Spring has Sprung!

I think spring is the prettiest season of the year. I love to see the Dogwood trees blooming and azaleas bursting with color. Last year, we planted a pink Dogwood tree in our front flower bed. It survived its first winter and just look at its beautiful blooms above!

Our backyard has several wild Dogwoods trees with bright white blooms that almost glow in the dark!

Our pink azaleas our blooming and our hostas are getting huge!

Above is the Japanese lace leaf maple tree we transplanted from our first home. It was in our front flower bed for five years. After getting the pink Dogwood tree, we moved it into the rock beds in the backyard along with the other two bushes. They are doing great back there!

Our red azaleas

Along with all the new spring blooms, our backyard has also seen another kind of makeover.
We recently had our deck cleaned, sanded, refinished, stained and sealed. The deck had not been refinished since our house was built in 2002. It looks great!

BEFORE

AFTER

It looks brand new! Thanks to Wood ReNew! (I sound like a commerical, huh?!)
But seriously, these guys did a great job for a super great price. They even did our wooden fence gates on each side of the house...

Can't wait for this weather to warm back up so we can enjoy our beautiful yard!

New gear...

This week, the boys and I have been able to enjoy some wonderful weather outside.
We pulled out the Radio Flyer wagon for Andrew to take some rides around the neighborhood...

We also had to buy Christian a new bike. He had outgrown his old one.

He looks so big riding around on this "big boy" bike! He LOVES that it has an extra brake function on the handle bars. He thinks that is super cool. Plus, it is green, his favorite color!

I am really looking forward to summertime and spending lots of time outside playing with my boys in the sunshine!

Andrew's First Birthday!

One year has flown by so quickly! My little Andrew turned one year old on April 13th!

We had his first birthday party on Saturday!



I even found little confetti that was Andrew's name!

Andrew ready to see his party guests!

Christian was wearing his "It's Cool to be a Big Brother" shirt

Andrew hanging out with Pops!

Ruby and Charlotte enjoyed playing at Andrew's house!

Christian was ready to help his little brother open his gifts. ;)

Andrew loved all his gifts! So many fun new toys to play with!

He loved his little Mickey Mouse airplane ride on and push toy from Pops and GoGo!

Now time for CAKE!

Andrew was not sure why his cake was on fire.
(And I swear his feet were not that close to the candle, it just looks like that in the picture)

Andrew LOVED it when everyone was singing "Happy Birthday" to him!

Time to dig in!

YUMMY!

Before we knew it, Andrew was covered in blue frosting! He could have passed for a member of the Blue Man Group...or maybe a smurf. Smurfs wore white diapers didn't they?! Ha!

Christian enjoying his cake and ice cream!

After a quick bath, it was time to test out some of his new toys!

Thank you to our friends and family that came and celebrated Andrew's first birthday with us!
I can't believe he is ONE!

Coming soon...

I have been SUPER busy this week getting ready for Andrew's first birthday party! Yep, that's right, Andrew turned one on April 13th! Plus, Christian got an ear infection this week, doing yard work and leading my Mom's Ministry group study....let's just say I have not had a chance to do a post. But his party his tomorrow and I will update the blog Sunday with all the pics! Andrew is walking now too...A LOT! So I hope to get a walking video posted as well! Have a great weekend!

Crazy KC weekend....

Saturday, my girlfriends and I headed north to Kansas City to celebrate Mischelyn and Melinda's birthdays!

First stop...the Plaza! Can't have a girls weekend without a little shopping right?
The only thing I was looking for was a pair of turquoise heels or sandals to wear with lots of my summer dresses. One of the first shoe stores we passed had a pair in the window calling my name! HA! I went in to try them on and they fit great and looked FAB! After shopping the afternoon on the Plaza, they were the only ones I ever saw so I went back and got them! They were the only thing I bought! YEA!

Cute, huh?!

OK, I will stop talking about my shoes. ;) Onto the weekend events, right?!
And boy did we experience an event or two this weekend.
We started our evening by having a drink at Skies, the revolving bar atop the Hyatt Regency...

Cheers!!!

