Springy Sisters

I love these kids! =)

Springtime Strollin'

the little ones and i went for a nice long walk this morning around our neighborhood.

aren't they the sweetest things you've ever seen? =)

they *love* taking walks in the stroller...

especially this guy! he runs onto the porch in the morning and points to the stroller and cries if i don't put him right in!

i brought my camera along to take some pictures of the beautiful spring trees and flowers...

but then i felt self conscious everytime i whipped out my giant camera and snapped a picture--i didn't want people to think i was spying on them! ha!

it was so lovely this morning!

i'm so thankful for a peaceful, pretty neighborhood for walks!

and i'm especially thankful for these guys...they keep me on my toes and keep my wits at their end(s) but i wouldn't trade 'em for the world! =)

i hope it's looking like spring wherever you are!

sundaynightspecial

another beautiful day

another long walk to the park with the family

playtime, laughter and lemonade

pizza for dinner & jammies 

and 

exhausted siblings sleeping soundly

(and in record time! =)

nothing on tv

but it's quiet and happy here

and 

most importantly

there are

four

more 

days

until 

SPRINGBREAK!!!!!

(we we we we so excited! =)

happy sunday night! hope your weekend was a happy one!

It's Friday Friday.....

As I type this my husband and his music team are either:

a)preparing to go on stage and sing

b)just finished singing

They are at the Finals of Varsity Vocal's International A Cappella Competition! 

Last year they placed second in the country--not too shabby for a tiny little Christian school (no doubt proof of the amazing-ness of my husband!!!! they also beat out some of the local large public schools with very prestigious music programs. boo-yah!!). 

So, it's boring without him and I miss him. Boo. But hopefully he's enjoying his big night in NYC!

The kids are finally in bed--we were lucky enough to be able to spend some time with Granny and Pop today--the kids are always soooo happy to see them! I am too, I just love seeing how excited they are! 

We didn't do too much today--just ran some errands and I looked around at different plants as I prepare to plant some type of hedge-row in our backyard (this weekend?). There's a few spots where the grass needs reinforcement too so we'll be getting some mighty grass seed to see if it solves our patchy problem. 

Nothing else exciting is going on--I watched the most amazing PBS miniseries (on netflix) the other day--It's called *Downtown Abbey.* I totally fell in love with the characters and the writing and the story and of course, it ended in a cliff hanger so there sure as heck better be a follow up!!! 

Here are some picture of the cutest son I've ever had:

You're welcome. =)

Happy Friday and Goodnight!

The Things I Don't Want To Forget

The sweetest moments are the ones no one else ever sees--

*my three children sitting together on the floor, cross legged, (in their pjs--the girls with braids in their hair) watching Dora before bed last night

*Amelie giving Ezra the same "pony boy" rides that I gave her and my Mom gave me. =)

* Ezra sound asleep in the carseat--their faces are so sweet and angelic when they sleep!

*Maeve and Ezra playing peacefully together:

*The girls singing to each other at bedtime.

*Ezra singing his "Laaaaa" to whatever they sing (And also that he tries to sing Jesus Loves The Little Children)

*Maeve dancing with her eyes closed on her tiptoes spinningincircles

*Amelie practicing jumprope and cartwheels and reading

*Ezra's fast run and the fact that he always falls over when he reaches his destination

*The way my childrens' eyes light up when they see each other and that they love getting hugs from each other!

They're my favorite and I'm thankful for all of the little sweet things I get to be a part of each day just because they are around!

Spring Days Are A Walk In The Park.....(Or Call For One!)

It was such a beautiful and WARM day!!! 

What a blessing spring weather is after dreary winter! We were treated to a long walk, playdate and lunch with some of our friends and it was lovely! 

The kids were exhausted from playing with their buddy and took great naps and I took a great nap (with the windows open and the breeze blowing through of course!). 

When my husband and daughter got home from school we went for another nice long walk to the park and stayed and played and just now, got everyone down to bed. 

So happy for long, sunny days! Thank you Lord!

I also signed up today for a Bible Conference (at an area college) and get to go with one of my favorite people in the whole stinkin' world! I'm so excited! I have NEVER been away overnight from my children, you know, other than to give birth to more children! And, honestly, I'm not sure that counts!! =) Anyways, I'm pretty excited!

