Easter 2013

 Ahhh, another Easter, another 27.8 pounds of candy.  At least we all looked super cute!  It's true, I love Easter because I love a new outfit for everyone.  This year was no exception.  My kiddos looked as cute as can be and everyone felt so pretty on this cloudy Easter Sunday. 

  Almost 9 years old and beginning to look so mature already.

6 1/2 years old, missing lots of teeth, super cutey patooty.

 

My little almost 3 year old stinker who melts my heart.

How are these mine?  How did they get so beautiful?  How did I get them all smiling in only 2 shots?

Our family; my joy.

 

After church when just about everyone had left, I remembered I had my little camera in my purse and some of our friends were still here, so I snapped a few great pictures.  This picture truly captures personalities and friendships.  I love it!

Yeah for new dresses!!!

 

Best Buds

 

They both wore orange today :)

 

Then it was time to head home and see if the Easter Bunny left anything.  Judging by the looks on their faces, I'm thinking he did.

I think Levi could sit IN his basket. lol

After lunch, it was time for an indoor egg hunt due to rain.

 The kids had a great time hunting for eggs.  It's been 3 hours since the hunt and Ava just found another one...wonder how long we'll be finding hidden eggs around here.....

 

 

Today was a wonderful day full of cute looking people and lots of candy.  Happy Easter everyone.

LTC 2013

A weird thing happened this weekend.  We went from being the youth group chaperons to a youth event, to the parents of a youth who is participating in that kind of event!!!  It's a super weird feeling for me.  We took Elle to participate in her first LTC on Friday, up in Dallas.  We have been preparing and studying and working for a few months now to help her be ready for all of the things she wanted to participate in.  It's been a lot of constant work.  And now it was all coming together.  She did three preconvention events, those being Art, Bulletin Boards, and Daily Devotional, where she was suppose to read her Bible every day for 40 days and keep a prayer journal.  A by-product of the last event was that Ava also wanted to keep a prayer journal so now both of them are writing down people and things they want to talk to God about, and then using it to pray to Him.  Watching them grow and begin that spiritual journey is the most wonderful thing as a parent, that I can witness.  I am so excited that we are getting to provide her with this.  Anyway, the other event that she participated in was Bible Quiz....and let me tell you, it's not for the faint of heart.  IT.IS.HARD.  Her best friend at church also participated with her, so their little 2 person team of 3rd graders studied the book of Matthew over and over and over in preparation for the quiz.  I'm pretty sure they know that book better than I do.  So we got to Dallas on Friday afternoon, turned in her artwork and paperwork for the other preconvention events and then headed out to eat with Kimmy and her parents at an Italian place in the middle of downtown called Campisi's.  Their pizza is the best.  Afterwards, as all of our nerves were beginning to buzz, we headed back to the hotel to prepare to do Bible Quiz.  The girls both looked pretty calm and cool...is was the mothers and coach that were nervous.  We just wanted the girls to be proud of themselves.  There were 25 other teams there.  There was only one other 3-4 grade team and five 5-6th grade teams.  The rest were 7th-12th graders.  Out of the 7 teams for 3rd-6th grade only two teams even scored high enough to earn a bronze medal...and guess who one of the teams was????  That's right, the little 2 girl team of 3rd graders, the smallest team there, and one of the youngest got a BRONZE!!!  We were ecstatic!  That test was extremely difficult and our girls did awesome!  After that event, it was getting late, we were all exhausted and it was time to sleep.  On Saturday, we walked all around the hotel watching all the convention events.  Around noon, we headed to an old time trolley car in the heart of downtown for a free ride around the area.  The kids were super excited for that.  Then we headed to eat at a place called Twisted Root Burger Co.  It was absolutely delicious and I'm STILL full from eating there.  Our family had such a wonderful time at LTC.  It was such an exciting feeling to begin that journey of having children that can participate in youth activities that will help them gain knowledge of the Bible, but more importantly ignite a fire in their bones to be passionate leaders/servants in the Lord's church.

The girls waiting to start the quiz with their coach :)

Shawn went to say a quick prayer with them before getting going.

A group of nervous women...1 coach, 2 moms

Our family

Elle with her artwork...it got a gold!

Our hotel next to the big tower...it was a gorgeous hotel and our family did SO well staying in one room...I think we are finally over the hump of having little ones and sharing a sleeping space and it being difficult.

Powder Puff Derby

This year Girl Scouts offered us the chance to participate in a Powder Puff Derby. Knowing not a single thing about this event except that Shawn would be working with the girls to make cars from blocks of wood, I signed us up! Then I handed Shawn the kits, gave him the deadline, and absolved myself of all responsibility. Sunday was race day. We had no earthly idea what to expect. By we, I mean everyone but Shawn. He had done this at least once before a looooong time ago so he had some fleeting memories of it, but the rest of us where going in blind. He worked with the girls on design and style. After all was done, I spray glossed the cars. That was my contribution. They put the wheels on last week and we truly didn't really even try them out. Saturday we dropped them off at the race site and waited for yesterday afternoon to arrive.  It was fun to watch but also a little nerve racking. Each car got to run in four heats so that each car was on each lane once (in case there was a slower/faster lane than others?). Then came awards time. We were surprised and excited. Ava won a ribbon for "Most Classic Design" and Elle won an ribbon for "Cutest Car." Elle also took home 2nd place for her age division!!!! We were shocked and thrilled! Now we've caught the bug and can't wait to come up with an even faster car for next year!

Here's Ava anxiously waiting for her car's first heat.

 

 

 And here's Elle watching her car get first!

Ava's competitors...it was a BIG group!

