Friday's Favorites

Some of my favorite things from this past week:

1. We had one of the BEST Easter Days we've had as a family. We I got up super early around 6am to be ready for the early service where I had to teach the 3-5 year old class, then we attended the later service. We had an amazing service at our church. It was truly amazing, breath taking, and made EVERY woman there cry. We came home to take some pictures in a field right by our house. After pictures, we had our family over for Easter dinner at our house and an egg hunt for the boys around the yard. Everyone had a great time and it was so fun. 

2. This week my weeping willow tree decided it should look good for Easter. I was almost ready to have Kevin dig it up and take it back to the greenhouse we bought it from. Thankfully, it's going to make the red clay we have for dirt around here. 

3. We've had some pretty awesome spring weather here in WV. The mornings are kinda cool, but by lunch we are ready to eat popsicles for an after lunch dessert :) Our grass is so green too...that's like my favorite thing in the whole wide world. My heaven will have bright green grass with no weeds :) 

4. We dyed Easter eggs on Easter Sunday, and it was ACTUALLY fun this year :) I say that because it seems like the fun and exciting thing to do with kids, but let's be honest it's not. They are impatient, and don't keep them in long enough to even look nice. Then I am deciding what to do with them. Do most of you eat them?? I never know what to do. This year they loved it and really didn't want to stop dying them. It's a good thing we have chickens around here!

A pretty proud fellow who really enjoyed letting them sit :)

5. Even though the boys liked their Easter bunny surprises, they weren't all about it which makes me happy. Easter seems to be so blown up in our society. People are posting pictures of their Easter baskets that looks more like Christmas morning to be in competition with another family. I despise Facebook more and more. My boys got a pair of pajamas and some egg gum. That's it! They loved it. 

I am so thankful that we have a Savior that rose from the dead. How amazing that story is! 

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Church Egg Hunt 2014

Our Church had their Easter Egg hunt this past weekend. They always do a community outreach each month. This month was the Easter Egg hunt for the entire community. Kevin worked setting up the event along with some other men from our small group. We had to get there early, but the boys didn't care one bit. They loved running around, and playing on the inflatables that the church had rented. 

Shortly before 11:00 they announced that everyone should come to the bleachers and sit down for an exciting surprise. Kipton was on edge waiting for this surprise and just couldn't wait!!!

Then came down a helicopter right onto the football field. The pilot came out with the special eggs that had the prizes in them. The Easter bunny was also there waving and hugging the kids. It was really breath taking to watch this helicopter come down so close. 

The kids 1-4 were up first to hunt eggs on the field. Kipton ran and ran to get those eggs. He had the best time. 

Next up was Karson's group (5-9) and Kevin took him out. 

He was so serious and dead set on getting the most eggs to find a "special" one.

Checkin' eggs!

We found a winner! One of Karson's eggs had a special ticket. He got to go to the stand where the prizes were and claim his prize. He won a kite, and a baseball bat and ball. Some kids were winning bikes. I think they gave away 9 bikes that day. WOW!

I am so thankful for a fun Saturday for the whole family! The boys had a blast, and have been talking about the day every day since then. 

Easter - Part 4 - Final

Happy Easter!

Our weekend has been jammed packed, but I love Easter. It's meaning is the most exciting and hearing the boys tell the Easter story has been the best part of Easter all together!

Friday: Karson had his egg hunt at his preschool. All of the parents were to hide the eggs in the grass area beside the church and the kids were coming out to find them. When they said "GO" Karson was on a mission. He didn't even look up to find me and wanted as many eggs as possible. This was such a difference from last year because we went to our church egg hunt, and the overcrowded and running made him cry. 

Lots of 3/4 year old classmates eager for eggs!

They got to see the Easter bunny and Karson said "Mom he even gave me a high five!". He was so excited. 

Kipton and one of his little friends.

Saturday: Was mostly grocery shopping, errands, and even some FLOWER planting! Yes we finally got to the flower shop and bought some pansies and new mulch for the flower beds. Our favorite and closest flower shop has added a barnyard to their property where you can pet the animals. The boys were in HEAVEN and we stayed there for nearly 1.5 hours.

Sunday: Kevin had to work dayshift so all of our Easter fun was without daddy. I think I was more excited than they were about their little baskets. I even woke them up to tell them somebody special had been at our house. 

I finally broke down and bought Karson a cap gun. I don't like them, but he plays with them at Kevin's moms when we visit and he LOVES them. He shot all of the rounds within 1 hour. 

Kipton got some new Diego sunglasses and binoculars. He even wore them around his neck to church. He LOVES Diego! We aren't sure where this love came from all of a sudden, but it's cute.

Karson got an animal call that I found at TOYS R US. It makes a bear, wolf, duck, lion, turkey all call. The boys thought this was AWESOME and tried to call in an animal out the backdoor all morning while I was getting ready for church. (Excuse the mismatched pjs)

Ready to head to church. The best place is C3! (In our opinion)

After church we came home and played some more and had lunch and took naps. 

Around 5:00 we headed over to Nana and Papaw Brad's for dinner. We had steak, potatoes, salad, and some great desserts. After dinner Papaw hid the boys eggs all around their house. 

