Easter Weekend!

We are very thankful that we serve a God who not only died for our sins, but did not stay dead. Our God is alive and that exactly what we celebrate not only on Easter but all throughout the year. 

Not the best pic, but the best one we got!

 

We went to church on Saturday night. The kids did great and went straight into their classes. Izabel got to move up to a bigger class and she loved it. The service was excellent and it is always nice to go to church with the whole family. Sunday morning we hosted Easter brunch and an Easter egg hunt. The kids got their Easter baskets with their new Disney movies, some books, a little bit of candy and some toys. Izabel's favorite item was orange glitter nail polish - she is such a girlie girl!

Yay for nail polish!

We love eating outside and the kids love their picnic table

Goofy kiddos

Izzy and "Dew"

Izabel got the most eggs!

Aunt Ann, Gram, Theresa, Mom, Dad, Josh, Amy, Matt, Candace, Matt and Drew all joined us for breakfast. We had a great meal and enjoyed each others company. After the egg hunt we took the kids down to the beach with Candace, Matt and Drew. We walked on the board walk and played at the park. When we got too hot we came home and enjoyed a great ham dinner cooked by my wonderful husband!!! It was a great weekend celebrating and spending time together and we can't wait for more beautiful weather weekends to get outside with the kids :)

Water table fun - they LOVED this! Thank you Aunt Amy :)

Circus Circus!

We finally decided (on the last day it was in town) to take the kids to the circus! Actually, to be fair my parents bought the tickets for the kids and we all went together. Tanner wasn't all that interested in most of it. He was excited in the beginning and then quickly got bored, but Izabel LOVED it. She didn't take her eyes off of the excitement the entire time and her eyes were so wide. My favorite part was watching her during the tight rope walkers. She kept putting her hands over her eyes and watching through her fingers. It was so cute! When we got in the car I asked her what her favorite part is and she started naming things and then said "everything was my favorite part!" I love her!!!

The kids with Daddy and Granddaddy

Tanner was happiest while he was eating - and that is peanut butter and jelly not junk!

SO EXCITED!

Nervous about the tightrope walkers :)

Spring Break :)

Our Spring Break in Hampton is always the first week in April in between the 3rd and 4th marking periods. This year we were the only ones in the area to go on Spring Break this week because Easter is not until the 24th and other school districts have Spring Break right before or after Easter.

As we have started to make our new tradition we headed up to Massanutten for a long weekend at the beginning of break. Since this was not a usual Spring Break week there were not that many people there and we had a really great time. My parents came up with us and the Ingrams joined us for a couple days as well. We went to the water park, the pool, the lake and the regular park and just enjoyed each others company. It's nice to get away and not have anything to do but be together.

 

 




We came home Tuesday night so we could make it to our Y-Change class and so Noah could go to poker. Wednesday and Thursday Izzy went to school and me and Tanner got to hang out in the mornings. We had a nice couple of days and then celebrated Tanner's 2nd birthday over the weekend! I love spring break, but now that it is over the countdown for summer is on!!!

Choo Choo, Tanner's Two!

 

On Friday we celebrated Tanner's 2nd birthday!!! I can't believe my baby boy is two! He's so grown up and yet still my baby boy all at the same time. I got to spend the morning of his birthday with him while Izabel was out school. We did some shopping for his birthday present together and then we started some baking for his big party. My mom came over to cut his hair and then we were out the door to pick up Izzy and head to Tanner's 2 year well check!

He's still not really talking but Izabel didn't talk until she was almost 2 1/2 so we're not really worried about it. Everything else he is doing is completely age appropriate and he passed all his age 2 screenings. He weighs 32 lbs (90%) and is 34 inches long (82%). The only concern right now is this cough that will not go away. It seems to flare up at night, in the morning and when he gets really active. The doctor is concerned this could be asthma so they put him on an inhaler for a couple months and then he will be checked out again. He took his one shot like a champ and that was that. The ears are clear which is such a relief since an ear infection this time would have meant tubes. We are in love with the new doctor he saw this time (our usual one was out of the office this month for surgery and recovery), Dr. Laura Carson. She was so nice and friendly and patient! We'll be asking for her again for sure!!

After the doctor we had birthday and Easter pictures taken and they were so adorable. I'll post some as soon as I can scan them in! Then we met my parents for dinner at Friendly's which both kids love. Tanner got really shy and almost cried when they sang to him. Luckily the ice cream they brought saved the day! It was really cute. 

