Easter Weekend!

Happy Easter! We kicked off Easter weekend with a trip to the mall Friday afternoon for a little lunch, a little shopping and to see the Easter Bunny! The kids were so excited to see the bunny! This picture is a classic! Of course, Jesus dying to save us from our sins is the reason we celebrate Easter. It has been special to teach the kids the Easter story and hear them tell it back to us in their own words! Tanner brought home and egg from preschool full of items that represent the Easter Story so he can share with us about Jesus rising from the dead! It's awesome!

Saturday morning, our neighborhood had an Easter Egg Hunt and I met a few of the other girls in our neighborhood out in the park when it was still early and cold to hide about 2000 eggs! Its took us about an hour and was a blast! When it came time to hunt for the eggs, it only took the kids about 30 seconds to pick up all the eggs that were hidden around the park! We feel very blessed to have such wonderful neighbors all around us!

This is Tanner with our neighbor Kristin.


Another one of our fun neighbors Brennan, with his really cool green boots on!

Waiting to hunt for eggs!



Tanner with one of our other neighbors, Kaitlyn.

Tanner and Frankie! These two are quite the duo!

Frankie, Kaitlyn and Tanner!

Carter hunting for eggs!

Chloe and Tanner! Later on that afternoon, we headed over to the Wright's house for Chloe's 8th birthday and Addy's 4th Birthday party. It was a costume party so Tanner went as Superman and Carter opted not to dress up. It was a lot of fun and the weather was perfect!

Chelsea, Hadley and Makayla. Hadley really loves being one of the big girls!

The Girls! Inara, Hadley, Addy, Makayla, Chloe and Chelsea.

Spiderman (Tanner) and Batman (Orion)

Justin and Tyler relaxing and enjoying the sunshine. It is ALWAYS nice for these girls birthday party! Every year, without fail! Hopefully I didn't just jinx it!

Hadley, Adrienne, Ashley and the back of Alicia's head- enjoying the sunshine so much!

The Birthday Girls! Addy and Chloe!

Tanner and Addy checking out the birthday cake Grandma Pam made!

Carter!

Tanner showing off his "Spidey Muscles"!

Tyler, Hadley and Inara. What a sweet picture!

Easter Sunday began when the kids got up and found their Easter presents from the Easter bunny by the fireplace. They were pretty excited! They just couldn't believe the Easter Bunny had been in their house! Tanner said he thought he heard hopping in the middle of the night and was sure that his bed had hopped too! What a goof ball! We went to church with everyone which was great! Later on in the afternoon we went over to Cameron and Jill's for an early dinner with Tyler's family. It was wonderful! The 3 boys play so well together! This picture above is of Carter and Caden in bed watching a movie and also having their own little conversation! Hilarious! I can only imagine the pressing issues 2 year olds have these days!

Here is the two little girl cousins! Hadley and Eloise! Both girls are celebrating their very first Easters! It was so much fun to have little dresses and tights and patent leather Mary Janes on! I'm sure these two will give the boys a run for their money on the egg hunt next year!

Aunt Kat, Grandma, Hadley and Great Grandma! The food was delicious and it was a real treat to be able to spend time together!!

Later on in the evening we headed over to my moms house for dinner and Easter celebrating. The boys hunted for eggs and other goodies at her house. This is Tanner and Carter, Carter is covering his face with his "egg scooper"!

Tanner with some of his loot!

Hadley and Daddy

Uncle Chris slicing up the ham with his cool electric knife!

Daddy, Mimi, and Uncle Chris with the food!

Great Grandma giving treats to the boys! We had a wonderful Easter Sunday! Holidays are so much fun!

Coloring Easter Eggs!

Holidays are so much fun! The older the kids get, the more excited they are for every Holiday. I love Easter, it means warmer weather and flowers are just around the corner! This afternoon the kids colored eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide, we like to take some of the work off his back for him whenever possible. This is also Hadley's first Easter and the boys wanted to make sure she knew just how much fun it was going to be!

The nice clean white hard boiled eggs waiting to be colored!

Waiting for the color tablets to dissolve so the coloring festivities can begin!

Still waiting.............it took one and a half minutes and it went very slow!

Commence coloring! I think their hands got more color on them than the eggs did!

Carter on an egg coloring high!

Dye, eggs, and little hands everywhere!

This one is lovely!

Tanner!

Hadley took her first Easter eggs coloring session off and opted to just sit with the brothers and eat one of the hard boiled eggs I cracked! She still had a blast and felt like one of the big kids!

Carter!

Some of our finished products! The look wonderful!

Not too messy!

Happy Easter 2011!

If You Can Work Like No One Else..........

