or water-covered floors, or treasure hunts, or being pets, or being babies or whatever and Elise just laughs and runs around after him, not really following the plot much, but loving it anyway. She cries every time I drop him off at school and asks for him all day long. She is crazy about him and I love watching them together. 

So now I display all her cuteness (in no particular order):

She wakes up so happy and darling :)

Her hair is spectacular in the mornings. She sleeps HARD on the back of her head to create the best rat's nest ever! This was a pretty good morning of bed-head.

But she's getting pretty good about letting me brush it out and do what I need to.

Oh man, does she love cuddling with dad :)

Always the big helper! :) (This was my birthday)

Just an awesome picture of her sleeping.

See what I mean? She'll cuddle with dad even when he's asleep.

She's learning to undress herself, in whatever means necessary. This is how we found her when getting her up from her nap. She had pulled her shirt down over her shoulders to her waist.

She is just Joey's little shadow. It is so cute to watch. She wants to do whatever he does and they both just love each other. I love watching them all day!

Birthday morning princess!

Such a pretty birthday girl!

The boys can all get on board with some princess stuff if it includes eating cupcakes ;)

She LOVES shoes. She'll put on anyone's shoes that are lying around. But she especially likes mama's heels.

Although she rarely eats, the chances increase if she can go outside. If she steps out and sees the kiddie table outside, she immediately starts in about "lunch! lunch!" That doesn't mean she'll eat lots, but she'll nibble on it just to be able to sit at the table. 

And finally my labor of love for her birthday: the cake 

But we brought it to the family party since there is a much greater appreciation for the fairy aspect. You know, my house: 1 girl, all cousins in town: 7 girls. Much more appreciation. :)

Happy Birthday, Elise!!! We love you to the moon and back!