Athaiah turns 3!

My sweet little peanut!  How are you already 3? I wish that time would slow, you are getting so big, soo fast, I wish I could keep up!  You are still a mommy's girl, and I hope you stay this way forever.  You are my sweet and sassy little girl!  Always keeping mommy and daddy on their toes.  You are smart beyond your years, and can speak like an adult! I am constantly amazed at how quickly you can pick up on new ideas, and your concept of words and sentences!  Watch out world, Athaiah is coming for you!!  You are such the little momma to your siblings, always making sure they have what they need and if they don't getting it for them (usually all by yourself!).  From the second your feet hit the floor you are a running bundle of energy, and enthusiasm.  You have such a happy spirit, and I pray you will always keep it! You are a girly girl to the MAX, but aren't afraid to get dirty(although you will promptly clean yourself up!) You are my snuggle bug-always have been, some things never change, and I hope they never do.  I can always count on you to climb into our bed in the middle of the night, and to want me to snuggle or rock you to sleep for nap time. And randomly throughout the day to climb into my lap or beg to be picked up because you just need a quick snuggle.  I love your affection, and you give it to everyone so freely.  It always brightens our days when you offer up your snuggles so freely!

 Momma's girl forever!

 Birth to Now~ I cannot believe how you have grown my sweet girl!  Time flies!

 Rockin' her new shades from Auntie Lolo and Uncle Robert! Always a fashionista

 Baby Blankets! From her Oma and Opa!

 Big Girl with her Big Bike-complete with a purse and baby carrier of course!!

You requested a birthday cookie cake this year, and you got it.  You couldn't have been happier.  Always an original thinker!  You also requested meatballs, noodles with cheese, corn, and cantaloupe!  Such a well rounded meal for a sweet 3 year old to pick up!  You also picked to have strawberry pancakes for lunch-which turned out fabulous( if I do say so myself)! Great IDEA! We love you sweet girl, and we cannot wait to see where life takes you.  We pray that you will continue to learn, and that you will one day learn all about God and His love for you, and become a part of HIS family!  Keep growing strong my sweet one, and stay positive! 

 The cookie cake that you picked for mommy to make-had to have pink m&ms in it, yes I was a good mom and picked out all the pink ones(good thing your birthday is close to Easter!) And of course baby had to have some too!

We love you sweet peanut! You are have always been my skimmy immie(as you say!) Weighing in at 32lbs, and 39.5" tall!

Easter

Christ is Risen, HE is Risen INDEED!

I am so thankful this season(well really all the time!) for a Savior who died for my sins once and for all.  For the nails that pierced his hands and feet, and all the love that He has shown for me.  He has extended me grace and mercy when I do not deserve it.  Oh LORD thank you for all that you have done for me, and I pray that you will continue to allow me to live out your love in my life.  Let me lay down my life for my family and those around me.  Allow me to be your vessel, and LORD allow me to teach what a GREAT LOVE you have for us to my children.  So that they will one day come to know you and your love as well!

Easter is such a wonderful season of remembrance of all that Christ has done for us, and although we still do little things that point us to the world and not to Christ.  I have tried in everything that we did this season to some how bring it all back to Christ, and why we really celebrate Easter!

This year I decided to have the kids make their own Easter baskets out of paper plates.  I love to do crafts, and my kiddos like to do them to.  They can sometimes turn chaotic when you have 4 people 4 and under trying to do crafts together, but they always make for a lot of fun, and a lot of conversations. While we colored our Easter baskets I told them the Easter story, and why we celebrate this time of year. (If you want to make these for yourselves next year, I just googled it! They were super easy to make, and were a lot of fun!)

Take a look, they turned out so cute, and they are small which is perfect because we don't usually give them a whole lot(we all know small children don't really need any sugar, or they won't be sleeping for the next 6 weeks, in turn meaning we won't be sleeping for the next 6 weeks!)<---OK maybe that is a slight exaggeration.

 We also dyed Easter Eggs(which they were told will be saved for Easter Morning!).  They did really good, at not making messes...I was really, really impressed with this "craft" time!  The egg kit that we got had these awesome glasses and mustaches to add to the eggs once they were dry, meaning they got double the fun, dye and stickers!

AND of course, we made cookies, what is a holiday if you can't make sugar cookies?! Here are a few of them, the kids had fun with every aspect in this process as well, make the dough <--eat the dough!, roll it out, cut it out, bake them, make frosting, frost them, and last but not least cover them in sprinkles.  I mean come on, how could this not make for an entire day of adventure and fun!  I love getting to spend quality time with my kids, and each thing we did together, I quizzed them on the Easter story, and then told it to them again.  Such wonderful memories made with my children, and such wonderful memories they now have about the Easter story.  I swear my children listen, and learn better if they are doing something with their hands in the process. (even if it doesn't have too much to do with what we are talking about!)

All ready for Easter morning!

We celebrated Easter morning, with our Easter baskets, a new Easter book, and veggie tale movie!  We then made surprise rolls(linking it to the tomb being empty), and ate those for breakfast with our eggs.  We enjoyed a wonderful time at church with friends.

Momma's girl!

"big" kids

 My beautiful babies!

And we came home to a big lunch!  Finishing off with the Easter story read just one more time from our Jesus Storybook Bible!

What did you do this Easter?  How did you show your children the love and sacrifice of Christ during this wonderful season?  I always love to hear new ideas!

Eli Turns 4!!

How can it be big man?  Time sure has flown by!  You are FOUR! It doesn't feel like you should be that big already. I can remember like yesterday the day you entered this world, making me a mommy for the first time!

You are my sweet little man.  The one who holds the doors open for all the ladies in your life(your daddy has been teaching you well, my son!). You are the first one to run to someone when they are hurt, and offer them a hug and smooch to make it all better!  You are such a ray of sunshine in our lives.  Always keeping a smile on your face, and on those around you. Your understanding has really taken off lately.  You are very concerned about doing what is right.  You also love to read your Bible story every night, listening soo close to everything that is said, that way you can get all the answers right in the end! Your sense of humor is also taking off which is keeping us in stitches!  I love hearing you tell us all your knock-knock jokes.

Cars!  You love cars, and constantly ask daddy which ones he is working on at work-and what he is doing to them.  Your face lights up, when you and daddy get to play parking lot together!

I love watching you interact with all of your siblings, you have such an amazing gift and relationship with each one of them.  You and Athaiah are best buds(for the most part!), Avery is your little princess, you give her anything she wants(even when mommy tells her no!), and Noah is "your" baby.  You love on him, and want to help do everything for him!  You are such a big helper around the house, always asking mommy if you can help with the dishes, begging to set the table, to dust, and to sweep!  What would I do without you around here?  You keep me sane, and on my toes.  You help me learn more everyday, and challenge me to be a better mom for you and your siblings.

You were very specific this year, in what you wanted for gifts and food.  I am happy to report you got everything you wanted(and more!).  For your cake you wanted a blue, slimy(ganache frosting!) cake, shaped like a number! For your meal you wanted Mac n Cheese(momma's homemade kind!), Green Beans, Strawberries, and Birthday Potato soup! (Don't worry we split it up into two meals for the day!)

 For presents you wanted a monster truck, a clock with red numbers, and an airplane.  You insisted that was all you wanted!

We love you to the moon and back!  Happy Birthday my sweet boy! Keep on smiling!