massive catch up.

I know blogs were once popular, back in 2007 when I started this one. And then eventually most people fell off that train, unless of course it generates an income. Those people still blog, obviously. :) But I'm just not ready to give mine up. Initially I started it for the birth mothers in our lives, so they can hop online anytime and see what's going on with the boys and our family. But I love the documentation for my own sake as well. So right now, I'm going to do a little 3 month catch up, just a few of our highlights. And then pinky swear to myself that I'll never fall this far behind again! I left off at Jeremy's 36th birthday, which was January 30th!
So in February:
We celebrated Valentine's Day.

 We got to attend a little party with our other homeschooling friends.

 And the boys received their annual balloons + a few other fun treats from us.

Also during this month, I was saying to someone how we had never had an injury related ER visit with our 3 boys. And how incredible that was. Then a few days later Abe face planted off our trampoline. It was traumatizing.

(wish I could trade eyelashes with that kid.)

Then in March:

I turned 36 on the 26th. We celebrated with an Easter Egg Hunt.... :)

 

 

Easter was the very next day.

 

 

And this month of April...

 Abe finally graduated to a toddler bed. It was not a flawless transition. :) But he's doing okay now.

We met some friends in Texoma for a weekend.

 Why are the great outdoors so great!? I don't know, but it is always so much fun for our boys to spend time out in nature. It's fun to watch them explore and play in this type of an environment.

And eating s'mores is always a bonus.

 

And then we started another season of soccer.

 Pax isn't so sure about all the running. We are starting to think he may be better suited for golf. :) But I've bribed him with a Barnes and Nobles date if he can give all of his effort for 6 games. He's halfway there! He's hustling, trying hard and has even scored a goal. I'm proud of him!

And Holden is a soccer rock star. It's a delight to watch him play and run his little heart out.

Spring is officially here and we are soaking up this nice weather. I'm sure in just a short time I will be melting and complaining about the heat. So for now, each morning we head outside just as soon as our schoolwork is done. Daily the boys are riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline, going to the park and enjoying the sunshine.

 

 

Catching up.

It's time for me to catch up over here on the blog. Easter was a fun celebration this year.

 Egg hunt with some cousins.

 Their Easter morning goodies from us...beach towels and candy plus flip flops and sunnies for Abe. Funny thing, we had gotten them sand toys to put in the middle of table for our upcoming beach trip. Then we both completely forgot to set it out. Ooops.

My handsome boys on Easter morning.

 Holden does many hours a week of homework. It's like a prison sentence to him. A prison of homework...that does sound miserable. Truthfully it is. Even for me! I made an effort to change it up a couple of weeks ago by working on it outside. Oh my...that might have slowed us WAY down that particular day. It was beautiful out and every noise and moving thing was a huge distraction. In theory it was a good idea.

 Another day, he set up monkey to watch him work. He is completely attached to that monkey and I hope he is forever and ever. :)

Picnic lunches and silly conversations in the front yard.

Pax took a few weeks of swim lessons and showed some improvement. I'm hoping to work with him more on vacation in a few weeks.

 

This sweet boy spends hours a day with his nose in books. I think it's the cutest thing. If he is reading and I ask him to do something he attempts to do the task while continuing his book. Which sometimes results in running into walls or just moving more slowly than a turtle. The boy can't get enough reading time! Amen for books! I wish I had the same amount of time to devote to fun reads.

 We had an outdoor sprinkler on the trampoline day. But the little one just wanted to sit and enjoy a popsicle.

This boy has a real fascination with "piderman". I think it started because he was obsessed with our Spiderman book. 

And just a cute picture from after lunch yesterday. He looks happy here but he threw a few fits throughout lunch with some extended family. And once we were in the car headed home, he was asleep within 3 minutes. Sunday lunches can be hard! I'm really not sure why we attempt them each week.

The boys are 3 weeks into soccer. This is the first year with them playing on the same team. Holden scored 3 goals in both the first game and the second games. Holden scores a lot because he is pretty good. But also because he doesn't like to pass the ball. :) I'm hoping it's just an age thing and he will grow out of it. We played soccer as a family yesterday and tried to work on the passing part. But the boy just doesn't want to give up the ball, even if a team member is wide open! :) Pax scored 1 goal in the very first game and won the medal for the character trait of the week, which was being a good listener.

That is a recent catch up on our spring happenings!

Easter Weekend.

My family had a fun and meaningful Easter weekend. I love how much more the boys understand with each passing year. Leading up to Easter, we used Resurrection Eggs for the boys nighttime devotionals. It was only our second year to use them and it is something they really enjoy and look forward to each evening before bed. We started off Good Friday with an evening service at church. The boys actually played in childcare during this time. I think next year, we'll take them into the service with us. On Saturday morning they participated in an Easter Egg Hunt at their MDO school. It was complete with bounce houses and a few hours of fun. They love this kind of stuff and had a ball.

 Pax sometimes thinks he's in charge of Abe. Can you tell in the above picture? :)

 ]

On an egg hunting mission!

When did this boy get so big? We are 10 days away from celebrating his 6th birthday. Time, PLEASE SLOW DOWN!

And this little guy just can't make it without his morning nap. He can be such a snuggle bug pre and post sleeptime. We soak it up!

Saturday afternoon, while Abe napped, we dyed Easter eggs. Then I whipped up some lime flavored, green playdough for the boys to play with. It was so much better than store bought playdough and was so simple to make. I had never attempted it before this weekend. The recipe is here. Thank you, Pinterest.

 

Sunday morning the boys woke to filled Easter baskets. Summer flip flops, card games, a small chocolate bunny, Ninja Turtle stamps, and sunglasses for our big boys. Flip flops, pacis, a book and new sippy cup for our baby. That morning we celebrated with our church. After church and lunch we took about 25 pictures with our camera set up on the tripod to get the one below. Mister Abe obviously knows what to do when a camera is in his face. And I've probably taken less pictures of him than the other two. In all 25+ pictures, he wins the award for biggest cheeser. I love it!

After the boys had naps, my parents joined us for egg hunting and dinner. 

It is so rare that I catch a genuine smile from Pax with a camera. He is a happy, smiley boy. But when the cameras come out, he turns into a fake smiler. But occasionally we can catch a good one. He doesn't make it easy, by any means.

And this is our Mister Photogenic. 

 Ha! See what I mean?!

 He was perfectly content with 3 little eggs. Then he just enjoyed playing outside.

It was a fun family weekend. And more importantly, a celebration of the grace and forgiveness we live in each day because of the sacrifice of Jesus.