We finish up FPU on Sunday. It has been wonderful, irritating, fascinating, and overwhelming all at the same time! It has varied week to week how I have felt about everything. Some classes have left me feeling so great about where we are, how we are going to stay on track and about the future. Other classes have left me feeling a little deflated but still hopeful. I think I mainly get deflated because I look at the state of our economy right now and become a little scared and discouraged. I don't see a light at the end of the tunnel sometimes and I need to look a little harder because surely it is there. Last week after class we both left feeling very good about where we are and what we are doing. Well, mainly what Tyler is doing. He does all the work and I just hold down the fort. Over the past year or so we have been asking ourselves a lot of questions and feeling like we might be missing the point. We are not missing the point at all. Dave keeps saying "If you will live like no one else, later you can LIVE like no one else". We don't live bad right now at all, in fact, we think we have it pretty good. We don't feel like we are missing out on much. Although, sometimes we do feel like we are missing out on fun stuff we just don't want to spend money on, but we get over it quickly! So, last week he focused on work, jobs, careers-whatever you want to call it. Tyler has been at the same job for the last 15 years. That's crazy right? I could hardly believe it myself. In fact I didn't believe it until it was shown to me on paper. During those years sometimes he hasn't felt like he was doing what he was supposed to do, maybe he should work somewhere else, maybe he should do something totally different, maybe he should go back to school, maybe we should move far away, maybe, maybe, maybe.......lots of maybes.



We put a stop to the maybes last week and it was very exciting. There are no guarantees in life, but I believe if you put in the time and effort, pay your dues, pray a lot, you will reap rewards later. So, my husband works, and has worked, 50-60 hours a week. He's putting in his dues, time and effort. I'm not saying he does more than anyone else by any means, I'm just saying he does more right now than I wish he would (although I do not complain or even remember this when he brings home money!) I just know that he will keep on doing this for what we are hoping is only 15 more years. 15 years! He is half way done with his work life! He is working a lot right now, so later, he can just work when he wants to work, which hopefully will be a lot less than he does now and we can play a lot more than we do now!



Dave read this poem and it hit me like a ton of bricks. It made me cry. It reminded me of the man Tyler is and just how thankful I am to be his wife.



I do not choose to be a common man It is my right to be uncommon... If I can. I seek opportunity... Not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, Humbled and dulled by having the state to dream and build, to Fail and succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole. I prefer the challenges of life to the Guaranteed existence; the thrill of Fulfillment to the stale calm of utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence Nor my dignity for a hand out. I will Never cower before any master nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect, proud, and unafraid; to think and act for myself; enjoy the benefits of my creations; and to face the world boldly and say, "This I have done with my own hand, I am a man. I am an American.



*Originally published in This Week Magazine. October 1952, p. 10, and January 1954, p. 122, * The Honorable Dean Alfange was an American statesman born December 2, 1899, in Constantinople (now Istanbul). He was raised in upstate New York. He served in the U.S. Army during World War 1 and attended Hamilton College, graduating in the class of ?22. He attended Colombia University where he received his law degree and opened a practice in Manhattan. In 1942 Alfange was the American Labor Party candidate for governor of New York and a founder of the Liberal Party of New York. Dean Alfange was also Professor Emeritus at UMass Amherst and a leading figure in various pro-Zionist organizations (between other actions, in November 1943, he appeared before the House of Representatives and addressed them on the rescue of the Jewish people of Europe). He died in Manhattan at the age of 91 on October 27, 1989.

Trick Question!

Quick! Without thinking-how many people do you see in this picture? 2!! The right answer is 2!!!

My beautiful sister and her husband Chris are having a baby!!! YAY!!!! I think I am more excited for this little one than I was with my own! Cam is due in late November and we can all hardly wait!

One Friday night a few weeks ago she called me and asked if her and Chris could come over. Tyler and I were getting ready to go out to dinner that night so I suggested they just come with us. They didn't want to come with us, they had already eaten, they just wanted to swing by and see us. Weird? But that's fine! I said I looked the same but I might be prettier so it would be great if they swung by. Now, I knew that they had been trying to get pregnant and I also knew she was a few days "late". But I am an idiot sometimes and I didn't think anything of this odd "we need to come over" deal . They showed up and I had all the kids in the bath in our tub and so we all hung out in our bathroom for a little while. I even asked her if she had started her period and she said no and I couldn't clue in! We went through all the steps of the bath, then getting dried off, and headed upstairs to get the kids in their jammies and finally Chris just put the "stick" in my view so I could see the plus sign! I was so excited! I screamed really loud!

What a fun holiday season this will be with a new little baby! Now, I am off to plan the shower!

This picture was taken when we celebrated Cam's 28th birthday, which also happened to be the day they got back from Maui! Normally she wouldn't be so tan in April! Happy Birthday! You are the best sister I could have ever asked for! I love you!

Just checking in!

We have had 2 sunny days in a row and I am loving it! It has felt so good to be outside, get some sun on our skin and breathe in the fresh air! This video is of the boys sliding down the stairs. It makes me laugh! And, after last night, I need a laugh! I relearned the importance of compassion and understanding. Please Lord may I never forget to have both. Now-it's time to go back outside and play!