Yesterday we enjoyed a wonderful Easter with friends, family, lots of food and lots of fun! God is so good and I am so thankful for ALL he has done in our lives.
We went to our usual 8am service and then headed home for a family Easter Egg hunt and give the boys their Easter surprises.
Instead of writing a book I'm going to narrate through pictures of the day- (a note about their clothes - the boys did have nice Easter clothes that they wore to church but they changed in to play clothes as soon as they got home and actually went through two sets of play clothes before they changed back into their Easter outfits for dinner with grandparents. I consider myself pretty good at handling a lot of things but trying to keep my kids from getting their clothes dirty is not one of them so we spend LOTS of time in play clothes - even on "fancy" days :))
The boys realized pretty quickly that there were jelly beans in their eggs so it took them forever to find all of the eggs because they had to stop, open each egg and eat the jellybean before they were motivated to look for another egg. Our boys get very little candy so a handful of jellybeans were a HUGE treat to them!
Next we headed off to have lunch with some friends that have a wonderful house on small lake and have neighbors with several horses that you can walk over and feed! The boys had a great time.
We had bread to feed the fish but John-Mark (who had just eaten lunch) decided he needed to eat the bread more than the fish did. Silly Turkey - apparently we have called him that a lot because anytime he does something silly that is what James calls him -
Doin' a little fishing with daddy - notice Jeremy trying to keep John-Mark out of the water - I think he was trying to get some bread that had already gone in the water - he actually slipped in the water at one point - clothes change #2 :)
James checking out the fish daddy caught - at home when we play pretend fishing we always kiss it and throw it back but James wasn't really in to kissing a real fish :
Feeding the horsies carrots. John-Mark was TERRIFIED of the horses. As you can see there is a fence between us and then another fence between here and the house. When the horses started walking towards us John-Mark ran and did an army crawl to get under the second fence to get as far away as possible. He did ok when Jeremy held him but as soon as he put him down he was gone again!
Here's the best pic of the boys in their Easter outfits - napping in the car going from the Benedicts to Papa and Noni's house
I had a sweet dress for Gracie to wear but it was more work to keep her from spitting up on it so we saved it for her 6 month pics. Here she is chilling with Daddy - love those little feet :)
The boys and Papa - best pic I could get :)
My big boy :(
This morning the got up bright and early and went outside to play with thier new rake, shovel, hoe, and wheel barrow they got for Easter. They spent the entire morning shoveling gravel and moving it around the driveway - I love boys - so easy to entertain :)
And while the boys were working the morning away Gracie got in a little nap - it's rare that we're home in the mornings so this was a nice surprise for her :) I think I have another thumb sucker - and check out the hand over the head - she loves to have her face covered when she's sleeping - if she doesn't have a blanket over her face she'll do it herself-
Lastly, here's a funny pic of my silly turkey - he thinks he's sooo funny walking around in mommy's shoes :)
A couple of memories I don't want to forget-
James is having trouble with his tr sound and says f instead so fire truck is fire fruck - but the r often is missed - I know it's bad but it cracks us up
James has officially become a backseat driver - he tells me "this way mommy" about 50x a day and points me in the direction he thinks we should go. He also has started telling John-Mark "we're almost there John-Mark, don't go to sleep"
Yesterday the boys were eating lunch at a little table and James was getting up and feeding John-Mark and telling him - "just two more bites" - and John-Mark was eating! Maybe next time I have trouble with his eating I need to get James to stand in :)
James' favorite kids show right now is Imagination Movers on Disney and every morning when it goes off he tells me "no mommy, more movers" to which I respond that they have to go to work and he tells me "oh, go make money?" Yep, go make money - we jokingly tell daddy this every morning as well.
John-Mark has become Mr. Polite - he always tells you "Bless You" whenever anyone sneezes. He also is very good about saying please and thank you almost all the time. He'll tell James thank you 100x a day whenever he gives him a toy or a drink or anything like that.
While I don't think he looks just like me it is very apparent that he has my hair and every day that he's outside it gets lighter and lighter like mine was as a child. If it wasn't for the fact that James' hair was so light I would go so far as to say his hair is getting blond :)
2 fully lined bubbles
A little A-lined dress (panties to match are on my sewing machine as I type this)
And this super cute two piece outfit that ties in the back - also fully lined
Between emergency calls to my mom when I didn't know what to do next and spending Monday with my friend Jennifer who guided me through elastic and ruffles (and did all the monogramming:)) I finished these four outfits for Gracie. I am beyond proud of myself and can't wait to make more! (A HUGE shout out of thanks to Jeremy who kept all 3 kiddos on Monday -all day - so that I could have a sew day all to myself. He did lunch, dinner, baths and bedtime like a pro - he may do my job better than I do!) I already have the fabric to make a little lady bug dress with red gingham bloomers to match - too cute!
Do they look like they are working hard or what? I think John-Mark was complaining about needing a water break - ha! They have no idea what all their Daddy has planned for them to help him do around here in the years to come :)
