he has risen!

my friend, ashley, recommended a book to me before i even had kiddos (i think). the title is treasuring God in our traditions and it is written by noel piper. It is a book that is filled with ideas on how to saturate your children's' lives in Christ's love. i give it two thumbs up.

on monday we used an idea from that book and it was a huge success! we made an "Easter mountain." using a play dough recipe we made a mountain/cave so that the kids could reenact the story of the cross. i will put the recipe at the bottom of this post. after reading through the story, we made pipe cleaner people to help us tell the story. obviously, Jesus is green!

caleb has told the story a dozen times today! here he is putting Jesus in the tomb. then he rolls the stone in front of the cave and puts the soldiers (black w/ swords) up to guard the body.

i love to hear him tell this part... he shouts, "he has risen" with a huge grin...

and then mary (in purple) tells Jesus how she is so glad to see him again! and Jesus responds with, "i know, but i had to go in the hole."

it has been so fun to see how his little mind sees God's goodness! i hope you all enjoy celebrating what God has done for us! much love to you this Easter.

Easter mountain recipe:

4c flour
1 1/2 c salt
1 1/2 c water
1 T oil

mix and knead. use twine or string to tie to sticks together. shape the dough into a mountain, leaving an opening on one side for the tomb. press the cross into the top to form the hole and make it a bit larger than the stick b/c it will shrink in the oven. press a rock into the cave to give it a firm fit. remove the cross and rock and bake on a cookie sheet for four to five hours on 250 degrees. when finished color with paint or markers (we didn't get to this b/c they were having too much fun playing with it)!

mornings

all three kids wave to daddy out the window when he leaves for work. we started doing this about two year ago and it just stuck. they blow kisses and holler, "have a great day at work!!" riley has recently started waving too!

this picture is priceless because allie is already in her wedding dress by 8:30 in the morning. OH, the joys of girls! :)

those eyes!!!

meet ELLIE!!

isn't she a doll?

my friend, ashley, gave birth to this little peanut and we HAD to have a party to celebrate. to see more of ellie and her family, you can visit this site!

ashley, ellie, and the hostesses (ashley c, tobyn, and lydia)

ashley and her mom! i LOVE that they wore pink!

the invitations had a rattle on them so we HAD to do a rattle cake!

ellie's loot... she made out of there with some good stuff! :)

as if there could be more...

just when i thought i could not feel any more treasured, my husband kept showering me with gifts. on thursday afternoon, i was sitting outside watching the kiddos play when i sweet friend showed up with a beautiful little box claiming that the 18th was the new 17th! inside the package was a gift card to With Class Spa and my appointment was in 15 minutes. I got to drop everything and go have a Swedish massage! OH MY!!! what an unexpected treat! I even fell asleep.

after the massage i got to come home, shower, and get all dressed up for a night out with my man! He had made reservations at Shogun Japanese Steak House and, man, did we enjoy ourselves. it is always nice to get some down time with him.... no taking kids to the potty or encouraging anyone to sit still. Just me and him and a nice dinner! We had a great time!!!

thanks sweet heart for an incredible birthday... I do not deserve you or the special treatment... I'm a lucky woman!

another year older...

my birthday was yesterday and this is what i woke up to:

i slept till almost NINE and then the kids ran in with these cards:

they escorted me into the kitchen to a green breakfast

including twisty rolls with green icing

we also went to camp for lunch and the kiddos sported their green

time to

wash the car!!

bubble, bubbles, bubbles!!!

look at that post lunch belly.... my goodness!

just because...

i ran across this old pic from a friend's birthday party and it made me laugh. i'm sure that caleb was yelling, "i'm gonna get you scallywag!" and then there is walker.... all calm and collected! :)

peek-a-boo

lance has been playing around with his new video application on his phone!

graceful and 90

my gran turns 90 today and we enjoyed celebrating with her in a REALLY BIG way this weekend!

this is a picture of her during a toast to her.

her cake was designed by one of her great grand daughters, Blake, over a year ago!

our kids spent most of the time begging to be outside in the pool or playing sand volleyball.

lance and i were just grateful to make it... seeing as all three kids were throwing up the day before... riley puked twice in the car ride to simonton! lovely!

but we made it to celebrate THIS beautiful woman!!! she doesn't look 90 does she?

i had to take a pic of her bee pin... this is a piece of gran jewelry that i remember from childhood. i LOVE that she wore this on her special day!

i got to sit with my sister!

little miss has being waiting and waiting to wear her new dress.

my mom did alot of planning including these centerpieces. they were lovely!

this was my second recent attempt at a pic of my parents with our kiddos... this is as good as it gets! HA!

visit with cousins!

Riley got to celebrate his birthday again with a visit from his cousins. AND they brought SNACKS!!! hee,hee

this was his present from him... a six month supply of all the snacks he can eat!

and since they missed out on the rainbow cake... we made up for it with rainbow cupcakes.

everybody chowing down

ummm.. can i have cake everyday?

my beautiful sister!

the girls! aren't they adorable?

GUESS WHAT???

I made a dress!!!
CRAZY!
I am definitely a seamstress want to be and i have been wanting to try my hand at patterns. this was the result!

i've been following lil blue boo for a LONG time now and i love how she reuses her old knits to make something new for her little girl. I used two of my old t-shirts to make this one. This one is really simple, but i needed to start small... baby steps! HA! allie loves it because it is comfy, PINK, and a dress!
two points for mom! :)

some days...

are just HARDER than others! :)

sweet allie is going through the phase of needing a little sleep, but not much... so she stays up and plays in her room and then just before nap time is over she falls asleep! today it was in her hammock with a lamp???? poor thing!