He is Risen Indeed!

Happy Easter!

We had a great day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. I am so thankful that we serve a risen King and that through Him we can have eternal life. (John 3:16) I grew up knowing this truth, but I feel like each year the reminder of Jesus's death on the cross and His resurrection becomes more and more meaningful to me and I'm excited to share this faith with our girls as they get older.

This year, it was fun to begin to teach Carys the resurrection story, hunt for some eggs, and also pay a little visit to the Easter bunny. I was disappointed though that we didn't get a family picture today. It takes everything we have to get to church on time these days and even then we usually squeak in just in time! So, we didn't get any pictures this morning when we all looked nice, but all that really matters is that we had a fun day together!

We started our Easter activities on Friday. Carys has been asking if it's Easter yet, for awhile now, so she was really excited when I told her we would see the Easter bunny at the library. Our library has a great story time program, and every year for Easter they do an egg hunt and we can meet the Easter bunny. Carys loves it and I love not having to wait in line to pay for bunny pictures at the mall!

Before we left I took a couple pics of this sweetie.  She is so funny right now and always smiling!

Carys loved finding eggs and was MUCH faster this year than last year!

After hunting for eggs we waited in line to see the Easter bunny. Carys was excited, so I wasn't worried about her, but I was a little nervous about Harper's reaction. 

H: "So what's going on?"

H: "Carys, what's this giant fuzzy thing?"

H: "The Easter...what??"

H: "Oh, he's not so bad."

I thought for sure that Harper would lose it after she looked up at the bunny, but she surprised me and it was no big deal!

After our egg hunt at the library, Carys knew just what to do when she woke up this morning.  After reading her note from the Bunny, she immediately got to work searching for eggs.

First Egg!

C: "Hey, there's jellybeans in here!" 

I was feeling a little bad that we didn't get Harper an Easter basket this year. Scott was telling me it wasn't a big deal, but I felt even worse when I remembered that we got Carys one when she was Harper's age. Scott gently reminded me that that was only because I "was a freak about that stuff" back then. Thanks, sweetie! 

Anyway, it was so cute this morning when Carys (in the middle of finding her eggs) asked, "Hey, can I give one to Harper?" Her sister definitely appreciated the thought!

After church, we came home and Carys was ready to dye her eggs. I know most people dye their eggs before Easter, but hey - whatever works!

Harper was happy to watch! 

Carys did pretty good. With Dad's coaching there were only a couple big splashes and only one egg that got away before it could be colored.

We also spent time outside with some confetti eggs.

And?.....They were definitely a hit!  Sorry, couldn't resist! 

We also have some great friends that outgrew their playstructure and decided to pass it along to us. We picked it up this weekend and Carys loves it!

Thanks Aunt Jenn, Uncle Mike, Addison, Alyssa, Kendelle and Trevor!  We love you!!!

Even Daddy and Harper got to hang out!

 

We had a great day spending time together. Hope you had a Happy Easter!

And may you have peace knowing that, He is Risen, He is Risen indeed!

Aloutte

This song is for Grandma Alice and Auntie Mary.  She may not have all the words quite right, but we think it's pretty cute.  And for anyone not quite familiar with the song, here's what it is supposed to sound like...Aloutte!

Happy Valentine's Day

We had our Valentine's party at the library last Friday, so we dressed in pink and packed up our treats to take to our friends.  We had a lot of fun, and as we were getting ready to go home Carys looked in her bag and said, "I wuv Balentime's day!"

After she checked out her treats and the notes of all her friends, I told her I wanted to take some pictures of her and Harper and thankfully they both didn't mind!

Lately, Carys has loved "holding" Harper and one day she even asked to "walk around wis her wike momma?"  I love watching the two of them together. Harper adores Carys. and Carys is so sweet to her.  I'm trying to soak in as much of this as I can now, because with two sisters of my own I know they won't always be feeling the love for each other!

For now though big sister gets some of the biggest smiles! 

Hope your Valentine's Day is filled with smiles! 

