Easter

I always love Easter. The flowers are blooming, the weather is warming, everything is coming alive! The best part is celebrating our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is ALIVE! 

I loved singing Glorious Day in church on Sunday--especially this verse:

One day the grave could conceal Him no longer
One day the stone rolled away from the door
Then He arose, over death He had conquered
Now He's ascended, my Lord evermore

Death could not hold Him
The grave could not keep Him from rising again

Living He loved me, dying He saved me
And buried He carried my sins far away
Rising He justified freely forever
One day He's coming, oh, glorious day, oh, glorious day
Glorious day

After church we had a wonderful meal with family and friends. Lucy loved hunting for eggs! She takes the whole process quite seriously. She also ate entirely too much chocolate and has been on a sugar high ever since. We got her this great book for Easter too! I highly recommend it!!

Hope you all had a wonderful day
 celebrating our RISEN Lord!

This and That

Hi. My computer has been having issues this week. I finally got it to work today. In honor that, I am writing a little post about what's been going on around here.

Tuesday was my birthday! I'm 26. It's kinda crazy how fast life goes by these days. I'm in my late twenties. I'm going to blink and be 30 and my babies will be all grown up and I might just cry. Ok, anyway.

The weather has been absolutely glorious this week! Record temps almost everyday. I am in heaven! I even had to turn on the a/c. Trust me, it went against everything I believe in about saving money. But, since Annie must be wrapped up like a baby burrito to sleep and she was getting sweaty and I was afraid of her dying from over-heating, we turned on the air. Speaking of my baby burrito....I just bought her a new light-weight swaddle blanket. SO CUTE!

So back to my birthday. It was 80 degrees. The flowers were out on the trees and I wore shorts and flip-flops. It was perfect! My mom came over in the morning and we went out to grab an Orange Julius. Carey took the afternoon off work and we had a picnic at the park. Then we walked to Starbucks. We ended the day with dinner at Red Robin. The girls were extra sweet that day too. When Lucy woke up I told her it was my birthday and she got all excited and said, "OH! Happy Birthday!!" She even sang to me when we had cake. She's at a really fun stage. :)

I look a little tired in that pic.....We've been fighting colds AGAIN this week. We've had really bad coughs and runny noses. I even got it this time! Poor little Annie has been congested most of her life. Maybe this warm weather means the end of colds! I hope so!

Here's a sweet picture of sister love. Lucy was reading princess books to Annie. This was the Ariel book and Lucy was saying, "See Annie! See Ursula?" Haha! Love my little princesses. :)

Not to self: Never leave children unattended. It may result in this--

Thankfully, no babies were harmed during this incident.

Tomorrow we're having a little family day. We're celebrating Carey's 1 year anniversary at Rockhurst! Woo hoo!! This job has been the most wonderful blessing. So we're planning on eating out and maybe spending a little birthday money. Should be fun!

By the way, I LOVE daylight savings. Extra hours of daylight make me happy. Totally enjoying our early spring!!

The view from our place. But not for long! We found the townhome we'll be moving into next month! I am SO EXCITED! Lots more space and a playroom for the girls!

A Birthday and the Zoo

Tuesday was Carey's birthday. Rockhurst gives you a paid day off for your birthday. Isn't that nice of them? We think so. :) My birthday happens to be a week after Carey's. The best part about this? FREE birthday meals. And we can use them at the same time. Bonus. So we went to IHOP for breakfast--basically for free. We did get Lucy a kid's meal and we had a couple of coffees. It's great paying less than $10 to go out to breakfast!! This week we plan to do the same thing at First Watch (yum!) and Red Robin.

We had planned on taking the girls to the zoo since Carey had the day off. We almost didn't go because the weather decided not to cooperate. It was almost 70 degrees.....but 40 mph winds. We decided to brave the elements and go anyway. It was very windy. But still fun!

Lucy is at a great age for the zoo. She had tons of fun. I was so proud of her for walking almost the entire zoo! The Kansas City Zoo is a big place. She probably walked 2 miles. Annie liked being carried around the zoo--only happy in her stroller sometimes. Probably because she couldn't see any animals from in there. :)

Lucy really wanted to see the giraffes and zebras. Both were not out!! Are you kidding me? Maybe the giraffes are too tall for wind advisories? Would they blow over? Doesn't it get windy in the Savannah sometimes? Come on. Oh well, the polar bear never disappoints.

