Happy Easter!

"Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay."

 

What an incredible day that was so long ago. If Christ had not been raised, we would be dead in our sins. Thanks be to God for that indescribable gift!

 

Easter Sunday was the most beautiful day of the year so far! It got up into the 70's!

 

We woke up early, deciding to go to the early service to beat the crowds. The girls found their Easter baskets with some candy and a small gift in each. Ava and Allie both received Lego's, while Hannah got a Frozen Anna baby doll. Pretty much every store around us is out of Frozen merchandise. It's crazy!

 

The girls picked out their dresses for church and I think they did a great job.

 

After church, Mike grabbed McD's for the kids so I wouldn't have to cook anything while bustling to get ready! So sweet of him. We had about 30 people over for dinner. It was a lot of fun.

 

After dinner, we did an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Oh my goodness, I can't say enough how gorgeous it was outside! 

 

Most of the eggs had candy in them. There were a few eggs with $1, and one golden egg with a five dollar bill in it! I made sure to hide that one really good. Too good actually. We ended up having to give the kids the general direction of where it was hidden, as well as tell them all to "look up!"  It was hidden in that light right there! Ava finally found it and my mom had to help her get it down! 

 

After the hunt, the kids got out the water balloons and we had a lot of fun with those for the next couple hours.

 

It was a beautiful day spent with wonderful friends and family. There was evening a little Chess tournament going on inside in the evening. We are blessed to have such a great family, and even more blessed to know our amazing Savior! Happy Easter



March according to my phone

This winter has draaaaaagged on.... We're tired of snow around here. We are looking forward to warm weather, with no snow pants, scarves, gloves, and hats. Where we can wear t-shirts and flip flops. Oh that sounds so heavenly!

But we've made the most of this cold winter. We had a fun lunch date with Grandma and Papa at my favorite restaurant: The Cheesecake Factory!

 

Mike and I had another lunch date with Allie and Hannah. Ava had stayed after church with Grandma and Papa for a children's ministry meeting. It was great having some fun time with these two ladies!

 

Our mom's group met up at Castaway Café in Howell. That place was awesome! Hannah loved it!

 

Ava is the 2nd grade jump rope champion at her school! She did so awesome. Her and Allie have been practicing for the last month in our dining room. All that practice paid off for Ava! She beat out all the boys and girls in the second grade! Allie's turn is next Wednesday!

 

We dog sat for a week for this sweet puppy. We love Sadie! This was the only picture I got of her, trying to show Mike how I couldn't tale a nap cause Sadie wouldn't leave my face alone!

 

Ava had a million birthday parties this month! She was able to make it to two of them, one at Lakeland Pool and the other at Wonderland Lanes.

 

 

And finally, we celebrated Nevada's 13th birthday! I can't believe she's a teenager already! Time flies!!  

 

Today is the first day of spring, and free cone day at Dairy Queen. We woke up to more snow. Come on spring, and gardening, and swimming, and no more school, and vacations.... and so much more!



More snow and Valentine's Day

This winter has been the snowiest winter! I can't remember ever getting this much snow. It's been so beautiful! Mike had some wood from a job he had to burn so he dug out the fire pit. You can tell from this picture just how deep the snow has been!

 

The girls were even having a hard time getting through that deep snow!

 

Valentine's Day is always a fun holiday for the girls because of class parties. They always come home with lots of goodies. 

 

Mike took them out the night before Valentine's Day and let them each pick out their own little gift. Allie picked a box of chocolates and a chocolate rose. Ava picked a heart filled with sweet tarts. And Hannah picked out a stuffed owl that she creatively named Val. Mike also brought the girls a heart shaped pizza for dinner on V-day!

 

I made this poster for Mike which was a lot of fun! And Mike got me a bag of candy hearts. We don't typically do anything serious for this holiday, which is fine by me!!

 

 And on another note, Mike is trying to figure out something he can build and sell during slow times. He gets pallets all the time and we thought this might be a good thing to try to sell. So we opened an Etsy account and are going to give it a whirl for a little while! This is a recycled pallet wine rack.



Life lately

Nothing has happened in our family for the past two weeks. That's the reason I haven't posted. It's not because I'm a slacker or that I'm lazy. It's that nothing has happened.

 

OK that that's not true. Lots has happened. Here some stuff according to my phone:

 

I cut bangs for Ava. She's been asking for bangs for a while since I did it for Hannah. So I finally cut them for her. I think it makes her look more like me!

 

Mike and I went to Florida! Yeah it was pretty sweet. Our very generous friends Lisa and Tom let us stay in their beautiful house in Naples. The weather was terrible but we made the most of it! We walked on the beach, rode bikes, played tennis, watched movies, slept in, shopped and ate out a lot!

 

Mike decided it would be a good idea to upgrade our rental. This was our transportation for four days.

 

We walked along the beach one evening and checked out some huge mansions on the water.

 

This was our very comfy room for four days!

 

It was so nice to get away, just the two of us! We don't get to do that often and we're grateful when we can!

 

Oh yeah, one more! 

 

Another exciting thing that happened for us is that we bought our first Dave Ramsey vehicle! We're taking a class by him right now that's about finances and how Americans are so bad with their money. It's been amazing to actually put his principles into practice! We've been saving for a few years and finally bought a new (to us) car with no car payment! And I LOVE it! The doors actually open on this van. Who woulda thought!

 

My dad, the athlete, went in for knee surgery. He's pretty amazing. At 65 he's still playing hockey! But his knee has been bothering him for a long time so he got a partial knee replacement. He's doing great and has been healing well!

 

He only had to use this walker the day he had his surgery. Hannah loved climbing on it!

 

So that's life for now. Friday is Valentine's Day, which the girls enjoy. Mike and I are going out with the Gray's and Feullings. Since Tonya won our last weight loss challenge, she's cashing in her winnings with dinner on VDay! And we're onto another challenge, which will end in May. And if we all hit our goal weight loss, we're going on an overnight trip somewhere! Only competition can get me motivated. Sheesh.

 

Next week is also winter break and the girls get a week off, so we're hoping to come up with some fun and inexpensive things to do!