Easter Weekend

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter this year. We sure did! We started it out with a trip to the zoo on Friday afternoon, where we were up close and personal with some wolves.

On Saturday we went to an Easter eve concert at the Levitt Shell, where I didn't have my camera, so no pictures, sorry. The concert was great and the boys had a blast, although it did cause a pretty late bedtime.

Easter morning started with church, and then we headed to my parents house for lunch. Caleb got to see his cousins (my cousins kids) who he doesn't get to see often so that was alot of fun. He had fun "holding" the babies. Have I mentioned that he has told me multiple times now that he wants a baby sister?? Anyways, he got to play with his cousins Greta, Evan and Emily and they had alot of fun together.

Here are some pictures of our day.

And coming up, a ... I have a ton of pictures that never made it to the blog because I haven't posted in so long post.

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, and while it very different from last year, it was lots of fun!

On Christmas Eve we spent the afternoon with Charles' family; eating great food, opening gifts and playing with cousins. Then we headed to the Christmas Eve service at church. The music was great, the sermon was wonderful and the congregation singing Silent Night in the candlelight at the end was beautiful. From there, we headed home for a quick dinner and to get the boys in bed since they had gone all day without naps.

(My boys with their cousins, Phillip-Giles and Naomi)

Christmas morning was hectic but fun. Our boys are still to young to really "get" Christmas, although Caleb definitely knew it was baby Jesus' birthday. But there was no waking at the crack of dawn in this house. Ethan woke at his normal 7:30ish, and we finally had to wake Caleb at 8:00 so that he'd have time to open his presents before church. They both loved all their new toys!

We headed to church for more great fellowship and another great sermon and then to my parents house for lunch. After a delicious lunch and quick naps for the boys we opened gifts. And once again, the boys loved all their new stuff. We had a relaxing afternoon just hanging out with my family and headed home around dinner time.

On Monday we headed back out to my parents house to get together with all of my mom's family. It was great to see everyone, and Caleb loved being the center of attention. He kind of steals the show when we're around crowds of people. He definitely didn't inherit his Mama's shyness. He did some dancing, played some instruments, sang some Christmas tunes, and just generally strutted around the house like he owned the place. Sweet Ethan just enjoys watching his big brother, and being passed around for everyone to play with and hold, although he's quite a dancing machine too. I'll have to try and get a video of their moves to post on here at some point. After lunch and gifts, the Christmas festivities were finally over after a long weekend of fun, family and lots of food.

We've finally caught up on sleep and after celebrating Charles' birthday today are getting back into the swing of things around here.

I hope everyone had a wonderful time celebrating with family and friends.

So busy...

There are several reasons why I haven't blogged much lately. Things have been so busy around here. Christmas music at church takes up a huge part of my life in the month of December. We have our annual service of Lessons and Carols, children's choir programs, and special music throughout the month.

It was such a blessing to participate in the service of Lessons and Carols this year. We sang some beautiful music and it always gets me really thinking about why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. I know alot of people got the chance to attend, but if you missed it and you want to hear some great music, you can tune into WKNO - FM 91.1 on December 22 at noon and the catch the whole thing.

We've also all been sick around here. Thankfully after several days of just hanging out at home everyone is on the mend and feeling much better, and I'm so glad it was several weeks before Christmas that they whole family got sick and not the the week of.

Throw in decorating for Christmas, shopping for gifts and planning Ethan's first birthday party, and maybe you understand why my blog has been neglected for the past few weeks. But, Ethan's birthday party is this weekend and you can bet there will be a full post and pictures documenting the whole thing. I can't believe my baby is already turning one!!

PS- While you wouldn't be able to tell based on today's temperatures ( I think it was like 70 degrees), we did get some snow last week. Caleb had a blast playing in what little was left by the time we made it outside mid-morning.

Giving Thanks

I have a lot to be thankful for this year, and I hate that it sometimes takes a holiday like Thanksgiving for me to really think about all the ways I've been blessed. But thats ok. It's allowed me this week to really focus on what's important, my faith, my family, my friends. I love that, because of my faith, thankfulness isn't just something that happens when things are going well. We can be thankful regardless of our circumstances, regardless of whats going on in the world around us.

There's a lot of bad stuff in this world. Things don't always go like we want them to, people we love get sick, even die, but that doesn't change the fact that we are thankful. We are thankful for a Heavenly Father who, despite our constant failures, loves us, and continues to bless us although we certainly don't deserve it.

I'm thankful this year for the man that God placed in my life, to lead me and our family into a closer relationship with Him. A man that works so hard in all that he does, a man that loves me even when I am anything but lovable.

I'm thankful for my two little guys, who are slowly becoming not so little, for their sweet spirits and kind hearts.

I'm thankful for my family and the closeness we share. God has truly blessed me with parents who have always been such a Godly example of the way marriage is supposed to work, and with siblings who is it so easy to have fun with.

