Eggs, Baskets,Bunny, Hunts & More

Easter stuff at the Dodson house - here it goes!

Lance really wasn't into the coloring of the eggs this year... UGH. Should have kept it to like 6 eggs then I suppose. Going to have lots of smelly Egg salad that Keegan doesn't like :-) LOL.

Chase was REALLY into finding the eggs, especially the ones with the jelly beans "more, more"

Once Lance saw his Easter basket, he didn't care about hunting for the eggs, he just wanted to dig into this basket - and the one cool little toy the Easter Bunny brought him.

Off to Grandma Connie and Grandpa Kenny's house for more fun Dodson cousin time and Easter Egg hunting!

Can't forget the pictures from the visit to the Easter Bunny this year! I was pleasantly surprised at how well they both did. I think Chase was a little unsure until big brother showed him all was OK! Which I wasn't sure was going to happen since Lance didn't want to sit on Santa's lap - Guess the Easter Bunny must look a little more friendly than Santa!

Wow, Lance is growing up so fast. He looks so big in this picture.

Easter Photo Shoot

I'll try and keep the words to a minimum here and let the pictures roll shortly. This wasn't one of my best/favorite photo shoots. I couldn't get my camera settings where I wanted them - frustration ONE. Chase wasn't cooperating as I had hoped - frustration TWO. and I just couldn't get a good pose for the two of them together - frustration THREE. My mind just wasn't focused I guess. The end result = giving Chase a bowl of jelly beans just so he would sit still. In less then 1 or 2 minutes, his mouth was FULL, and I mean FULL of jelly beans and brown icky slobber was ALL over everything. And that was that! :-) I can kind of smile now, a little,  although it's still fresh from yesterday so there might be a little tension in disappointment of what I was hoping for.

Ah well, I'll take what I got - better than nothing - there are a few keepers! They turned out better than I felt they would.

 Bribing with jelly beans! Why doesn't the Easter Bunny bring new toothbrushes?? Hmmm....

GANT Good, no GREAT, Friday

A new tradition for the Gant family this year - an early Easter get together to make some memories and just hang out! My heart was overjoyed to be able to see the kids having fun and making memories and the adults enjoying the company of one another. Food, drinks, laughs, excitement, exhaustion, & Easter candy of course - the best times of family get together, never forgotten!

The big kids were happy to hide the Easter eggs for the little ones... and the big kids had their own hunt for letters to decode a silly Easter phrase.

All of the Gant grandkids, less Alex the oldest who had to slip away for a soccer game - the busy life to the Gant kids.

I had to chuckle as I was looking through my pictures - in 90% of the group pics, Lance and Dylan (3.5 and 4) were shoveling candy into their mouths! I think this was the latest Lance has ever stayed up, until 11:30, with fruit snacks at 10:30... good times!

 Mr. Rhys crawling like a big boy!! So adorable.

We were blessed with some decent Spring weather on Friday and had fun times in the fresh air.
A little game of 500, good fashion fun in a doggy pile.......

Chase joining in on the fun, with cousin Gavin keeping a good eye on him so he doesn't get tackled!

One of my two favorite captures of the day - Uncle Larry "stinky" in action - so skillful running and playing with beer in hand!

The two (2) Gant girl cousins bonding - opted out of the rough and messy play and had their very own little photo shoot! Gorgeous girls I must say!

What would a get together be in these days and ages without a little family electronic bonding time, right??!

Mom, Jaymi and I. (Gail and Alex are due for their own photoshoot since I think they are the only two that escaped a single picture throughout the day!) Well, and Elizabeth, who we missed at this gathering! We'll forgive her this time, only because we love Avalon.

As the sun went down, the atmosphere calmed down a bit. The boys decided to play some cards..... and even tried to teach a couple of the younger ones.

And my other favorite capture of the day - Nicky and two of her boys - simply in relax mode. Hanging out and chillaxin!

Yes, I'm going to brag here - I couldn't be happier to have one of the MOST amazing families ever! Getting together and hanging out is one of my favorite things I look forward to. Watching the kids and remembering the memories I made at their age with my cousins.... priceless. The only thing that could make these get together's ANY better would be having Dad here! (And Elizabeth for this one too!)

Dad, if for some reason you aren't able to look down upon us I hope you at least have access to a computer so you can keep up on my blog and Facebook. You're missing out on one heck of a family that you created!!! We miss you and think of you every time we're together.

Happy Easter to all - more Easter pics to follow on a separate post.



18 mo Chase

A few Chase updates! (So I started these posts and didn't finish them in a timely manner, so although they are dated in March, I'm finally posting them "AS IS" in early May) Time to leave what I have and just move on and get back into my weekly blog updates!