In other news, here's a few pictures I snapped of my darlings yesterday morning before church!

I hope you all have a great night! And a wonderful week ahead too!

Today, Before Church

Movie Reviews (When There's Nothing Else To Do)

 I'm totally boring lately. I think things always get more interesting as the weather warms up and we start to shake off the coils of wintry gloom and spring into new weather and activities. So, I've been spending a lot of naptime watching netflix movies (new love). Here are the ones I've recently watched:

Eat Pray Love

I heard alot about this movie when it came out--I mean, how can you go wrong with Julia Roberts?! Right?! Well, it turns out the first 1/2 of the movie focuses on the "Pray" part of the plot and it's agonizingly ridiculous. Her big crisis in life is that her husband wants to go back to school and so she cries out to God to free her from her marriage. An absolutely ridiculous premise for a movie! I suppose she ends up happy at the end--by learning to truly "love" herself. What an empty promise to base a movie on--that self love is the key to happiness--when in fact, I've found that loving yourself more than everyone else only ends up making you miserable. Just my two cents. =)

New In Town

I was flipping through the Netflix instant watch section and came across this little "gem." Starring Harry Connick Jr. and Renee Zellweger AND from 2009--how bad can it be? Well, let's just say--it's Lifetime Movie of the Week bad....but also good. I love a good *bad* movie and this one was enjoyable for me but definitely wouldn't win any awards for the cold fish romance between Renee and Harry, her utterly unlikable personality and emoting, and the unlikelihood that Harry could overlook all of that and fall in love with her.

Letters To Juliet

The most redeeming quality of this movie is the amazing beauty of the two lead actresses--Amanda Seyfreid and Vanessa Redgrave are so lovely--the former is not the most convincing actress but here beauty helps you forget her banality.And Vanessa is stunning--as an actress and person--I hate that Hollywood will underutilize older actresses--when here is a supreme example of grace, great acting and presence! The movie was predictable but enjoyable and ended happily--which is my favorite type of ending! 

Cold Comfort Farm

This is another netflix gem I unearthed while exploring their archives. It actually stars Kate Beckinsale which I didn't realize until after I watched it--she was SO young and looked utterly different. I HATED this movie when it started. I had to put on the subtitles so I could "understand" what they were saying. That still didn't work! It all annoying gibberish as it started sharing the adventure of a young, wealthy, orphan looking for book material by visiting crazy distant relatives. She hit the jackpot at Cold Comfort Farm! Full of creepy and crazy this motley crew learned through her tutelage to free themselves from their self-inflicted unhappiness as she taught them to embrace change, happiness and cleanliness. Slowly the characters won me over and left me a fan--but that first hour was a struggle to get through!!

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

The last movie I recently watched--I had very low expectations for. The previews looked weird and I'm not a huge fan of Brad Pitt or Cate Blanchet. The movie is so original and it's concept so moving--as Benjamin went from abandoned infant, to young-old-man, and how his story intersected with that of Cate's character--it was utterly moving and beautiful, brilliant, tragic, depressing, wonderful and redeeming. I know that's a lot to say for this movie--I hate to give anything away--but it is a great love story with interesting characters and let me just say--that seeing Brad Pitt change from grizzled old man and slowly becoming more beautiful and young was breathtaking. Cate is a stunning woman too--they were beautiful together in this movie. I count myself a fan of theirs now! Great acting, cool story, must see!

We've been on a *Tangled* kick lately and
I. Like. It. =)

This live version made me laugh--they have ZERO chemistry and it's totally awkward. They both look pretty though! =)

Window(s) Shopping For The Boy Who Has No Clothes

I Miss This Kid

It's so weird not having Amelie around everydayallday.

She was the one who introduced me to motherhood and diapers and not sleeping through the night and taking trips to the park and taking pictures of every little thing and worryingabouteverything and color coordinating outfits and naps and just about everything important that I do everydayallday.

It's weird that she doesn't need me as much.

But really, really, really I still need her around.

I'm so proud of you Amelie! 

You are happy and lively and big and independent and smart and funny and beautiful (even with a block-induced black eye!). 

And I miss you-and I miss taking pictures of you-and having you around because you talk in sentences that I can understand and wipe your own butt-so glad that summer is around the corner! =)

This morning my attitude was absolutely abominable.

