Bamie's Graduation

This past weekend, we traveled to Dayton, TN to celebrate my lil' sister's graduation from Bryan College! I cannot believe she's done with school. In some ways, she is still 10 years old in my brain (that's how old she was when I left for college)! We love "Aunt Bamie" so very much, and we are so proud of her accomplishments. It was a wonderful weekend of family and fun. We wouldn't have missed it for the world!

...and then they noticed her tassles...

Justus had some drums, and boy did we play on them :)

On Sunday - Mother's Day - we all went on a hike at a place called "Pocket." We enjoyed throwing rocks in the water and soaking up the beautiful day with family. 

These boys are precious to me...just precious. So blessed to be their mama!

Family Hike

We went to the local state park for a day hike today, and it was such a fun time! Kevin and I spent many days playing and hiking in the woods while we were growing up, and it's so fun to take our boys out to enjoy being in "the woods!" They loved it. We could not have asked for a more glorious spring day!

Poking centipedes and checking out beetles.

Climbing up big rocks.

Balancing on fallen trees.

Banging walking sticks against rocks screaming for chipmunks to come out (don't ask me..I haven't got a clue:)

Sliding down steep banks.

My personal "fravorite" from the day was the "Field" of Blue Bells!!!

Then we had a picnic and played on the playground.

We told Carter he could ride the see-saw with Miles, and he said "No I want to see a screwdriver!" 

Ha! Boys and their tools.

Such a fun Saturday!!!

The Eggs That Died...

I know it's not Easter anymore, but it's still Spring, so I'm ahead of my usual blogging game! I wanted to recap our Easter egg dying experience because it was so much fun this year! Full of blog-worthy hilariousness :)

Last year, I was way too controlling during our egg dying. This year, I decied to back off and let the boys have their messy fun, and it was so much better! Here's what happened...

Carter could have done this for hours. He put the eggs in...took them out...put them back in another color...took them back out...and so on...

Our mini muffin tin turned upside down with paper towels on top worked well for holding the eggs.

Miles HAD to get his hands on this activity...literally...he loved to throw the eggs. He only got one egg, and he threw it over and over and over again. To him it was nothing more than ball practice!

As you can imagine, this last picture ended in us mopping up a mug full of dye - good thig we had no clothes on and a cover on the floor! (I said I backed off...not that I didn't take any precautions :)

This is the difference between a 2.5 year old's egg and a 11 month old's egg :)

Carter peeled and ate an egg - very unusual for him - he doesn't like eggs. He did not, however, eat the "cheese" :)

At the end, we still had a total of 13 eggs and they were all different colors (I was thinking they would all be brown by the end...)! We had 11 cracked (some totally smashed) and 2 whole eggs, but we had a whole bunch of fun memories!!!!

Here's a fun video of the experience.
Please excuse the water running in the background...I forgot I had turned it on!

Happy Easter!

Our Easter was far from picture perfect. Life is not picture perfect. Isn't that why the world needs a Savior? We serve a risen Savior, and that's why Easter is one of my very favorite holidays! 

My sister and parents got to spend Easter with us this year. I'm so glad they were here. We went to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning, then it got rainy and cold for the rest of the weekend.

Miles got sick, and we didn't end up getting to go to church. So, we all got dressed up in our Easter duds & took pictures anyway (this was all for mommy & her love of tradition :-), then we crawled back into our pj's and watched Veggie Tales Easter Carol together. 

I was pretty dissapointed we didn't get to go to church on Easter. That is one of my favorite services of the year - so full of joy! It made me realize that I don't have to wait until Easter Sunday to be filled with "Eastery" joy. After all - you might be sick on Easter Sunday, and then it's a whole 'nother year until the next... As a Christian, I can live in the power and joy of the resurrection every single day. Sure, the fun traditions and pretty clothes make it "feel" like Easter, but my Savior lives every single day, and that's where my joy needs to come from.

Happy Easter! 

He lives, aren't you glad? :)

Christmas in March!!!

That's right, I'm posting about Christmas - because I haven't done it yet (other than a few things in Miles's 8 Month Post). I told you "Merry Christmas" in this post and that I would post more in January....scratch that....make that MARCH!!! I am an embarrassment to blogging... This is probably when I should ignore that I haven't covered it and move on, but in the name of "memory preservation," I would like to have this post in writing!

So put on your Santa hats and ring those jingle bells - think Christmas with me for a moment :) We had a wonderful Christmas. We had fun introducing Miles to all our traditions during his very first Christmas season! 

Santa "Taus" sat on Carter's lap a lot and asked him what he wanted for Christmas. His reply was almost always cookies or pizza! We tried to make ate a fruit loop chain for our playroom tree...you can see what Carter's plans were for those fruit loops. We enjoyed a cookie decorating party at a friend's house - Carter had the same plans for those cookies! He may just be my little sugar plum fairy toddler.

We made salt dough ornaments to preserve those precious handprints! This did not go as smoothly as the pictures make it seem I can assure you :)

Every year, we go to a tree farm and cut our tree. Carter really enjoyed looking at the trees, riding the "train," and getting to ride the pony. What a treat each year!

Miles was napping when we decorated the tree, but he got to hang his first Christmas ornament, and he loved laying under the tree watching the ornaments and lights! 

These are/may become some Christmas traditions... We open a St. Nick present to the family (something we will all enjoy together) on the day that we decorate our tree. This year, the boys got a Little People Manger Scene that they could play with. We also went to the Christmas parade with friends, and we got to go see Carter's Christmas play at school. He did fairly well considering he is 2 :)

We went to Santa's Village with Kevin's Parents. The boys did FANTASTIC with Santa, and we had a really good time! 

Carter LOVED the characters that walked around greeting people. He wanted to Hug and "Tiss" all of them...not sure if this made them uncomfortable - their faces were masked :) We thought it was adorable...we also need to teach him not to "tiss" strangers :)

On Christmas Eve, we ate (what else?) - Homemade PIZZA! I couldn't resist....it's what Carter asked Santa for ALL season :) The boys woke up on Christmas morning, and enjoyed their gifts from Santa, then we opened the wrapped presents. We love being at home on Christmas morning!

A few favorites: Miles loved having a "botdee" of his own, and he got really excited about his lady bug toy. Carter got some big boy undies (we still have not potty trained though) and a motorcycle! 

Christmas Day afternoon, we headed down to Auburn to spend time with family for a week! We enjoyed visiting and exchanging gifts with my sisters, brother-in-law and parents in Waverly! My bro-in-law was about to deploy, so we soaked up time with him. 

Then we headed to Nana and Papa J's where we spent time with Kevin's family and the cousins!!! This year, we all bundled up and went to Calloway Gardens for the lights. I love doing this. Kevin and I always went to see these when we were dating. Such a fun place :) We danced and played with cousins, opened up presents, and Kevin's brother and his wife announced that their new baby due in May was a BOY! What a fun announcement - a little boy cousin. 

We had a fantastic Christmas. This post is long overdue, but for those of you who got all the way through it - it's now over! You can go back to being ready for Spring :)