Christmas 2011

We had a great Christmas this year.  Carys was so fun and it was also special to be sharing it with Harper for the first time!  On Christmas eve, we celebrated with my family.  My mom and brother came over for an early lunch and we had a fun time hanging out with the girls. 

My mom and I tried to take a cute picture of the girls together.  We took so many and I swear it's nearly impossible just to get them to both look at the camera, so forget about getting them to look and SMILE!

Gramma Judy and Carys

Me and my sweet girls

Carys was a trip this year.  Last year it took forever to open all her gifts because she wanted to play with each one.  This year, we had to really work on getting her to look at what was inside and say "Thank you!"  She just wanted to tear into every gift under the tree whether her name was on it or not!  Thankfully no one seemed to mind letting her "help" them open their gifts.  I have a feeling that next year is going to be a little crazy though when Harper isn't going to appreciate big sister's help!

My brother is so sweet with the girls and Carys loves playing with him.  He bought the girls the cutest outfits for gifts this year and it's so sweet to me to see him love on my girls - Thanks Uncle Davey!

Later that afternoon, My Dad, Bev and Grandma Mary all came over.  I am so disappointed that I didn't take one picture!  We had a great time, but by this time Harper had reached her fussy time of the evening and Scott had to go back to work, so I was working on just keeping her happy.  We did have a great visit though and of course Carys kept us all entertained by singing, dancing, and doing gymnastics all night!

Scott got home later that night after the girls were in bed.  It was fun to spend the night together getting everything ready for Christmas morning.  I loved listening to Christmas music, having the lights low, the tree lite, and anticipating the fun we would have the next morning.  I didn't do much to decorate our tree this year.  In fact, Scott and Carys hung about 15 ornaments together and I was planning on adding more, but we decided to just call it good.  So, it may have been a little more like a Charlie Brown tree than anything else, but it was still very special and I loved it!    

Christmas morning was fun.  Carys was still into tearing open everyone's gifts, so it didn't take too long to get everything opened.  Which was a good thing because we needed to leave for church.  So after quickly eating our traditional breakfast of "homelettes" and cinnamon rolls we headed out the door.

Sidenote: As a kid, my family always went out to breakfast on the weekends.  Most of the time us kids would order a ham and cheese omelet. When Lynnette was really little she called it a "homelet" and now that's what we call any dish consisting of ham & eggs in our family.

When Carys saw Harper in her dress she said, "Momma she's an angel."  Talk about melting my heart!

My two angels before church

After church we came home and had the rest of the day to ourselves to play and pack for our trip.  Scott had to make a quick run into work, but other than that we had a great time spending a quiet day together as a family.  And, Carys finally got a chance to see all the fun presents she opened!  She had a blast playing with all of her new toys.

Harper was able to get in on the fun too!

We spent Christmas night getting everything packed and ready to head north to spend the week with Scott's family.  Scott got stuck at work a little later than we hoped, but thankfully the girls were great travelers and we made it home with only one stop!  The morning after we arrived we had Christmas with the girls. 

This little bug was so sweet and spent all morning cuddling with Grandma and Grandpa

Reading Brooke one of her clues for her scavenger hunt - of course, David would have to make her work to find her gift!

New bug blanket to snuggle up in for "moosie night" - Thanks Uncle Hoon and Brooke

Trying on Grandma's stocking

Hair Model

Snuggling with Grandma 

Getting ready to break in her new snow pants 

Our pink marshmallow 

Having fun in the snow.  Carys was more excited to pull the sled than ride in it. Mush kid! 

We had such a fun relaxing visit.  Grandma and Grandpa even allowed us a night out and it was awesome to hit the town with David and Brooke and spend some time catching up with Scott's cousins.  The week flew by and before we knew it it was time to head home.  Of course it didn't snow much while we were there until the morning we left, then a blizzard hit.  Both of the girls were a little cranky too, so it made for a really looong drive home.  Both girls finally fell asleep when we were only an hour from home!  But aside from that we had a great trip and it was a perfect way to wind down our holiday.  

Christmas is so much sweeter now that we have the girls and I'm am so excited for the years to come when I know it will be even more fun!