Happy Easter from us to you!

We had a wonderfully, beautiful Easter yesterday!  The morning started out with shrieks and excitement as the littles discovered what the Bunny left in their baskets!  Followed by 6 chocolate peanut butter eggs apiece for breakfast!  Followed by an egg hunt outside.  Followed by a beautiful Easter mass.- (and the kids did GREAT which we were very happy about).  Followed by another basket hunt at Grandpa and Grandma's.  Followed by Easter dinner at Paul and Kim's.  Followed by another egg hunt!  Followed by another Easter dinner at Grandpa and Grandma's.  Followed by another egg hunt!  And lots of cousin-time mixed in between all of that.  It was great!

And today, we are relaxing.  And cleaning, and reading stories, and playing playdough, and missing Daddy.  And waiting for him to get home!

And these little ones are the lights of our lives, and we love them so.  They make the holidays that much brighter, and more fun, and more beautiful each year.  We adore these two and everything they are.

 

Hoping your Easter was beautiful in every way.   Happy week, Friends!

grow.

It's been a while.  Longer since the last post than I would like, but such is life.  We are busy.  We are on the go.  We pack our calendars full.  And we love it.  And we do it because we can.  Our babies are to the age where we can keep a busy schedule.  I had to take a step back the other day and look at them and really study them.  All I could think is -look at how fast they GROW...

And such became this post.  I had last Monday off, and was lucky to be home with my littles with nothing else to do and nowhere to go.  We took full advantage of spring, and did some planting, and decorating, and spring cleaning.

I took a ceramic pot that I already had on hand and spray-painted it a creamy white color.

 I am realizing, though, that it's not just the plants and flowers around our yard that are growing up in the spring sunshine.

I used a black paint pen and wrote 'grow' on it.  The kids planted some oat seeds in it.

Where does the time go with the kids?  It seems not so long ago that we found out we were finally pregnant with Eliott.

 

I decided it needed a little something, so I added a period.  Perfect!  They sure enjoy cutting the grass's hair!  This is so much fun for them- I did this same thing last year, and remembered how excited he got about it!



We brought him home as nervous first-time parents do, and did everything we knew how to raise him right.

 

Then Adilyne came along, and we were now blessed with 2 little ones.  Life has been a little crazy.  They are almost exactly 2 years apart, and both Chad and I work full-time.

I found the next idea online.  They kids each planted their own bean seed.  


I have to say, though, being a teacher has been a huge blessing for our family.  The time with them all summer has been nothing but wonderful!  And, I'm happy that they are also getting the exposure and socialization they are getting at daycare while I am at work.

We had to roll up a paper towel and put it into a glass jar.


As much time as we spend with them, and focus on them, it can never be enough.
 

Then we put some water into the jar.


Our babies are gone, and have grown into independent little kids.

We put a bean seed into each one, making sure it wasn't in the water.


It was as though we blinked our eyes, it really seems to have happened THAT fast.

Each gave their seed a hug, and we set it on the hutch in the sun.


How does this happen, and where does the time go?  Wouldn't it be nice to slow it down and try to relish this time even more than we already do? 

The kids run into the house each night after school, and run out of bed in the morning to see how much their bean has grown!  What a lesson on the parts of a plant!

  I don't think it's possible, so we need to carry on.  We need to love them up and enjoy every moment we can with them.

We also filled our indoor window box with herbs.  We start them inside, then transfer them out when the weather is ready.

It's very cliche, I know that, but I'm sure every  parent agrees.  They grow too fast!

Chad really enjoys gardening, and for the past few years has started his bedding plants from seed.  This year a co-worker gave me some great heirloom veggies that I'm very excited about!  They are shooting up like crazy!


But for right now we are going to enjoy their fun ages.  We are going to soak it up, and run, and play, and laugh.  

One of my favorite plants in my flower bed is the bleeding heart plants my Grandma gave me some years back.  These things are crazy hearty, and come back bigger, stronger, and fuller each year!  I have cut them back, and chopped them down over and over and shared shoots with friends.  They all comment to me on how well their bleeding heart plants are doing!

That's what they do, and we are right  alongside them.

I can't believe that it's hardly April, and Eli has already picked off and delivered the first bloom from this beautiful plant!


I do miss my babies, but these are fun ages!  The things they say, their independence, and the way they take it all in.  I like where we're at.

Babies are a lot of fun.  We'll be there again.  But, for right now we are going to take full advantage of where we are.  We are going to live up our summer not scheduling our adventures around naps, and bottles, and diapers.  They are excited, and so are we!

Just a thought...or 2.

With this warm weather and the end of March in sight, we have begun planning our summer adventures.  We have lots of exciting events filling up our calendars, and lots on our minds.   It's good though, I love having lots of plans in place for upcoming exciting events. 


Easter is right around the corner.  And my Dad's birthday.  Eliott really wants to make him peanut butter pie for his birthday.  He loved the one we made for Daddy's birthday so much that he thinks we need to make it again.

