Kaela is one who revels in the spotlight and made a million faces and poses while sitting in the front row to prove it. All we could do was laugh at the little ham. 
We were so proud to watch her walk up and get her diploma! She couldn't run fast enough to the cake afterward, but we did manage to get a few pictures:
Miss Sheena has been the perfect teacher for Kaela and she is rarin' and ready for Kindergarten now. 
We spent two nights and three days in Branson, Missouri this past weekend. I love that we are only 2 hours away from such a unique place. Branson has shows galore, fabulous shopping, and water/theme parks to boot. So we went ahead and bought season passes to Silver Dollar City, the local theme park. It will be a little hot spot for us while we live here.
It really was as Joey put it a "stress free" and a fun family bonding time. The down side was no sleep. Even when we turned out all the lights in our little hotel room and lay still, one of the kids would make a noise and the other echo it, Emmy being the biggest culprit. The sleeping part was hopeless but our days were filled with lots of fun, good food, silly rides, and laughter. Definitely a tradition we will continue to uphold.
A big shout out to Joey for braving most of the spinny rides. It may not look like it but I promise I was there and did go on my fare share rides with the kids!
I'm indebted to my own mother who taught by example the joy in motherhood and who never raised her voice, except, of course, when I trotted off to girls camp once with one of her nice forks :) I try hard every day to be the calming and loving mother that she was to us rascals. I love you mom!
I bought sucker molds and made chocolate suckers with the kids. It was very nostalgic for me as it is one of my favorite memories of Easter when I was a wee lass. My mom would create a homemade candy masterpiece each year for us kids, that probably took her hours to make and that we devoured in seconds. One year she broke out these amazing sucker molds and her tupperware full of colored chocolate wafers and let us help her make some. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. So, above is my Easter Bunny attempt at a homemade treat, the exact mold I remember the most. Yum!
Coloring the Easter eggs is always a highlight. 
They colored and crafted 18 of those babies and still wanted to create more! Hard boiled eggs are in high demand at our house.
Easter morning was a delicious adventure. The Easter bunny always tends to overdo it at our house. The kids even got a couple of non-candy surprises that brought giddy excitement. Kaela and Luke went to town eating to their hearts content and Emmy was thrilled just to shake her plastic eggs over and over again. It was nice to stay home and watch conference. What an uplifting and inspired conference it was! So much talk about strengthening families. It was perfection.
I forgot to add this to my last post but it probably deserves a post of its own. This beastly possum was discovered by Joey. I happened to be right there when he opened the garage door to throw something away (notice how close the door is to the garbage) and shabam! His reaction was rather manly with no screams or door slamming, okay, well, maybe a little door slamming. Apparently this is a commonplace if you leave your garage doors open too long in the winter here. It hissed at Joey and Jessen (thank heaven he was there) as they dueled the wild thing and got him out. Crazy!
I know, we thought we escaped the snow when we moved here, but it reared its ugly head the first couple of days. The kids didn't seem to mind. The boys even tried a little croquet in the fluff. 
The girls made the snow into suds they could paint onto the driveway. 
Nothing better than snack time, something we did lots of! 
The kids all played really well and made great memories together. 
The local bounce house was a must and everyone jumped, slid, and goofed off for hours.
Our good friends loaned us their Super Mario Wii game, which was a big hit with Evan, and everyone for that matter. It even kept all of us nostalgic adults up until the wee hours of the night battling through the worlds to save the princess. It's my favorite game EVER.
The main event was a Nickelodeon show featuring Kai-Lan, Dora, The Wonder Pets, & The Backyardigans. Everyone watched mezmorized as they watched the singing and dancing characters come to life. A definite success.
I was so proud of Linda and I for braving the many events with the kids during the week while our husbands were hard at work. Props to us!! And props to the guys for being such dedicated providers!! (notice Evan who appears in both adult pictures, that boy is hilarious)
The time flew by and before we knew it we were waving goodbye to the back of their van. All in all it was a perfect visit with lots of laughs and new discoveries (Linda discovered a light we didn't know existed in our ceiling fan which is now lovingly called the "Linda Light"), so thanks for making the trek to see us Jelinda family and come again soon!
Lucas Dayale - as he pronounces it - turned 3 on March 8. To celebrate we threw him a little Buzz Lightyear party with our babysitting group the Friday beforehand. He thrived on every moment and especially reveled in the "Happy Birthday" song to him, which he had anticipated for weeks by sporadically singing it to me with his name at the center. That kid is so dang cute!
Luke gives THE best reactions to presents...
We began the morning of his actual birthday in usual Hobson fashion with waffles and presents. He got a Wiggles Guitar, the Cooties game, a transformer, Toy Story figurines, and two small Buzz Lightyear's (which was his birthday wish that morning and unbeknownst to us came true!)
The two Buzz's came with us everywhere that day - to lunch at Chick Fil-A with dad, to pick up Kaela at school, to pick out a movie, and to Chuck E Cheese's that night. 
A dream come true when Chuck E himself came out to give Luke a birthday hug.
Check out Kaela on the big screen, remind you of anyone at that age?
Luke just dug into his cake this year, it's good we had all already had a piece!
We love you Luke and are blessed to have such a sweet and fun little man like you in our family! Happy 3 dude.
Emmy Lyn turned 1 just one week later, on March 16. I can't believe our little baby is 1 year old! Really, this has come all too quickly...didn't I just give birth to her? Mind boggling I tell you.
My favorite moment was riding in the car with Emmy facing forward, a momentous occasion every time.
Just before dinner I braved Chuck E Cheese alone with all three kids. It went incredibly well. This is the biggest and cleanest I've ever been to, so it make's going even fun for me.
We continued the celebration by having fabulous grub at Red Robin. Emmy LOVES their fries.
And at last we sang to her, helped her blow out her candle and watched as she...
wanted nothing to do with her chocolate peanut butter frosting cupcake. Honestly, I think she just had one too many fries for dinner :)
Happy 1st Birthday to You Emms! We can't squeeze you enough and are grateful to have such a sweetheart in our family.
