God Bless Texas {Bluebonnets}

Every spring, I look forward to plopping my babies' into a patch of weeds bluebonnets and taking their pictures. It's like a right of passage in the Lone Star State, one of which I've only been made aware of since having kids. Call me a follower, but I really buy in to the whole bluebonnet thing. My Texas pride swells up in my chest when bluebonnet season rolls around. I spend a fair amount of {what's left of} my brain power pondering what they will wear, where we will go and then I promise myself not to overgram my kids and fill up your news feeds.

Lucky for us, the greatest bluebonnet patch was about a 4 minute drive away from our house. On a beautiful Saturday morning, the boys woke up way too early - in my opinion, anyway - so we loaded them up and headed off to take pictures.

I'm really pleased with how the pictures turned out. I dressed Connor in pants this year, since last year he was in shorts and hated the tall grass rubbing against his legs. And since Parker has rolls on rolls on rolls, it was a no brainer to put him in overalls. And of course we didn't leave the house without M&M's and fruit snacks to bribe Connor to smile. Whatever works, right?

He is 2 years and 5 months old (exactly) here. 

I love that when we told Connor to get close to Parker, he had to be head to head. He loves his baby!

Look at all of those chins!

They're perfect! Can't even!!! Gah!

Happy Spring to everyone!

Our Easter

Easter is probably my favorite holiday. I like it even more than Christmas. There, I said it. I've probably lost a few readers now. But to me, Christmas has become so rushed, commercialized and overbooked that it's just too much freaking work. For Easter, I don't have to decorate a tree, buy presents for everyone that interacts with me or my kids, and go to parties. My radio stations aren't hijacked for six weeks with holiday music, and I don't have to be politically correct when wishing folks a Happy Easter. And don't get me started about that Elf on the Shelf. Easter is simple, and on behalf of all the moms who don't live next door to Hobby Lobby -- let's keep it that way. 

Now, where was I? Oh yes, Easter. 

Connor had an egg hunt at school on Thursday. He is so methodical about egg hunting, and it cracks me up. He picks up an egg, opens it, surveys (or eats) the candy, hands me the egg and then moves on. In the time Connor hunted 4 eggs, the older kids had already collected their 12 allotted eggs and had moved on. 

Connor's class. E-tee (Ethan), Tess Mer Clr (Mary Claire) and their teacher, Ms. Chely

Pondering what he thinks about the jelly beans in the egg...

On Saturday, our neighborhood had an Easter Egg hunt that was a blast. We have 50 kids in our little neighborhood, many that are right around the ages of Connor and Parker. The dads went and hid all of the eggs at 8:30 and then at 9:00 the kids were free to hunt. The 0-3 year olds hunted eggs on the opposite side of the street than our house and this time, Connor got more in to it. We practiced picking up eggs, putting them in his basket and then opening all of them at the end. He caught on and would run to each egg and say, "Oh my egg!" So cute! After the egg hunt, there was an appearance by the Easter Bunny (one of the dads on the street was suckered in to wearing the costume). Connor wasn't sure at first, but then he finally wanted to take a picture with him and kept giving him high-fives!

That's Connor's cheese face!

After the neighborhood egg hunt, we spent the rest of our day out in Deer Park with Grammy and Paw Paw. My mom put together an over the top Easter basket for Connor. I wish I had a picture of it before Connor tore in to it. Mom puts a lot of effort in to the presentation of gifts and I love it. His basket was adorable and filled to the brim with sidewalk chalk, bubbles, books, Veggietales, and an ambulance and firetruck that both make noise (thanks, Mom!). He had a blast hunting for his eggs in their backyard and playing with his new bubble gun. Then while Parker napped, we took him to the park to play. It was fun for us to just do something with Connor and give him our undivided attention!

Hunting his eggs to put in his choo-choo basket!

He loved shooting Paw Paw with the bubble gun!

We had a blast with him at the park!

Parker was there, too! Parker Man...you'll get to run around with big brother and hunt eggs next year!

On Easter Sunday, we ended up at Urgent Care with Parker and missed church. This was heartbreaking for me, as this was my first Easter morning to not spend at church. There were tears. But, Parker was okay and that's all that matters. We had lunch with my family at Lupe Tortilla and then went to Tiki for a crawfish boil. Connor did his first crawfish races and went on a boat ride with Uncle Pete.

We had a great Easter weekend celebrating Jesus and celebrating our family. 

He is risen, indeed.

Grilled Chicken Pesto Pasta

I love pasta as much (or maybe more) than the next person, so its no surprise it shows up on our menu at least once a week. This week, I had a big craving for pesto, so I used this recipe and modified it to work for my family. This is a really simple weeknight dish to throw together.

Ingredients

• 1 box of spaghetti
• 1/2 cup of prepared pesto
• Grilled chicken (I buy the frozen, pre-cooked kind...it's the weeknight, don't judge)
• 1/4 cup of sun dried tomatoes (optional...but why would you opt no?)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions

Cook spaghetti in 4 cups of boiled, salted water (the salt helps your pasta not stick together). While water is boiling, heat the chicken in a skillet over medium-high heat. Once your spaghetti is cooked and drained, return it to the pot you boiled it in. Add the pesto and stir until well blended. Then add in the sun dried tomatoes. By now, your chicken should be heated, so go ahead and add that to your pot and stir it all together. Sprinkle in the parmesan cheese so it melts in to the pasta, and enjoy!