The Wrap Up

Today Ethan and Grayson completed their first year of preschool. Granted they still have one more to go, but yet it made me quite emotional at this milestone!  They have come so far this past year and I am so proud of both of them!

Headed off to school this morning. Don’t ask me. I’m just their mother.

Ethan, Mrs. Hauck, and Grayson. I love how the boys are standing the same!

 

Tonight their class had a ceremony to celebrate their accomplishments. 

The boys were just a tad bit excited as you can see!  This is them with their friend and neighbor Jasmine.

Let’s take a little minute to not forget this little sweetie who wanted so badly to sit with her brothers and be a part of the preschool class!  Soon enough baby girl. Stop trying to grow up!

Ethan getting his diploma.  He chose to give Mrs Hauck a high 5.

Grayson went in for the hug.

Their teacher got choked up tonight saying goodbye to all of her students.  She is amazing. The plan is for our boys to return there again in the fall with her for one more year before starting kindergarten.  They will be going one additional morning next year. 

We spent some time today creating our summer bucket list and we have quite a bit to accomplish, so there is no time to think about school in the fall quite yet!  Bring on summer vacation!

Imaginations

Ethan and Grayson’s imaginations have really been running wild lately.  I love seeing the things they come up with! The other day after I picked them up from school we walked in the door and Grayson looked around and said, “Wow, this place sure is beautiful.  Where do I put my shoes?”  I went along with it and showed him where the shoes go.  Ethan jumped in and they both started asking questions, all the while expressing themselves with their hands.  “What is this room for?”  “Oh my, what do you do in here?”  We took a full tour of the entire house. The boys even picked out beds for themselves so that they could stay as our guests overnight.  At lunch that day Ethan remarked, “I will be on my best behavior because I’m your guest and I want to make sure you want me to come back again sometime.” 

I also wanted to share this Mother’s Day movie that our church did for Mother’s Day.  The boys were a hit and cracked me up.  Chris taped this with his phone so it isn’t the best quality, but hopefully it’s good enough!

http://youtu.be/yyJOZxnxEZ4

 

Life is Beautiful

Please don’t take my lack of words on here to mean a lack in my life.

Life has been so incredibly rich lately.

Stretching, changing, laughing, crying…

There is so, so much my heart longs to pour out and yet finding the words (and the time) is tough.

But I will. 

In the past few weeks I turned 34, lost my last living grandparent, had a visit from Grandpa and Grandma from Virginia, taken a few day trips with the family, had a nail painting party with my baby, marveled in the wonder of my baby boys turning in to mini men, kept up with life and laundry in general, and most importantly I am continuing to be stretched and pulled in many beautiful areas of my life.  So many things in all of that above that I want to write on and share before it’s lost in the shuffle of life.

Grandma captured this precious moment of love between Ethan and Adelyn. He was even rubbing her ears!

Uncle Tom, Dad, and Grandpa on the morning of his last day with us. 

A hard goodbye.  The weather fit our mood.

 

More to come…

Sibling Love: Adelyn and Ethan

 

Life ‘Round Here

Grayson

Ethan

On April Fools Day morning the kids came downstairs for breakfast and saw blue milk waiting for them.  I told them our milk had turned blue and they were super thrilled and excited about that! 

The other day we went out puddle jumping.  The kids can’t get enough!  Now we have another 12 inches of snow so I guess there are more puddles to come!

The other day we joined my friend Melissa and her two kids for a morning of jumping at a local bounce house.  I LOVE the excited looks on those faces above!  They were SO excited!

This is the only picture I have that didn’t turn out all blurry! These kids were moving too fast and the lighting wasn’t the best to get a great shot. I had to resort to using my flash!  What a pile-up!

Instagram Girl

At 114 years of age, the oldest U.S. citizen recently passed away.  Chris and I were talking this morning about the incredible changes that happened over the span of her life.  When she was born the first Model T had just had its debut, the population of Las Vegas was 30, and the average minimum wage was 22 cents.

Today there are over 400,000 car makers.  The population in Las Vegas is 590,000, and the average minimum wage is $7.25.

And that doesn’t even touch on technology. Even since my birth in 1979 technology has just exploded.  I still recall taking a class trip to the computer lab in 10th grade and the teacher SLOWLY opening Internet Explorer to show us the world wide web for the very first time.  He typed in “Elvis Presley” and there before me was this image of Elvis gyrating his hips.  I was amazed and astonished by it all!  Maybe not so much the gyrating of the hips, but strictly the technology of course!

And here we are today – 2013 – surrounded by so many ways to keep in touch with the world around us.  Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Pinterest, email, messaging, texting, hashtags…and on and on and on.  I have barely touched the surface when it comes to all that is out there, and I’m okay with that!  I like to feel like I am keeping somewhat in the loop with it all, but there is no way I can allow myself to become fully wrapped up in all that is available.  I don’t want to be!  I don’t have time to be!

However, I kind of treat it like I treat an onion.  I peel back one layer at a time. I don’t like to let it overwhelm me and so I will pick one thing, learn a little bit about it and jump in.  Then – after wiping the tears away and walking away to recover a few times I am ready for the next layer.

So – I have been doing Instagram for some time now.  I love the simple editing you can do to the pics – but I still have so far to go when it comes to understanding all that goes along with it.  Hashtags for example are completely baffling to me.  I thought hashtags only belonged to Twitter, but now I’m seeing them on Instagram too.  I yi yi. 

Either way – all this to say I have added a link to my Instagram account on the right toolbar of my blog.  It is set to private right now, but I believe if you request to follow me I can let you in!

Thanks for reading and have an awesome day!

Beyond the Bunny

We had a very quiet Easter celebrated with family at my parents farm.  Chris was off on Good Friday so we headed out that afternoon.  Friday evening my brother Michael and his family came. 

Saturday was the day of pajamas.  We ate caramel rolls, watched the kids play, played outside, played some cards, talked, ate some more.  It was perfect! (Mike and Hayley introduced us to a game called Wizard.  I’m hooked!).

Late Saturday night/Sunday morning (1 a.m.!) David and Sarah joined us.  Easter morning was filled with basket hunts, full bathrooms, and a busy kitchen as everyone scurried around to get dolled up and ready for church.  The service was great.  The boys stayed with us in the main room while Adelyn, Micah, and Gabbi went to Discovery School and nursery. 

After church we traveled on back to Mom and Dad’s for a delicious Easter lunch with ham, scalloped potatoes, pies, salads…you name it, we had it!

                         I told Grayson to look “sassy.” This is what I got!                                                                                             Ethan striking a pose!

 

One of the best we could get of all these rascals!

God came in flesh to walk this Earth.  To live life like you and I.  To feel, to ache, to endure.  Knowing full well what had to happen He went through with it, paying the ultimate price for us.  Dying for us.  Living again for us so that we too can have hope and can live. What an awesome reason to celebrate!  What love!

Hoping you all had an awesome Easter too!