Springtime Fun

Our Tuesday and Thursday evenings this spring were spent at the soccer fields. It is truly one of Lauren's favorite places to be!

Still smiling after an hour and a half of soccer practice!

There is a wonderful playground at the soccer field, and the boys and I spend lots of time there. But they spend an equal amount of time in this tree! I love the way Jonathan and his friends let Andrew tag along. He thinks he is every bit as big as they are!

Ms. Owens' Surprise Party

Lauren's class had the privelege of having a wonderful student teacher this year. Lauren's teacher, Mrs. Guyer, wanted to surprise her with an end of the year party. The sweetest thing about this party was that the kids were given the opportunity to do ALL of the planning. They had a decorating committee, a food committee, a committee that worked on a Power Point presentation, and much more. It was amazing! Those kids did a fabulous job! Lauren chose to be on the food committee - she worked so hard with her classmates to make sure everything was perfect. One of her classmates even decorated the cake!


My proud party planner! She was so excited and wanted everything to be perfect!

A very surprised and overwhelmed Ms. Owens! (there were a few tears - she is so sweet!)

She truly enjoyed opening all of her gifts! She got some really nice gifts. The class made an awesome memory book for her - each person wrote her a letter and Mrs. Guyer attached a photo. Such a thoughtful gift!

Andrew loves school parties! He always gets way too much attention when we are there!!

He is so blessed to have a sister who loves him so much!!

Ms. Owens gave each child an award certificate - each one was tailored to the student's personality or special gifts/talents. They loved it!!

Lauren
Sweet As Pie
You are always so super sweet.

It is a breath of fresh air to teach a student that is as caring and giving as you are.

This mommy's heart absolutely melted!! We are so proud of you sweet girl!

Lauren has loved having you as her student teacher!

We wish you the best of luck in finding the perfect job! You are going to be one fabulous teacher!

Easter Sunday

Easter in June? I am still catching up!

I love Easter morning! One of my favorite memories from growing up was attending sunrise services on Easter morning! It is like a new beginning every year! I can't wait until Andrew is just a little bit older so that we can make it a family tradition!

Jonathan was the first one awake on Easter morning and he was SO excited!

The Easter Bunny left him the second Harry Potter book (just in time, as he finished the first one on Saturday!), blue swim goggles, and lots of candy! He loved it all!!

Lauren got the Ramona and Beezus movie (her new favorite!), pink swim goggles, and lots of chocolate! She was one happy girl!

It was so cute to watch these three together! Lauren and Jonathan seemed to be more excited about Andrew's basket than their own! I love how they love one another SO much!!

Lots and lots of choc (as Andrew calls it!). I think that is all he ate for the entire day - it has milk in it, right?!

I LOVE this picture! The look on his face is priceless!! Bubbles!!

He also got a dinosaur sticker book! I think he loved it too!

The boys had a great time playing with the bubble gun!

I love my mom and sister! So happy to have this pretty picture of the three of us!

Precious cousins!

My sweet, sweet babies!

I love our family! Sometimes I look at pictures of all five of us and am just amazed at how God has blessed me! I am SO grateful for such a wonderful husband and three precious kids!

Can you tell he loves to swing?

Look at the caterpillar!

I think this is an awesome picture of my great uncle Johnny and my Papaw!

Of course there was more egg hunting!

Grayson was trying to blow bubbles and he was using his entire body to puff air! It was absolutely hysterical! He loved those bubbles! And the less clothes he has on, the better! Love this sweet toddler!

The Easter baskets, the beautiful Easter church service, the wonderful food, the egg hunts, and the joy of being together was very special. But it is nothing in comparison to our risen Savior. I thank God for his unending grace and overwhelming love, and I am indebted to Jesus who died on that cross for my sins. It is all unbelievably amazing and ever so humbling. This post is two months late, but we are still celebrating Easter - as Christians we have the joy of celebrating it every day of the year!

Easter Egg Hunt at Church

It was a gorgeous day for an egg hunt. It took about five minutes for all of the eggs to be found, but those little ones were precious!

I love this sweet picture of Andrew holding his basket! He would not let me hold it at all - even when it was full of eggs!

Andrew found an egg at the top of the slide!

After hunting for eggs, the little guys had fun swinging!

These sweet girls are not only neighbors, but best friends! I only have this one picture of all of them. Their egg hunt was in a different place, and since this was Andrew and Grayson's  first real egg hunt, they got all of the attention. Sorry girls!

Andrew LOVES Emily! And she LOVES him!

I think this is a sweet picture of Tammy and Grayson. Love their smiles!

When we got home, many of the kids in our neighborhood joined in another egg hunt. The girls would hide the eggs for the boys and vice versa. Andrew just wanted to find the eggs!

The whole clan! I love every one of these kids! Liam is wearing a Halloween bucket on his head (always the comedian, and fun to have around!).



We're Back!

Hi to my faithful readers (all three of you)! Ha! I have no idea where the past two months have gone! We were busy, busy, busy, and I can't wait to share it all with you! First though, I never shared our Easter pictures, and since my main purpose in keeping this blog is for keeping family memories, I have to share these fun family pics!

One of my favorite things about Palm Sunday is the children carrying in the palms as the congregation sings. My sweet Andrew was the leader, as he was the youngest of the bunch. This is him walking down to the nursery after carrying his palm branch, and as you can see, he did not want to lay it at the bottom of the cross. He had a different plan! Notice the goldfish crackers too!

After church, we always gather at Grammy and Grandpa's house for lunch. After enjoying lunch together, we let all of the grandkids dye Easter eggs. It was so much fun! I always think it is more fun when we have lots of people!

Andrew and Grayson were so cute! I love the way little ones just throw the eggs into the cups - "easy" is really not in their vocabulary!

Grayson decided it would be fun to paint his eggs.

Grammy and the older kids really enjoyed the egg wrappers.

Rich getting creative!

Thanks Grammy for letting us make a mess at your house! Lots of fun memories!