Happy 10th Anniversary/32nd birthday!!!

Although it isn't our anniversary yet, we have been thinking about what we would do for our big 10th anniversary coming up in June. We have never really done anything for our anniversaries in the past, other than going out for dinner so we thought we would make this one memorable. Our initial plans were to take a trip to Italy, but that fell through once we started to try and figure out when to go. It is just so difficult to be away from the kids for an extended period of time with all their activities and things they need us around for!! I used to think it was hard to leave when they were little, but now I am realizing that was much easier than it is now!!

As our plans to travel abroad started to unravel, Matt had another idea of something we could 'do' together....here's a hint.....

Wyatt took that picture with my phone so it isn't the greatest quality, but you get the idea. Yes, we got a motorcycle!! Now don't get all concerned thinking you will see us show up in chaps and the full biker-look. But we did get leather jackets for safety as well as helmets. And it has been A LOT of fun. I think the kids have loved it more than we have, however!

Everyday when Matt gets home from work, the kids ask if he can go ride it.

I didn't get a picture of Sadie riding because she only likes to ride if she can sit between us. Blake, however, LOVES it and sits right in front of Matt. 

And he really likes helping Matt change the seat.

Yes, it has been a lot of fun and Matt has been riding it to work more now that it is so nice out!! And you can't beat the gas mileage....over 200 miles on 5 gallons!! 

Unfortunately Matt and I haven't gone on a long ride together yet, but we are looking forward to being able to enjoy it together!! Happy early 10th babe!

He Is Risen!!!

Easter--my favorite holiday and best day of the year. So thankful for the resurrection of Christ and what it means for us on a daily basis. And now almost 2 weeks later, I am posting pictures from our wonderful day.

Matt was on-call, so we stayed home for the weekend. The kids were so excited to look for their easter baskets in the morning and of course, the youngest found his first!!!

And then Sadie...

And finally Wyatt. His is always the hardest to find (intentionally) and he gets so frustrated after about 15 minutes (which I am sure feels like an eternity!) I remember as a kid not being able to find mine and having to leave for church without finding it--I'm sure that day will come!

We went to church and as happens every year on Easter, I cry through most of the service, overwhelmed at God's grace for me and the power of the resurrection.

After we got home, we parked the car in the driveway (I don't even remember why we did this) and before we even got in to the house, these ducks were on our car!

There were 3 of them and the kids ran inside and got some bread to feed them! Crazy, huh?

Pics of the kids...

We were trying to get a picture of the 3 kids since we didn't have anyone around to take a family picture, but Blake didn't want to let go of Matt's hand...

The kids were exhausted from a busy saturday outside, so everyone in our family crashed for awhile after lunch. But then it was on to the egg hunt preparations.....

There is a HUGE egg hunt in our development, but each year we skip it and do a smaller version in our own yards with just a few neighborhood families. But this year several of our neighbors hosted Easter at their homes, so we had a few more kids to add to the hunt. Since there were so many with such a broad age range, we did three separate age groups--(1-5) (6-11) (12-20). We (the moms) actually had a lot of fun making the egg hunts progressively harder and boy did we stump the kids. The oldest group thought they had found all the eggs at our neighbors but when we added it up, they still had 30 to find!! It took awhile, but by this point all the kids helped out and some of the younger kids were able to find them more easily than the older kids!

Getting ready...

Blake had lots of helpers!!

Gracie stuck with him the whole time and Lillie helped him out as well.

The youngest age group each got to find 18 eggs and since Blake took the longest, he ended up with the largest following of kids cheering him on! And he loved it!!

And as happens every year, once he realizes what is inside them, he's content to sit in one spot and chow down!

Perfect timing for the next age group to go.

Wyatt and Titus

Checking out their loot..

Each of these kids got 18 eggs as well, so Terri and Gracie were counting up her eggs to see how many more she needed!

There were 5 eggs with $1 in them and Wyatt was pretty stoked to get one of them!

There were a few clever hiding spots!

Despite Blake's persistence, there were no eggs inside the sprinkler system unit.

The oldest age group opted to do a 'free for all' instead of setting a certain number of eggs for each kid...so once they thought they had found them all, we counted all of them to see if they had in fact gotten them all. And no they didn't---30 left to find!!

And the dads....deep in conversation!

Another great egg hunt in the books!! And thank goodness for warmer, dry weather!

Dying eggs on Good Friday

After a relaxing morning lying around in our pjs, we walked/biked down to the Scribner's to dye some easter eggs. One of the kids asked why we dye eggs at Easter and when we didn't have an answer for them, they said, "It's probably because Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday so that's why we dye eggs." Pretty good guess if you ask me!

The setup

Onyx was all set to go

11 dozen eggs

Mixing up the dye...Blake loved being in with all the big kids

Dixie explaining all the different dying processes

(and she intentionally wore all black--no sack cloth, however)

Such a good listener

Wyatt and Titus listening to Dixie's instructions

And then the chaos began!

(Actually, it went much more smoothly than we had anticipated and we only had a few broken eggs)

..peeling the tape off for the big reveal...

Keaton's favorite egg

Keaton's "I love mom" egg with his mom, Dionne

Sadie tie-dying her egg

Titus's favorite egg

Wyatt's fav

These two were the most patient and artistic dyers of them all...

After about 30 minutes, this is what the table looked like....yep, Jada and Sadie were still patiently working away at their creations while everyone else was done and moved on.

Dixie had made a sign for one of the neighbor kids who was having a birthday, so the kids colored this once their eggs were done. I love Blake's attentiveness to her drawing....

Not sure if we have another lefty in our family or if he just likes to copy everything his brother does....time will tell.

Addi's favorite egg....it's hard to read, but it says, "Scribby loves" with 2 hockey sticks underneath

Sadie's fav

For the record, we dye eggs every year but no one in our family likes to eat them. Titus, however, loves them. So Wyatt attempted to eat one with him...

And still didn't like them! I can't blame him--I think they are disgusting!

We had a great time with great friends and the kids were so excited to show their eggs to Matt when he got home from work.