I'm thankful for my church and the strong group of brothers and sisters in Christ that I get to spend time with on a very regular basis.

I'm thankful for friends. Friends that are so easy to spend time with and talk to, friends who thank God for the blessings in their lives, and friends who continue to thank God even when things are not going well.

And ultimately I'm thankful for a God who loves me so much that he sent his Son to suffer the punishment that I deserve for the wickedness in my life and heart. And on top of that, a God who blesses me beyond what I could ever imagine.

Like I said, I have a lot to be thankful for.

I hope everyone has a very happy thanksgiving!

Weekend Recap

We had a very busy, fun-filled weekend this past weekend. So I thought I'd do a little recap. I wrote last year about Halloween and how our family chooses to celebrate, which you can check out here, if you're interested.

On Fridays Caleb goes to Mother's Day Out and this past Friday they had a Halloween party. They all wore their little costumes and looked adorable. Caleb went as a baseball player. He loves baseball, and it happened to be quite timely with the world series going on. Apparently it was a huge hit with all the people in the church offices upstairs.

On Saturday, Charles got up and went to participate in "Jesus Loves Memphis". I stayed home with the kiddos but I heard it was a great time of work, fellowship and prayer with a bunch of local churches, all working together to love this city we live in, by cleaning, building, painting, and I'm sure lots of other stuff as well.

Saturday afternoon we headed to a barn party at my great aunt and uncles house. It was lots of fun getting together with some extended family that we don't see all that often, and Caleb had a blast, once again dressed in costume (this time a bumble bee).

He got the chance to play with some distant cousins and he was the life of the party. Running, dancing, and just generally capturing the attention of everyone in attendance. Shy is one word that does not describe this child. Ethan had a good time too, being passed around from person to person, and he looked adorable in his froggie costume.

Ethan and his Aunt Rachel

Caleb and his Aunt Rachel or Ray Ray, as he calls her.

Sunday began with church and ended with a community Reformation service at one of the local presbyterian churches. I sang in the choir along with several hundred other choir members from churches all over the city. It was quite an experience and the music sounded amazing, if I do say so myself. The paster of our church preached the sermon and was, as usual, outstanding.

So that was our busy weekend, lots of stuff but lots of fun. And now, while we won't be trick or treating tonight, I do have my supply of candy ready to hand out to the neighborhood kids who come knocking on our door. I'm just hoping Caleb is ok with sharing his stash of "treats" that I've been using as potty training rewards, which he's doing very well with, by the way. There will be a post on that coming soon, I know you're thrilled ... potty training adventures, what more could you want?

Harvest Festival

On Saturday we headed to a local harvest festival for the morning. Caleb is finally old enough to really enjoy stuff like this, so I knew he'd have a good time. Throw in some popcorn and cotton candy and you've got the makings for a wonderful time.

They had a petting zoo, pumpkin painting, face painting, a hay ride, and a couple of bouncy castles. Caleb wanted to do it all!

checking out the petting zoo

his first taste of pumpkin

Caleb wanted a spider on his face

my boys on the hay ride

hanging out in the stroller

(if you look closely you can see his one and only tooth peeking out)

my sweet boys

We had a great time and will probably make this festival an annual thing. Lots to do, and did I mention it was completely free? Well, it was. Can't beat that.

I'm still planning on taking the boys to another little pumpkin patch we go to every year to pick out pumpkins towards the end of the month. I'm hoping it'll feel a little more like fall by then, cause I can't miss out on taking our annual pumpkin patch pictures.

Remember Caleb's first trip?

and then last year?

Can't believe how big he'll be this year!

Party Time!

Caleb's 2nd birthday party was today. It was lots of fun, especially for a 2 year old.

We bounced.

And lots of Caleb's friends came to play.

We also went swimming...thank goodness, because it was hot!

Ethan got in on the partying too.

And got to hang out with his sweet friend.

This is what you get when you try to get a good picture of two 6 month olds.

We did actually get one cute picture!

We had cupcakes!

And the whole party was Curious George themed ... his Aunt Rachel got him this adorable shirt.

After a little brotherly love ....

This is pretty much how everyone felt.

The party was so much fun! The weather was great and Caleb had a blast playing with all his friends. We're so thankful for this little guy and all the people in his life. Thanks, to all who came to help up celebrate!!

The waters keep coming

It's rained ALOT here in the past few weeks.  So much, in fact, that there is some major flooding in certain parts of the city.  Well, Charles really wanted to go check out the Mississippi River with the boys, so we headed downtown to see the water and have dinner.

Riverside Drive

A nice man offered to take a picture of all four of us.  You can see Riverside Drive right behind us, and out in the river you can see what's left of Mud Island.

 Headed back to the car.

I didn't take any pictures at dinner, but we met up with Charles' family (most of them, at least) and after dinner I took the boys home and everyone else headed to the Grizzlies game.  It was a fun afternoon/evening, and I'm glad we got some pictures of, most likely, the biggest flood we'll ever see.