Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Ava


"Why does the sidewalk have to be so hard?"


Easter weekend

Bek came for her spring break!  How fun was that!  We went out to eat, went shopping in Mankato, and just enjoyed being together.  Then Nancy, Mom, and Dad all came Saturday and we did Easter stuff.  Filled eggs for the hunt, dyed eggs, and had tons of candy and Easter baskets filled with the treats from them all.  Then Sunday Matt's parents came and we had a great service, a special meal, and the best blessing of all - Matt was able to perform his first baptism Sunday night...and it was Jack along with 4 others from our church!  What a wonderful blessing for our family!  










Monday, April 14, 2014

Funny Phrases

A couple of funny comments from Jack.  I always love to hear kids learn to express themselves.  

When asked if he wanted more at dinner, he said, "No, my neck is spicing up."  Hmm...I guess something was too hot.  

And "loose tooths are fun!"  Usually more fun when you get money from the tooth fairy!  He wasn't too sure about it when it first fell out!

Ava has had a funny way of saying things too, but it's hard to always get things written down.  With her learning how to talk and phrase words, it's still hard to understand some things; but when you do finally understand, almost anything is funny because she struggles saying a lot of things.  But she is doing better and talking more because of that.  She likes to say "I guess so."  She still doesn't say most "L"s.  They are "y"s.  "Ya you, too" means "love you too."  I will try to get more on here as I hear them.  I'm sure we have many more funny phrases coming! 

Palm Sunday Weekend

We had a couple nice days that allowed us to start cleaning up the back yard. And of course we had to have a bonfire.  We have a little life back there!  Some flowers are already coming up and we have other green things that I hear are tulips!  I love tulips so I can't wait!  It is going to be a big job to get our little yard the way it should be, and we are not yard people, so I'm not exactly sure what the end result will be.  But at least we will try to get it cleaned up and mowed. 

We had a great Palm Sunday at church with all of the kids carrying palm branches down the aisle.  It's always so cute to see that.  And we had a guest over the weekend from Berean!  Our friend Heidi Wolters was able to stay with us since she was in town visiting family.  It's always fun to see how people are connected, and we love having company.  Now Easter is almost here!  And family is coming!  Jack will be baptized along with a few others on Easter night, so we are excited about that and having the family here.  Jack gave his testimony last night along with 2 others, and it's always a blessing to hear how people met The Lord.  Rebekah will be here a few days longer than everyone else since she has spring break so we are looking forward to some extra time with her.  And by the way, happy birthday to her today!!  We can't wait to celebrate with you!  So lots of goody goodness coming this week!  And school!  Sigh.   No, we are making good progress, so we will hang in there until we are done.  Anyway, here are pictures.  






Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Spring is here...I think

The snow is mostly gone! Robins are everywhere! The eaglets that we watch online have all hatched!  And the kids are getting outside more!  I think I have spring fever.  All we want to do is be outside.  We have been doubling up on school so that we can end in May, and it is going well so far.  But it already seems hard to do - for both of us!  I am eager to do everything outside that we haven't been able to do in the past 6 months.  And I know it will still be a little while until it's normal to have good weather, but I have a taste of it now and don't want to let it go!  It was even fun to hear the thunder the other night and be glad it was raining and not snowing!

It has now been a year since Matt candidated here in Fairmont - so crazy that it's already been that long.  We are feeling good and excited about our future here!   I remember it was crazy weather last year too at this time and am hoping we are nearing the end of the crazy part because the summer was awesome!  I'm ready!

Monday, April 7, 2014

Developments

Jack lost his 2nd tooth Friday while having lunch.  I'm surprised he didn't swallow it since he was taking a drink and it just fell out. He got $2 and spent it at a rummage sale on Saturday.  The first of many this season (I hope)!

Also he wanted the training wheels off his bike so Matt took them off, and he's doing pretty well already!  I guess it was time.  

Best for last - he will be baptized Easter night!  I'm excited to see this growth in him.  And I'm excited most of the family will be coming to share it with us.  We are blessed to have several others also being baptized that night so are looking forward to a special time for our church.  

Ava is really getting tall and growing out of her size 3 clothes.  Wow that happened fast!  But I guess she will be 4 in a few months so it was bound to happen.  

Both kids have been very cuddly lately for whatever reason.  I'm not sure why, but I'm ok with it!  There's so many things to work on and so many things I could do better, but I'm so thankful for this opportunity to be their mom and to love them.  

I'm very excited to have started volunteering at Twelve Baskets, a thrift store related to Options Pregnancy here in town. My job is to go through the donated linens and decide what to keep and to organize the linen shelf in the store.  I've gone twice, and I have really enjoyed it already.  The goal is to be able to interact with the other girls who are working there and hopefully be an encouragement to them. I'm not sure what all God has planned for this ministry, but I'm excited about it. 

We've been enjoying a few nicer days and can't wait until it's the norm!  It already seems like we have so much planned for the summer.  I guess when you are stuck inside for 8 months at a time, you have to get it all in when you can!  I can't wait!  
Here's pictures including some play dates we've had recently.