Easter 2012 Pictures

 Kaylee practicing her karaoke--High School Musical Wii style!

My 3 kiddos--Easter weekend 2102

Getting Ready for our indoor Easter egg hunt--thanks to the rain outside

Coloring eggs--making them beautiful!

We also discovered our children Love hard-boiled egg whites!

Our Oldest Girl Hamming it up!

That halo is seriously crooked!!

 Fun decorating with stickers

Very intense moment of egg-coloring!

Yes, dear!  It is beautiful!!

We always have fun Easter weekend, with hunting eggs and coloring eggs.  We usually color eggs on Good Friday.  Then, I usually try to eat as many as possible myself before they go bad, because no one else wants to touch (or smell) them!  This year, however, all 3 kiddos begged me to try the eggs.  Turns out, they are really enjoying them!!  They're like their mom, though.  They only want to eat the white part, and it has to have a little salt applied 1st!

On Easter Saturday, we usually do our fun Easter egg hunt, which means their treat baskets are replenished for awhile!  My husband & I let it be known that mom & dad do accept donations, and the kiddos have tuned into the fact that it sometimes helps us say, "Ok, we can have a treat" after supper if they offer a donation.  (Don't tell them I bought us a stash too!  After all, it helps them learn to be generous, right?!!)

On Easter Sunday, after church, we have an Easter Story Egg Hunt.  (Think homemade Resurrection eggs, if you know what I'm talking about!)  Each of the kiddos finds 4 of the Story eggs, and we open them and go through the Biblical Easter Story together!  

Oh, one more tradition is buying a new family devotional for Easter.  This year, since it was for all 3 kiddos, I wrapped it in 3 layers.  Our son got to open the outer gift, labeled for him.  Then, he got to a box labeled for our middle girl.  Then, she got to the inner gift, labeled for our youngest to open.  This year, I got them the book "Jesus Calling For Kids".  I'm reading the adult version, and I love it, so I thought the kids version would be great for our family.  Plus, all 3 kiddos got a turn unwrapping the gift!

Well, there you have it!  Those are our Easter traditions!  I hope you each had a Wonder-FULL Easter in Him!!

Christmastime 2011!!

At the Christmas Tree Farm

We found the perfect tree--for us, anyway!

Kiddos posing with our tree

Young one found a wooly bear caterpillar

Hauling our tree toward the building to have it baled & shaken

My Honey, the great Christmas tree hunter

Girls posing in front of the Thanksgiving tree we made as we get the Christmas tree set up

Son setting up train tracks for around the tree--his annual Christmas job!

Dad adding the angel

Kids helping add the ornaments

Working together

Youngest trying to get them to stay on!

I really did help--I did not just lie around!

Our 3 little gifts!

Smiling for the moment

My favorite tree pic of the kiddos this year

The finished product (I think it looks the same every year!)

These pictures show us gearing up for the Christmas season, 2011.  I don't know about you, but it seems to come so fast for me, and yet the kids seem to think it takes FOREVER to come!  We're trying to be able to take some time to read some good books (including the Bible!) and stories that remind us what Christmas is really about.  We also enjoy watching some of our favorite Christmas movies together.  (One of our favorites is White Christmas, which we haven't had the chance to watch yet, but we will!)  We love the reminders of God's LOVE through the Christmas season, and try to pass on some love ourselves as well.  We pray that we will continue to learn to love God more and more each day, and learn to love each other more and more each day of 2012!

Some Pictures of Our Family Together 2011

Daddy's Birthday Bundle

Snow Angels!

Who needs snowmen when you can have snowchildren?!!

Mommy & youngest before haircuts on the same day--young one's 1st!  (Not mommy's 1st!)

The 3 kiddos on youngest's birthday

At the park near us--they love the tire swing!

Easter Sunday 2011

A trip to the zoo--looking at the turtles in the water

My girly girls!

Daddy & his girls

Fun in our little pool

More fun together

Girls, girls, girls

Oldest daughter ready for 1st day of school

The 3 girls of the house--1st day of school

My youngest & I snuggling in for a pic

All 3 kiddos playing soccer

Dad playing soccer--a little out of breath!

At the Pumpkin Patch

Riding out to the field to pick a pumpkin

The kiddos & our pumpkin we picked up out of the field

 

 

 

Here are some pictures of our family.  We have a lot of fun experiencing life together!  We kept very busy this fall, and are trying to enjoy more down time at home as a family through the wintery days!  We're looking forward to Christmas break and some extra sleep (I hope!!!!!)!!

We continue to pray for (and covet your prayers for!) God's continual guidance for our family, especially in parenting our kiddos and trying to raise them to make wise decisions and be good followers of Him!  It's a constant challenge, and we're glad we're not on our own to figure it out!

The Adults of the House 2011

May 2011--on a mini-vacation/family retreat

October--I guess these were our costumes!

Our 5 year Anniversary Picture--Always fun to share!

Hauling in our perfect Christmas tree!

Pausing for a picture while we worked on the Christmas tree

The adults of our house have been keeping pretty busy too!  My honey still works at the school, as the network administrator, and still enjoys it.  He also is the Cubmaster for our son's Scout troop, works with Youth at church, and is a Shepherd at church.  He doesn't complain about sharing his room like the girls do.  (I sometimes complain about having to share, though--he's messy!)  I love my honey, and this year we celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary!  We're still building memories and dreaming about the future together.  We have also been happy to find a reliable young lady to help us with childcare so we can build some date-nights back into our lives!!

I have recently re-activated my nursing license, and have been finding opportunities to slowly ease my way back into the nursing world after 10 years out.  I am serving as a substitute school nurse for the school district my kiddos attend and my honey works for.  I also decided to sign up as a substitute teacher, and got a certificate to do that.  I've found another group of people to work for as well, offering school health screenings.  I have been keeping busy, but not too busy, and have enjoyed re-entering the professional world and discovering that I still have assessment skills and haven't completely forgotten how to be a nurse!  Our youngest is still at home, so I'm not ready to go back to work full-time yet, so the subbing works well for us right now.  The youngest has enjoyed having some days with friends at the places we've arranged for childcare too, so it has worked out pretty well!  It is still an adjustment, and I never know what my week might hold, but it still works, and is teaching me more about being flexible!!

God has blessed us, guided us and renewed us in so many ways during 2011, and we pray His Presence is clear in your lives as well!