Happy Easter

Tonight the boys dyed Easter eggs and helped me make a cake.  My friend, Angela, has asked us to link our Easter baking projects to her blog for a contest.  Ang, below is what Peyton and I came up with.  What do you think?

I hope everyone enjoys tomorrow and remembers the real reason why we celebrate Easter.  Jesus is risen!

San Diego Mission Trip

Last week Josh and I help lead a group of Shiloh high school seniors on a mission trip to San Diego.  We went to help a new church plant called Cross Church.  Our friends, the Graves, started this church from scratch about a year and a half ago.  We were gone for eight days and so busy the whole time.  We were blessed serving with a GREAT group of students and sponsors!  We had a lot of fun, a lot of laughs and good times together.  The first couple of days it rained which made it chilly but the rest of time it was perfect weather-sunny and in the 70's.  The Lord did great things while we were in SD.  Ten teenagers gave their life to Christ.  We helped with Sunday morning set up, youth events, shared our testimonies at FCA clubs in the high schools, and passed out 5,000 door hangers throughout neighborhoods.  It was great to see God working through all of us everyday while we were there.  The last day we had a free day and went to Disneyland.  Peyton and Parker would have LOVED it.  Speaking of the boys, they had so much fun getting spoiled by all four of the Grandparents.  I don't even think they missed us one minute while we were gone.  Thank you Nana, Grandaddy, GiGi and Poppy SOOO MUCH for watching our kids last week.  Peyton's already asked, "When are you and Daddy going back to San Diego so I can stay with my Nana and GiGi again for a long time."  Ha!

Here are some pictures from our trip...

Our group with Brad & Becky Graves with their twin boys.  Notice the seals laying on the beach behind us.  There were so many of them!

Here are more seals laying on the beach.  Isn't that crazy!?

Another look at a San Diego beach...beautiful.

Brad preaching at a youth event....

Our mission team with Trevor Davis (in the middle with the brown hat).  He sang during a youth event. 

I learned you can't go to CA without eating at In-n-Out Burger.  We went twice while we were there.  So good!

Sneaking in a little kiss before dinner at the Fish Market with my love.  =)

This is kinda blurry but it still turned out okay.  

I hope we get to return to San Diego again soon.  I loved everything about it!

Uncle Rick and Jessica

My brother and his girlfriend came into town this week.  Rick is attending law school in OK and is on spring break.  Jessica took some time off from her work in Little Rock.  The boys loved having them around!!  We are really looking forward to getting to spend a week with them this summer at the beach.  The count down is on! 

We love you both!  Thanks for coming to hang out with us and for the boys new toys.  They love them!!

Parker's photo shoot

This morning I attended our MOPS group at church.  We had a guest speaker, Kimberlea Bass.  She is a photographer in the area and came and gave us some great tips for taking pictures of our own kids.  I am not so great at taking pictures of my boys, however, it's something I love to do.

Parker woke up early from his nap this afternoon, thanks to a stinky diaper.  So while Peyton was still "resting" I got my camera out and started snapping some shots of Parker playing on the floor with his toys.  These aren't great but it was still fun to put into practice a couple of the tips I learned today.

One of the ideas Kimberlea suggested was for us to get on the floor with our kids instead of taking them from above and always getting there heads.  Also, she told us not to always have them looking at the camera.  Action shots are always good because that is how we will remember them when they get older, not the normal, stand still and say cheese pose.

Another tip she suggested for kids, two or younger, was to peak around the camera so they can see your face and not to ask them to say cheese.  Instead say something funny (like fuzzy pickles) to get that natural smile.   And...it worked!  Look how cute my Parker boy looks in this picture!  I wish I could get him to do that outside with a better back ground...that would have been frame worthy.  I'll give it a try another day when it's not so cold outside.

However, my little smarty pants quickly turned our photo session into a game and he started acting like he was also peaking around a camera.

When Peyton woke up, he wasn't up to having pictures taken today.  So I'll post some of him soon, I promise.

Bubbles gone Wild

The other day, Peyton asked to take a bath with the Green Shaping Foam Bubbles (you are supposed to use it to draw shapes, letters, etc. with it on the water or sides of the tub).  We hadn't used it in awhile and I couldn't get any to come out.  So I soaked it in the warm water for a minute.  Then when I started to squirt it out, I couldn't get it to stop.  This thing kept squirting for a good five minutes...

Poor Parker wasn't having as much fun as his Bubba.  He knew something wasn't right.  However, Peyton always loves a little excitement.

It reminded me of the crazy 'Silly String' wars I used to have when I was a kid.  Needless the say, the bathroom smelled like fruity soap for two days ....and so did my boys!

The Boy's Valentine Card

We wish you a wonderful Valentine's Day, this weekend!

Birthday Week

(Warning lots of pictures!)

Last week was my 27th birthday.  We celebrated a lot with family and friends.  They are the best and made me feel so special.  Here are some pictures from the night that both our parents came over and Nick, Meredith and Reese.  We ate pizza and birthday cake (Shake's confetti cake-the best)!  Meredith's Mom was able to join us to because she was in town helping Meredith and Nick unpack all their boxes from there move from Texas to here.  I was glad I got to see her again.

A couple of months ago, I mentioned to my sis in law, Meredith, that I wanted to have a cute apron to cook in.  Well, she remembered our conversation and bought me one for my birthday!  It is from our favorite store Anthropologie and love it!  It's almost too pretty to cook with but I'm sure I'll get plenty of use out of it (or at least Josh hopes so!).  They also brought me a very cute monogrammed plate from of course...Anthropolgie.  Thank you Meredith, Nick and Reese!

Boys being silly with Poppy before we ate cake.

Another night we celebrated with the Kennedy's, Slaughter's and Neufeld's.  Zach, Matt and I all have a birthday within 2 days of each other so every year we go out together and celebrate.  This year we went to Abuelos and then back to the Kennedy's house and played the Wii.  It was mine and Josh's first time on a Wii and we had a blast.  Josh was awesome at it but I need a lot of help until I'm considered even half as good as my husband.  It was still fun and we laughed a ton that night.

Thursday, McKale and Courtney took me out to lunch at Olive Garden for my my birthday.  I don't have a a picture of that and I wish I did.  O.G. tasted so good, especially the bread sticks.  We had a good time just talking and enjoying our meal without the kids, minus Baby Tate who slept through our meal! 

This weekend, Josh was gone to Tulsa for a coach's clinic so it left me here with the boys and a puppy.  We were puppy sitting for the Barnard's and the kids LOVED having a dog around.  He followed Peyton around the whole time and they became best buds. The dog that stayed with us is named Brownie so now he says we need a dog of our own named Cookie.  However, it will probably be awhile.  I think my sweet Mom would not be too happy since I'm known for getting an animal and then a year later passing it on to her and Dad.  I've done that with 1 cat and 2 dogs already!

I'll leave you with a two more cute photos below of the boys that I couldn't resist posting.  Have a good week!