Easter Weekend

Well, we had a great Easter Weekend in the Hoover house this year. This was Courtlyn's first year of actually hunting eggs. She was all excited about it, although she didn't really know what to expect since this was her first time. She was the only one hunting eggs or as she liked to call it "picking eggs" so she racked up on the loot. And boy did she ever! We decided instead of filling the eggs with candy (we were lazy and just bought the plastic eggs at Target instead of dyeing eggs) we would fill them with money because the girl is like her Daddy and loves to save money to put in her pibby bank (that's what she calls a piggy bank). So what did I do but head down to the bank to get a bunch of one dollar bills and raided our change bucket. We filled each egg up with a dollar bill and 3 coins. Well, I believe the girl was more excited about putting the money in her "pibby bank" than actually "picking eggs". Oh, the life of a 2 1/2 year old....

Easter morning we woke up Courtlyn bright and early so she could see what the Easter Bunny had left her. This was what we found...(Yes, those are Christmas pajamas she is wearing. She insisted on them the night before and I wasn't going to argue. Remember pick your battles with a 2 1/2 year old!)

She gets her lovely morning personality from her Mommy. Now I say this dripping with lots of sarcasm because when David & I went into her bedroom to wake her up she said in no uncertain terms, "I WANNA SWEEP (meaning sleep), LEAVE MY (she gets me and my confused) ALONE!" After we told her the Easter Bunny had left her basket full of goodies she managed to drag herself out of bed and stumble into the living room to check things out. She racked up. She got 2 Disney Princess shirts, Gymboree bubbles, a Disney Princess sticker book for church, a Tinkerbell Color Wonder coloring book for church, pink Minnie Mouse rain boots and a stuffed Belle doll that she has had her eye on at the Disney Store to match her Snow White doll she already has.

We let her play for a while and then we had to get ready for church. Right before we left I managed to get a picture of the 3 of us. It's not the greatest picture of us, but at least I remembered to snap it before we left.

The Easter Bunny

Well, we paid a visit to the Easter Bunny last Saturday at the Fayette Mall in Lexington. This was actually Courtlyn's first visit to the Easter Bunny. We usually do portraits with live bunnies, but for whatever reason this year I failed to get my rear in gear and get them scheduled. So we had to settle for a live bunny of a different sort. I wasn't sure if she would freak out about him since he was in full costume or not and really hoped that she wouldn't because I didn't want one of those screaming kid pictures that you see all too often.


By the time we made it to the mall it was around 4:00 and I was hoping that we had missed the big crowd of the day. Luckily we did! We wheeled right up and only had to wait for a couple of minutes while a grungy teenager had his picture taken with the big guy (which was strange needless to say!). Anyway....David walked Courtlyn up to the Easter Bunny and she hopped (no pun intended there) right on his lap and rubbed his furry face. As David backed away so the photographer could take their picture she began to have this worried look on her face. She never cried or wiggled. She just looked around with her big, blue eyes and began to wring her hands as if she was really nervous. The photographer would say, "Courtlyn, say CHEEEEEESSEEEEEEE!" She would look up and do exactly what the photographer said, but she would do it quickly which was her way of saying, "hey, mom & dad get me off of this crazy looking bunny's leg NOW!"






So we ended up with this picture which isn't all that bad and we have a great memory of the whole thing. We actually laughed the rest of the day because she became a little Nervous Nelly around the Easter Bunny. Maybe she was star struck and wasn't sure what to say since he's a celebrity and all. ;) Now she wants to look at the picture on the refrigerator all of the time and fondly recalls the day she met the Easter Bunny.

Long Time, No Post!

Ok, so I've seriously abandoned my blog. I was on fire at first and then the flame just flickered out. I don't know why (well, actually I do know why...I joined Facebook and have become addicted. yes, I admit it! I'm addicted!). I love reading my friends' blogs daily and catching up on what's going on in their lives, but the desire to actually type out something that's been going on in my life, well, I didn't think there was anything exciting enough to talk about. So with a kick in the rear from a dear friend of mine (thanks Tera!) and I am trying to get back on the wagon and start this blog up again. Honestly, I am going to try to make a concerted effort at posting something even if I think it's not all that exciting because maybe the 3 people who actually read this blog will enjoy seeing it.

So let's see what's been going on since my last post....Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day...my, my, my....I have been a bad blogger (shame on me!). I won't bore you with all the details of all of the past months, but will share a few pictures with you. (**Speaking of pictures...I don't know what's up with the size of the pictures. This is a problem I've had for a while with Blogger and no one seems to have an answer for me. If anyone out there can help me out, that would be great! Until then, you either get these teeny tiny pictures that are weird looking or whopper sized pictures that you can only see half of. Sorry!)

Courtlyn with Santa with David's work Christmas Dinner at Keeneland

3 of us freezing at the Richmond Christmas Parade in the back of Daddy's truck

Feeding a monkey a banana at a Gymboree birthday party.

3 of us on Christmas Eve

Christmas morning at home

At her first princess tea party

Posing for a valentine picture

At Casa Cafe with a possible future boyfriend??? :)

In the locker room at the Y before swimming lessons

Helping mommy make scrambled eggs

Enjoying her favorite fruit...lemons!

The damage! The child doesn't even pucker up when she's eating them! Weird!

Fun at the park with Daddy

Being silly before bedtime

Helping Mommy clean

Last, but certainly not least...a potty shot--straight out of the bath tub

So I hope I haven't bored you to death with all the pictures, but this has caught us up to where we are now....potty training! OH THE JOY!!!!!!!!!!! OH THE PAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The pain in my knees when I have to clean up messes that is! It's been a long process that I wished would hurry up and be over with, but it's not. My little princess is doing this in her own time much to my chagrin, just like I thought she would. It's day to day and a 1 step forward, 4 steps back sort of process, but we are getting there slowly but surely. Hopefully a month from now I can say hey, WE ARE POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!!!!!!! A girl can wish can't she?!?! :)

Pictures askew???

Ok, I think I'm setting a record for the amount of blog posts in one day (for me anyway), but what is up with the pictures I post being askew? It's really bothering me! Anybody have any suggestions?

Courtlyn with Santa...again!

Blog Problems????

What is up with this blog???? Maybe it's me because I'm technically challenged, but it's about to get the best of me. I am going to try to post the slideshow again. I have no idea what it is doing and why it is not showing. Grrrrr!!!!! These kind of things really get under my skin. Off to work on it.....

Here Comes Santa Claus!

Ok, I've been bad and haven't posted on my blog for 3 weeks now. So I thought I would quickly put some pictures of Courtlyn up until I can sit down and give you all a real update of what's been going on with us. I took Courtlyn to see Santa about a month ago and that got me to thinking about the other 2 times I took her to see him. So I drug out her pictures with the big guy from 2006 & 2007 and I thought I would share them with you. It is amazing to me how much she has grown. Enjoy!! :)