Prayer Time

I have so many things that I want to teach my kids. Unfortunately many of the plans I have just don't seem to work when I want them to. It's time for me to find other ways to teach them. One of these is to teach them to pray by themselves. To really talk to God. Normally we do this at bedtime. For Drew, that is probably the worst time because by 7:30 he has just lost it! It is like he doesn't hear anything after that and everything is 10 times funnier than it is at any other time of day.

Tonight, I asked him if there is anything he wanted to pray and ask God for. He mentioned a couple of things and I said, "Why don't you pray tonight?" This was his prayer:

Dear God,

Thank you for helping Ethan's arm to feel better soon and please heal Isaac's leg and please don't let the bad guys kill us.

In Your Name to pray, Amen.

It started off so sweet but the bad guys line was a bit of a shocker. I think he has been watching too much Star Wars. That is all I can think of that would lead him to say that. At least he is talking to God though. Right?

Birthday Surprise!!

I just want to start off by saying that I have the BEST FRIENDS IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!! My sweet friend, Amy and I both have April birthdays. Last weekend, we were planning a surprise party for her at a Mexican restaurant with some of our friends. Little did I know that behind the scenes more was going on and I was also going to be surprised with a joint party for both of us! So many friends came and we never really get together like we would like to. Some very special friends weren't able to join us and they were greatly missed. We laughed so much that night that I was a bit sore the next day. I love that we have so much fun together. I think the highlight of the night was when we were serenaded by the Mexican servers who sang to us in Spanish and then in English. Not only did they sing, be they also placed sombreros on our heads (mine was way too small!) and they tried to feed us a bite of Fried Ice Cream! I'm not really sure if they were trying to feed us or just put whipped cream on our noses. Amy was trying so hard to be polite by saying "No, thank you, no thank you, no thank you" over and over again and pushing away the spoon. I finally just grabbed the spoon coming towards my face. Throughout the whole event, we laughed so hard that the tears wouldn't stop for a while. At least we didn't have to do it alone. I can't think of a better person for me to share that experience with!

After our eventful dinner, we went back to my house and we all watched the movie "Enchanted". It was a great "girls night out" and I am so grateful for all of the hard work that went into planning such a special night for us! Love you girls!

Happy Birthday Meme

My Grandmother "Meme" is an April Fools Baby! She keeps us laughing too with her many stories. Some because they are really funny and some because we have no idea what she is talking about! I love her very very much!!

On Sunday we went to visit and celebrate her Birthday. Everyone got to be there except AJ and Cindy and they were missed. We ate a great lunch then Meme opened her presents and we had "sugar free" Banana Split Cake. It was very yummy! They kids had fun playing and since it had been a while since we were all there, Meme gave them their Christmas presents to open too. This was also Meme's first time meeting her newest great-grand baby, Remy. I got some really sweet pictures of them together. Very special memories!! Here are some of the photos that we took.

Celebrating Easter

I know this post is a bit late (like over a week) but I wanted to get it on here. I have loved reading friend's blogs about what Easter means to them and the wonderful reminders of Christ's love for us and the great sacrifice that he has made. It has also been wonderful to talk even more with my kids about the fact that Jesus is alive and here with us. We as a family are going to make a better effort to discuss this more year round but we also love celebrating Easter and gathering with friends and family for the holiday celebration.

We ended up participating in "four" Egg Hunts this year. My kids were professional egg hunters by the end. They found eggs that contained candy, toys, money and some that had nothing at all. When I reminded them that Easter wasn't about just hunting eggs, Alyson said, "We know mom. But when we hunt eggs, there are some that are empty and it reminds us that the tomb is empty too." It is great to know that they are learning the truth about Easter in the midst of the holiday.

Here are some photos that we took of our many egg hunts. As you can tell, my kids love to dress up in "unusual" clothes at times...

(Reminder: You can scroll over the picture to see the captions)

Beautiful Lengths

Alyson got her hair cut really short back in December of 2006. She has been letting her hair grow out to donate to Beautiful Lengths (similar to Locks of Love) with only one or two trims since then. Last week, she decided it was time to donate! Here are some of the precious pictures of her haircut! And the very thick ponytail that is no more...


(Before)

(No changing her mind now!)

(Holding her pony tail.)

(Isn't it precious?!)

(Too cute!!)