Spring Has Sprung (and a random catch up)

Whew! I don't get to blog nearly as often as I'd like to these days.

There are so many things that I'd like to blog about, so hopefully this random post covers most of them.

First of all, spring has finally arrived here in our beautiful state and the weather this week is going to be nothing short of perfection! Upper 60s and low 70s and bright and sunny. Yes!

We celebrated Ethan's 3rd birthday this past weekend with our family. Caleb and I were a bit anxious to enjoy some spring weather and may have jumped the gun a bit. For his party, we decided to go to a local park, eat picnic foods and let the kids run and play. The only problem was the weather didn't want to cooperate. Instead of warm spring weather, we got overcast, windy and cool spring weather.

 Oh well, we planned a party and we were determined to have a party.

I couldn't hold back my smile when I looked over and saw Ethan throwing the Frisbee with Caleb. Ethan actually did a great job (he throws a Frisbee better than me) and it was fun to see them enjoying some father/son time. I felt like I was just beginning to see a glimpse of what the future holds in terms of Ethan and Caleb escaping to get some guy time in. :)

In spite of the weather, we all managed to have a good time!

Emsley and Kailey, the babies of my family. They're a hoot together. 

And of course Em is doing what she does best, eating. Ha ha.

Someone, AKA Ashlynn, was a little less thrilled to be forced to be outside. ;) Looking great Jenn!

Caleb and I keep commenting on how much we're enjoying Ethan right now. He seems to have finally gotten over his "terrible twos" for the most part, he's speaking SO well, and he just says the cutest things! The other day we were in the car on the way home from church and from the back seat Ethan said "Uh guys, I don't like kissing." Too funny!

Speaking of church, I don't think I've mentioned on here that our family has been looking for a new home church again. It's a long story, and I don't want to share too much, but after much thought and prayer, we decided to leave Dayspring (the church we were at for a little over a year) after the first of the year. I still can't say enough how wonderful the people are at that church, and they were very good to us. We just discovered that we didn't line up with some of their theology and doctrine, and although we wanted to push it aside, unfortunately the differences ended up coming up more often than we thought they would. It became a distraction for us, and we felt it was best to make another church our church home.

I'm very excited now because it looks like we've found a new home church and I'm loving it! The worship and the sermons are incredible, and every week I walk away feeling like the Lord really spoke to me in a way.  The church is called Mill City. Now I'm just looking forward to getting connected and meeting new people in a small group setting.

The weather today was so beautiful that the kids couldn't wait to get outside to play. This morning Ellie, Ethan AND Emsley spent a lot of the morning soaking up the sun, playing hopscotch and mostly searching for bugs. I posted this picture on Instagram.

Oh yeah, my sisters have been trying to get me on instagram for some time now and several weeks ago Jenn decided to take the reigns and create an account for me. I'm really loving it, BUT most of the pictures are taken with our ipad and they're often times grainy. I can't wait until I have a smart phone with a better camera...

So yeah, Caleb and I have finally decided to join the 21st century and get smart phones! We were hoping to have them by now, but it's a long story and it looks like it will be a few more weeks. Still, by the end of the month, a whole new world will be opened up to us. ;)

 I'm suddenly aware that my kids are growing up too fast. In just 4 months I'll be sending Ellie off to kindergarten and I will no longer be spending all day with her 7 days a week. I seriously don't know where the last 5 years went!

This picture is exactly what I mean by poor quality and grainy, 

BUT, I took this today and I think Ellie looks beautiful here.

And our sweet baby girl is quickly approaching her first birthday and along with that all of her big milestones. She pulled herself up for the first time today, she has some teeth now, and I know it's just a matter of time before she decides it's time to run around with her older siblings. I'll put more details in her 10 month post coming next week.

I think that covers most things on my mind lately, hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later. 

Happy spring everyone!