First Day of April

It is finally starting to feel like Spring around here! This seemed like it was the longest Winter ever, so it is nice to enjoy some warmer weather!

We woke up this morning to a sweet face peeking out at us through her crib rails. As much as I am ready for Sophia to have her own room, I know will miss her once she is not in our room anymore. Poor Jaime has a cold, so we spent most of the day in the house. He was off from work today, so it was nice to have him home, even if he didn't feel well. 

I am using this week to do some spring cleaning. I am hoping to have it all done by Sunday so that we can enjoy next week. Next week is Jenny's spring break. We have lots of doctor and dentist appointments scheduled next week, so I want to try and take advantage of the time we are able to spend doing fun things. I definitely don't want to spend the week cleaning! Today we started with cleaning out the van and washing the outside. If you know me well, you will know that I have never ever had a clean vehicle! It is usually always full of things that don't belong. When I was younger it was things like: trash, extra clothes, shoes, etc. Now that I have kids it is usually: trash, toys, sippy cups, clothes, jackets, shoes, video games, etc. This time it was particularly bad because it hadn't been cleaned out in a while! Between Girl Scouts and Aiden's baseball games, plus all of the other things in between, it had gotten out of control! Jaime and Aiden cleaned out the inside while Sophia took a nap and I cleaned a few things inside the house. After Sophia's nap, we went to the car wash where we washed the outside and vacuumed and cleaned the inside.

After the car wash we went to the park so that Aiden could practice baseball with Jaime. Jaime doesn't really like baseball, and he has never played before. Where he is from, soccer is more commonly played. So he and I helped Aiden together. Jaime even said that he thinks that Aiden's baseball bat might be the first real bat he has ever swung! Aiden wasn't too thrilled about coming to the park to practice. All he wanted to do was play on the playground. First he practiced throwing and catching the ball, and then he practiced hitting. Eventually we told him that after he hit the ball three times, we could go to the playground. There's nothing wrong with a little bribery if you as me! Especially since it helped him to be more serious - and it wasn't long before he hit the ball three times!

We headed to the playground where he had a blast! Sophia played on the swings, and tried out the slide. She really loved swinging, but she wasn't too sure about the slide. Haha! We put her on a slide last week for the first time, and she liked it. This slide was a little different though, it was steeper. I think it made her a little scared. 

Once it got so dark it was difficult to see, we came home and had a late dinner of sub sandwiches. Publix makes the best sandwiches. I think I might like theirs better than Subway. Aiden and Sophia were up past bedtime, so hopefully they will sleep in a little tomorrow. I doubt it! 

Tomorrow is day two of spring cleaning. I haven't even decided what I am going to clean yet. Whatever I do, I also need to do the laundry too. After our busy Easter weekend, the laundry is out of control! Funny how it seems like whenever I focus on a certain area, like today I focused on the van, it seems like all of the other areas of the house fall apart and get out of control. Most of the time I really feel like it is impossible to have a perfectly clean house all of the time. This stay at home mom stuff is much harder than it looks! 

I hope you all had a wonderful first day of April and I hope you didn't fall for too many April Fool's Jokes!

Easter Weekend 2013

*This post is pretty long, and full of lots of pictures!*


Easter is one of my favorite holidays. Christmas is probably my most favorite, followed closely by Easter. After all, as a Christian, Easter is the center of my entire faith! Easter has also come to be a day where we spend time as a family, and create memories together that I hope will last a lifetime.

We started out by having an Easter Egg Hunt at my parent's house on Saturday. We had 40 eggs between two kids. It is so much fun seeing how much they truly enjoy looking for the eggs. They get so excited when they find one, and their little faces light up with joy!

After the egg hunt we had a traditional Easter lunch with ham, potato salad, and green beans. Yum! Jenny loves potato salad, and this was her first time to eat the homemade kind. She said she liked it better than the kind you buy at the store. 

Sweet cousins.

Allie Kay, my niece - already almost two months old! The sweetest, most beautiful niece in the world! :-)

I hope these two grow up to be best friends!

Aiden had a game that afternoon, so we took a break from Easter activities to watch his baseball game. He played well! He needs some more practice on catching the ball, what to do after he gets the ball, and what to do after he hits the ball. 

After Aiden's game we came home and ate leftovers. Then we colored some more eggs with Aunt Jillian. 

After we colored eggs it was getting late and time to come home. Everyone knows that the Easter Bunny doesn't come until you are asleep! We came home and the kids rushed to get their pajamas on and get ready for bed. We waited close to an hour to make sure they were fully asleep, and then The Bunny went to work.

The tradition in our house is that the night before Easter, we set our our Easter baskets in hopes that the Easter Bunny will fill them while we are asleep. This year, we were also hoping that the Easter Bunny would bring a basket for Sophia since she didn't have one. Last year on Easter she was only four days old, so she didn't get a basket.

 The Easter Bunny put out a trail of eggs from their rooms to their baskets! He also hid 20 candy-filled eggs around the house.

The Easter Bunny came! He brought Sophia a basket, too! 

Jenny and Aiden woke up bright and early this morning, before the sun had even come up! We woke up Sophia and headed out into the living room to see if the Easter Bunny had brought anything.

After emptying their baskets, we all got ready to go eat breakfast with my parents, my brother, my SIL, and my niece. 

After breakfast we went back to my parent's house and just hung out as a family. We went on a walk around the neighborhood and played Old Maid with Jenny and Aiden. It was just a fun time to be together as a family!

We had a wonderful Easter! We have so many reasons to celebrate and be thankful this year! We are incredibly blessed - Praise The Lord!! Christ is Risen! My Redeemer Lives! I am just beyond thankful for His sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice!

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" 
1 Peter 1:3

 "He is not here; he has risen, just as he said..." Matthew 28:6