Mother's Day!

Every year for Mother's Day we try to make a trip up to Bass Lake for camping w/ Grandma Jerri and anyone else who may be home at the time. This year everyone was able to make it except Jerred, Tiff & the boys.

Uncle Joshy & Joy

TeTe, JoJo & Joy

Japheth, Adam, Lindsay & Jonah

All the kids toasting marshmellows

Manny helping JoJo with her marshmellow

Grandma Jerri w/ marshmellow face! :)

We had a great time - the weather beautiful and the kids had so much fun being outside the whole time. We took the boat up and were able to do some wakeboarding and tubing on Sunday. So much fun!

Daddy & JoJo ready to go on the boat.

We also went up and walked around Jerri's property on the way home Sunday...it was so pretty - the girls had fun on the old swing at the back of her property.

Me the my girls on Mother's Day

Miah drove back w/ us from the lake and the girls had such a good time w/ him in the car! It was a great weekend and a wonderful Mother's Day!

JoJo & Jeremiah

Jeremiah & Joy

Turtle Sandbox!!

When we got home from Arkansas, Grandma Jerri had a surprise for the girls...a new Turtle Sandbox! They LOVE it and were so excited to get sand and start playing in it! :) Thank Grandma! :)

Joanna & Joy playing in their new sandbox!

First visit to the Dentist!!

So excited & waiting patiently to get her teeth cleaned...

When we were in Arkansas, Aunt Tiffani was able to schedule Joanna in for her first Dental visit! JoJo was SO excited and couldn't wait to get there and have her teeth cleaned. She did awesome and all is well within her mouth. She even got a new princess tooth brush! :) What a big girl! Thanks Aunt Tiffani - I think this might have been JoJo's highlight of the whole trip!

Aunt Tiffani cleaning JoJo's teeth.

Using the "sucky thing"...Aunt Tiffani even let her hold it!

ALL CLEAN!! And a new princess toothbrush for the patient! :)

Thanks Aunt Tiffani - I Love You!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...it's off to Arkansas we go!

The last week in April we took a trip out to Arkansas to see Uncle Jerred, Aunt Tiffani, Jaxson and Jordin. It was wonderful! After a much longer than anticipated lay over in Denver, we finally made it to their place and had such a great time! The kids started playing together and loving each other right away. It was as if Jaxson and Joanna were never apart.

All the kids w/ their blankies...

Jaxson (3 1/2), Joanna (3 1/2), Jordin (22 mths) & Joy (14 mnths)

We got there on Thursday and Friday evening we all road tripped to St.Louis to meet Scott, Krista, Sara and Kelsey for the Cubs game that weekend.

On the road to St.Louis...

What a fun time. We stayed in a great hotel with lots of shops and fun things to see. We went to Cardinal's stadium to cheer on the Cubs, rode the train to and from the game, went on some paddle boats at the hotel, and of course visited the Arch. It was a great weekend!

Posing on the train at the hotel.

Kelsey, Sara, Joanna, Jaxson, Joy & Jordin

All the kids at the Cubs game!

Jaxson & Joanna ready to ride the paddle boats!!

Steph & Krista w/ our girls - who knew that one day the girls would out number the boys??

All the kids did great with all the traveling. On the car ride home we stopped in MI and got to go for a ride through a cave, apparently the only ride through cave in the US. It was really neat and the kids even got to see a little bat hanging out in the cave. That was Joanna's favorite part, although she thought he should have been bigger. :) We got back to AR Sunday night and spent the next couple of days playing and enjoying being together.

Scrub-a-dub-dub, 4 kiddos in a tub! :)

We had to go home Wednesday. It was very hard, especially with Jaxson asking his dad, "Daddy, I go Ah Stephy?" So sweet. Thank you Uncle Jerred, Aunt Tiff, Jaxson and Jordi for a wonderful trip! We love and miss you guys!!

He is Risen!!

I love Easter! Every year I look forward to it. It's such a great reminder of the sacrifice our Lord made for us in dying on the cross for our sins and the wonderful event of his resurrection into new life so that no one, if they've accepted him into their hearts, will ever die. Praise God! It's also a very fun day with little girls, because they get to get all dressed up in their Easter best, with new dresses, shoes and of course accessories! :) This year my friend Mandy and her husband Greg bought the girls some beautiful dresses for their birthdays. I thought they would be perfect for Easter, so I saved them and that's what they wore on the day. We actually didn't even make it to church because both the girls weren't feeling great and had runny noses, but we did go to Grandma Long's and Grandma Jerri's later that day for our Easter celebrations. It was a beautiful day!

JoJo's Haircut!! :)

It's been a while since she's gotten her hair cut shorter, but I never got around to posting about it, so here it is. Joanna's been wanting to get her hair cut short ever since we were in Idaho back in November and my cousin David's little girl Libby had short hair, so I told her that once it started getting warmer out she could if she still wanted too. Of course, she did and we HAD to do it while Purple Grandma was here to be part of it. Here's some before and after shots - it turned out super cute! :)