Mischevious cutie with a watergun!

Easter 2013 {in Havasu!}

My sweet family of 5




This was our first time spending Easter in Arizona with "Great Grandma" ... it was so special & fun!!


I love Jake leisurely floating in the background as I try to coax Andrew in. The water was freezing, and Jake kept saying, 'it's only cold at first, it's actually pretty warm right now! my fingers are numb!'

Umm... that's not good!

2/14/13  Andrew is struggling to learn the "I love you" symbol


2/13/13   How many of my friends are finishing valentines after bedtime right now? This is actually very relaxing. Thanking hubby for that cold glass of bubbly too, after a day like today! Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Halloween! 2012

Orange shirt day     Nov 1, 2102   Why is it so hard to get a picture of all 3 boys!?!



Oct 31, 2012
Can't stop laughing!! I always call Andrew "Boo Boo Bear" ... and I just accidentally said, "Let's go, Poo Poo Pear!" {So hysterical! These boys are totally rubbing off on me! Since when did I laugh so much at poo poo & fart jokes!?!} BTW, feeling so thankful for the friends I have made in SC, I really feel blessed & surrounded by such a wonderful group of girls. God is so good to me! Have a great fun & festive day today!

Easter Festivities

It was quite a funny group of baskets this year-- Kevin and I used the velvet basket that usually holds all of our scented linen sprays & fragrances in the bathroom. Jake had a cute metal 'cars' bucket, and Austin had some random "Easter-y" basket I found in a cabinet. (Those little red sand-buckets were supposed to be their baskets, but I went overboard on their toys & they wouldn't fit!)





I didn't want to put any candy in the boy's baskets, but I was feeling generous in the wee hours... so each boy got 3 Robin's Eggs. (Mommy & Daddy got lots more candy than that!) The first thing Jake did when he got his basket was go for the toys... Whereas the first thing Austin did was stuff a huge Robin's Egg in his mouth!






What a perfect picture, it makes me laugh!! This is his 2nd piece of candy ever!





This year was the boy's first egg hunt. It was also Kevin's first time hiding eggs and my first time hiding them for my *own* kids... so I had to, of course, take photos of that part too!

The boys had so much fun finding the eggs! Austin still enjoyed throwing them more than anything, but that was fine with me... we're going to crack them anyways.

After our morning festivities we had yummy strawberry pancakes, went to church together, had a small lunch (correctly guessing that the 2:00 BBQ would be more like 4-5:00), and then headed down to San Diego to hang out with family at the lake. It was absolutely beautiful. Despite the horrendous crowds, we got a better "spot" than I could have imagined... on a little 'island', a cluster of 3 tables with a BBQ, and plenty shade. Amazing! (And, of utmost importance for me, being preggo... it was just a short walk to the restrooms!)

As I've mentioned before, my family is a little blog-shy, thus the lack of photos that include anyone but Kevin & the boys. Here are just a few that I think are safe to share.

Cousin Adam (my nephew) with Austin

Uncle Pete (my bro) playing catch with Jake. (With a water balloon!)

And Jake & Daddy (Kevin) under the bridge

We had a wonderful day, relaxing together as a little family and creating some of our own traditions... and also spending some much-needed time relaxing with my side of the family, whom we miss sooo much! It's so refreshing and fun!

Though Kevin and I agreed that it was hard to fully relax, being surrounded by water and having two toddlers... I can't tell you how many panicky "Where's Austin?!?!?" or "Where's Jake!?!?!" moments we each had! (Luckily, the other one always knew the answer to those momentary heart-stopping questions!)

A Zillion Easter Egg Pictures

Jake had SO much fun dying the Easter eggs tonight!!! It was his first time ever... and I'm sure he'll be asking to do it again many times over the next few months!




Austin had fun, but he mostly kept saying, "BALL!" "BALL!" and pointing at the eggs. He didn't get to go near the dye (for obvious reasons), but when we handed him an egg and crayons to color...



It ended up on the floor within seconds. He loves to play "ball!" I love this shot (above) of his wind-up!




Pictured above, Jake later gave a newly dyed egg to Austin to look at... same scenario except this one left a trail of pink dye on the hardwood floor as it rolled across the room!

So cute & so much fun!!!

You may not be able to see details below, but dying eggs with boys is so much different than my experiences growing up! I had to draw lightning bolts on one, a star, and Lightning McQueen (a race car) on another... But I still got in a few with hearts and polka dots!

And below, Jake "cleaning up" ... not so helpful! But it was a special occasion, so I snapped a few pictures before I snatched him away from the dye.

Happy Easter, friends!!!

Easter Music

I LOVE Easter!!! Not because of the 'celebration', with eggs and baskets and such, but the meaning behind it! These two songs being tears to my eyes every time I hear them, and they always make me want to jump and dance around! They're not my two favorite artists on the planet, but these songs are both so powerful... and being that it's the week of Easter, I thought it an appropriate time to play them here.

I couldn't find "Easter Song" for the player above, but I did find it on YouTube (below). If you have never heard them and you feel the same way I do about Easter and the Resurrection, they're worth a listen.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

I just realized that I haven't posted since before Christmas!!

And my parents are on their way over here with some Cold Stone Ice Cream--- so it looks like this will also just be a post with photos. (Luckily I already uploaded them!)

Totally out of order, too.

Jake & Austin at Kevin's parent's house on Christmas morning.

My niece, Alyssa. As tradition goes, she comes home with us for a few days after Christmas just to hang out. We had fun cooking the yummy dinner (pictured below): Creamy Potato Leek Soup and Chicken Pot Pie. It was SO easy, and So yummy!!!

The photos below are at our house. Two pics of the boys playing with some of their new toys, and our Christmas tree & stockings after "Santa" came.

And below are the ONLY photos I have of Austin's dedication. Same as Jakes... no photos! Because I was up front, as was my entire family. I brought my video camera & we all had our cameras, and there they sat, on our empty seats at church. Anyways. their dedications are very special and meaningful, obviously. So in their scrapbooks I will have to do a really special scripture page with maybe a few other nice photos and a letter from mommy&daddy or something.

But I did manage to get a photo of the delicious spread of food my mom had at her house afterwards!

And my Grandma, who was in town from New York, playing peek-a-boo with Jake.

And a sweet picture of my Mom & Dad loving on Austin.

I have a lot of great family photos from all of our Christmas festivities, but I'm being really careful about not posting photos of people without their permission. It's hard, because they are such cute pictures!!! But I've made that mistake before & I felt absolutely horrible! But just so you know... I have some DARLING nieces & nephews and a great niece, and... a great nephew on the way (literally, she's in labor!!!)