It was a rainy, wet, yucky day but even Jesus makes it rain so it was fine :)

So excited to find pennies in his eggs.

Mom found a Diego doll online for Kipton. He wasn't sure what to think at first but by the end of our visit he was hugging and kissing him. 

While our food was great, our egg hunts were fun, the real joy comes from our savior Jesus Christ!

The boys and I planted this RYE grass about 1.5 weeks ago. It's intention was to look like the grass on Calvary Hill where Jesus was put on the cross. It was looking iffy about growing, and I couldn't believe when it popped right up the day before Easter to serve as a great reminder on our kitchen table. 

Happy Easter!

Easter Week - Part 3

With Easter, comes fun decorations. Mostly for the boys. 

These flowers came from our property where Kevin and Karson were walking and found them. Everytime Karson brings me flowers he adds in "Will you marry me?" :)

I found these little bunnies at Hobby Lobby a few years ago. The boys call them Peter Rabbit. We are enjoying that new show on Nick.

Karson helped me make this little banner one day when we were cooped up in the house with snow.

Last month we Kevin painted the entire kitchen and living room. This was A LOT of painting. Of course I was getting ready to have people over for a party and so that was great motivation to finish it in only 2 days. I can honestly get so much more done when parties are coming up. We painted it a light tan and he finished up all of the trim work himself too.

I bought a new rug to go under my kitchen table at Garden Ridge. A store near Cincinnati  OH and it is amazing. We are planning to go back this Spring for outdoors items. 

The boys have kept plastic eggs in this basket on my table and we've hid eggs throughout the house for the past month. They love for me to hide coins in them and see who can find the most money and count it up. A great math game :)

My front porch looks pretty sad. It's too cold to get out and even plant pansies  I have had this big Easter rabbit for over 4 years that my mom made. I love it as well as an egg wreath she made a few years ago too. Hopefully we can get our porch looking better with ferns, flowers, and new furniture here in the next month. I am so ready for this to be my favorite spot again!

Hope your ready for Easter. Like always, I am behind on the boys baskets. I have 2 little things each for them so I am headed out this evening once Kevin is home for the rest. I am cutting it a little close this year. 

Happy Easter!

Easter Week - Part 2

Today I'm going to talk about Easter Parties. We had our Easter party this week with our

Mother's Club and it was so much fun! One of our friends hosted at her house, and decorated awesome for the kids, and had yummy food, crafts, and we did our egg hunt indoors because it was snowing and cold. Karson and another little boy were the only 4 year olds (and the oldest at the party) so they did the egg hiding. The moms didn't mind this :) He looked SO big! I can't believe it's my boy that is the oldest and can do the "big boy" things for our group. He had the best time with his friends.

Jessica had crafts for the kids and they all really enjoyed it! They were big Easter eggs and then pretty Easter stickers and Spring stickers that were easy for the kids to peel the backs off. They could ALL do this craft on their own while the moms watched. It was wonderful!

Since Jessica has a little boy, my boys were in heaven as well as most of the boys that came. He had lots of fun boy stuff, but the girls also played so well too. I think it's harder for boys to go to girls houses, rather than girls coming to boys houses. The girls will really play with anything, but normally boys don't want to play with babies or dress up in princess.

Jessica even gave out these adorable little baskets for the kids to put their eggs in. Kipton was so excited that there was actually candy in the eggs. We have been hiding and finding eggs in our house for the past month, but this was a real treat that there was actually something in them!

The boys checking out their loot of candy, stickers, and coins.

We tried for a group picture, but some of the babies weren't in the picture. 

I urge you as a mom to find a Mother's group near your area. If your kids are under 5 and not in school, it really is the best thing you could do for yourself, and for your kids. We have had so much fun meeting new people and learning to work together. 

Easter Week - Part 1

This week leading up to Easter, I'm going to post some Easter ideas for kids. 

Today's post is DIY Easter Pictures

I don't know about you, but the thought of going to a studio for pictures makes me not so excited.

The backdrop is not so fun, it's hard to get your kids to listen to this strange person, and it always seems about 100 degrees in there. 

I love outdoors pictures, but since it's snowing here we moved things into our living room.

All you need is a sheet as your backdrop, and a good camera. I put mine over our front door and used clothespins to hold it up. I looked around our house to see what I could find for a prop for them to sit on. 

I brought some of our baby ducks and chicks in from our garage (which I know not everyone has) and we got on our Easter shirts and pants and away we went.

Poor Karson has a big red mark on his forehead from running into a door! :)

For my first time taking pictures indoors things went great! I needed to add another sheet because I can see our hardwood floors in some of the pictures and can't crop it out. I always edit the pictures on my computer using a program we have that came with our Canon camera.

Here are some out takes of the boys trying to feed the ducks.

First it was carrots???

This was Karson's idea, so he ran to the fridge for some carrots.

Then it was some of the Easter lilies we used. 

They actually liked the flowers and were nibbling them. The boys were DYING laughing! 

So, if your looking to do pictures of your kids for cheap and without the studio, try them at home!

They will probably turn out just as good!