Saturday we had a Choo Choo party to celebrate. Tanner's present from us was the GeoTrax train set which both kids are in LOVE with! It came with two trains so I thought we would be good, but of course they still manage to fight over it sometimes. We put up some decorations and of course blew up balloons! We had Choo Choo cupcakes and lots of yummy snacks and the kids played with the train set. Tanner got lots of great presents! He got a Handy Manny took box that plays music and the tools dance. He can't help but start moving his hips when the music comes on and it is so cute! He also got a super soft Thomas blanket that he will not go to sleep without! He got lots of toys for the bath tub, books, and super cute clothes. Everything was perfect and every time I tried to give him a new present to open he just wanted to keep playing with the last one. I think he was a little overwhelmed but it was great!

 

 

 
The rest of the weekend we were pretty lazy. I was feeling a little under the weather so Noah took the kids to the park a couple times and we did some homework and played with the new toys. Now Spring Break is over (post about that coming soon) and it's back to real life! Only 9 more weeks and we're on summer vacation which means I get to be a stay at home mommy for a while. I'm excited and I have lots of things that I am going to accomplish around here this summer and lots of fun things we will do with the kids. It's exciting!!!

A Very Special Day!

 

Today is a big day and no it's not my birthday - yet! Today is my mom's 60th birthday!!! On top of the fact that it is a big birthday for her, it is a day to celebrate the fact that she is still alive. 

The fact that she almost did not make it to this birthday is not lost on me and I have been a little teary all week thinking about it. My mind keeps going to back to those days in October and November when we didn't think she would make it to 60 years old. 

I'm sure she's not thrilled with my blasting her age all over the internet, but I think it's amazing that she's made it to this milestone and still looks and acts so much younger! She's still taking care of the kids, does things around the house for us during the day and is always available to all of us if we ever need anything.

 

She really is an amazing mom and we're never been more thankful to celebrate her special day. She's a walking miracle and we pray that we will experience many more special birthdays with her! 

Happy Birthday Mom! 

We don't tell you enough but we love you so much and couldn't survive with you!!!

Weekends

I love weekends! I mean who doesn't, but lately I just can't wait to be at home with the kids. I've been working really hard at keeping everything picked up each night so that I don't have to spend the whole weekend getting the house back in order from the week. It has given me so much more time to just relax and play!

Thursday is not really a weekend day, but since it was St. Patrick's Day I figured it could be included! Izabel had some fun activities at school with a sneaky leprechaun causing lots of chaos. He went potty and washed his hands in the sink leaving green all over the bathroom and messed up all the toys! Izabel thought it was so funny and has been blaming the leprechaun for everything ever since :)

Izzy and Drew at dinner for St Patrick's Day

 

 

 

I guess he wasn't having a good time :)

Friday I met Candace at David's Bridal and ordered the bridesmaid dress for her wedding, the one for Jackie's wedding and the sash for Izabel's dress! Thank goodness for tax returns :) Of course doing that after work meant I spent forever sitting in Friday afternoon traffic to get home. Noah and Matt took Izabel and Drew to the hockey game and me and Candace hung out with Tanner for the evening. Izabel and Drew are so cute together and we always try to get a few good blackmail pictures for the future! The kids had a great time and stayed up way too late, perfectly acceptable every once in a while!!!

Saturday morning the kids slept until 8 so I actually got a shower and a cup of coffee while the house was quiet. It was beautiful and I certainly enjoy this on the rare occasions that it occurs. We went for a walk/bike ride and then ran some errands. We were supposed to go to Trevor's birthday party but the yucky stuff coming out of Tanner's nose kept us home :( I'm so sick of these never ending colds! 

Tanner enjoying his ride

I love my view on our walks :)

Izabel looks for the pink car everyday!

Miss Courtney came over to babysit so we could go to the hockey game Saturday night. We had a really great time sitting in the box and watching all the action up close and personal! Then we came home to watch the UFC fight, drink too much and stay up way too late!

Whipped cream vodka, orange soda and sherbet drinks - yum yum!

Sunday we played at home until Noah finally got out of bed! While he was sleeping I was working on a plan to turn the area off of our kitchen into a playroom. I want some organization and a place for the kids so I thought about bookshelves on the back wall, but I see our kids climbing up to the top and then us rushing to the ER. Needless to say I don't have a plan yet, but I'm open to suggestions! Feel free to comment :)

 

Once we were all ready to get going we finally went and joined the YMCA! I was so excited and we have already been twice since then. I'll do a separate post about this later. After we were finished we went to Best Buy to get my birthday present - a new wireless printer! I'm in love with it but having a few technical difficulties in getting it going on our home network. This is on the to-do list for next weekend! 

 We finished off our weekend the normal way around here - with homework! The kids snuggled up on the couch watching a movie and it was so cute seeing them snuggle :) Yay for weekends - let's get to the next one quickly please!!!

Snuggle time after the bath