I was grumpy and miserable from the 5am-Ezra-wake-up-call (luckily he went back to sleep; I didn't). 

Mr. Wonderful had a music team concert at a faraway church and I was on my own with our little ones.

So I grumped and I moped and it wasn't pretty.

I wish I could be content and pleasant all of the time but it just isn't so.=)

After dragging my little ones and myself to church we were a lot late for sunday school and a lot early for church so I sat quietly in the sanctuary after dropping them all off and quieted my mind.

Our interim pastor had placed the story of Charles Spurgeon in our bulletin--he was an amazing evangelist-- who came to believe in Christ after he heard a sermon that included this verse:

   Isaiah 45:22

“ Look to Me, and be saved,
      All you ends of the earth!
      For I am God, and there is no other."

So he, (Spurgeon), *looked* up and acknowledged in his heart that there is one God and that Christ is His Son. 

*He* is the ONLY way. 

The *ONE* through which we can go to Heaven. 

Belief in Christ alone is what saves us from sin, and death, and emptiness and spiritual darkness.

I can never be reminded of the wonderful promises of Scripture enough! 

I walked away feeling encouraged and joyful--so thankful for the gathering together of believers and for the Word that was presented this morning!

*****************************************************

In other news, when I dressed Ezra for church I noticed he must have had a growth spurt because his khakis and white shirt (that I was hoping were going to last us for another month or so) looked like capris and 3/4 length shirt! Gah! It's not a good look--even on a cute baby! =) 

*******************************************************

In other, other news, the discouraging situation I alluded to yesterday has been resolved but not in an encouraging way (if that makes sense). Boo. 

Thanks for sending a prayer up for us if you did--I have faith that it will be resolved according to HIS plan.

Happy Sunday--I hope you had a better attitude about it than I did! =)

Yard Sale = Happy

Today was the much-anticipated town-wide yard sale day 

and

it

was

awesome!!!!

We have been tripping over the piles in the basement and the piles in the attic--all waiting for today! I wasn't very optimistic since it's pretty chilly and pretty early in the yard sale season--but our town has advertised very well and for a long time and we had an excellent turn out! There were always people at our sale with no lulls all day! 

We were only selling:

*baby boy clothes, shoes, socks etc

*toddler girl clothes, shoes etc

*toys, toys, toys

and 

*airwick air fresheners and toiletries from my couponing for free adventures

No furniture, antiques or anything interesting and STILL *still* we made

!hundreds! of dollars!!!

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!

I thought we'd make like $50! I'm so thankful to be rid of almost everything we put out to sell! 

It was so fun! 

I can't wait to continue couponing throughout this year sell my stuff again next year! This is all stuff I paid $0 or just tax on and people cleared the tables of it as soon as I put it down! I kept running upstairs to my stockpile and replenishing! 

It was super fun and exciting! =)

Yes, I know, I don't get out much! Ha!

The kids sold some stuff too and had a lot of fun manning their little table. They also walked with Daddy around town and made a few small purchases. =)

It was a great day--I'm so thankful to have gotten rid of so much. What a blessing to regain walking space and storage space!

In other news, here's some cute pictures of Maeve I took the other day!

In other, *other* news, we got some bad news today! Boo! So if you could spare a moment to say a prayer for us that would be much appreciated!
Le sigh.
Anyways, I hope you all had a profitable Saturday! =)

Seventeen. Seriously?!

My little guy is 17 months old today! I can't believe it! It seems like he just got here yesterday! He's so big and funny and silly--I love this kid!

Here are some Ezra-isms:

*he finally finally sleeps through the night all the time. *LOVE*

*his morning nap is hit or miss--i'm fine with that as long as the afternoon nap doesn't go away anytime soon! =)

*he goes to bed at 6:45/7 and gets up at 6:45/7 (or....sometimes 5...but no one's perfect! =)

* he loves playing with his sisters--especially dancing, "singing", and tackling them to the ground!, also peekaboo!

* he HATES nursery and cries anytime we get close--but he lives through it and everyone suffers through his crying beautifully =)

*he says: mama, dada, granny, love you, bye, uh oh, no, yes, hi, ball

*he's recently started running. oy!

that's all i can think of for now! he's such a precious guy! we love you Ezra boy!