The Hunt for the Eggs!

On Easter Sunday, we went to church and brunch as usual and then headed to Oma and Opa's house to hang out...



... and hunt for eggs.







Hayden was very nice about sharing her candy...



...while Dawson ate most of his piece by piece to sustain him through his journey of searching for eggs.





Hayden even got to try out her new bike (after a wardrobe change of course)!



Of course, Dawson had to squeeze in some b-ball to show off his mad skills.



We had a wonderful day. Praise the Lord for His Son and for another fantastic Easter!

The Dying of the Eggs

The kids really enjoyed Easter this year. We started off the weekend festivities by coloring eggs with Pappaw and Granny and that was quite an adventure.



Aunt Amy and cousins Savannah, Tyler, and Jadrian colored some eggs too!




Dawson thought that playing with the eggs in the dye was quite humorous...




...while Hayden got right down to business.



There was one mishap when daddy used his "cool" new egg-dying device and end up spilling pink dye on himself and Hayden. Daddy was amused, while Hayden certainly was not.



She cheered up though and we really enjoyed the rest of the evening.

Aunt Carolyn and her crew

My big sister (Tante Carolyn to the kids) was in town with her family for mom's/Oma's 60th birthday party. We had so much fun with them and we always hate to see them have to make their long voyage back to New Mexico. We did lots of shopping, playing, and just hanging out.

Here is a picture of Carolyn, mom, and AJ.



Of course Dawson and Hayden didn't miss out on any of the fun!







My nieces and nephew have gotten so big. Chrissy (the original "pookie") will be 20 in October and TJ turns 17 in May!



Molly turned 12 last month and Chelsee is going to be 14 in October! I just can't believe it...



It is always nice for me to get to spend time with my sisters and my mom. We are one big happy family. :)

Incredible times with the kids!

Last weekend, we took the kids to Incredible Pizza Company in Greenwood. We had a blast! Hayden's new favorite game is "tossing" the balls into the holes, which is actually her just leaning forward to putting them into the lowest hole.



Dawson enjoyed helping her too!



They even met a new friend!



The kids really enjoyed playing on the slide too. Hayden thought she was really big climbing through and sliding down all by herself.







Of course, Dawson had his own special ways of coming down the slide...





Overall, we had a great day and we feel very blessed to have two happy, healthy kids. We look forward to many fun adventures with both of them over the next several years!

Student of the month!

After a rough start with Dawson's new teacher (and many red days and frowning faces on his daily reports...), I am proud to say that he received a certificate on Friday for being the Student of the Month! He has really worked hard over the past several weeks to turn his behavior around at school. He is learning so much in kindergarten already, and it brings tears to my eyes to see how quickly he is growing up.



Dawson has passed many milestones this year. He finally hit 40 pounds, he knows how to write his whole alphabet, he has started to spell some words, his knowledge of numbers has expanded from 1-10 to 1-29, and the list could even go on! Mommy and daddy are filled with tremendous pride for our little guy. He continues to struggle to catch up with the other kids his age, but he won't ever stop trying because that's how he is! Dawson is always curious and is constantly trying to figure out new things.



Good job, my student of the month! Here's to many more successes over the next 12 years of school!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

The Cloud family had so much fun putting up our tree this year! Dawson was really excited to be able to hang the ornaments up by himself without any assistance from mommy or daddy.





Hayden also had fun while she enjoyed pretending to help!



Here are a few more pictures of our fun-filled tree-trimming evening!

Hayden's sick day with mommy

Hayden has had a bit of a cold lately and last Friday was the WORST so I stayed home from work to be with her. She had a barking cough and she screamed and cried any time I tried to lay her down for a nap. For the most part though, she was still her happy self.



She even let me take a few pictures of her from the back and side views to show you all how long her hair is getting!





After that, we practiced our ballet stretches. Hayden's favorite stretch is reaching up to the sky and then down to touch her toes.



By the next day, Hayden was feeling a little better so we went out for pizza. She had a lot of fun playing at the table and chewing on her straw.



This week, her nose has still been a little runny but she is well on her way to recovery. I'm sure I will have a Cloud family update for you all after our big feast tomorrow for Thanksgiving!