Easter blessings!

Hi!  I just wanted to stop in and share a little bit of our Easter celebration with you!  Even though we decorate with bunnies, and color eggs, the true celebration is in the JOY of Jesus' Resurrection!  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!  I am so very thankful for the grace given on the cross for my sins.  Even if I had been the only person on earth, he still would have hung on the cross in my place...and that is so humbling! 

We tried to dye Easter eggs last night, and Asher was the only helper available!  Claire fell asleep in my lap while we waited for Katie to come home, and then she ended up staying at church for open gym night, so it was just Asher and I.  We had fun, and he was excited to have 30 eggs to color any way he wanted!  He did a beautiful job!

 

I didn't do too much decorating for Easter this year, I am still having trouble finding my decorating "mojo" in this home.  I love it, and I am so thankful for a great home, but it doesn't quite feel "like home" just yet! I know eventually I will get in the swing of things, and will unpack all of the boxes...ha...I am still working on that...and I will want to decorate everywhere!  Right now I'm just sticking to the top of the piano.  It's a nice, contained, small area that I feel like I can manage in a short amount of time!  Another bonus is that it is high enough that Claire still cannot reach up and snatch things! Ha!

 

 

 

Hope everyone has a blessed Easter weekend!

 

Green Day!

St. Patrick's Day is coming up, so I thought I would share a little bit of our spring nesting! I have found so many wonderful printables on Pinterest and I will try and include the links to each of them so you can print them too if you would like to!

 

The top of the piano is kind of my "decorating" spot now that the TV is on our mantle.  In our rental home, the living room is kind of a weird shape, and has an angled wall with the fireplace that made it difficult to avoid putting the TV there.  I was kind of bummed about not having a mantle to decorate, but it's fun to decorate the top of the piano too.  I collect milk glass and white dishes of any kind, so this is just a hodge podge of some of them that I've collected from garage sales and thrift stores over the years. 

This is my little Dollar Tree bird...the only one that survived last spring...ha...having a toddler in the house makes things have a shorter life span than normal! (I forgot to wash the dirt spots off of my cake plate from when I was watering the plants...ooops!)

 I love this chalk board...it's been moved around so many times and has had so many things written on it.  I usually try and put a message to myself on it to remind me what an amazing, blessed life I have. Even though I don't deserve it, God has been so gracious to me!

 I love these little lucky shamrocks...they were supposed to be a full sheet printable but I shrunk them down to make a little banner.  I just printed them, cut them out, and hot glued them to some cheery green ric-rac! You can find the printable here!

 

You can find this cute printable subway art at LollyJane!  I printed it out and mounted it on some cute polka-dot scrapbook paper I had!  I use this frame for all of the different holidays with printables.  I have used it so much that the little holder things have worn off the back and I have it all taped together back there!  Ha! 

 

I hope everyone has a great St. Patrick's Day week!  We are excited because our church is having "Green Day" on Sunday!  The youth are going to go out into the community and do nice things for people!  I am excited to see what God plans to do through our kiddos!

Claire is TWO!

Our sweet Claire turned two years old on February 18th!  We feel so blessed to have our sweet girl...she is amazing!  Just when you think she can't get any cuter, she gives you a "mmmmkiss" and a snuggle that will melt your heart!  She has started sleeping in her big girl bed, and does really well until about 4 or 5 in the morning, and then she comes to climb in our bed with us.  She is so big and tall, and wears a size 4T clothing, and can even fit in some 5T's.  We haven't started potty training, but she is showing some interest, so we might start to work on that this summer.  She loves, and I mean, LOVES Dora the Explorer!  We don't even have the NickJr. channel, but we have watched videos on Netflix, and she is just crazy about her!  She has a tiny Dora that Katie got her for Christmas that she carries around everywhere, and my sister recently brought her a little Dora figurine that has now become her BFF too!  She is so funny!  She can say almost any word that you ask her to repeat, and it's so cute to watch her point out all of her or your body parts! Ha!  She loves her brother and sister, and likes to be near one of them at all times.  She loves to dance, and dances like crazy to the music at church!  It's adorable to see her praising the Lord in her own little way!  We hope you always find a way to love and praise God, Pumpkin...it's the most important thing!  We love you so very much!

a little of this, a little of that...

Hi...it's almost spring!  I can feel it!  We have been seeing robins and other birds outside and that makes us very happy!  Most of our snow is melted and there are just tiny hints of new beginnings everywhere! So thankful for the hope and promise that spring and Easter brings! 

We have been keeping busy!  We have had company for three weekends in a row!  Kris's parents and sister and her kiddos came for Claire's birthday weekend on February 15th...they spent the night and we had a really nice visit.  I don't have any pictures, because I still didn't have a camera.  Kris took some pictures with his phone, and Jill took some pictures with her camera, but I don't have them yet.  Kris's parents got in a little shopping, and Kris took them on a tour of Wichita, Derby, and Rose Hill.  We were able to just visit and eat some yummy food together.

On Claire's actual birthday on the 18th, we took the kids to Chick-Fil-A and had birthday cake, it was a fun evening! 

We had a big ol' snow storm that week, so we weren't sure if our next weekend of visits was going to happen, but it all worked out! 

Charisse, and her two littlest, Evan and Meagan came for a couple of nights.  We went to the mall, Chick-Fil-A, and to Orange Leaf for dessert on Saturday, and then we invited them to come to our church with us on Sunday.  Our church trailer that carries all of the sound equipment was stuck in the snow, so we had limited sound, but it was still a great service!  Speaking of church (sorry for the tangent), we are just really feeling comfortable and are beginning to form relationships, we are so thankful that God lead us to Impact church!  Anyhoo (tangent over) we had a great visit with Charisse and the kids!

Finally, this past weekend, my sister, Crystal, and her kids, Rylee, Reese, and Reagan came to visit. Crystal and I decided that since both big girls were here together, they would do a great job babysitting all of their younger siblings...so...Crystal and I went SHOPPING!  We went to World Market and Super Target and we laughed, tried out our math skills, listened to music, and were able to just catch up a little bit.  I think we seriously started 900 conversations, but with 6 kids and both of our undiagnosed cases of ADD, I don't think we finished very many of them!  We had a really nice visit!  Our kids seem to be at the age where they are really enjoying each other.  Rylee and Katie are especially close, and I am so thankful for this! 

 

Claire was not dressed yet and Asher was still in his PJ's but I really wanted to get a picture of all of them together before they had to leave...I was running behind! 

 

I am really glad we have had so many visitors lately, it has really filled up my cup...it's running over!  I just needed to see some familiar faces and hug some familiar necks!  So thankful for our families and friends!