Spring Break and Early Easter

A few weeks ago we had Spring Break.  It was a beautiful week and we spent a lot of it outside and doing a few special projects.  We made shamrock pretzels for St. Patrick’s day, made cross collages, and played a lot on our neighbor’s super fun new swingset.  Mary and her 3 kiddos even spent one morning with us. 

  

At one point in the kids’ lunch, it got really windy outside and we had to move the picnic inside. 

    

Bryce, Lincoln, and Creighton enjoyed a “boys” morning and ate lunch in the tree house and more swingset fun.

Lincoln and the spider and web he made for preschool.

Creighton is an exhausting child these days.  Sometimes I feel like he follows me around destroying things and all out leaving disaster in his wake.  =)  He is so smiley and happy (most of the time) though that it is hard to get too mad at him. 

In the bathtub picture, he actually went and jumped into the bathtub with Lincoln with his blanket and fully clothed.  He loves to empty the puzzle cubby, dump all the kids games in a big pile, and he even knows that he shouldn’t play with Kate’s little dogs, so he puts them up high. 

   

We celebrated Easter with my parents over the weekend.  The kids made empty tomb rolls and enjoyed the Easter Egg Hunt. 

I tried to get a picture of the 3 amigos in their matching Easter clothes…..it did not go that well.  =)

 

Creighton really only cared about the part of this project that included eating chocolate chips.

   

Kate was so speedy I couldn’t keep up with her to get any pictures of her finding eggs.

One last picture of the master mess maker after he spread Easter grass all over the family room. 

Hope you all enjoy this Easter weekend spending time with family and friends and being thankful that Christ died and is risen again.  Praise God. 

Grandparent Visit

I try really hard to let Kate and Lincoln dress themselves and as long as they are modestly dressed, to turn away from the mismatched, crazy outfits they come up with.  It is simply a battle I have chosen not to fight.  That being said, I did have to take a deep breath before I took Lincoln to preschool in this get-up.  =)

This past Sunday we had the opportunity to see all of Mike’s grandparents (and mine too, but I didn’t get any pictures of us with my grandparents).  We are blessed to still have 5 of our grandparents in our lives.

Fire

 

We are thinking so much about the folks at Bradley Services tonight.  They are the business right next to J. Kaiser, Inc. and their building started on fire this morning.  Their building is so close to ours and had it been windy or had the fire not been contained so quickly, we could have easily suffered damages or the loss of our office/shop.  We are so thankful that God spared our office today and that there were no injuries.  Keep the owners and employees of Bradley Services in your prayers.  Thank you to all the fire fighters who fought this fire and kept us all safe!  Thanking God tonight.  Here are some pictures that I took standing at our shop.  The fire truck was literally right by our dumpster and directly in front of our building.  There was also a truck spraying water from the other side of Bradley Services and I think I counted 6 different towns with fire trucks on the scene.

The building with the pillars is our shop/office.  It is difficult to see how impressive the water spray really was because I was snapping pictures directly into the sun.

Done with the Paint

Aside from some touch-ups, I am done with my random paint projects. 

Here is the before of our bathroom:

And the After:

For the past 12-18 months we have slowly been changing our kitchen.  We are still considering cabinet hardware, but aren’t sure yet.  We got a new countertop/sink, added a backsplash, went from red to orange, and changed the décor around a bit.  The lighting is odd in the after pictures, but you get the point.

Before:

  

Now:

 

The kids are really into music lately.  One day, Lincoln and Creighton were playing the drums and Kate was “dancing” to their music. 

  

Last Friday, we were excited to get to go meet Derek and Meaghan’s new little guy, Blayne.  The kids had a blast holding Blayne and playing with their dogs.  :)

   

That evening we went to Justin and Codee’s.  The kids had a great time playing together and the adults even got in some good conversation.   Thanks for having us over!!  The kids were again “into music” and made a microphone out of tinkertoys.  Creighton and Grady had a blast dancing together on the couch.

The kids got to play their leapsters one night while Mike and I cleaned up the kitchen (we have recently implemented a “no screen” rule for during the school week, so it was quite the treat for them.)  Creighton had a blast looking back and forth between them. 

 

These kids are all the best of friends.  They have really enjoyed the chance to play together again now that the weather is getting warmer and warmer.  Bethany took these on her phone one day.

  

One last picture, Creighton really favors Norah.  She spent the morning here one day and he kept walking up to her, backing up, and plopping down on her lap.  =)

Mid-winter crisis

February 29 was a beautiful day.  We spent the morning outside before the hurricane winds started.  =) 

These poor flowers are a little confused.

Playing in the sand box

 

Dad and Mom had the kids over to help plant their vegetable and flower seeds.

  

Kate and Lincoln came running out to me yesterday afternoon and said, “Mom, come look, we redid the bathroom.”  I admit, this statement made me very nervous.  But this is what I found. 

I must have had a mid-winter crisis or something because a few weeks ago I decided to use some rebate money and gift cards to repaint and redecorate 4 rooms in our house.  Kate’s room I already showed you.  The kitchen is just about done, just have to put sealer on our new backsplash and then I can take pictures of the “new” kitchen.  I should finish our master bathroom this week.  But our room is done.  Many thanks to my good friends, Wendy and Bethany for helping me pick out some new décor!!  I forgot to take before pictures, but the room used to be taupe-ish.  =)  Now it is gray. 

  

Saturday night we had the opportunity to attend a fundraiser for a friend of ours who has cancer.  He is a young(er) man with a sweet wife and 3 children and 1 on the way.  It was really special to honor him (even though he wasn’t there).  I did not stand up to say anything, I get really emotional about things like that.  But, Derek, I just want to thank you for the positive influence you have had on my life.  You have always challenged me to be better, but I have never been more honored to be your cousin and friend than today.  We love you.