We need to do a little shopping to fill up the baskets.  What fun things do you add to your kid's baskets?  I saw this great list and got a few ideas from it.  We are getting excited to paint our eggs.  I saw a couple of fun new ideas on pinterest that we may be trying to paint eggs this year.



Cabin season is soon upon us.  We are pumped!!!!  We can't wait to get back up there every weekend.  We miss our friends, and the fun we all have at the lake.  Of course, we always start the year with projects.  Daddy and Eli were already up there this past weekend getting some things taken care of with the new pontoon.  Last summer we did some major painting, and this spring I'd like to get a couple more rooms done.  Grandma and Grandpa gave us a new bed for Eli's room at the cabin, so now he'll have extra space for a friend to sleep over!


 
 



Speaking of cabin, we already have one weekend filled on our summer calendar.  The lovely Slavik family will be joining us, and we can't wait to see them!!
 



Parade float plans are in the works.   Many great minds join together for this each year, and we already have our wheels turning.  It's a big project, but oh, the memories for the kids...It's all worth it!  Coming up with a theme is half the battle, but once we have that in place, we just run with it!

Last year's float- Platte Story 2011

My little guy has a 'slight' obsession with Spiderman.- To the point that he was letting  people know at the family reunion last weekend that his name is Eli Eliott Robert Spiderman.  Yeah- definitely obsessed!  I'm so glad my cousin sent me a text the other night to let me know that Zulily is running a special on Spiderman shirts- She picked up on his obsession, I guess!  Chad and I were all over it, and had fun picking out a special one that he would love!

We will be talking down the crib in our home real soon- sniff, sniff.  It's so hard to believe that our baby is so big!  She now crawls in and out of this crib whenever she pleases.  We figure there's no use in the crib, it's now onto a big girl bed!

We are looking ahead to another busy weekend, and, excited that we will be spending some time with our lovely cabin friends.  We get to celebrate a special little 5 year old's birthday on Sunday!  Eli is really excited that Kendall's party is at the Bowling Alley!!!

 

We are also anxiously waiting for Jimmy Buffett to announce his concert dates for this summer.  We are planning to go with our new friends that we met in Jamaica, and are really looking forward to spending some time with them again!  We sure miss them and all the fun we had together!

One last thing that we are thinking of and planning for is our annual trip to Hemker Zoo this summer.  I started taking my Kindergarten class there a couple of years back, and loved it so much that we have made it an annual summer adventure with our own kids.  We love it!

Enjoy the sunshine, and enjoy filling up your spring and summer calendars!  We are eagerly anticipating all the of the fun and smiles we will be having in the next few months.  

Lots of special time with family and friends....There is nothing better.

Smile:)

I looked through my pictures, and realized that I had a whole lot of randoms on my camera, so I went with a Smile post again:

DIRTY LITTLE GIRL FACES make us smile:
LITTLE GIRLS DRINKING GREEN TEA also makes us smile:

HOMEMADE PIZZA makes us smile:

 

PRINCESSES make us smile:

GIRLS WHO LOVE BUGS make us smile:

4 YR. OLD CONVERSATIONS make us smile:

 2 YR. OLDS APPLYING MAKE-UP make us smile:

CUTE BOWS & SMILES make us smile:

1 YR. OLDS make us smile:

BIG-COUSIN HUGS make us smile:

SUNSHINE THROUGH CURLS make us smile:

TRIKE RIDES make us smile:

Happy Week friends!

Hope it's filled with lots of smiles:)

Before & After

 This little man has been in desperate need of a cut for a while.  We are done growing out the hockey-hair, shaggy look for now.   Maybe we'll try again next winter.

 He's all cleaned up, and ready for summer!  Thanks Auntie Jess for the cute new 'do!!!

Smile:)

The unseasonably beautiful weather we've been having lately has given us so many reasons to smile.  Here are a few others that have us grinning ear to ear:


SWEET LITTLE GIRLS make us smile:

SILLY FACES make us smile:

BIRTHDAYS make us smile:

CAKE makes us smile:

HUGS make us smile:

HAIRCUTS make us smile:

BARE FEET make us smile:

GRANDPARENTS make us smile:

EASTER DECOR makes us smile:

EASTER BASKETS make us smile:

BASEBALL WITH DADDY makes us smile:

BUBBLES make us smile:

SANDBOXES make us smile:

RAINBOOTS make us smile:

SIBLINGS make us smile:

SHELBIE makes us smile:

LEGWARMERS make us smile:

SHIRTLESS  WEATHER IN MARCH makes us smile:

FRIDAY NIGHT FISH FRYS make us smile:

BIKE RIDES make us smile:

HATS (especially home-made by Grandma) make us smile:

MUSIC makes us smile:

SPIDERMAN makes us smile:

COUSINS make us smile:

CUTE BOWS make us smile:

BABIES make us smile:

BIRTHDAY GIRLS make us smile:

Smiling with all our blessings!

What makes you smile?