easter twenty twelve, part 1

we had a great weekend.

between fin's birthday and easter, we had a bunch of good family & friend time.
we also had a good amount of relaxed time at home with just our little family.
i took tons of photos that i can't wait to share with you this week.


we enjoyed a low-key saturday that involved aj's chocolate chip pancakes and hanging out in our jammies for way too long.
the boys and i dyed easter eggs.

this is aj's hands on approach. :)

i enjoy dying the easter eggs.
immediate results, short time commitment, deviled eggs for a week. all good stuff.

i love having a house full of kids who are easily pleased.
they make holidays so great.

aah! i can hardly stand the cuteness of three-year-old hands!

these boys. pure joy right there.

almost too pretty to eat.
almost.
but then they would rot and that would be gross.



i'll be back tomorrow with more easter goodness... i took a bunch of pics in our easter get up. :)



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sunshine and overalls

we are having summertime weather already.
it was high 80's all weekend.
yes. please.
i love it.

we spent all day saturday working in our yard.
i pulled weeds from 8:30-3:00, only stopping for lunch.
my legs feel like i did 1000 lunges.
i'm walking like an old lady, but our landscaping sure looks nice. ;)


life has been so busy lately. . . i feel like i'm constantly working on a never ending to-do list.
i literally can not fit everything in a day that i need to.
i've been praying and asking Jesus to help me to focus on the most important {eternal value} things and let the rest slide.

i finally got around to editing the bazillion pics i took of ruby in overalls.
we have a photo of each of our boys in the same overalls at 6 months old.

this wasn't something i planned out in the beginning, but after i had a pic of avery and finley in them at the same age, i knew i had to continue the tradition. :)

i took about eleventyhundred pics, trying to get the one.


here are some of my faves....

these were taken in 3 different photo sessions, over the course of a week...a few weeks ago.

it was a bit challenging to get a pic of her sitting up since she was still too wobbly to sit on her own at that point.

and this is when she got tired of being propped up in a chair and did her standard, thumb in the mouth, rub the back of her head, sleepy pose.

then we tried outside....it was a little sunny & windy, but she was a trooper. . . in a metal basket.

i love those little bare feetsies. 

so sweet and small. :)

and....back inside....

so now i have to decide which one to frame to go with the boys' pics.
there's not one perfect shot that's an obvious choice.
good thing perfection is not the goal around here. :)
i'm happy that i captured Ruby, just as she is, at this sweet time in her life.

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spring break, day 2: rain.

yesterday, {day one of spring break} we met friends at gymnastic's joes for open play.

very fun. 

the kids ran and bounced and jumped and flipped for an hour.

then we made our way down to chic fil a and managed to feed 9 small children without incident.

day two of spring break has been spent indoors.
non-stop rain would not have been my first choice but it could be worse.
we could have snow.

so . . . we're making lemons out of lemonade.
we curled up on the couch this morning and watched dumbo.
we've done a bunch of crafts.

i read a stack of books.

i pulled out the tunnel and set it up for them.

they've played store and farm and danced to music....

and now. . . i have two asleep and four of us are watching, Jesus the Miracle Worker....it's a little weird, half claymation and half cartoon. 

but you know, it's got a good message. 

and the kids don't seem to mind the odd looking claymation people. 

and big bonus, i finished the hunger games book one. 

and i plan to start book two momentarily. ;)

i think we're supposed to have another full day of rain tomorrow. 

i think we'll have to venture out again. 

the library maybe? 

any other suggestions??

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monday afternoon

day 1 of spring break.
so far, so good.

we had a wonderful weekend with amazing weather.
we hung out with friends on friday night. . . always a treat.
saturday was our first completely free saturday in months.
it was a work day and it was awesome.
we spent all morning on the garage.
and miracle of miracles, we can both park in the garage.
it was such a great sense of accomplishment.
we filled our outdoor trash can. love that.

the boys played around in the yard and ruby was overseer in her stroller. :)

there were lots of little boy bike riding & wagon rides.
avery even rigged up the "bike ride" to his bike to pull sawyer around the yard.

he is such a good big brother.

he had a big kid job of picking all the pine cones & sticks out of the yard.

