Easter 2012

What a special weekend for Kaitlyn's baptism to be on Easter, a sign of new beginnings and new life.  And it's a bonus that we'll always remember when she was baptized.

But because it was Easter, that meant that we had the usual McKneely traditions like the Bunny Run Breakfast!  You see, our Easter Bunny brings breakfast, juice, yogurt, little boxes of cereal, bananas, oranges, along with our eggs.

Because of our full house, this was the tribe waiting on Easter morning....

 Here are some good shots of the festivities....

 

But unfortunately you'll have to be satisfied with these because in all the craziness of getting 16 of us out the door to church we didn't have a chance to snap a photo of all the kids in their Easter duds!

But we did have time to look at some pictures that grandma and grandpa took while on their recent trip to Israel, they were very special to see on Easter because they were of all the places of the last week of our Saviors life.

And then of course there was the Easter feast!  YUM!

Kaitlyn gets baptized

In our faith we get baptized when we're 8 years old.  It's an age of accountability when people know the difference between right and wrong.  Want to know more about what we believe?  go here.

So that being said, Kaitlyn had turned 8 and she was baptized Easter weekend.  It was such a special time for us.

For starters, we had so many family members come for the special occasion, and they all stayed with us, so there were 16 people staying at our house, which is a record I think, sure to be broken someday, but it was most of the McKneely clan.

Here is the special girl on her day in a dress made by grandma McKneely, I think she just glows!! 

She was so happy that day.  During much of the service she was emotional and felt the Spirit, which makes her cry and then she gets embarrassed.  I feel it a blessing that she's learned so early in life what it feels like when the Lord speaks to her heart.  How we love our K!

Kaitlyn's Sweet Shoppe

Kaitlyn had a birthday party....It was themed around a "Sweet Shoppe" theme....

Here is the "candy bar", the girls got to take home a bag of sweets...

We played "pin the cherry on the cupcake",

And the girls decorated their own cupcakes (okay maybe they went a little nuts with this, some of them got very "sprinkle" happy),

We played candy land (of course!) and a hot potato game to the tune "lollipop", and then one of my favorite things was this balloon launch, idea compliments of Nie Nie and they LOVED it!

Happy Birthday K!!

Matthew turns 2!

I cannot believe that this kid is 2! He's not a baby for sure, he's full blown kid!

Here is how his birthday went down:
"Math" ready to open his presents, he didn't quite get the concept and he started handing them out to everyone else to have them take their turn, but it didn't take him long to get the hang of it.
A favorite toy--it's a bubble bug that goes along and blows bubbles. I think his siblings were as excited as he was.And because it's only the beginning of the 'Birthday Bonanza" (4 birthdays in 22 days, whew!) we started with brownies.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

PS: Since his birthday his vocabulary has TOTALLY taken off, there isn't really a word he won't try and repeat and whats more, he uses them correctly, it's so fun!