Love Day

I'm really bad about decorating for Valentines Day, or doing anything for it for that matter. I see all these cute ideas on pinterest for the wittiest Valentines, heart shaped desserts and pink heart banners, but for some reason it sneaks up on me every year and we never end up doing much. We do, however, make sugar cookies together and this is the second year that I've made pink heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast. I love tradition--sometimes to a fault--and I'm hoping we can keep up with at least these small attempts to make love day special for my kids.

Valentine's morning. To keep things slightly on the healthy side, I used whole wheat pancake mix and honey instead of syrup. I didn't skimp on chocolate chips, though. :)

After their pancakes, I gave the 2 older kids a peanut butter heart as a special treat that they could eat right then or save for later. You'll never guess who ate right away and who saved...

Later that day, we left for our yearly couple's retreat which was incredible, but more on that later. Hope you all had a fantastic love day, whether with your lover, friends or family!

The Easter Run-Down

This post is short and sweet with lots of pictures because I'm in a rush and it needs to be posted. So here it is--the run down on our fun Resurrection Sunday!

Who doesn't love Easter? I have memories of new dresses, white shoes, white gloves and white hats, (that's a lot of white) celebrating Christ's Resurrection at church and then going to Grandma's where we had a big dinner and egg hunt in the back yard and, of course, peanut butter eggs. That ended when they went to Florida for the winter, but now we've started our own traditions! Peanut butter eggs being at the top of the list. Besides Jesus rising from the dead, those are the best thing about Easter! ;)

This year I thought it would be fun to make birds nest cookies that I found on pinterest. I made and molded the "nests" and the kids got to fill them and top them with peeps. We talked about the real reason for Easter and had lots of fun together!

On Sunday morning, I had visions of a gorgeous picture of my kids to post, but it didn't start out so well.

Despite the red eyes and sliding baby, we managed to get a "Good" one--although I love the other one best :)

The Family Easter Picture! (The one on my blog header is from last year--I just might have to use this one to change it)

My cousin and his lovely girlfriend got to spend the day with us, as well as Nate's family

All the older cousins before almost all of them changed--the fruit tray before brunch was being devoured and resulting in strawberries on pretty white dresses.

The kids look forward to the Easter egg hunt every year. Of course they know that it's not the Easter bunny who hides them, but it's just a fun activity that they love!

Do NOT steal eggs that are not yours. Fits will result! ;)

Sweet Joanna and I watching our crazy 8 kids hunt for eggs :)

Pretty Girls!

It was a really fun day spent with family and eating way too much food but most of all we were so thankful that the Lord rose from the dead so that we could have eternal life! What a wonderful reason to celebrate!

Friends and Fondue

My sister-in-law Joanna recently gave birth to her 5th child--which in my book calls for a celebration! I've wanted to do a chocolate-themed-something for a while now, and this was the perfect excuse! A fondue fountain--surrounded by strawberries, pound cake, rice krispie treats, pretzels, marshmallows and pinapple--was perfect for a fun night with girl friends.

 My friend Hannah (Joanna's sister) was in charge of something fun we could do and give to Jo at the end of the night. She came up with an awesome idea to decorate a big felt storage box with flowers and creative things we would all make and sew onto it.

 She showed us how to make simple flowers and we started tracing, cutting, stitching and having a grand time.

 It reminded me of an Amish quilting bee--except we weren't quite experts, laughing about our mistakes and how inexperienced we were at this type of thing.

 Talking, laughing, all working together for a finished product--it was SO fun, even if we were a little confused at first!

 Beautiful new Mom five times over 

 The great master-mind behind it ;)

 Even little Bryan got in on the fun! :)

 Focus, focus, focus

 "I don't remember the last time I threaded a needle". Or something like that. 

 A pink pom pom and a pink nose.

 The chocolate was on all night, and we made several trips to the kitchen to get more...

Girl clothes are really so much fun. And so cute.

 Starting to come together!

 Liberty Love, the guest of honor at 2 weeks old.

 Some people are just way too creative. I am very proud that my flower is the "dot" for the "i" on Liberty. It is one of my biggest accomplishments in life.

 A darling little bib...

 Flowers and buttons and bows...a labor of love from all her friends that will be special for years to come!

 Congratulations to Joanna on baby #5 and for being a wonderful Mom to all of them!

 I'll end with this picture: Almost 18 weeks--starting to show a little more! :)

I hope this will prompt you to have a fun night with friends, whether it's 2 girls or 20. Women need each other, even if it's just an evening once or twice a year. To get away from the normal life and have a night without kids is a refreshing experience. A new baby, birthday, new season (think Fall!) is a great excuse to get together! Eat lots of sugar, plan a fun activity and talk and laugh the whole night. You won't regret it!