Easter...

We had a wonderful Easter weekend at our house...

Saturday, we were at Reed Bingham for our church picnic & it was a blast.  We hung out, played all kinds of games, ate some lunch, had an egg hunt & just enjoyed a really wonderful day with a group of people we have truly grown to love over the past 2 1/2 years.  The kids' favorite part was definitely the water guns & wars.  I have to say that I do believe Kale enjoyed the mud hole the water made more than water guns.  He was covered!!

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids on Easter morning.  They are growing so fast & I'm thoroughly enjoying watching them grow & develop their own special brother/sister

relationship with one another!  Yes...they fight, but they definitely do love each other a great deal!!!

                                        It is always so 

important for us to really explain the real meaning of many of the holidays we celebrate.  At Christmas, it wasn't so much about Santa but about Jesus' Birthday.  At Easter, it wasn't about the Easter bunny but Jesus being alive.  In fact, I don't think they would know who the Easter bunny was...not that we are against that or purposefully left that out, it just never was important enough to mention.  Man, I just really want them to think about the Truth (Jesus) of holidays & not the commercialized version that so often becomes the focus.  

I do have to say that Kale's face had a permanent smile on it when he woke up & found his Easter basket.  It is always so much fun to surprise them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Such a slacker!!

It has been forever since I have updated this thing!!  Kevin asked me the other day if I had done anything with it lately.  He is on a mission trip to New Orleans this week so I thought I would take the opportunity to get on here & do a little with it anyway.  

We've had Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, Kevin's Birthday, Kale's Birthday & Valentine's Day...at least I don't have to add

Easter to the list.  I got to it just in time!! :)  I'm not going to try and fill you in on all that we've done since October because I would be up all night & that would be crazy!!!!!!!

We had a blessed Christmas & New Year's.  Kevin & Kale's Birthday were wonderful.  And Valentine's Day wasn't half bad either.  I have a few pictures that I'm adding now & then I'll try to add a few more in the next day or so.

We do have some exciting news...we found out a couple of weeks ago that we are expecting our 3rd!!!  We are very happy about the news & excited to meet another member of our family in November.  Aren't children such a blessing & gift from our Lord!?!?! 

Anyways...I am truly going to put forth a conscious effort to be better about updating our blog.

Pumpkin Jam

Does this picture not just make you laugh?!?  They were laughing about something and I still haven't figured out what it was...

We had Pumpkin Jam at our church last night.  It was a bit cold outside but I think everyone that came had a great time!!  Kale and Maris decided one day when they were watching Peter Pan that they were going to be Peter Pan and Tinkerbell for Pumpkin Jam.  We don't use the word Halloween in our house.I'm not even sure they would know what you were talking about if you said Halloween.  I hope it stays that way for a while.

They played in the bounce house, went down the HUGE slide, rode the little train around the church, and played all the little games in the trunks.  They got some candy too but I tried to keep that to a minimum...I know, I know, what fun am I?!?

Kevin stayed pretty busy throughout the evening but would sneak away as much as he could to come ride something with the kids or to say hey.

 

Kale is in the back of the truck with a couple of his good friends, Charlie and Wyatt.  They were hanging out before the party started.  Maris is kneeling down with their baby brother also known as "Baby Ben."  I have a feeling this sweet fellow is going to be called Baby Ben by Maris when he is 20 years old.

Dancin, dancin, dancin!!!

A week or two ago I had Reid for a couple of days while Ms. Shirley was out of town.  It was raining, & raining, & raining outside & all three of the kids were crazy wild.  I put my thinking cap on to figure out what in the world I could do to get some energy worked out of those little guys.  SSOOOOOOOO...I got out the VBS music DVD from this past year & put that thing in for them to watch & dance along with.  They had an absolute ball and cracked Kevin and I up along the way!!

It wasn't too long after the dance-athon (is that a word?!?!?) that they all crashed for the remainder of the afternoon!!!

Pumpkin Carving

We had so much fun a couple of weeks ago carving our pumpkin "Happy!"  The kids got a little grossed out about cleaning out the inside of it but enjoyed watching me and Kevin get our hands dirty.  We had fun finding the happy face we wanted to carve & drawing it on the pumpkin so that we didn't mess it up too bad.

It was worth all of the yucky stuff for the roasted pumpkin seeds we got to eat after all the "dirty work" was done.  I say we, Kevin would have nothing to do with the seeds, but the kids & I thought they were great!!

Soccer & Lucy

Kale has been playing soccer for a few weeks now with the Y.  Kevin is coaching the team & I think they are really enjoying spending that time together.  There are 6 little guys on the team & they are all 3 years old.  They are an absolute joy to watch...when they are actually willing to go in the game.  They are warming up to the idea of it more & more.  The one thing we really wanted from this season is for Kale to have a positive experience.  So far it has been & he is more excited about it each time he goes to practice or a game. 

Lucy is our new found love, or puppy.  We decided on that name after playing with her for a couple of days.  She happened upon us sometime last week & as you can tell from the picture, Kale & Maris have adopted her.  She lets them roll all over her, tug on her & love on her without any protest whatsoever.  We are really struggling with whether or not to keep her or find a loving home for her somewhere else.  I think Kevin is more attached to her than

the kids.  He said he would only give her away if he found someone who would spoil her rotten...& yes, she is just that sweet!!   

The Beach!!

The kids had their first experience at the beach a couple of weeks ago.  We spent a week in Ft. Walton and it was absolutely wonderful!!  It's the first REAL vacation we've taken as a family...it took Kevin & I a little while to work up the confidence to take 2 toddlers adventuring.  

I really thought the ocean would scare them a little but they loved it & laughed every time a wave knocked them over!!  Maris was a little apprehensive but was ready to go after the first wave she experienced.  Kale wanted to go deeper!!  The waves were wild by mid week because of the hurricane churning in the gulf towards Texas.  We weren't able to get in the water after Wednesday because of double red flags but still went down to the beach to watch the waves.  

On Thursday we couldn't even get to the beach.  The surge was getting all the way past the boardwalk.  We did go out on the pier...& got completely drenched I might add!!  I wasn't expecting the waves to be so high that they were soaking the pier as they crashed.  It was a really cool experience although we were dripping salty water when we left.

After the beach each day, we found ourselves in the pool.  It was the natural place to end up after being sandy & salty!!  I think the kids enjoyed being able to go swimming everyday.   The kids wanted Kevin to throw them constantly!  It was tiring for Kevin but they squealed every time he did it!