Easter Weekend

I am so far behind in my blogging about family life that I am not even going

to attempt to catch up. The thought of trying to do that totally stresses me out.

I am just going to start up here with Easter!

 

What works for our family to share the holidays between

my family and Josh's is to go every other holiday. One family

gets Easter the other Thanksgiving and then whoever

had Thanksgiving gets Christmas Eve and the other family gets us Christmas day

The next year we do the opposite. Whoever had Easter gets Thanksgiving ect.

 

One thing we so every Easter no matter what is an annual cousin Easter egg

hunt with my family. This year we did on Saturday along with a picnic lunch.

The sun even made an appearance. It was so warm when it was out but the

minute it was behind the clouds brrrr... Everyone was grabbing for sweatshirts.

 

We ate a lunch then set the kids free to grab as many eggs as they could.

It was really a hunt as they were just all thrown in the grass. We

met at the "little park" that is located by us all. 

Before everyone else arrived my sister asked me to get a few

 pics of my adorable nephews. She even made them little bow ties.

Before the kids were allowed to hunt we required them to

take their annual cousin pic! I love these pics.

It is amazing how much they grow year to year.

 

 



 

 

Sunday we went to church and then headed to Josh's parents house.

We had  great time visiting, eating and lots of laughs.

Jordan has taken quite a liking to Grampa and the two were inseparable.

They took there dog Lou on a walk and then after lunch they went to the beach.

His dad mentioned that after walking a bit Jordan wanted to sit on a bench.

He asked him what they should do and he said just talk.

Jordan is such a time guy. He loves to just spend time with you

whether it being going on a walk or snuggling up with a movie.

Which they did when they got back. They watched Smurfs 2.

 



Thanksgiving with family

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday!

We spent the morning at home and headed over to my parents

in time for the 1 'o clock football game.

We stuffed ourselves with snacks while we hung out and visited.

It was fun to have all the cousins together to play.

It has been a while since we have been together.

All the boys did great! They made pictures to send to their 

Uncle Johnny who is going to school in Canada and won't be home for a while.

We miss him lots! Love you John!

With the nice but cold weather they were able to play outside lots.

Even the big boys went out for a while to throw the football around.

We then stuffed ourselves some more with an amazing spread of yummy food.

Most the men then took their spots on the couch for a food coma nap.

The cousins all continued to play great all together!

It was a pretty eventful day and it is fun to see how my nephew Cohen

is growing. He loves playing with his older cousins and being a big boy!

He had a blast running around when everyone was playing football 

just loving being a part of the action. Brought lots of smiles to my face.

The kids spent the night at my parents house.

They will be there until while Josh and I head out early today to 

go to Leavenworth for my birthday!

We are celebrated a weekend early but it is the only free weekend we have all month!

Love Day

We kept our Valentine's Day pretty low key.

I love doing little things to make any holiday a little more special and memorable.

Our garage is stuffed with totes that I have filled with special things for each holiday.

So today I pulled out all the plates, place mats, cups, ect.

For breakfast I made Chocolate chip banana pancakes.

Recipe here.

{my simple breakfast}

Michelle and Jordan both went off to school with their Valentines.

Jordan was having a party the last hour of his class so I went to that.

When I arrived I was the second parent there so they were able to start the party!

The class was divided into two groups and I took one group to the bouncy house.

After a while we switched and went to the play structure to play.

Then it was time to head back to the class room for passing out cards and snacks!

{Jordan's school Valentines}

{Michelle's school valentines}

{candy loot that came with valentines}

We kept our gifts for the kids simple this year.

Knowing they would get enough sugar and treats from school.

We just picked out an item for each child and a small treat.

For Michelle I picked out a t-shirt and tank top to layer.  

That apparently is all the style now.

For Jordan we got an angry bird toss game.

I love decorating for fun occasions.
I set to work as soon as the kids finished snack.

Jordan wanted to share his candy with everyone so he went around and placed one at each spot.
Michelle decided that was a nice idea so she too shared a piece of candy with everyone at the table.

When Josh came home he brought flowers for Michelle and I.
As Josh was handing Michelle her flowers Jordan was super excited because he thought the red roses were for him.  When Josh told him they were for me he got really sad.  So we pulled one out for him and put it in a little jar at his place.  He was very happy!

{Michelle's flowers}

{My flowers}

{Jordan's flower}

Josh was amazing and came home and jumped right into making dinner for us!

Steak, potatoes, and strawberry milk shakes!

After dinner we opened up cards and gifts!

My parents stopped by on their way home from dinner to visit.

Jordan got grampa to play some angry birds with him.

After they left we watched a snuggle show (the voice).

It was a nice, relaxed family evening.

Nothing fancy but alot of fun!