Next, it was time to give Kyndall her Easter goodies! I knew we would be in a hurry to get to church on Sunday morning, so I decided to go ahead and let her have them on Saturday.......
My goodies for Kyndall and Matthew
Checking out her gifts from Mommy, Daddy, Nonie and Poppie
You're never too old for an Easter basket!
While Kyndall took her morning nap, we got things ready for her very first dip in the pool! Nonie and I were so excited to put her in the pool that we actually woke her up from her nap! The anticipation of her reaction to the water was just too much for us! So we lathered her up like a little pig with baby sunscreen and we were ready to go!
One of Kyndall's gifts from Nonie and Poppie was this super cool baby pool!!
Kyndall's first taste of watermelon!!
You might not be able to tell, but she really loved it!
Taking a break from the sun
Silly Huckabee...
Napping in Poppie's arms
As you can see, she loved the pool and we all had a nice relaxing day in the sun!
That night, Matthew and I got a real treat---our first date night since Kyndall has been born! Living so far away from our family, we don't have the luxury of leaving her with the Grandparents anytime we need some time to ourselves. Where we go, she goes! I love having her tag along, but it was nice to be able to go out to dinner and celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary a few days early. We enjoyed a great dinner, but of course we talked about Kyndall the entire time and I often found myself feeling like I had forgotten something!
Saturday was also our little Huckabee's 2nd birthday! Call us crazy, but we love to spoil our dogs as much as we love to spoil our baby! After all, they were our babies up until a few months ago! After we returned from dinner, we celebrated Huck's big day with this adorable cake....
The next morning was Easter Sunday and I couldn't wait to get Kyndall all dressed up for her very first Easter! We spent Easter morning at church with Matthew's parents before heading to my Grandparents' house in Two Egg, FL. Here we are just before leaving for church....
How cute are these little shoes??
After church we set out for the big city of Two Egg, Florida! Every year for as long as I can remember, my Grandparents have had Easter lunch and an egg hunt at their house. I myself look forward to this more than any other family gathering all year long!! I love the fact that we started this tradition 25+ years ago, and although all of the Grandchildren are grown (and having kids of their own!) we still carry it on! This year was especially exciting for two reasons. The first is because last year I missed out on this special day due to being hospitalized from complications with my liver. I was 12 weeks pregnant with Kyndall and together, she and I spent our Easter Sunday at the Medical University of South Carolina hooked up to IVs and living off jello and chicken broth. A far cry from the good food at Grandma's house! I was heartbroken, to say the least. It was the first year I had ever missed the big event. So you can imagine how excited I was this year to get back to my favorite tradition of all time! The second reason I was so excited is probably pretty obvious. It was Kyndall's first time participating in the big day! I think it's neat that we have come full circle and she can now be a part of something that was started when I was her age.
I managed to catch a few pictures before everyone put their game faces on and changed into their egg hunting attire....
Kyndall with her two Grandmas...Grammy on the left and Nonie on the right
My side of the family and Matthew's side of the family (Kelly, where are your shoes?!)
Kyndall with my parents, Grammy and G Daddy
Kyndall with Aunt Kelly and Uncle Kenny
While waiting for lunch to be ready, we enjoyed watching the babies play together. Garrison is my cousin Katie's baby boy and he was born just 6 days before Kyndall. It's always fun when they get together because they are so curious about one another!
Garrison and Kyndall with their Great Granddaddy. I love this picture for so many reasons!
These are the shoes that Kyndall was wearing in the pictures above. Everyone knows I love all things monogrammed, but who knew you could monogram shoes?! LOVE them! Thanks, Ms. Cindy for these adorable little shoes!
Garrison's big brother, Bryce
One of the reasons we all love gathering at Grandma and Granddaddy's house on Easter is because Grandma still lets us dye and decorate Easter eggs! Despite the fact that we are all in our 20's, (and have kids of our own!!) we still look forward to this tradition every single year. Someone asked us when we were going to pass this particular tradition down to the kids and we answered with "never"!
My MeMe, who is 91 years young!
Uncle Kenny's nickname for Kyndall is "knot head", so he made this egg just for her...
If you thought we left the actual egg hunting to the little ones, you were terribly wrong! Truth is, the REAL reason we get so excited about dying the eggs is because we can't wait to hunt them! We are all very competitive and Grandma made it even more exciting this year. There's always a prize egg, but this year there were several prize eggs and the opportunity existed to make up to $80 in cash!! If the thought of cold hard cash didn't get us fired up, nothing would! We were all over that! Just like every year for the past 25+ years, we were forced inside while the "adults" began hiding the eggs. We take this extremely seriously---even closing the blinds around the house and forcing everyone to stay put in the living room to avoid a peek out one of the windows!! The beginning of the egg hunt is a bit like the running of the bulls....you better watch out if you don't want to get trampled!!! Take a look.....
Brother and sister in full competition mode! Who needs shoes, anyway?? They might slow you down!
For his own safety, Bryce was kept on the opposite side of the house! Ha!
"Winning!!"
Time to break out the desserts!
This entire spread is nothing but sweets! You name it, we probably had it there!
After the egg hunt, it was time to hit the pool.....
We had a great day in Two Egg! So many new memories made and I'm already looking forward to next year! Matthew took Monday off from work, so we were able to go back to Tallahassee and spend the night with my parents Sunday night, before heading home on Monday. Turns out the Easter Bunny visited Kyndall at Grammy and G Daddy's house too! He left goodies for Kydall and a nice $20 bill for each of the big kids! Here are a few pictures of Kyndall getting her goodies at Grammy and G Daddy's house....
A big thank you to the Jones family (Doug, Lisa and Caroline) for thinking of Kyndall on her first Easter! She loved the book, and we will be sure to follow in your tradition and have Grammy read it to her every Easter! So sweet!
Thanks, Grammy and G Daddy for the soft little lamb and Veggie Tales DVDs!!
Check out Kyndall's loot from this past weekend. Is this Easter or Christmas?!
We had such a great weekend with our families!!! It was a busy one, but a wonderful one! Kyndall's first Easter will be something we always remember....and if we don't, we obviously have PLENTY of pictures to jog our memories! Thanks for putting up with my massive overload of pictures in this post. And as if you hadn't already gotten your fill, I decided to hunt down some really OLD pictures of Easters past, just to see how far we have come since then. These should leave you with a good laugh....
Me and Daddy....1985-ish??
Me and my sister, 1987
Our family, 1987
Love it! Looks like you had a great trip. Much better than last year when you were at the hospital. So glad that Miss K enjoyed her pool time, too. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Let's see if I can remember everything I was going to say...I like that picture of Kyndall lounging back in her baby pool, love the shot of the three of you on Easter (especially your dress and Kyndall's shoes), love the picture of both sides of the family al together, love Kyndall all smiley and sitting up in that adorable pink Easter outfit, and the butt shot made me LOL and made Koby say, "Oh my gosh," (one of my favorite things to hear him say-wish you could hear how cute he says it!). Isn't blogging so fun? A lot of work, but worth it!!
ReplyDeleteI finally got to read the blog all the way through...I cheated and looked at the pics this morning. If I hadn't been there to experience, I would have felt like I did after reading the blog. The description of the egg hunt was funny....because it is so true!!! Great blog post!
ReplyDeletelove mom