Chase, At 18 months YOU:

• Think tickling feet is the funniest and BEST thing ever! My favorite is the sound you make when you approach the feet.
• Are in FULL temper tantrum mode - with a great 3.5 year old role model of course!
• Give me a daily run for my money with your likes and dislikes of food... One day you like something, the next day you don't - UGH. Frustrating. Mac n Cheese Wheels haven't been turned away yet though!
• Have decided you are a fan of juice, unlike your big brother who won't have anything to do with it. You also talk my ears off and cry until I give you a sip of my pop, which helps me to not get it too often - so thank you!
• Love your crib and naps and bedtime - we are two lucky lucky parents! One nap a day, same time as your brother, usually around 12:45-1. For about 2-2.5 hours- YAY! Then off to bed close to 7 these days, but usually not out of the crib until 7:30-8. (and this weekend, almost until 9 - WOW!)
• Are expanding your attention span with movies - especially Elmo, Toy Story and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
• Know SOOOO many words. You can point to shapes and all kinds of animals and trucks and pictures in books. Not too many words yet (that sound like words anyway!) But you do babble an awful lot.
• Have started to master the shape sorter! Your favorites are the oval and circle.
• Just want to be everywhere and do everything your big brother does. Sad sometimes because he wants you to leave him alone, but fun to see the interaction when Lance is in share mode!
• Enjoy Elmo - "lalalala" you say for Elmo, and have said "melmo" a couple of times. You want to watch it on the iPad, phone, tv...
• Sing songs with the cutest little voice. In the car if I start singing, there you are in the back seat in a very light voice humming/singing "lala, oohhh..." I really need to record it. I'll never get these sweet "lalala's" again.

My little climber, chilling in the chair! One little monkey for sure.

 Chase and I have a little date every Wednesday morning while Lance is at school - to the museum, where Chase loves to give his big doggy food and water, and hugs of course. He is a dog lover for sure!!!!!

 Chase the fireman! He loves firetrucks - can't say firetruck, BUT can make the siren noise VERY well and VERY loud. Usually what we hear first thing in the morning to let us know he is awake. WOO- WOO - HOO-WOO, high high pitch too! :-)

 My back seat singing buddy, ALL smiles almost ALL of the time. Love, Love, Love this age and feel so incredibly blessed to be getting this extra time with him right now, even if I was bummed about not getting a couple jobs.

1 off, 1 to go

After 10 days, the leg cast came off as did the arm cast.... but they wrapped the fingers and arm back up! Not close to being healed enough and he kept picking at his fingers in only the 10 minutes that the cast was off. 2 more weeks then they'll take another look.

He did such a good job getting them off! He was very interested in the saw - I'm surprised he wasn't terrified of it with the noise it made.

 But boy oh boy he did not like them putting the new cast on!!! Lance chose red for this cast. He was pretty interested in what was going on and sweetly told Chase "It's ok buddy!" Ugh - melt my heart with that sweetness.

LUCKY day photoshoot

I was actually way ahead of St. Patty's Day when I captured these posts, just a little behind on my blog updates! Since there isn't much to say here, I'll skip right to these cute pics of my LUCKY green boys!

 It really wasn't going well to get a picture of the two of them STILL together, so this is as good as it gets.... little brother Chase pushing his BIG brother.... and they are both laughing - LOL!

 Can't forget Daisy May!

10 fingers for Chase

So the Dr. (along with Keegan and I) decided it was probably time for Chase's web fingers to be "un-webbed!" Which meant surgery time.... Lance got a special sleep over at Grandma and Grandpas house, and we had to arrive at the hospital at 7:15am - without breakfast for Chase, which was rough.

 He was very curious, and a little squirmy but did really good before surgery and even as the nurse took him away. He wasn't crying - Mom may have had a few tears....

Before surgery finger pics.... I'll be sure to post these again with the AFTER finger pics, once they are out of the cast and all healed.

But AFTER surgery as he was coming out of it, was HEART BREAKING and just no fun for the three of us! We couldn't get him to calm for anything. We felt so bad for the little guy. Screaming, hitting, fighting us, throwing the pacifier, then wanting the pacifier, saying "NO, NO, NO," shaking his head, kicking..... The nurse resorted (after 10 minutes of this) to a little morphine and finally he cuddled in my arms. We were hoping for only one cast but because there wasn't enough skin on the back of his wrist, Dr. had to use skin from the ankle, so two BIG casts for this little guy.

Chilling with Daddy after surgery.

We got him home and this resilient little 18 month old almost started running on his cast - although it was slippery on the hard wood floors! Dad had to put a little grip on the bottom - he's quite the MacGuiver (sp) Chase did get a little upset when I gave him his little surprise for his surgery - he couldn't hold onto the handle bars with both hands and got a little upset with me!

10 days and hopefully the leg cast will come off. The one on the arm will probably be on for 6-8 weeks.