What They Will Remember

We have had such a fun, fun day today. Mike is not in the picture today so my Dad came and hung out with us. We hit a local pizza place for their lunch buffet and David ate his weight in cinnabread! Then we headed to our local favorite hangout-Hunry Mother State Park for an afternoon of fishing.

I love this picture of my Dad and my girl with fishing poles in hand.

My girl is proving to be adventerous and ready for fun. My Dad and I laughed watching her fish for the first time-her idea of fishing is to throw the entire pole into the lake. We have some schooling to do with our wee one for sure!

My eldest and youngest hoping to catch a big one! Hope lasted about a minute or two before she ignored her pole to throw rocks in the lake with Dave.

Kyle and my Dad getting ready for their first cast! I absolutely love this special park right in our backyard.

My funny funny girl sporting her new "pinciss" shirt!

My sweet Dave had no interest in fishing, he just wanted to throw in big rocks. Days like today make me pray that when my kids are all grown that they will remember days like today versus the grumpy "get your shoes on now" days in their childhood.

Today was one of those precious days where we never once had to look at the clock and we could just enjoy the moment and explore. My girl loves her some exploring and she has a sandy, dirty butt to prove it!

I pray that my children will remember days like today when I said "yes" more than I said "no" and that they will remember that we did take time to throw big rocks and wiggle our toes in the cold, cold, creek.

I pray that they will remember times where we just enjoyed the beauty of God's earth and our time together. There are so many days in our life that are polar opposites of today, so I pray that they will tuck days like today in their memory bank. (I totally love this picture of my playmates playing in the creek).

I pray Hope will remember that today I did not freak out when she got all wet in the creek and that we laughed at her sandy bottom.

My curious George checking out the worm. We have found very few things that truly scrare her. For now, ants seem to be the only thing that scare her. I love that my children are blessed to have natural settings all around us to explore and play in.

The day ended on an awesome note when Kyle caught the first fish of the summer! He was so proud of himself but of course he yelled for Pops to come take it off of the hook:)

Today has been a perfect day. I am a blessed Momma to get to spend a leisurely afternoon with my Dad and babes.

Easter Day

So far Easter has been full of fun and sun. The weather here is absolutely beautiful and sunny. After the kids investigated their Easter baskets we got ready for church.

Here are their baskets!

Here are the boys modeling their new Boston Red Sox shirts from the Easter bunny.

Hope was such a sleepy head this morning and did not get up until almost nine! Considering church starts at 9:45 it was a busy busy morning.

I got so tickled at how excited she was about the candy in her basket. Before breakfast she was already enjoying taffy.

Here are some of her cute goodies-a new princess shirt and flip flops!!

Hope was the only one really cooperating for pre-church pictures. Kay Clawson got some great ones last week so I was not stressed about getting a good group shot.

Dave was playing hoops outside while he should have been getting his picture made! Before leaving for church his tie was already askew and his shirt was untucked. Oh well! He still looked cute:)

After church the kiddos wanted to play outside so we fixed our hamburgers and had a picnic outside! They also wanted to put on their bathing suits and play in some water. It was a little too chilly for the water slide, but they did have fun on the moon bounce and with their water guns.

Enjoying their Easter picnic:)

My cuties in the moon bounce!

Love this picture of my babes:)

David and Hope enjoyed themselves for over an hour with this baby pool and their water squirters:) We are ready for summer around here now!

Family Easter Party

Today we met with my whole family at the lake to celebrate Easter. I thought it would be so hard to gather there without Pawpaw. I know he was not too far from all our minds, but we partied hard and we would have been so proud of us. We ate a lot, took a boat ride, and chatted while the kids played in the sunshine. It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed time with everyone.

I love this tree in their front yard. I got so choked up on the drive up to the lake, but while we were there I just remembered that Pawpaw is celebrating Easter in the presence of our Lord and that melted all my sadness.
The boys brought ball stuff and played ball.
Hunter and David on the boat. Dave loves Hunter and I think this is such a cute picture. DAvid loves the boat and has literally waited all winter long to go for a spin again.
Kyle and Clayton were so excited to meet us at the dock to tell us that while we were riding Chad caught a big catfish!!
Clayton and Hope snuggling.
Mary Jane made Hope this pillowcase dress and I love it!! Hope put it on to see if it fit and she then did not want to take it off!
My girl straight out of the bathtub sporting her curls. Her hair has grown so much lately and with a little humidity she is super curly!! I pray she always will appreciate the curls that God has given her.
My girl is quite taken with her bunny from Oma and laid out her basket and bunny tonight for the Easter bunny. For good measure she gave her bunny an extra kiss! These pictures were taken with my new camera that came today on Fed Ex. I am a super happy wanna-be photographer!!!
After a fun sunny day at the lake, we came home and got ready for the Easter bunny. I had to iron church clothes to get ready for a fun day tomorrow where we will celebrate the resurrection of our Lord.