Lucy got to ride the carousel. She LOVES carousels. She was excited about riding the gorilla.

Lucy has a big personality (in case you didn't know). Here are a few pictures to give you a little glimpse. She's one crazy lady!

We had a fun day!

Happy 4th!

I love the 4th of July. Nothing beats a warm summer evening watching fireworks with your family, sipping a bottled cream soda (or lemonade or sweet tea) as the fields sparkle with fireflies. Yep, that's what our 4th was like. It was wonderful!

My parents live out of city limits (woo-hoo!) which means we are able to have as much fun playing with fire as our little hearts desire. I enjoy watching fireworks....but my hubby loves blowing them up.

 As do my brothers. I think it's a man thing. I will admit that blowing the head off of an old action figure was pretty sweet though. We never found the head. Anyway, we got to Mom and Dad's late morning. Carey and I got to work making homemade ice cream and peach crisp. Yum! Lucy went out to visit the animals.

Every trip to the barn during the summer means a freezy pop. :)

We helped Momo pick some herbs for the salad. They smell yummy.

We had a great meal with tons of grilled meat! Ribs, smoked sausage, steak, burgers. Fabulous. But I think I might be a vegetarian this week. :) Carey's contribution to the 4th was bottled sodas for the day. Mmm. Nothing like a cold bottled soda on a hot summer day! This is about as patriotic as it gets.

We enjoyed setting fireworks off during the evening hours. Well, everyone except Lucy. She is not a fan. They terrify her. And I quote her, "They're really really loud!" Yes, they are. I think she thought Carey was going to die each time he would light a firework. *Sigh* Maybe she'll do better next year.

Momo saved the day when she found the sidewalk chalk. Horray!

Lucy was ok with confetti poppers and the little snappers you throw on the ground. I consider this progress.

We had a great time hanging out enjoying the evening.

 Here I am with my love (aka the pyromaniac).

I like him. Good thing he's not weird or anything.

And here I am with our new baby. 18 weeks!

As it got dark the boys set off all of the fireworks they got. We had quite a nice display. They're already planning next year's show. :) And what's awesome about Mom and Dad's place is that you can see fireworks from all around! In the distance you can see and hear each neighboring city's shows. Plus, all of our neighbors set them off. We have one of the best seats in town and no crowds! Doesn't get better than that. We could have sat out all night watching fireworks. Beautiful! The fireflies put on a sparkly show too. I can't wait until Lucy is big enough to be out in the grass chasing fireflies! Well, maybe I can. She's growing up so fast as it is! :) My little sparkler. I love her.

And I officially win Mom of the year for snapping a few pictures before removing Lucy from this situation. Maybe she'll like fireworks one day after all. =)

Happy 4th of July!

Easter

This was Lucy's 2nd Easter! 

I can't believe how much she's grown in just a year.

*Coloring Eggs*

Papa loves coloring eggs with Lucy.

Tasty!

Last year she was so little and chubby and squishy.

This year she was running around 

hunting for eggs all by herself!

*Hunting Eggs*

The hunt didn't start out so well....

I ran outside to take pictures and Lucy didn't want me to leave her!

But we recovered.....

Lucy took egg hunting very seriously.

No smiles, all business. 

Hahaha! She's so funny.

We tried to help her with her heavy basket 

when she was donebut she got so sad and said, 

"No. No, they're mine."

In other words, 

Mom, why would you take my eggs away 

after I worked so hard to collect them?

I'm sorry!

SO, we didn't get a picture of the 

3 of us together this year. 

This is the best I got!

Here we are last year. :)

Look at that cute chubby little baby.

 

 We had a wonderful day with family and friends.

Lucy entertained us as she hunted for eggs.

She also received new "colors" (crayons) 

in her Easter basket.

We have been coloring non-stop for 3 days.

I also have artwork on the wall.

Most of all, we enjoyed celebrating our risen Savior!

Come, people of the Risen King,
Who delight to bring Him praise;
Come all and tune your hearts to sing
To the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
We will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
To gather children in.

Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!