Easter 2015: Part 2

Easter day was kind of a whirlwind of a day, but in a fun way. 

We got up and got ready for church. Before heading out the door, the kids saw their Easter Baskets waiting for them in the living room that the Easter Bunny had brought the night before.

After seeing their baskets, we headed to church for a beautiful service. After service they had an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids.

I have to make mention of Avery's dress and bonnet because they are so important to me. My mom and I each wore a similar dress and bonnet for our first Easters. I'm not sure if this was necessarily planned, but nonetheless, very cool. After finding the pictures a few years back, I realized how cool it was that we had such similar outfits on for our first Easter. So when I started looking for Easter dresses for Avery, I knew I wanted something similar to what my mom and I had wore for our first Easters. I found this dress online and fell in love with it. It was perfect! Then I asked my sweet sister if she could make Avery a matching bonnet and of course, she agreed. :-) Her little dress and matching bonnet couldn't have been any cuter!! Here is a comparison of all three of us.

After the egg hunt, we went back inside to get a few family pictures.

Our family picture tradition continues... my parents, my sister and her family and me and my family. This is a tradition that we do every.single.year and I love it!

After church, my family went to visit Grammy's grave, as we have every year since she passed. She is missed so much.

Then we went back to my parent's house for BBQ! Yum.

A little later, we headed over to Jake's Mom's house for dinner with his family and another Easter Egg Hunt. She made a very tasty ham for dinner, but before that we had the Easter Egg Hunt at the same park that we had it at last year. The kids had a blast with the hunt and playing on the playground. Jake and his brother even played tag with all the kids. :-)

And one more comparison, just because I love them so much... This is a picture of Jake pushing Jackson on the swings at this same park last year on Easter, and again this year on Easter! Jackson has grown so much in a year. :-(

It was such a great Easter. One of the best yet! We celebrated the resurrection of our wonderful Savior and got to spend the day with our wonderful family. It just doesn't get much better than that!

Easter 2015: Part 1

**Before I get into my post for today, I want to remind you that the Sassy Sweet Pea Designs 5 piece Spring Headband Giveaway ends tonight at midnight. Today is your last day so click here and enter before it's too late!!**


The Friday night before Easter, my mom had my sister and I and the kids over for an Easter egg scavenger hunt and to dye eggs and decorate sugar cookies. The kids had SO much fun!! We usually do this every year, but Jackson and Mason were finally old enough to really have fun with it. 

First, we had our scavenger hunt. My sister found the idea online a couple years ago and we've just changed it up a little each year to make it somewhat different. She hid the clues in Easter Eggs and the last clue led them to their treat. :-)

Then we dyed Easter Eggs. My mom found these dye-able fake eggs this year and thought they would be fun because you wouldn't have to worry about them breaking, however, they float!! So dyeing them was not very easy, as you can imagine. But we made the best of it and the kids still had fun.

And lastly, we decorated sugar cookies! :-) We all had a lot of fun with this.

There was also a little ipad/play time and before we all left, my mom requested a picture with all the grand-kids!! :-)

We had such a fun night!!

Avery's 11th Month

Avery,

On March 28th you turned 11 months old!! I can't believe you are less than a month away from turning one!! It just seems unbelievable that you're almost one.

You have really become a "big girl" this last month in so many ways. First up, you are walking like crazy now! Last month you were walking from one person to another and cruising all the furniture, but still not really letting go and walking on your own yet. But at 10 months old you started letting go and walking all over the place. There's no stopping you now!

You have not wanted much to do with your baby food this month now that you've been eating more and more regular food. You've actually cut back on eating altogether. I think you might just be too busy to eat now that you're walking. You still take a bottle of formula before bed and another during the night or first thing in the morning. 

You are wearing mostly 18 month clothes, size 4 diapers and a mixture of size 3 and 4 shoes!

You've mastered the sippy cup this month too! You often steal drinks out of Jackson's if you see it laying around. ;-) So I got you a few of your own and you love them! You know how to tip it up for yourself, but sometimes you'll bring it over and practically throw it at us to make us hold it up for you to get a drink... little stinker.

You also got a big girl car seat this month! You were getting far to heavy to carry around in the infant car seat, so we decided it was time to get you a big girl seat and you're loving it. :-) We went with this Graco MySize 65 Convertible Car Seat!

You started patting your baby dolls, and sometimes us, on the back now when you are giving love! It's the sweetest thing ever! You also lay your head on us and say "awe"... it's so sweet! You aren't all sugar and spice and everything nice these days though, you have a little temper when you don't get what you want. You throw a fit and stiffen up and it drives mommy crazy! You are impossible to diaper change and get dressed these days because standing still just isn't something you want to do.

You celebrated your first St. Patrick's Day this month and looked so adorable in your green and gold!

You got to go to your first Easter Egg Hunt and meet the Easter Bunny for the first time this month! 

You also got to go to several parks, since the weather has been so nice lately. :-)

And go on a couple of walks in the stroller.