sawyer was happy to help out every once in a while. :)

i spent the afternoon cleaning the house and finally called it quits at 5pm. 

i earned my keep that day. ;) 

on sunday we had church and lunch and then i put the third coat of paint on ruby's high chair. 

i just need to poly it and add a seat belt and it should be ready to go.

there's been a whole lotta march madness going on in this house. 

and laundry folding......thankfully aj always folds clothes while he watches. 

so i am very happy to let him watch. :)

we have our little friend, jamaiya, here for a few days. 

the boys have had a blast with her so far.

painting, playing, bike riding, jumping . . . 

and in avery's standard fashion....he's doing a lot of this: 

he never tires of drawing. 

i love that kid.

and then yesterday afternoon, i downloaded this:

and oh mercy, i know why everyone is crazy about it. 

i'm on page 173.

i would probably finished already if i didn't like sleep so much...and didn't have 5 kids to take care of.  

and btdub, i love kindle cloud and swag bucks! 

i had $5 in my amazon account from swagbucks so it cost me 1 cent to download this.

and i put it on the kindle cloud so aj and i could both have it on our phones. 

so handy.

let's just say, i will not be reading blogs or looking at pinterest this week. 

:)

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another yarn wreath. :)

we're having a rainy, drizzly, cold day here in arkansas.
considering we've had so many sunny, warm days lately, i guess we're due a few overcast ones.

despite today's forecast, there are trees budding and flowers poking through every where you look.
spring is so full of hope... i love it.

last week i decided it was time to go ahead and take the christmas wreath off the front door.
it was starting to get embarrassing.

i made another yarn wreath.
they're so fun and therapeutic to make.

i used a straw wreath form {with the plastic left on} from goodwill, vintage blue yarn from a thrift store in kansas & some left over red yard that i bought to wrap christmas presents.

i made the flower using a crocheted flower tutorial i found on pinterest. 

this wreath is a happy pop of color on a dreary day. :)

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happy 3 day weekend!

i hope you all are having a wonderful memorial day weekend.
it is finally sunny and beautiful here.
i am loving it.
except for the fact that my feet are so swollen, it's embarassing.
but i'll take hot over rainy & dreary any day. :)

my friend ashley sent me some more pictures from our family retreat last weekend.

my little 8 year old avery on the rope swing....made me so stinkin' nervous.
he looks so little!
he couldn't even reach it, aj had to lift him up to get him on the swing.

i was trying to be a good boy mama and let him be brave, but it was hard!

such a fun time.
i love summer.
and it's finally starting to feel like it around here. :) Pin It

a family retreat

last weekend we had the best time at our church's family retreat.
aj and i are not so much into men's or women's retreats but we love the family retreat.
honestly, we just really like to be around each other.
we have the most fun when we're all together.

the retreat was friday evening through sunday morning.
a whole slew of families from our church came & our children's pastor, his wife {who is also on staff at our church}, the youth pastor and his wife and a bunch of interns worked their tails off to make this an amazing weekend.
you can tell that so much planning goes into it.
you can also tell that they know kids.
it was great.

when we loaded all of our stuff into our room, sawyer was so excited about the bunkbeds.
much more excited than his six month pregnant mama. ;)

he wanted to be zipped up in his sleeping bag immediately.
which he didn't even use...he actually slept in a pack n play in the bathroom. ;)


we had several "chapel times" with praise & worship led by the interns, skits & Bible teaching.

all of it was super geared towards young children.
the lessons were short & very interactive.

even sawyer listened really well.....which was probably due in large part to the fact that he was sleep deprived.

on saturday we had a beautiful sunny day which was a miracle in itself.
we spent the morning doing field games.
each family was a team.
so. fun.

the afternoon was full of fun....horseback riding, swimming, canoeing, kayaking, napping, etc.

you wanna know what one of my very favorite parts of the retreat is?

yep, the food.
prepared for me.
cleaned up for me.
it was bliss, really.

okay this is a cruddy/grainy picture, but i just love how sweet the boys are with their arms around each other...i had to share it.  :)

we were totally exhausted by the end of the weekend but it was so worth it...so much fun family time and time with our community group.
love making memories with our family. Pin It