Easter Eggs Etc

Hope you had a lovely Easter like we did. We celebrated with a cousin pancake breakfast and egg hunt. Above is David, Mary, Eliza, Sara, Luke, and Evan. (We're so lucky to have cousins nearby!)

Our Easter egg fun actually began Friday night. We had a little party with the kids next door. And decorating eggs was serious business. . .

Sunday morning was the Easter egg hunt. Sara caught onto the fun quickly . . .

She was even more excited when Uncle Chris helped her realize there was STUFF IN THE EGGS!

Mary and Eliza . . .

The girls . . .

Fun times.

Some odds and ends posted on yet another snow day

It wasn't a two-hour delay after all.  School is canceled today.  Sigh.

David and Mary are off playing with the neighbors, so I will take this opportunity to post some random pictures from the last two months with accompanying comments.

Sara and my mom look at a book in our Idaho hotel back in January.  Sara is so sweet and loving.   People love to be with her.  She has a special gift of bringing happiness to those around her.

Sara loves books.  She is much more genuinely interested in them than my other two kids were as babies.  Sara is truly excited to see what each new page will bring.  She also enjoys the act of carefully turning the pages one by one.  

These pictures were taken over a month ago.  I love spending my days with this sweet baby.

This little cutie still has no teeth, no words, and has taken no steps.  So it's hard to believe she will be 14 months old tomorrow.  But she is getting some of the toddler attitude and sense of humor.  She is curious, thoroughly exploring her surroundings.  And she watches her big brother and sister, joining in their fun.  My personal favorite is when I sit and do Mary's hair--Sara gets in the supplies and earnestly tries to put her hair in a pony tail.  It's so funny.

BFF Bailey came over for a sleep over on MLK weekend.  The boys worked hard on this Lego creation, which they named Fort Bavid.  What luck that David's best buddy lives just 2 hours away.

This is the Grand Canyon.  This was a Grand Crisis.  But it everything turned out fine.  By the way, it weighs two hundred pounds and takes up a lot of shelf space.  It's adorable, but, really, how long am I obligated to keep it?

This is the first grade at their music concert.

You can find Cousin Evan in this picture.  (Middle to the right, white button-down shirt.)

And the lovely Mary.  She was very nervous beforehand, but then thoroughly enjoyed performing.  That's Mary.  She gets nervous before performances, but she ends up LOVING it and totally gets a high from it!

Usually Mary takes a bath with Sara.  But this time it was David.

Sara loves her silly brother.

This is David and Brother Echols.  David's Pack had a father-son cake contest, and Brother Echols kindly filled in.  Brother Echols is super nice, and David had a great time.  Plus, they passed off a bunch of  Cub Scout electives while they were waiting for the cake to bake.  (By the way, Universe, enough with the father-child events!  We are blessed to have awesome, fun, loving people fill in--but these events still make my kids so, so sad. They can't help but be reminded that their dad is not here. )

This is David and their cake at the Blue and Gold Banquet.  (A HUGE thanks to Aunt Janell who was inspired to send cake pans for Valentines this year.  She thought it was totally random--but it was truly inspired.  It was a small but real mercy to have the storm trooper cake pan on hand for this project.  Thank you, thank you.)

The cake won an award!  (And it was yummy.)

The theme of the Blue and Gold Banquet was Invention Convention.  David did a presentation on George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, who made easy-to-use cameras that everyone could use.  David did an awesome job!  He is a smart kid and he know a lot of things.

One Saturday we went to the school's extravaganza.  I usually dread things like that.  But it was so fun!  It was a huge undertaking with carnival games, drawings, a silent auction, bouncy houses, tons of food, etc., but really well organized.  The kids had a blast--it was like a play date with the kids they never get to have play dates with.  Mary even won a prize!  Yay for a fun Saturday activity (that conveniently fell in between Sara's naps)!!  Also, now that you know where my kids go to school, please don't kidnap them.

This is a three-person Sunday morning play date.  Can you see the three?

David, Mary, and their dad.  They were busy playing when he was available to skype, so the brought him along.

This is so cute to me.  It's nice when they can skype.  The time difference has been killing us.  So far the kids have really only been able to skype with Greg once on the weekends because he is asleep when they are at school.  I realized that he's just going to need to start getting up in the middle of the night--especially to talk to David, who really needs to be able to talk to his dad during the week.  I usually talk to Greg on the phone every day at 11 for about 15 minutes.  Sometimes 30 minutes. I am old-fashioned, and we usually do not skype.

Mary and Sara are developing a very close relationship.  Mary takes very good care of Sara, walking her around the house, reading her books, and helping me clean up her messes.  She also likes to take care of Sara in the mornings, which I appreciate so much.  I have really begun to rely on Mary a lot.  She carries a lot of responsibility.  I have to remember she's only 6.  

Greg said it best:  Sara is a giver, not a taker.  She gives joy and energy and happiness.  She is gentle, and she will trust you to be gentle too.  And that trust, that sweet smile, fills your heart with gladness.  This is a special little girl.

David and Mary are back from sledding.  Gotta go...

Best way to welcome the new year

The best way to welcome 2014 is to celebrate the best thing that happened to us in 2013!

Sara!

Sara turns 1 (can you believe it?) on Saturday.  But with Greg leaving, we decided to celebrate early.

Uncle Chris and family and the next door neighbors came to celebrate with us.  There were presents and cake and even prizes for those who were brave enough to eat a spoonful of Sara's mushy lukewarm baby cereal.  It was a happy little celebration.  We love and adore our Sara.

You are so getting a step by step of the cake!  Here it goes ...

If that wasn't enough baby and cake for you, go HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.  (The last one is probably the best.  And the shortest.)

A good time was had by all ...

... as Sara worked on her cake.

Messy, messy.  She was stripped to her onesie.

 And then she got busy playing with her new toys.  (Short video HERE.)

2013 was a very stressful and challenging year for me.  But Sara made it the happiest year of my life.  She is an amazing human being and has been blessed with the capacity to bring joy to those around her.  God has trusted our family with a loving, gentle, thoughtful, darling child.  Sweet Sara.