Sprinkler time

The girls love playing in the sprinkler, especially on hot days, although they're crazy enough to still run through on cold days too!

They had to take a break to say "hello" to Papa! 

Then they had the brilliant idea to put the sprinkler under the trampoline! 

Weekend get-away

Mike and I were fortunate to go to Pennsylvania for the weekend for our good friend Emily's wedding. We had such a nice time away from the girls for three days. It was a long drive but we took the time to read from a book that had 100 questions to ask before you get married. Of course there were some we had to modify a little but we still had some great discussion! It was a wonderful time to really connect with each other, and of course it was great seeing friends that we don't get to see too often.

The wedding was at a beautiful mansion in York, PA. The weather was great. It was a little hot but there was a nice breeze.

It's always fun to get to see the Dales. Their boys are getting so big! 

Emily looked beautiful! And it was nice meeting Jason for the second time! 

We're so grateful to my parents, and Mike's parents, for taking the girls for the weekend. It was really refreshing to get away!

Baseball

We decided not to sign Ava up for T-ball this year. As she gets older, she will be involved in so many things. Right now, we want to enjoy as many summers as we can with fewer commitments. I already feel like we say we're so busy and our kids aren't even in activities. I can't imagine when they're all playing a sport!

The girls really enjoy playing sports. They love baseball and soccer. So we played baseball for the first time this year.

Yeah they are using a metal pole. The whiffle bat we had wasn't heavy enough to hit the ball with. So this is the substitute till we get a descent bat!

Hannah had fun too! 

Spring has sprung!

I love Spring!! I get super excited every time I see perennials coming up. I really, really, really, (okay you get the point) love flowers. They make our yard look so beautiful! We also did our garden again this year. We layed down fabric so we wouldn't have to pick weeds constantly. So when we planted the seeds, and some plants, I was worried that the fabric would hinder growth. Plus I'm always flabbergasted to see tiny little seeds become fruits and vegetables. Isn't God's design amazing!?

These are some beautiful Irises in our front flower bed. I love the two tone! Oh and we got a new camera so my pictures are so much better.

I have never had this type of flower before. We found these at Meijer and I'm sure they're common but I had never seen them. These are called Violas. 

More Irises 

Zucchini! 

Everything we planted is now sprouting: lettuce, swiss chard, carrots, spinach, onions, peppers, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, cucumber, zucchini, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and asparagus!

Sugar snap peas 

It's fun to go out and see everything blooming and sprouting! I'll post more pictures as things grow.

Recent happenings

I haven't posted since Easter and of course, with three little ones, it's been busy! Part of that was sickness. Allie and Hannah both had pretty nasty ear infections, as well as Allie had to take breathing treatments for a bad cough. So we are all finally on the mend.

Allie really does well with these breathing treatments. She sits patiently and doesn't complain.

We also had fun experimenting with braids! Ava wanted me to braid her hair after a shower one night so I ended up doing three braids in her hair, as well as Allie's. They both had very crimped hair in the morning! 

This isn't the greatest picture but we planted a flowering crab apple tree in our backyard last fall and I was very excited to see it bloom this spring! It will be a great shade tree for our patio. 

Mike and I took a weekend and tilled the garden. We also layed down fabric this year so that we won't have to weed every day. We'll see how easy it is to plant with this stuff. 

Allie helped Mike form a brick-paver walkway into the garden. We've since added a path inside, using really nice stepping stones that don't match the brick pavers but oh well. We'll probably change it up again next year. 

Hannah helped daddy with a little project. I honestly do not even know what they're doing here but Hannah had fun.

And lastly, we went to an open house for Allie's pre-school this past Saturday. She was able to meet her teacher, Ms. Debbie, and see her classroom. She is so excited! And even more fun for her is that her best friend Maya will be in her class. Ava enjoyed saying hi to Ms. Debbie as well, since she was a graduate of this school!  

Happy Easter

"Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow."

What an amazing gift we have in Jesus. That we don't have to earn salvation, we don't have to do the best we could do, that God accepts us the way we are because of Christ's sacrifice, is an incredible gift that is hard to fathom. I'm so thankful that we can celebrate this amazing gift on Easter.

We had a lovely day. We went to church in the morning and listened to an amazing message. Both the Epleys and the Rosses came over in the afternoon for dinner and an Easter egg hunt. We had a lot of really great food and some tasty desserts as well! It was a beautiful day.

Our attempt at our family picture fell a little short since Hannah didn't take her sucker out of her mouth! 

All the cousins getting ready to search for eggs. 

Jace helped Hannah! 

Papa and Jace helping Hannah, and a shot of my beautiful tulips!  

A fun Easter bunny cake I made with the girls.

Music ladies

I have been wanting to take piano lessons for a long time. I would also like to have the girls take lessons. Our friend Laura is a phenomonal piano player and gives lessons. So now we just needed to get a piano. Mike's parents' friends just happened to have a piano that they wanted to get rid of. And what a beautiful piano it is! We are so excited! The girls play it all the time. They both learned how to play the song from Sound of Music, "Doe, a dear, a female dear." We're hoping to start lessons this summer, if it fits into our schedule.