Easter Weekend

 Our school district always gets Friday and Monday off from school around Easter. I have a tradition with the girls to take them to the mall egg "hunt" each year. And each year I get a bit smarter...I know where to park so we can arrive close to start time and still get a good spot in line. Analise was too old to hunt, but she was a good sport for the others.  I was a mean mom though and told the girls only a few eggs and five pieces of candy. I don't like having lots of candy in the house.

 Friday night we met up at church with family and participated in my favorite service of the year. Worshiping with people from 12 other churches is a bit like heaven. We even sang my favorite new song, "Forever," by Kari Jobe.

Saturday morning Brandon went turkey hunting, and the girls and I had fun things planned. That is until I took Maisie's temp; poor girl was running a pretty high fever and had a case of the stomach flu. She looked like this most of the day.

 Maisie was too tired to color eggs, but I had two volunteers to help color eggs for Grandma.

 Since we had to forgo the big egg hunt with friends, I tried to make the most of it by hiding eggs in our back yard.  They loved it!

 Jump Sadie, Jump!

 Maisie found enough energy to look for about three minutes.

 Caramel with her own "egg."

 Saturday night tired Brandon stayed home with Maisie while "needing socialization" mom took Analise and Sadie over to the Luke house for a birthday party for Dave.

Sunday morning Maisie woke up with a bounce in her step and twinkle in her eye. She colored rest of the eggs even before her sisters were awake.

 We took all three girls to church; we figured Maisie was sitting with us anyway.

 I snuck into a picture, and I am glad I did since we failed to get a family picture. :(

I took the camera to church so I could get a picture of all the cousins.

 After church Brandon stayed home with Maisie for the lunch meal while the other two went with me back to the parent's for Easter lunch.

This crew enjoyed searching for their baskets.

 Dave and Sarena (pregnant with boy #2.)

By dinner time, Maisie had been fever free for 24 hours, so she and Brandon came over for the Easter dinner. So glad we could all be together!

We always enjoy celebrating Christ's resurrection, and we try so hard to teach the girls the importance of this. This year we continued using the Resurrection Eggs. However, we added our daily Bible reading with the scriptures that went along with the Easter message. (Yep, we jumped around in our one year Bible!)

Analise and Club Ball

 After much thought, prayer and discussing, we decided to sign up Analise to play club volleyball this year. We knew it would be a sacrifice of time and money, and I REALLY didn't want to interfere with church things, but I also wanted to give her some experience and learn for myself how club ball works in Nebraska.

Here are some things I learned throughout the year:

It was expensive, but not nearly as much in big cities.

Thankfully, we never had to travel far, and we had some tournaments on Saturdays.

I loved traveling with just Analise. Talking, singing and just time together doing something we both love.

She had nice teammates, and I enjoyed the parents.

Her coach was young, and this was  her first time coaching. I had to learn to let go of some areas, but I also wanted to help this "newbie" coach. Analise liked her; the parents were disappointed. Honestly, they didn't learn what I thought they should have learned.

However, they did get better.

Analise loved winning, and had to learn how to be a good loser.

She has great setter hands.

Two coaches mentioned how coach-able she was.

Coach-able and good hands go well together.

Towards the end of the season, another seasoned coach stepped into work with them for a couple of weeks and tournament. They learned more in those two weeks then they did in three months with the first coach.

I got to coach them for a tournament.

I LOVED it. 

Since that time, I've had several people ask me if I will coach next year. Things to pray about for sure. What is best for our family?  I do have a passion for volleyball, kids and teaching them character. We shall see.

Am I glad we let her play? Yes. Disappointed in some things? Yes. Will we go the same route next year? I don't know. Did Analise fall in love with the game? YES!

Success for Sadie!

 Sadie is riding a two wheeler! While I was at a volleyball tournament with Analise, Brandon taught Sadie how to ride her bike without training wheels. Needless to say, she was super excited. When we came home, we met up with her in a church parking lot so she could show us her new skill.

Everyone was proud of her!

 That smile says it all.

So Excited for Snow

 Well, looky here, it snowed on Brandon's birthday! And since we didn't get much this year, the girls were SO excited. The flakes were huge (and I admit, pretty.) Even though everything in me needed to girls to shower and get ready for bed, I let them go outside and enjoy.

Each one had to catch a flake on her tongue.

 They then went out front and built their own little Olaf.

 The nice thing about spring snow showers is that the snow doesn't stick around for long. The next day was almost 50 degrees. When we came home from school, Olaf was still standing! However, it looked more like the state capital to me.

Brandon's Birthday

 Brandon celebrated turning the big 3-7 this year! We celebrated his birthday a bit early this year. Let's see how much I can remember. :) The above picture shows this kids having fun; they may have been drying their socks next to the fireplace.

I made Brandon smoked pork (he helped), cheesy potatoes (maybe?), a new baked bean recipe, homemade Texas Roadhouse rolls, and his mom made strawberry pretzel salad. It was a home run of a meal  - super yummy!

 Brandon with his parents

 This year for dessert I made chocolate chip cheesecake bars. He enjoyed them!

For Brandon's real birthday, I had a little surprise up my sleeve   I told him I wanted to take him out for lunch to Applebee's. Little did he know that Derek and Sarah were going to join us. It was a real treat having lunch with just the four of us.

That night for dinner I made his favorite biscuits and gravy. He was happy.  The girls and I then hid his presents around the living room. We got him new athletic pants in size LT. SO amazing I could find that size....however, they still wouldn't work. :( We also got him some gum, Tastefully Simple Seasoning Salt and a video of James MacDonald preaching. He is one of our favorites, and his sermon is from Israel.

Happy birthday babe! You don't seem any older to me!

One Year Bible

Every year I wonder how we can do a better job as parents of instilling God's word into our daughters. I'll be honest, we've never done well with family devotions. However, this year I wanted that to change. So on January 1, I decided I wanted to try reading the Bible with them each day. Analise had a One Year Bible for Kids. "Read the Bible in 365 days, Seven minutes a day." That seemed doable to me.

I can honestly say that we have done well. We may not get to it every night, but there are other nights we have time for two days. We sometimes read at snack time, or curl up in the living room, or other nights we are all on a bed snuggled up. Brandon and I take turns reading, and the girls have learned a lot, and I have been reminded of so many things I had forgotten. 

That's why I love this picture; it shows the spiritual leader of our family reading God's Word to us. 

God promise His Word will not return void!