Easter Egg Hunt!!

Our church does an outreach every year around Easter that includes a cookie decoration time

(lots of frosting and candy!).....

....a story time, a craft, and the high-light: the Easter egg hunt! Danielle participated last year, and this year she definately remembered -- she refused to simply pick up the eggs, she had to open each one as she found it and look at the candy inside....

She's a smart one.....

And of course, a special thank-you to Aunt Linda for the little shopping basket from Michigan -- it's been perfect for trick-or-treating and easter egg hunts!!

And yes, the toddler area has the eggs just on the grass....

And even though the grass was not green yet this year, it was VERY warm that day -- let's just say that Mom and Dad needed to 'help' eat all the chocolate candy as it was totally melted.....

There's been a virus among us.....

Thus my hiatus (is that even close to how you spell that?!) from updating our blog. And it also explains why I finally gave in a bought a bouncy seat for Ashley -- because when Mom doesn't feel good, we do everything to try to give her an extra five minutes of down time! So yes, we had a nasty virus sweep through our house that ended up with two trips to the doctor's office and two rounds of prescriptions for Danielle. Thankfully I just caught the cold part of it, although it did hang on for just over two weeks. Bob even managed to catch it, but his turned into a particularly nasty flu -- and he even kept that all to himself! Danielle got a pretty bad cold, and Ashley got a little cold, but she kicked it in a few days. Anyways, enough about that, here's some new pictures of Ashley in her little seat....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So pictures this morning started out with Ashley in her

St. Patrick's Day outfit (thank you, Craig!)....

...and she was being her adorable little self...
....I even almost caught a smile on camera....
....looking up at Mommy (makes my day!)....
....and she even decided to ponder the day....
....when suddenly, someone else decided to start being a ham and

get in on the picture taking fun!

Need I say any more?

Cooking with Grandma and Grandpa!

After Dad and Carol's Caribbean cruise, they stopped by New York to welcome the newest little Platt! Carol had taken a cooking class on one of the excursions and she graciously shared her newest recipes with us one night. Danielle had a blast 'helping' Grandpa and Grandma prepare dinner.....

And by the way -- it was all WONDERFUL!!!!

Visitors!

We had so much fun with everyone coming out to visit and meet Ashley, but Danielle also had fun visiting with everyone who was here. Here's a few little snapshots of her.....

And I still need to find a few decent pictures of Aunt Linda and Auntie Beth with her....soon, I promise!

Because Aunty Beth asked....

....so I'm posting pictures of Ashley in her swing!

A wonderful tool for Mommy to be able to get some work done when Danielle is napping!

And here she is almost all the way asleep....

...and she's asleep.....and absolutely adorable!!

Ashley Jean Platt

born February 4, 2009 at 9:03pm

6 lbs., 10 oz.

20" long

She's here!!! And she's beautiful!!! (I might be biased....) We're all at home and doing well -- family that's been here is so happy that they got to meet her before having to leave. We had quite a different experience this time around; Danielle was born after 26 hours of labor in the hospital and this time Ashley was born after only an hour or so. I think somewhere in between might be ideal. I was checked at 8:30 and was still only 2 cm, then contractions REALLY picked up and Ashley was born 33 minutes later at 9:03. The nurse was trying to get an IV into me to be able to give me some sort of drugs (I was begging for them) but we never even got that far -- she had to run get help when she glanced down and saw Ashley's head....and so only Bob and Beth were in the room when Ashley joined us! 2 seconds later there were lots of nurses everywhere, but Ashley was already crying on her own before they got there. Anyways, enjoy the pictures and hopefully I'll get around to catching up with everyone soon!

Danielle is very impressed with her new sister -- Auntie Beth had fun helping her to say hello!

Giving the baby a kiss!