Birthday Fairies!

This weekend our home was graced with the presence of 8 beautiful little fairies there to celebrate Lily's birthday!

Jeremy

This is our nephew Jeremy.  He's the oldest of the grandchildren.  He's a senior in high school and he's getting ready to graduate.  Graduate!  He was just a little boy when Joe and I got married- it doesn't seem possible that he's already graduating! 

For a long time I didn't know if I would be an aunt.  Being an only child and all there were many scenarios in which I wouldn't be.  I am has thankful that this wasn't the case.  And I am thankful for Jeremy and for the young man that he is.  Jeremy is smart and faithful and is full of integrity.  He wants to be a pilot and is going to Moody Bible College next year to do just that.

I had the privilege of taking Jeremy's senior pictures last fall and I thought I would share a few of my favorites here.  He might not have been as excited to have his pictures taken as I was to take them, but it was fun none-the-less. 

Jeremy, we are all so proud of you!

5 Years!

5 years ago yesterday I gave birth to what nurses and friends said was one of the most beautiful babies they had ever seen.  She might be 5 years old, but she is still my beautiful baby!  Happy Birthday my sweet, sweet Lily!

Happy Easter!

This year at Easter we really tried to focus more on the true meaning of the holiday and we talked with the kids about Christ quite bit.  We did the Resurrection Eggs with our children's church class (we were the teachers for Easter morning) and the kids and I also made this little Resurrection Garden.  The kids had a lot of fun making it with me and then watching it grow.  On Good Friday we placed a play dough Jesus in the tomb and on Easter Sunday we celebrated that the stone was rolled away, that Jesus had been resurrected, and that our God is alive!

And we did all of the other Easter things too!  Eli was the first to find his basket this year (well Lily actually found his basket...and then let him find it).

And almost as soon as Lily found her basket the poor little bunny lost his ears!:)

And Eli quickly followed suit with his bunny ears!

And while is was sort of a chilly, dreary day outside we still managed to get in our Easter egg hunt outside before church (and before the rain came).

Eli really had to work for this one!

Lily's basket was overflowing!

And then the kids got to go inside and discover all of the candy in their eggs.  Eli was so excited to do this that he didn't even bother to take off  his boots!

Eli had a little bit of a cold (as you can tell from his running nose)- but that didn't stop him from enjoying the goodies!

And I managed to get a few pictures of my babies all dressed up and ready for church!

Yes, these were the faces I got when I asked Eli to smile for me!:)

And one of the funniest parts of the day was this squishy toy crocodile.  Eli is a bit obsessed with crocodiles...he LOVES them!  Every time we go by a body of water he thinks that there are crocodiles in it and he tells you how many he sees and then says, "snap, snap."  It's really quite adorable.  So, I got this squishy crocodile to go in his Easter basket.  I knew that he would either love it or being afraid of it.  Let's just say it was the later.  Oh my, he was fascinated with it, he wanted to watch us play with it, he refused to just leave it alone, but he didn't want to come anywhere near the thing!  But over the course of the day he got braver and braver.  It even came with us to celebrate Easter at Nonnie & Grampie's house.  The uncles had quite a time chasing Eli around with it (which he mostly enjoyed by then) and it provided quite a bit of entertainment for us all.  By the end of the day he was willing to pick it up (but only by it's tail)!:)

We hope that you all had a wonderful Easter celebrating the resurrection of Christ and enjoying the life that His sacrifice brings!