First off, Happy Mother’s Day to our moms and all the moms we know and love!

It was a fun weekend! Friday night we went over to Uncle Malachi and Aunt Melissa’s for the Muppet movie set up in the backyard and some sewing time for the mama’s!

I introduced Melissa to floor sewing.

Saturday morning, Micah and I got up around 6 or so and he worked on the car until almost 3 pm. New tires, rotated the rotors, new brakes and new bushings for the car.

Then we headed over to celebrate Everett’s very first birthday! Everyone had a great time.

Sunday was mother’s day. We got ready for church, I got amazing handmade gifts from Jaden (and Jackson and Ellie later from church), we went to Dunkin Donut’s, church, stopped by to give Micah’s mom her gift, lunch at Geno’s, hung out at home, and then Uncle Chris and Aunt Shannon’s house to give my mom her gift.

Jaden experienced a crybaby

And some pictures with my babies.

We had a very nice Easter this year!

On Good Friday, the kids and I went to Paw Paw’s and picked up their Easter baskets.

That night, Micah and I went to “Secret Church”, which was a Bible study from 6 pm-midnight. It was really good, focusing on the persecution of believers.  The boys also got to have their first sleepover at Uncle Chris and Aunt Shannon’s house. I think they had so much fun.

Saturday, we celebrated Easter at the Treslers, and were excited that Uncle Matt and his fiance Gabby were in town to celebrate too! That evening, we went back to Gateway to watch Uncle Malachi, Aunt Melissa and Uncle Matt sing.

(thanks to Uncle Malachi for taking and sharing these pictures!) And here’s some I took with my phone, which is mostly what I seem to use these days. Just a lot easier to carry around!

Look at this darling and thoughtful Easter basket Matt and Gabby gave us! Homemade lemon curd from her grandfather’s trees!

On Sunday morning, Micah delivered the message at church. For breakfast, we made resurrection rolls. We tell the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection while we are making them, and when they are finished, the marshmallow is gone after baking!

Afterwards, we went to Uncle Chris and Aunt Shannon’s house for lunch. During the Easter egg hunt- the mother of all Easter Egg hunts by the way  (and right after lunch), poor Jackson started throwing up. We thought maybe it was just from excitement, but then when Aunt Shannon got sick as well, we knew it wasn’t good. Sure enough, on Monday night, both Jaden and Micah also got it as well. Thank goodness for Ellie and I escaping it!

Jack was able to hang through the easter egg pinata that Grammy and Steve made. I cant believe I didnt get a picture of their cute easter baskets from them. The kids enjoyed them nonetheless!

What a blessed weekend!

How is it already into the second week of May?

April was a fun and busy month. We are trying to enjoy every single day of “Spring” (aka a lot of the country’s normal summer temps) before it turns into the Oven State.

Monday night, we went to the Cardinals (I mean, Diamondbacks?) game with my dad and Tina. The best seats ever. We were sitting on the Cardinal’s dugout. We were SO close to the team, it was fantastic. I didn’t have a card shirt  (I know, its a shock!) so I whipped up one with stuff I had here on Sunday.

Final score? 9-6.

Last weekend after Micah went to the opening night viewing of Avengers, we all went as a family as a surprise. I am glad that he had prescreened it, because he knew when to cover their eyes and ears during a couple of scenes, but they loved it SO much. Especially Jackson.

This week was our last story time. We had been going with Deacon and Dillon and the kids have had a ball getting together once a week for library and chik-fil-a.

What do you get if you act like good boys and girls on a morning of many errands? Ice cream before 10 of course.

Speaking of junk food. Sundays are fun for them around here. If we all get ready in time, we stop at Dunkin Donuts on the way to church.

Last week, we saw that they had opened up a Jimmy John’s next to church. Uh oh!

Uncle Chris and Aunt Shannon recently had a pool put in. The kids loved watching it fill up.

Ever heard of Market on the Move? 60 pounds of produce for 10.00. Amazing.

The kids got to sing during church a couple of weeks back. It was quite interesting.

We had a yard sale last weekend, which is always a great feeling to purge things around here. We actually had to shut down before 10 because we didnt have much more to sell!

Jaden has his second loose tooth!

Since Ellie converted into a toddler bed, sleeping around here has been interesting.

She will only sleep if she has her “baby mine” song sung to her. (Also, note that these are not her bedding! Wonder where shes at?)

And naptime is fun time. Taking after her brother’s footsteps with the markers.

I scored a dresser for 2.00 at a yard sale a couple of weeks ago. I am still rearranging in her room, but feel like it gives a lot more space. Can’t wait to paint it!

A little after school spur of the moment race to blow off steam.

May the Fourth (May 4th) be with you. I made star wars pancakes and Jaden wore his favorite outfit. He loved Star Wars day.

Cousin Friends

Ellie loves tormenting Jackson. Her new trick is to go up him with her baby stroller and say “jackson, will you babysit?” usually so that she can ride on her horse. he responds “no! I dont play baby games!” so she will roll it with her to her horse anyway. Worth a shot, sister!

Jackson is my little helper. He clears his dishes, puts his laundry away, cleans his room when asked…Ellie and I are going to be even more lost next year when he is in school!

We have been hitting up the Espee Park splash pad a lot. The kids LOVE it.

