Easter Sunday

Happy Easter!  What a glorious day to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!  Being at a new church this year, we were able to embrace some new and meaningful traditions.  At the end of the Good Friday Service, the church went completely dark, and even the Christ candle which was up at the front was taken out of the church.  The kids wanted to know why it went dark and what it all meant.  What a great teaching moment for them!!  Then, our church also does an Easter Vigil on Saturday night.  The service actually starts outside around a fire, and the light is brought back into the church!  Again, what a great visual for the kids!  This morning, after the service there was a brunch at church followed by a golden Easter egg hunt!  It was a fun celebration for the entire church!

It actually rained during the egg hunt, but it did not stop the kids one bit!

 

Shane showing off all of his eggs!

 

Here Noelle is helping Shane empty his eggs (they use them over again each year!), he was so excited about all the candy that was in them!

 

Each child ended up with a gold coin in one of their eggs.  They could redeem the coin for a large gift.  Shane picked out this monkey basket!  He named his monkey Palm Tree! 

 

And Olivia was too young for the hunt this year, but she was able to spend some quality time with daddy!  Sadly, I did not take a picture of the three in their adorable Easter outfits before church, and after the rain, it was not worth the effort!  It's hard to tell in the pictures, but Faith and Olivia have coordinating dresses!  So cute!

Lost Tooth!

Saturday night Faith lost her very first tooth!!!  Because Faith is a little late in the teeth losing, this was especially exciting as most of her friends have lost a tooth or two!  The tooth had been lose for awhile, and as we were finishing dinner at Red Robin, I noticed it was barely hanging in there!  So, Faith ate three bites of an apple slice and out it came! She was so excited about a visit from the Tooth Fairy!  I really don't think I have ever seen her so excited about something...and knowing Faith, that is really saying something! 

Kindermusik Graduation

After four semesters of the Young Child Kindermusik program, Faith has graduated!!  The goal of the two year Young Child program is to prepare each student to learn an instrument.  Over the past two years, Faith has learned the different notes on the scale, rhythm, and how to read music.  On Thursday night Faith and her fellow classmates celebrated their graduation with a recital!  The class played a song together on the recorder, and Faith played a solo on the glockenspiel! 

 

Getting ready for the class recorder song.  What is next for Faith musically?  Either the violin or the piano...or maybe both!

4 Months old!!

I'm in a bit of shock and denial...but it's true...this little lady is four months old already!!  This past Wednesday marked the day.  Olivia continues to be so sweet, content, easy-going, and just pure love!  It seems like each week she does something new, and becomes more and more interactive!  On Wednesday night she even rolled over for the first time (tummy to back).  She is really getting interested in toys, and is working on two little bottoms teeth!

 

And this is what happens when you have an older brother!  And being the third child, we all laughed and took a picture before taking the undies off her head!  Yes, they are clean!  She thought the whole thing was quite funny!  Happy four months precious girl!

The Past Week

It is nice to be at the end of what was a very busy week!  Our busiest two days of the week tend to be Monday and Tuesday as we have the most activities those days. And when Steve works both of those days, as he did this week, it makes it even more difficult, busy, and stressful for me!  But we survived with a messier than normal house, and the laundry not getting done until Friday! 

One of the highlights of the year at Awana for the kids is Drive-In movie night!  Each child is to come to Awana with a "car" made from a box to sit in while the group watches a movie.  This year Faith wanted a race car, and Shane wanted a fire engine.  Thankfully, Steve had some red spray paint, so that got the decoration process started!  And since I am not crafty in the least bit, we went and bought stickers at Michael's for the kids to use to finish the decorating!  They each had a great time and really enjoyed making their box cars!

 

On Thursday afternoon we went to a play date at my friend Julie's house.  Both kids were thrilled to see their friend Miles!  Julie's daughter Isabella made an Easter egg hunt for all the kids, which proved to be hours and hours of fun!  Faith and Shane continued to hide the eggs they took home in our yard and throughout our house!  They are really looking forward to the egg hunt at church next Sunday!

 

If you look closely, at the top of the Avocado tree you can see Steve!  He climbed up there to pick the avocados at the very top of the tree!  While he assured me it was safe and secure, I couldn't watch as it made me too nervous!

 

In the midst of all our activities, we are finding a little time to watch some of the March Madness!  Faith was quite upset this morning as I read off the scores so far for our family (we all filled out a bracket - even Olivia!), as she was in fourth place, only ahead of Olivia!  But after today's games, she is inching closer to Shane, so that made her happier!  We're all glad Michigan is doing well!  Go Blue!

More Cake!

Faith is still working on her cake decorating badge for American Heritage Girls.  Since we missed the most recent meeting, we had a little make up work to do!  The requirement was to bake a cake and decorate it with a theme, using edible items.  We decided to make an Easter cake!

Mixing the cake!  She was thrilled to be able to use the mixer by herself!

 

And of course if Faith did it, Shane needed to as well!

 

Here is the finished product!  We made our own frosting, dyed it pink, then dyed some coconut green to look like grass, and put on the jelly beans as our final step!  Our plan is to bring it to the soup supper tonight at church that we have before the Lent service! 

 

Olivia didn't help of course, but she was able to watch us!  And how can I do a blog post without a picture of this sweet little girl? 

Beach Camping

On Monday - yes, the day after the baptism and brunch - we left to go camping at the beach!  Once again we rented the same motor home, but just took it to a totally different location!  As always the kids had a blast!

Even though the air temperatures were only in the 60s and the water was even cooler than that, the kids wanted to go swimming!  And they actually did both days we were there! 

 

Right next to our campsite was a great biking/walking path that went along the sand.  The kids rode their bikes, and actually rode to breakfast one moring with Steve!  Olivia and I met them there!

 

One of the games that was in the motor home was Sorry!  The kids learned how to play it and proceeded to play many, many times!

 

They also played in the sand quite a bit!

 

Olivia didnt enjoy camping as much this time, but thakfully she slept well at night!!

Olivia's Baptism

This past Sunday Olivia was baptized!  We were thankful that so many members of our family came to church with us to celebrate this special time for our family!

Olivia wore the same baptism dress that not only Faith wore, but the one that I wore as well!  My Grandma Swagman first bought it for me to wear many, many years ago!

 

After the church service, we had a brunch at our house to celebrate!

 

Steve's Aunt Sue and Uncle John are Olivia's sponsors.  I wish I had a picture of the two of them with Olivia, but since I don't, this will have to do!

All five of us!!

 

It was extra special that Grandpa and Grandma could come all the way from Michigan!

Three Months Old

Where has the time gone?  This little lady is already three months old!!  She continues to be such a delightful, happy, content little girl!  We are just so thankful that she has this great disposition so far.  As I think about the past three months, I think about how much I am parenting Olivia differently than the other two kids.  It's not one of those things where I have learned from my mistakes and am turning over a new leaf; although, I have made more than my share of mistakes as a mom over the past 6 years!  It is more of a change out of necessity as our lives are just so different than they were even when Shane was born.  For example, with the older two, I had a consistent bedtime routine that included a bath each night.  With Olivia it's a great day if she even has a bath!  And if it is anywhere near the bedtime hour, it's a miracle!  Being involved in night activities and just being busier outside of the home has called for more flexibility in the baby's schedule.  Thankfully, she just goes with whatever seems to be the plan for the day and does so well!  Happy three months sweet girl!

 

This picture was taken on her actual three month birthday!

 

My three little sweeties!  My cup runneth over!