Easter weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend! Both sets of our parents were out of town for the weekend, so we spent most of the weekend with friends.


We went to church on Good Friday to focus on the sacrifice Jesus made for us. It's a hard day to remember, but so thankful that it's not the end...thank you Jesus for being our risen Savior!!



We had beautiful weather for most of the weekend and spent lots of time outside!! Sunday morning we went to church and had a great service of celebration. We had a little Easter egg hunt when Marty woke up from his nap. On Sunday afternoon, our friends had us over for their family dinner. It was so nice of them to include us. The kids enjoyed an Easter egg hunt at their house too. Our house is over flowing with chocolate!




Every year, we have a potluck dinner with our friends over Easter. We had the potluck this year on Monday. We usually have it at our house, but this year we went to some friends house. The kids had a great Easter egg hunt in their "forrest"!! Marty was more interested in playing, the in hunting for eggs.




Group shot...

The kids were all dressed up in their "Easter" clothes on Sunday. We had to get some pictures of all three together!
Trying to get a picture with all 3 is no easy challenge...



I've been sick with a chest cold for the past week. I'm on the mend now, but yesterday Jeff wasn't feeling great:( Marty has a snotty nose, but the girls seem to be fine.

I'm on a women's soccer team again this year. We have had 2 games so far and I'm loving the team I'm playing on. All the ladies are so nice and encouraging to each other. We've lost both our games, but the score on both games was 2-1...so not too bad! I pulled my quad last year and I'm in better shape this year. I have been doing some running and more stretching and so far my quad feels great. I can tell I'm in better shape this year too because my lungs don't hurt so much when I'm running. Usually for the first month of soccer I'm so tired and so sore!! I'm still a little sore the day after the games, but it's a "good" sore:) Jeff is so supportive and encouraging of me playing soccer. I usually have to leave the house about 5:15pm and so he has to feed the kids dinner and bath them and put them to bed on his own. He is totally capable, but I know it's a lot of work! I'm a SO thankful to have such a wonderful husband:)

We have a busy weekend coming up...friends over for dinner, 2 birthday parties, church, etc. Should be lots of fun!!

Look who's 4...

So today my sweet Gabrielle turned 4!! Seriously, where does the time go. I looked at the clock this morning at 7:37am and remember having her at about 7:50am. I remember it like it was yesterday.

Gabby is such a blessing to our family! She has so much personality and character. I love watching her be herself. She has such a great sense of humor and makes us laugh a lot:) We love you so much Gabby, you bring us so much joy!!!


We had a little kids birthday party for her on Friday morning. A bunch of her friends and their mommies came over and we snacks and visited and the kids played in the backyard. I could not believe when I opened the curtains that morning, that we had snow on the ground:( I was NOT impressed. I turned out to be a pretty warm morning and the snow melted quickly and the kids were happy to be outside.

The garden party...


Gabby wanted a flower cake(I was glad, because it was easy!). She was so excited to see it and of course, eat it! She got lots of new toys which she is loving. We are truly blessed to have so many amazing friends and family that love our Gabby!






Megan decided the morning of the party that she wanted to stay home from school and help with the party!!



Saturday morning, Jeff took Gabby on a birthday "date". It was so cute! They got some breakfast at McDonalds(her request!) and then went to Knox Mountain for a little hike/walk to the first lookout. Gabby walked the whole way and had so much fun with her daddy! Gabby thrives when she has one on one time with us. We are trying to make more of an effort to do that with our kids.



And today, her actual birthday we had all the grandparents over for dinner! She got a few more presents and then we had her favorite foods for dinner. She requested macaroni and sausages!! So, I made homemade mac 'n cheese and Jeff bbq'd some sausages. And we had Banana sour cream cake with cream cheese icing for dessert...so yummy!!


We got the girls new comforters for their beds for each of their birthdays. We gave Megan's her comforter today too...I like things to match! They were pretty excited to go to bed tonight.
I also found these cute little lanterns at the dollar store! I think I will go back and get one more because they match their room perfectly!
On Tuesday it is my brother's birthday and I know he reads this...so a BIG happy birthday to you Loren!! We love you so much. We can't wait to see you again!!

Our wonderful house guests...

We had some wonderful house guests come visit us last weekend! Auntie Kirsten and Uncle Malcolm came for the weekend. I always love having them come over, they are the easiest house guests and so much fun to have around.

They came into town on Thursday night, but visited with some other friends before coming over. We were in bed when they arrived at our place. We were all so excited to see them in the morning!! The kids were almost bursting with excitement and they were making tons of noise that I was sure they had woken them up.

We had a relaxing breakfast together that morning. Jeff was at work, so he didn't get to see them until the afternoon. We hung around the house and the backyard and then Malcolm and Kirsten took the girls to the park and I stayed home to put Marty down for his nap.

It had been close to a year since the kids had seen Malcolm(Kirsten came by herself in August) and they warmed up to him very quickly! They had him read books to them almost instantly...so cute!

We had dinner together that night and once the kids were in bed we played some games...although Jeff did go to bed early as he got up to go swimming at 7am the next morning.

On Saturday, Kirsten and I ventured out to Value Village and Homesense! A few of my favorite stores:) We had a great time just being together. I love that even though it had been 1/2 a year since we'd seen each other, it's like no time has passed. It's just so comfortable.

Our family had a birthday party to go to that evening, so Kirsten and Malcolm went to my parents place for dinner. But, I gave them a strict curfew to be home by 7pm...so we could still spend the evening together!! We played some more games and just visited.

Kirsten and I talk a lot about hair and hair products. We have similar hair, so we are always throwing out different techniques and ideas. Malcolm was sitting with us during one of those conversations and I'm sure he was thrilled to hear us talk about hair for probably 1/2 hour!! He is such a patient man:)

They headed home early Sunday morning and the time just went by so fast...as it always does. The kids and us were sad to see them go. Megan said can they stay for a week next time?? I guess we'll have to do some convincing and see what happens:)

Thank you Kirsten and Malcolm for making the trip out here to see us! We always love having you and you know you are welcome here anytime:)