Easter 2011

Logan woke up first. He ran in looking for the Easter bunny. He totally passed up the baskets and was confused... until he saw the basket of CANDY on the kitchen table.

His excitement woke up Tyson

who also broke out a smile when he saw the basket of CANDY.

The boys had so much fun exploring their baskets

Tyson even gave a little clap to show his appreciation

Somebody loves peeps!

Logan loved his Spiderman coloring book!

After feeding our kids candy for breakfast, we dropped them off in the church nursery. There is a special reward in heaven for the Easter Sunday morning Sunday School teachers!
We had a great service at church celebrating our risen Lord.

Who told them they could grow up?

Happy Birthday to our Cousins

--- and one Uncle. Two of Logan and Tyson's cousins and one of their Uncles all share a birthday week. We've had lots of fun birthday celebrating.
We started by taking a trip out to Warrenton to visit Grandma and Grandpa Higgins. Logan enjoyed the car ride.

 But Tyson fell asleep :)

 Once we got there, Tyson was ready to party!

 It was a beautiful day. It was 90 degrees. Pretty warm for the beginning of April. Here's the birthday boy hanging out on the porch with Grandpa and Uncle Brian.

 The boys were all anxious for cake!

 That's a lot of boys! Jared was turning 5 years old! His dad, Uncle Jason, also has a birthday the same week.

 These two cousins are only 6 weeks apart in age. Don't you wish you could know what they are discussing?

 We had fun with Uncle Brian but we sure missed Kari!

 The next weekend was dedicated to celebrating Nick's birthday! Nick had a swimming party at the Ste. Genevive Rec Center. Logan loved the big pool. After we went swimming we went to the party room to PARTY!

 Again, that's a lot of boys! Nick opened his presents-- with a little bit of help from his little brother.

 Nick had a Penguins of Madagascar birthday party. Julie made the poster backdrop.

 Logan loved getting to celebrate Nick's birthday-- and eat pizza. I've been telling Logan that his birthday would come after Nick's birthday. As the party guests were leaving and the party was wrapping up, Logan leaned over to me and whispered, "Now it my birthday?"

 Tyson liked hanging out with Grandpa. Tyson DID NOT like the water. He would not have anything to do with Grandpa while Grandpa was in the pool. Once Grandpa got out, he was happy to hang with him.

 Tyson also loved playing with Nick's balloons and being around the big boys!

Happy Birthday to Jared, Nick, and Uncle Jason!

The Four Seasons

In the past two weeks, we have experienced at least 3 of the four seasons:
Last Monday, March 14, we had 2-3 inches of snow. I bundled the boys up in two layers of clothing and we treked outside to play in the white stuff.

Tyson didn't really like the snow and prefered to swing instead. I think he was wishing for playing outside weather.
He got his wish because by Thursday, March 17th, it was warm enough to play outside on the swings at Grandma and Grandpa's House.

And by March 20th, the first day of Spring, it felt like SUMMER around here with temps in the 80s. In fact, I heard it was warmer in St. Louis on Sunday than it was in Miami!! I guess our Miami relatives will have to come visit us for a tropical get a way. Oh wait, it did just snow last Monday. Never mind.

We've been practically living outdoors. We eat our supper and then go outside. The neighbor kids wait for us and start trickling out of their houses. Usually by the time we send them home for "bedtime" (at least bedtime for our kids) we have about 9 kids at our house ranging in age from 14 years old to 14 months old and we usually have a basketball game, a soccer game, and someone wildly swinging a bat at a T. It's been fun so far and we'll take more sunny days and less snowy!

Two Year Theology

Spring has sprung! Our yard is filling up with a few blooms like this one from our Magnolia tree out front. The whole neighborhood has been over to admire it. Ok, the whole neighborhood has been over because they dump all their kids in our yard every night... but that's another story. (And we do enjoy our neighbors and our neighbor kids so it's a good story)
Yesterday, the tree flowered and Logan looked outside and said, "Look at that tree, mommy. Daddy made it." Cause, you know, anything that's cool was built by daddy. And so I said, "You know what, Logan? God made that tree. Not daddy." Logan looked at me with wide eyes and said, "Why?"
"Well, God loves us and he wants to show himself to us through the things that he makes." Right after I said that I thought, "Where did that come from? No way will my 2 year old understand that."
Logan looked at me thoughtfully and said, "God is beautiful."

"For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Romans 1:20

I am so thankful that God chose to reveal himself to my two year old through the beauty of his creation.

Bieber Fever

One result of your child spending every Friday night with older kids-- and 3 teenaged babysitters-- is a new knowledge of pop music. We've joined a lifegroup through our church. The adults meet together for 2 hours on Friday evenings and we send all the kids to the basement to play. Since there are 12 kids ages 2-7, we have babysitters to supervise. (Tyson just has to sleep during it, poor thing. He doesn't know about the fun he is missing.)
Our babysitters are AWESOME! At the end of the evening, they have the kids clean up and then they sing silly songs with them. Logan now sings, "Bazooka, zooka, bubble gum" and "Baby Shark do do do do do do." He also has a good rendition of Justin Bieber's hit, "Baby".

Since he has the singing down, I decided to do his hair like Justin.

My old camera.. so dark!

 If only he would let me use a blowdryer on him. I'm pretty sure I could have made it look amazing! He got a hair cut today so no more Bieber hair until it grows out again.

What My Children Actually Look Like

I got a new camera!!! I'm so excited and I've been snapping pictures and taking videos like crazy. It's so great to get pictures that really show the kids well.

Even the snotty noses! It's constant drip so getting a picture without snot is pretty much impossible.

I just don't want to miss out on any of this cuteness!

I can record the messes.

Sometimes I can even get them to hold still for half a second while I snap a picture.  But that usually doesn't happen while they are also clothed... too bad.

Luckily, my camera takes action shots too.

It can even get Logan's monkey face!