The first weekend of insane temps here, we were blessed to get a FANTASTIC deal on a cabin in Greer. We went up with friends and enjoyed two nights and three days of peace and quiet (as much as possible with three kids anyway)

Sad to leave!

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Uncle Mike graduated last week from ASU! GO Uncle Mike! So exciting!

Micah and I put this year’s garden in. Here’s hoping it does well this year!

Crazy orange kids.

On the rainy day we had, I saw a friend of mine took her kids out to splash in puddles. Since we don’t get many opportunities for this, we jumped at the chance!

Jaden had his first Spring Sing at school a couple of weeks ago. He was VERY into it! Loved watching him sing his little heart out on stage!

Our blackberries are ripening.

Swimming at Grammy’s when the guys all went to monster trucks. I would show you those pictures, but Micah has them. I am sure he will blog about that whenever he blogs about seeing President Obama in January as well.

Jaden’s reaction to finding out about the monster trucks:

An evening bike ride:

Jackson sleeps in some crazy positions:

Lunch at Pei Wei:

“Cheese!”

A campfire with Uncle Chris and Aunt Shannon:

Hunger Games with Friends:

And Loooooooooots of play time!

Ok, I have to stop and pick Jaden up from school (which is almost out for the year!) Since i worked backwards, I will do a post about Easter and then i will be all caught up! Happy Wednesday!

Nice cool weather while it lasted! I am pretty disappointed about our winter this year. Looks like summer heat is arriving (90′s the rest of the week, yuck!)

Jaden lost his first tooth today!

I knew last night that it was probably going to happen today

So we hurried up and finished his tooth pillow for the tooth fairy

Then this morning while he was eating cereal before school, he said “Ouch!” and when I asked him if it had come out, he said no. When he opened his mouth, there it was in his little gap waiting to be taken out of his mouth! Quick and effortless and no pulling on anyone’s part!

He is so very excited!

A video of last night before bed

I kept hearing Ellie calling me from her room, telling me she was stuck. So I went in and saw she was standing in her bed. I asked her to show me she does it.

And here’s one more of her singing her made up puppy song.

It was quite an adventure…this birthday party of his. He requested the theme back in December, at Ellie’s birthday party, because they ALWAYS pick their birthday theme at each party, of course!

I worked on it here and there all month, ordered everything ahead of time, bought the balloons and even bought the cake. We were all ready to go Friday night, when the dreaded happened. 12:30 in the morning brought Jackson a stomach bug that lasted all day the next day.

Jack on Saturday

Jackson got to look at his balloons while he was chilling out though.

First we changed it Friday to our house (it was for Saturday) because it looked like it was going to be pretty windy and it was supposed to be at the park. Then when he got sick, we changed it to Sunday after church still at our house and then debated back and forth whether or not just to cancel it, but in the end we had it and are really glad we did.  When we woke up it was raining, (and later hailing),  and we warned everyone ahead of time in case they didn’t want to risk getting anyone sick, and we were surprised of the turn out! Our balloons were dead but Jackson even got surprised with some new ones!

Thank you friends and family who were able to make it (and risk our little sick guy!) and celebrate with us. We love you!

Here’s our pretty balloons yesterday before they went flat. I did the St Louis Logo on them with vinyl stickers and my cutter

I freezer paper stenciled the back to look like a jersey and I did a felt applique on the front.

Baby pictures and baseballs made up this birthday banner

I did the Sugar Cookie Flooding technique on 64 of these bad boys. It took me two days but I think they turned out so nice. Tied with a strip of baseball fabric and a red twine tag on a tag I printed out. They taste good too

The entry way

The candy was even “red bird” brand in the bucket. I used current and baby pictures to decorate and threw in some cracker jacks on a baseball print fabric. The red and yellow logo bags were made from the dollar store and some vinyl stickers. They were used as favor bags for the kids and the pinata.

Food pictures:

The hot dogs were so easy, we wrapped the buns in foil and put them in to warm and the hot dogs cooked while we were at church. Since we had less than 15 minutes to prepare after walking in from church, I think it was a success!

Picnic pack of condiments from Sam’s club

I saw this idea on pinterest and loved it. Cupcake liners (baseball of course) held the ice cream ahead of time for easy serving when it was cake time!

Birthday boy’s meager lunch

For the pinata, let me just say *an obvious by the way* do not use fabric and mod podge, even if you patch the fabric on. It makes it VERY solid! The kids all had a turn hitting it though

The crew waiting for their pinata prizes

Some party goers

Gift opening, with lots of help

And cake time!

Tonight some good friends invited us out to play. So, with a little encouragement from good ol’ dad…it was on.
Here’s a look into their daily lives. Epic battle, one gives up, they get over it, hug, and race back to the beginning. Weirdos.

This afternoon,  Jaden counted all of his change in his piggy bank (which wasn’t a lot because he had spent everything awhile back) and told me he wanted to go buy Jackson a birthday gift while Jackson was taking a nap. All his own idea.

He knew just what he wanted to get him, and we headed out to the store so he could pick it out, buy it with his own money and wrap it up for him.

I love how he wrote what was inside. Guess punishing them with nice thoughts is working!

We are enjoying Spring Break so much this week. It’s only day two but I really wish we could slow time down, I love having my ducks all in a row with me!