Elle's competitors

Proud Daddy with his girls

Ava's car named "Sparky"

Elle's car named "Melon"

Freezing First Family 5K

This morning we got up early (too early for a weekend!), ate some breakfast and drank some water and headed to Cedar Park for the Thin Mint Sprint 5K and Fun Run . This was our first 5K to do as a family. Ava and Shawn signed up to do the 1 mile fun run and then were going to join Elle and me with Levi to do the 5K.

So here we all are waiting for the Fun Run to begin.  We waited inside with just about everyone else and only went outside at the last minute.  IT.WAS.FREEZING.

Ava and Daddy wait anxiously for the race to begin.

AND THEY'RE OFF!!!

 

I just love this picture.  Love when I catch more than a picture, in a photo.

Sprinting and almost being dragged to the finish line!!!!

 My baby was cold.  He was also a very good boy despite that today wasn't really about him at all and he simply was going to sit in a jogging stroller....but the cold weather helped him stay inactive.  

She is so proud of her medal!  She ran the ENTIRE mile!!  We couldn't believe it. 

 

Then it was time for the 5K.  I was a little nervous about how Elle would do (okay I was nervous for myself too.)  We all did 2 practice runs this past week, just doing a mile in the neighborhood.  On the first practice, Elle ran out of steam at the 1/10th mile mark....that's not good.  The second time we ran, she did much better (mainly because she chose to think more positively.)  So, we just didn't know how this would go.  Also, I've been running a mile a day...but no more than that so I had no idea how I'd do with three miles.  Shawn....well he's a powerhouse so I knew he'd take care of all of us if needed.  :)

 

So the race began and Elle said "I want to run ahead" which we were okay with.  That was the last time we ran together!!!  She stayed ahead of me THE ENTIRE TIME!! She ran almost the entire 5K!!!  She was AMAZING!!!!!

 Here she is crossing the finish line all my herself!  She actually did it in 33:30 because we didn't start until 25 seconds after the clock started.  I finished a minute behind her which I was also very proud of.  I haven't run three miles in quite a while so I was really happy with my time and I'm happy to say that I never walked!

 

Here we are having a moment after the race.  I knew that she had pushed herself for us.  She knew how practice had gone during the week and she knew she had something to prove to us.  I was bursting with pride in seeing a little bit of maturity in her.  She had decided on her own, to push herself and she did.  She said after the race "I'm so proud of myself," and that was worth every penny we paid and every chill bump we had.

Our first 5K....and maybe many more to come.

Our family all agreed that we loved doing this.  It was great to get out and spend time together and at the same time, work on keeping our bodies healthy!  Oh and it didn't hurt that we each got a box of Thin Mints too. 

D.I.Y.

Every day it seems Levi is doing something to remind me that he's not a baby anymore.  Today, as he was taking his breathing treatment, he wanted to do it himself.  A complete contrast to 2 days ago when I had to physically hold him down to administer a breathing treatment in the doctor's office.  Such a big boy!

Big Boy

Levi has pretty much potty trained himself at this point. I decided that at the beginning of March, we'd start keeping a chart of every morning that he's woken up dry and so far, he's only been wet 3 days and two of those where when he was really sick. So our goal is to have him completely out of diapers during sleep times by the end of March and it looks like we are well on our way! So along with that, we had to figure out something to do about his crib. He was completely content in his crib and still fit just fine, but when you're nighttime potty trained, you need to have a way to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I was having a hard time with the thought of disassembling our crib and throwing it away. Yep, throwing it away. It's illegal to sell drop side cribs anymore. I am looking for a way to repurpose it because it is the only crib I've used for all three kids.  Anyway, I also wasn't looking forward to the cost of a twin size mattress and box springs.  Then Shawn and I remembered that our crib could convert to a toddler bed. We've never needed that before because just about the time a child came out of the crib, it was time to put it in a new nursery! So, we took the drop side off, replacing it with the extra attachment and we now have a bed Levi can get in and out of on his own! He wasn't too sure about it at first...change is hard...even when you're young. But he LOVES it now. It makes him feel like such a big boy at bed time. At night, after I rock him and sing to him I carry him over to his bed and then he tells me to put him down so he can climb in by himself. So far, he has done really well with it and we are going on a week. We've trained him to stay in bed until we come get him and eventually we will have a clock radio or something that goes off when he's allowed to get up in the morning. Right now, he just has to call and call until we either come get him or tell him it's not time yet. Here's a few pictures I took today before naptime. He loved that I was taking pictures of him getting into his bed. :)

 

My favorite color has it's own holiday!

I'm not sure when exactly I became obsessed with the color green. I did love frogs in high school so maybe that was when it started, but it REALLY got going sometime later. Either way, I LOVE green. I have more green clothing that any other color in my closet. I have a hard time passing a kelly green piece of clothing without buying it. I really want a green pair of shoes...hadn't found the perfect pair yet. I've thought more than once about going for it and dying my hair green. I.LOVE.GREEN. So, I get excited when there is a holiday specifically for green! Forget whatever else St. Patrick's Day is about and let's just have an excuse to overwear my favorite color...or in today's case, gross the family out and make them happy all in one meal. So, this morning, Levi was sick, meaning I was staying home from worship with him. This gave me the chance to actually cook a meal for Sunday lunch, when usually we go out to eat. So, I pulled out the green food coloring and went to town. The menu included green manicotti, green salad, green garlic bread, green milk, and for dessert green Rice Krispie treats. Oh and I served it on green plates. All is right in the world today because I've gotten my green fix. And that gorgeous green dress that I was going to debut today will just have to wait for another Sunday!

I really don't care if you think this looks gross.  In my family, they are use to food being weird colors and disguised as other things. :)  Oh and it tasted great.

Had to paint the fingernails green!