A Few More Easter Pictures

A few more Easter weekend pictures.

This weekend was a whirl wind but so much fun. Matt's cousin Alicia and her husband Lance came down from Detroit and stayed with us. The weekend was filled with Easter festivities and family time. A big thank you to Alicia for taking so many pictures. These are her pics...I haven't gotten mine on the computer yet.

Enjoy!

FRIDAY

Enjoying KC BBQ at Oklahoma Joes. If you haven't been to this place...I recommend it. However, get ready to stand in line to wait (but it is worth it). We went at 2:30 and the line was out the door of the gas station. Yes, I said gas station. The restraunt is located in the gas station.

Lance was VERY excited!

SATURDAY

Started the day off with feeding the buffalo and the elk at Lake Jacomo's Wildlife Refuge. There were baby buffalo there this time!

Easter Egg Hunt and Picnic in Liberty

Saturday Night:

Birthday dessert for Matt (he turned 30 today the 26th!)
We had the yummy chocolate bag and had a sitter for the kiddos!

SUNDAY

Easter lunch at the Turbough's in Liberty.

Followed by an Easter egg hunt

Followed by family pictures. This was quite an interesting adventure, especially since most of them didn't have a nap that day.

MONDAY

I had to work on Monday, but Matt, the kids, Lance and Alicia got to stay home and enjoy the day. Poor Sophia was sick. Both of the kids loved having Lance and Alicia here this weekend. John was very sad they had to leave this morning. We already miss them!

Easter baskets got made at Jewell's house this week. This causes very excited kids!

Ginger

Ginger is John's best friend.

He talks about her all the time.

Ginger was my parents' dog. I got a text message this morning from my dad that let us know Ginger had passed away in her sleep. As many of you know...I am not a dog person. But when I heard this news, tears instantly appeared. The thought was "How am I going to tell my little boy that he won't see his best friend again?" I thought about it all day. I had a plan and was ready. When I told Matt, his comment was "We can't tell him. Your parents have to get another dog."

I sat John on my lap after we got home. I told him I had something to tell him. I explained Ginger had went to heaven and that she wouldn't be at Nannee and Pops house next time we went down to Houston. He asked "why?" a lot. I kept explaining. I asked if he wanted to go buy a balloon for Ginger. I told him we could write a note to her and send the balloon up to heaven with teh note. He said no. He sat on my lap for a long time. He was very quiet.

When Matt came home, he told his daddy that Ginger went to heaven.

And that was it.

I have a feeling he doesn't really understand. And this will probably come up the next time we are in Houston.

I am sad because I know he is little enough to probably not remember Ginger when he gets older. However, Ginger is special to all of us because she was John's first best friend. He loved her so much and talked about her constantly. He keeps a picture of her on his dresser. He dressed up as her for Halloween. She is the first thing he looks for when he is at Nannee and Pops house. Every morning we have been in Houston, the first thing he does is feed Ginger. He always said, "Feed Ginger when the sun wakes up."

Thank you Ginger for being John's best friend.

Passover Story

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. This was going to be the first year where John was going to be able to walk down the aisle and wave the palm branches. I was so excited! However, as my sweet boy came down the aisle, tears were running down his face. I guess when he started waving the branch, one of the leaves hit him square in the aisle. He is now not a fan of palm branches!

After I picked him up, he had a picture of a donkey. This was our conversation:

Me: What did you learn today in class?

John: Jesus rode on a donkey and said

YEE HAW!

Today our dear, sweet friends, the Beards, moved to Texas. It is one of those things where I know that God was in total control of this move and they are faithfully doing His will. These two people are some of Matt's and I's best friends. Andrew introduced Matt and I before we dated, we all dated at the same time, got married the same summer, and all lived together for a time being. Sarah and I had conversations before marrying the boys about future vacations. They were there for both of our children's births (John Andrew is named after Andrew). We have laughed and cried together. Spent a many lake days together and had some fun road trips.

For the past couple of years, our lives have taken us in different directions. Matt and I's lives were taken over by our 2 children, Lakeland and school. Sarah and Andrew's lives were taken over by their 70+ children in their youth group, where they did an amazing job. Our schedules were very different but we always seemed to find an evening when we could catch up over Ponchos.

When they told us they were moving. It was really no surprise. Matt and I both knew there had been a stirring in their hearts and that change was soon to happen. Up until now, I hadn't really been sad about them leaving. I hadn't shed a tear...until now. It is hard growing up. It is hard when dear friends go a new path, without you. I now know how Sarah and Andrew felt when we left on the plane to Serbia and then Colorado. I am comforted knowing that they are exactly where God wants them. I am excited to see the plans unfold as they start this new journey. I do pray that someday, we just might be near one another again.

I tried looking at old pictures...it was a little hard, so I posted the furniture we got from them because they sold almost everything. We have new living room furniture to give us daily reminders of them. :)

Sarah and Andrew...we love you dearly. We are excited to see your journey. Please know we love you and couldn't ask for better friends.

Washing Fia's Hair

John is really into helping. So tonight he decided to help with bathtime. After scrubbing his own body, he decided he would help with washing Sophia's hair. He did it ever so gently and was singing "Wash, wash your body".

Sophia actually liked it! John decided to relax afterwards.

When you walk into a room and you see your two children sitting in bed reading...

your heart smiles.

Enjoying the Sunshine

Sporting her new hat...

Enjoying the sunshine!

Rubbing Feet

Matt taught John how to rub my feet after a long, hard week of MAP testing.

Matt hates rubbing feet...so I think he is hoping John will take over soon.

Sophia is Walking With A Scooter!

Sophia is walking! She let go of her scooter after the video and stood by herself for a few seconds. You can also tell by the video that she is ready to keep up with her brother!

Enjoy!

April Updates on the Kiddos

The kiddos watching Sid the Science Kid.

Updates: Sophia has gotten tooth number 8 and is working on teeth 9 and 10. She is a teething champ. She sleeps a lot and that seems to be her way of getting through it. We haven't had to give her medicine or do anything to help her ease pain. She is HARD CORE! She stood by herself on Saturday and is starting to take steps while holding onto a finger. I caught her in John's room on Saturday playing with cars. She was making a car sound while driving the car on the track. Then she made them crash...just like John does. I guess I didn't need to stock up on girl toys! John is growing like a weed. He is talking like crazy and makes us laugh each day. He loves to entertain and be the center of attention. The coffee table is his stage and he performs daily. He loves to shout the 1 2 Buckly my Shoe rhyme at the top of this lungs while playing the drums with chopsticks. He is identifying his colors now. This has been an ongoing event. He is so dang smart and has such a large vocabulary I couldn't understand why he didn't know his colors. I had gotten to the point that I thought he might be color blind. I stocked up on color books at the library and was set to get the colors down. Come to find out...he has been pulliing my leg. He knows his colors and he is not color blind. Onery boy!

First Saturday in April

This Saturday had no plans and we were all at home! It was fabulous. Here are some pictures from the day.

John built and had breakfast in his Micky Mouse Clubhouse.

Sophia took steps behind her little scooter!

We spent pretty much the whole day outside. The kids had a snack picnic while....

We tilled our first garden. Plans this week: plant kale, spinach, potatoes, and carrots.

Our garden ended up being a little bit bigger than we expected....12ft. by 18ft. We hopefully will have a lot of goodies this summer!

Happy Spring!