We also started putting your hair in a tiny little pony-tail! It's the cutest!

You dance now on command and it is seriously the cutest thing ever!! You rock your head back and forth and bounce up and down! I love it.

We are planning your first birthday party for May 9th!! It is going to be a Twinkle Twinkle Little Star theme and I found the cutest little gold polka dot tutu and we have some gold shoes for you to wear. I also ordered you a birthday shirt, which should be arriving next week! I can't wait to get started on buying decorations! It's going to be such a cute party!

Our party inspiration!

So I think that just about covers it miss Avery! 

We love you more than words can say and have had so much fun with you this month. You are getting so big and growing so fast. It's happening in the blink of an eye. I love this age you are at as you have become a little more independent and we're starting to see more and more of your personality. I love it! You are such a beautiful and happy girl!

Love,

Mommy - xoxo

52 Project 2015: Week 14

"A portrait of each of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

 Jackson: At the beginning of our street there is a crosswalk with a pathway that goes to the left or the right. If you go left, the pathway will take you to the middle school and if you go right, the pathway will take you to the elementary school. When we go for walks, Jackson loves to take the "tunnel", as he calls it, to the right and go to the elementary school to play on the playground. These pathways are fenced in with people's back yards on either side. Trees hang over the path and it kind of feels like a tunnel.

 Avery: Playing with Easter Eggs at my parents' house Friday night. We dyed Easter Eggs, had a Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt and decorated sugar cookies that night. The kids had a blast!

 (Linking up here at Practising Simplicity)

5 on Friday

I'm linking up with Darci, Natasha, April and Christina for Five on Friday!

 First up, please say a prayer for Jake's family this week. His grandmother passed away early Wednesday morning. She had a heart attack the week before and just never recovered from the surgery. Jake's grandparents live in Kansas City, about 3 1/2 hours away from us, so we don't see them as often as we'd like, but thankfully we were able to visit them at Thanksgiving this last year, which was when I took this picture.

If you missed it, check out my post from yesterday, here, to enter to win a 5 piece Spring headband grab bag from Sassy Sweet Pea Designs. You will be so happy you did. ;-)

Here are my two cuties' Easter Baskets for this year!! I'm so excited for Avery's first Easter.

(Linking up with Darci at The Good Life Blog for her Easter Basket Blog Hop!)

Jackson's Basket: The Story of Easter book, Despicable Me Bubble Bath, Reese's Pieces carrot, Mickey Mouse Ring Pops, Dr. Seuss Flash Cards, Paw Patrol stickers and activity book, chocolate coins and a Paw Patrol toy. 

Avery's Basket: Two little summer outfits, A Easter animals touch and feel book, 2 Hello Kitty Sippy Cups, 2 sets of flatware, a cute owl divided plate and some Bunny Ears. :-)

I ordered this adorable shirt from target.com for Avery's first birthday!! It's all the right colors for her party!

 And last, but most definitely not least, I'm remembering the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made for me today on Good Friday. It's such an amazing love he has for me that I don't deserve.

via

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend!

Sassy Sweet Pea Designs Headband Give-A-Way!!

As I've mentioned on here a few times, Avery and I are brand reps for Sassy Sweet Pea Designs! We LOVE the adorable headbands Marie makes. They are all so cute and well made, and even better, they are nice and comfortable for Avery. We have quite the collection now and I just love having a variety of headbands for Avery to wear. :-)  We always get our orders quick and they're always packaged so nicely. I can't say enough great things about these headbands and how wonderful it is to work with Marie! She is so very sweet!

Marie contacted me a week or so ago to see if I'd like to do a Spring Give-A-Way here on my blog!! Of course, I said sure because I just love these headbands. She sent me this super cute Bunny headband for Avery to wear for Easter! I just Love it!

 I'm so excited that one of you lovely readers will win a 5 piece Spring Grab Bag from Sassy Sweet Pea Designs!!!

Just click on the Rafflecopter below to start entering!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Easter Bunny Fail

We took the kids to see the Easter Bunny last night at the mall. I didn't have high hopes for how this would turn out and I'm glad I didn't. Ha! Neither of my kids would even sit near the bunny.

When we first got there, Jackson went up to him with no problems and gave the bunny five, so at this point I'm thinking, maybe this will go better than I thought. Then he sat down on the bench as far away from the bunny as he possibly could. So I asked him to scoot closer and for whatever reason he just wouldn't do it. So we set Avery on the bunny's lap and immediately the water works started flowing. :-(

So in an attempt to get the kids to sit somewhat close to the bunny, the photographer says, try setting them on your laps and then we can just crop you guys out. So I set Jackson on my lap and Avery was on Jake's lap. Avery did alright, but Jackson would not sit up straight. Eventually I took him aside and promised him the moon to get him back up there to sit next to the bunny. By this point I'm sweating, but we finally got a semi-decent picture.


Oh well, at least we tried, and we have a funny story to tell them when they get older. ;-)