A Special Weekend (Curtis's Birthday, New Family Pics, and Easter)!

We sure have had a lot to celebrate in a short amount of time! On April 18, Curtis turned 35. He had lots of help blowing out his candles.

I used to have whole posts on our birthdays, but now it seems that the focus is more on our littles! We did have a nice McAlister's meal with the whole family and a birthday date (just the 2 of us) later on. He asks me to make this particular cake every year for his birthday - it's a favorite in our family! Chocolate stout cake with ganache. Kate helped me decorate it with lots of sprinkles that are hard to see in this picture. :)

We regularly have nice pictures taken whenever a child turns 1. We had our lovely RUF intern, Carrie Bristow, come over and take these pictures for us! She does a great job! He's always on the move so it can be a challenge to get him to stay put! Here's some of my favorites:

We were especially trying to get a good comparison shot of Curtis when he was around the same age. This is the best that we came up with. I think Drew looks more like Curtis in person - I have definitely seen Drew give that exact smile/laugh! They're both wearing outfits that Curtis's mom made for Curtis. We sorely miss Karen and wish she could make Drew his own clothing, but we are glad to have Curtis's clothing from 34ish years ago!

Then, we decided to go ahead and get some family pictures while we had Carrie there! If only the whole family would have smiled! There are several pictures from my childhood where I wasn't smiling, so I guess Kate is even more like me! She literally decides each day if she will smile at each photo opp. Oh well, it'll make for some great memories!

This one cracks me up!

I think the next 2 are my favorite family shots of the day:

She sure is strong-willed!

I love this one so much!

The next day was Easter! Our church meets in the afternoon so we spent the morning with an Easter egg hunt and dyeing eggs! Guess what? Kate decided it was a day to smile, which I agree - if there ever is a day to smile, it is the day the Jesus overcame death!

Drew wore the same bib that his Daddy wore when he was a baby! (Anna and Kate wore it for their first Easter too.) 

We went to church where we celebrated the resurrection by worshipping God! It was a wonderful service! Afterwards, we had another Easter egg hunt and a nice potluck dinner. 

The next day was Drew's birthday, but he will get his own post! :)