Easter Morning!

The easter bunny left all kinds of goodies for the kids. The bunny left Braeden a gumball machine, which he claims only takes quarters. Preston received a star wars lego set, since the two are his favorites day in and day out. And, Laken a Prince for one of her "American dolls" and of course candy! The Easter Bunny, also, hid the easter eggs they dyed. Then, we went over to Nama & Grandpa's for Easter dinner, more easter baskets and an outdoor easter egg hunt! To all our beloved blog followers, sorry these posts have been so slow. I am only working about 5 part-time jobs right now (seriously!). It is what Dave Ramsey refers to as gazelle like intensity.

Easter Eggs

Braeden prepares to dip his egg.









Preston shows off his colors.









Precision is key.








Pulling it out to see how it looks








Laker baker pulls the egg from the color.

1-2-3 Egg Hunt

The High School Youth held an egg hunt for kids 5th grade and under at church. Laken and Preston have loved to egg hunt at home. I hide plastic eggs and then say, "1-2-3 egg hunt" and they find them. We went to another egg hunt the weekend before. It was a complete bust, too many kids, too few eggs. This one was great. Everyone got eggs with treats inside and Braeden made out like a bandit as there weren't as many kids Kindergarten and older. He was only disappointed that they didn't hide the eggs a little better.

Happy 10th Anniversary!

Brad and I, as mentioned previously, celebrated our 10th Anniversary. I seems just like yesterday. It's hard to believe it's been 10 years. He had a low key celebration thanks to the Dave Ramsey plan, where cash is king, debt is dumb and the paid off home mortage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice (www.daveramsey.com). Anway, Brad brought me home a knock off Shamrock Shake (they are my favorite) from one of the local establishments. Laken is seen sharing in it. We dined at the Elks Club. The traditional gift for 10 years is tin, so I gave him some tin cans, aka some good quality college beer (since that is the era it all began) called ICEHOUSE. It was my fav back in the day. Brad treated me to some wedding and love scrapbook items and a mood ring. Living on a budget sure brings out the creativity! Happy 10 years!

Good Friday Children's Service

Our church holds a Good Friday Children's service in the afternoon on Good Friday. The have stations representing a different story of Jesus.
The story starts out with John Baptizing Jesus.









The next station is Jesus saying, "Let the Children come to me."









Next is Jesus feeding the hungry. Braeden and Preston are below eating their bread.














Then, it is Zacchaeus climbing in up the tree to see Jesus and Jesus telling him he was going to his house.
Then, my camera stopped working. Ugh. Next was a representation of Palm Sunday with Jesus riding in on a donkey. We all had palm branches and yelled, "Hosanna!"

The next station was Jesus being ceased and Pilate asking if him or Barrabas should be released and the crowd yelling, "Crucify, him!"

Then, it was Jesus nailed to the cross with a crown of thorns on his head and blood coming from his wounds. We sang, "Were You There" and the children were given a blunt nail.

Next, it was the women going to the tomb and found it empty.

Finally, we headed into church and found Jesus had risen! The children were given gladiolus.

It is always fun to experience things from a child's perspective. Laken could not get over the fact that Jesus was not a baby anymore, but was now "a big Daddy."

Crafting Day - April 10th!

Crafting day actually began on Thursday, April 9th when Gammy came down to begin to teach me how to sew (I have a long way to go). I made a skirt for myself, started a jumper for Laken and made a doll skirt (which I was really proud of cobbling together after Gammy left). Anyway, I will post pics of them later as I have some embellishing to do on them. She, also, brought the kids Easter Baskets, each with a craft in. So, I declared Good Friday as Crafting morning. Braeden's had a suncatcher kit and he painted a beautiful train sun catcher for the kitchen window. Preston started painting some pieces for a car. Laken made her Princess necklace the day before with Gammy, but she had a flower necklace kit she got for her b-day. So, she made a couple flower necklaces. Laken decided she, then, needed to paint like the brothers. Let me tell you this chick notoriously gets into her work as you can see by the photos! Later that evening Brad and I celebrated our 10th Anniversary on the 10th! We had a babysitter and dined at the Elks Club and had a fabulously frugal time which has become our motto this year. Love you honey and here's to many more!

An April Snowman

Laken was so excited to play in our April Snow one Sunday after church. She just had to make this adorable snowman. We had trouble finding enough snow for him, but we accomplished it and she was so proud!

Braeden is 9!

We celebrated Braeden's birthday at Jake's Pizza Place. Laken and Preston gave him so magic sets and Brad and I gave him a guitar with a weeks worth of summer guitar lessons through a community education course. Then we had a spy gear cake at home.

10 things we love about Braeden:
1. He loves to daydream
2. He sings in God's Singers Choir
3. He loves Hockey
4. He snuggles with his Build a Bear Sakari every night
5. He is a great student
6. He loves to race outdoors
7. He's very creative when he sets his mine to it
8. He loves plain ole milk chocolate
9. He plays soccer
10. He's going to take viola and guitar lessons this summer

Grandpa Dave's 60th Birthday

Stretch Limo wisked us away to the Elba House with my cousin Chad as our wonderful driver.

Grandpa has company opening gifts

The limo fit us all

The kids liked sticking their head out of one of the two sun roofs

Our ride awaits

Spring Break

I decided to have theme days for each day of Spring Break. Monday was:

Pick a Wii or Movie Day


Braeden rented My Sims Kingdom for Wii


Preston rented Indiana Jones for Wii


And Laken rented the Movie Blues Clues Knights


Tuesday was Chuck E Cheese Day!

We feasted on Pepperoni or Macaroni (as Laken calls it) and Sausage Pizza.










Played games!







This was Laken's Favorite. It is video game were you sit on a huge horse and try to race it and pull on its reins. She couldn't get enough.





Wednesday was Country Club Day!

So, the Club has this hot tub that I've never seen anyone in. I decided to take them swimming in it. We had the place to ourselves!

Then we ate lunch there and Dad joined us!

Thursday was camping day!


I don't have a picture of that as Brad took a picture with his phone and not our camera. We got a new tent for christmas from Gammy and Grandpa and it took up the entire living room. It is huge. It came with no directions on how to set it up, so that was a little bit of trial and error.


Friday was Party and McDonald's Day!

We kept the tent up all day for everyone to play around in. Then, we went to McD's Playland for a shake snack. I was disappoint, because my all-time favorite Shamrock Shakes were already gone for the year. Boo-hoo! Then, the boys went to a neighborhood birthday party that evening and mom went to puck.