Easter!!!

Maija told me Easter is her one of her favorite holidays....right up there with Christmas.  I can't blame her, because this year we had so much fun.  Easter Bunny brought some great goodies on Saturday and then we had a giant egg hunt with lots of friends in our backyard.  It was awesome.  And now all those friends are telling us we have to do it again next year.  Wahoo!  So glad everyone else had fun too.  :)

Easter sunday was just as fun!  The girls both sat still long enough for a fancy hairdo (and also long enough to make us really late for church.  really late.  but its cute huh? )

Then we got all dressed up in our new duds.
I think these are my favorite Easter dresses to date.  They all looked so cute!  Thanks for the dresses Grandma!
After church we went to a friends house for the ultimate egg hunt and an even better dinner.  YUM.  Left my camera at home for that one.  arg.  (did I just sound like a pirate?) I love this kind of holiday filled with friends and SMILES. Happy Easter! 

Love this dude.

Today this little man wanted to dress himself.  He picked out his clothes all by himself and then put them on all by himself....backwards.  But I couldn't bear to change him because he was so gosh-darn proud of himself. 

He melts my heart 100 times a day!

SEVEN

Seven.  Really?!  SEVEN???
Love (almost) every minute.  :)
Maija had to wait a day to celebrate.  I didn't have myself put together enough to be ready for celebrating on Sunday after Ben and I got home from our trip- and Dad had to work on Monday, her real birthday.  So she was very sweet and wanted to wait for Daddy- so we celebrated on Tuesday.

She wanted "roll-up pancakes" and sausage just like Brielle wanted on her birthday.  She also wanted a cake with butterflies and flowers.  I tried.  really I did.  But my attempts at a beautiful birthday cake are amateur at best. 
She got a new dresser and some clothes for her American Girl doll.  And her siblings gave her a fairy tale game, and lots of fun craft projects.  She is so happy!  She has been such a great big sister and is almost always very helpful.  She especially watches out for her little brother and in return, Levi loves her!

Cruisin'

A year ago my parents surprised us all with the news that they would be taking me, all my siblings and our spouses on a cruise to celebrate both my parent's milestone birthdays.  There were no excuses- they had given us an entire year to get work off and find babysitters.

Everyone keeps asking how our trip was.  It was SO FUN!  A completely different vacation than Ben and I have ever been on before.  We usually try to pack in as much sight-seeing and experiencing as possible in the time we have to vacation....so spending several days just hanging out in the middle of the ocean was different- but, like I said, so fun. 

The best part was just being with my family.  Its fun to have a chance to talk and be together and not be distracted by the 18 children we have between us all.  There were plenty of families on the ship with their kids- but we were all happy to have left ours at home. (FYI- infants under 6 months old are NOT allowed on a cruise ship.)

In Cabo San Lucas we went kayaking to Lover's Beach and did some snorkeling.  Too bad I don't have a waterproof camera.  It was so fun!

Then we still had a few hours to spare- so we decided to go Parasailing....and got in some bonus whale watching too!

We had a second day in Cabo- Ben went snorkeling again with most everyone else and a few of us went shopping for souvenirs.

In Puerto Vallarta almost all of us took a canopy zipline tour.  There were lots of ziplines, 2 rapels and we even took a mule ride to the top of the mountain.  Pretty adventurous for the Nilson's.

We all tried and tried to think of something special to do for Mom and Dad to say thank you....but nothing we thought of seemed good enough!  We had such a great time!  THANK YOU!

Don't worry, I'll be there SOON!

FIVE

Happy Birthday Brielle! 
She turned 5 April 1st!

She wanted a Tangled cake and roll up pancakes (crepes)  with strawberries, chocolate and whipped cream for dinner.  So we really just had two desserts.  I'm ok with that!

Dad had to work on the 1st, so we had our family dinner and cake on the 31st.

She got a new dresser, clothes for her Bitty Baby and a fun game and puzzle from her brother and sister.
I hurried through the day to get her cake ready, wrap her presents and make everything just right. After dinner we had cake out on the deck and enjoyed watching the stars on a rare clear spring night in Oregon.  When I asked Brielle at bedtime what was her favorite part of the day she said " watching the stars with Daddy."  They all love to spend time with Daddy.  He is so good at teaching and playing with them.

The next afternoon we had 2 of her friends come over to play.  We had dinner and then watched Tangled.  They had so much fun and Brielle loved feeling special with just HER friends this time.