Then we had dinner at Houston's Restaurant. After leaving we planned to check out a couple other places on the Plaza. However, when we were walking out we noticed police cars EVERYWHERE, a police chopper with a spotlight shining around on the streets and hoards of young "thug" kids gathered around the street corners. NOT the normal scene for the Plaza. The Plaza is a very upscale shopping area in Kansas City, not ever considered a bad area of town. However, it looked like something out of a movie or scenes from the LA riots. No kidding here people. Apparently, the cops had some trouble with juveniles "congregating" and fighting nearby. The crowds of troubled teens and tweens were between 500-1,000 being maced and running around all over. We found ourselves at one point scared and trying to run away from whatever was going on. Luckily, we stopped and talked with a very nice policeman who escorted us to a safe area and we hopped in a cab and got out of there FAST! As with my visits to the Plaza in the past, I hopefully won't encounter that situation again! Whew.

click the link below to see the video news report...

http://www.fox4kc.com/videobeta/962fd742-dad3-4ec6-9115-5907bab3defb/News/Crowds-Out-of-Control-on-the-Plaza

So we checked out the Power and Light District and enjoyed walking around and people watching in their open air music venue.


The weather was awesome and the P&L district area was really cool. But when midnight struck, I felt like Cinderella and headed back to the hotel to recover from the night's "excitement".

We headed back home shortly after having a yummy breakfast at Chubby's Sunday morning. Though our crazy encounters in KC were not over. Along Hwy 71 just south of KC, there was a car that had caught on fire and had traffic blocked northbound...

I was so happy to return home to my family after seeing and experiencing some unexpected and crazy things. However, we actually did manage to have a fun time together! ;)

Happy Birthday Mischelyn and Melinda!

Andrew's first Easter!

This year was Andrew's first Easter!

Courtesy of Legacy House Photography

I love this one. Andrew did not seem at all surprised to be sitting next to a live bunny!

I love Christian's excited smile in this picture! I have found it nearly impossible to get the boys to smile and look at the camera at the same time so this was the best one of them together. ;)

Andrew was born the day AFTER Easter last year, so it was so fun to have our family of four celebrating Easter together for the first time!

Our Easter celebrations began on Saturday. We attended our church Easter Egg Hunt, which my bible study group, Mom's Ministry, helps sponsor each year! I think we had over 2,300 eggs and a ton of kiddos ready to see the Easter bunny and hunt eggs!


Andrew arrived in "Easter style" sporting his bunny ears!

Before the big hunt, we went to get pictures made with the Easter bunny!

Andrew really LOVED the Easter bunny! He got so excited once he was sitting on his lap and would turn around and just look at him smiling!

The weather was beautiful but the ground was a little soggy from the rain overnight. So when I was hiding Easter eggs, I had to be careful not to put them in mud!

Christian giving his brother kisses before he heads out for the big egg hunt!

Christian is ready to hunt!

After the egg hunt, we try to make sure all the kiddos got eggs. We hold back about 50 or so eggs, just in case. We saw a daddy with a little boy and girl that did not get any eggs and Christian actually gave him some of his eggs from his own bucket! So sweet!
His favorite egg was one that had a small wooden cross inside. He held onto that cross all day!

After the hunt, we headed to Van Buren to celebrate Easter with family at Pops and GoGo's house. GoGo greeted us in front of her house with all her flowers and wearing her Easter sweater!

Saturday night, Christian helped GoGo dye Easter eggs. On Easter morning, Christian and Andrew received wonderful Easter baskets full of goodies from the Easter bunny! The bunny even left eggs lying around the house!

Ready to worship on Easter morning!

Our family with Pops and GoGo, Will and John outside of Heritage Methodist in VB.
Kimberly and Wrenn celebrated Easter with Wrenn's parents in Little Rock.
We missed seeing them on Easter!

We had a wonderful Easter lunch fixed by GoGo! I always enjoy her tradition of making an Easter cake...angel food cake with cool whip icing, topped with coconut (dyed green like grass) and topped with Starburst jelly beans! YUM!

All week, we have been reading Christian's Easter story books to teach Christian about Easter.
I thought I would share with you this sweet Easter poem for children...

Jesus was born a long time ago.
God sent him from heaven to live here below.
The angels announced, "Our Savior is born! He sleeps in a manger all cozy and warm."
When Jesus grew up, he told everyone, "Believe in me, I am God's only son."
He said, "Follow me and do what I say, then you can be with me in heaven someday."
Jesus told stories while walking through town.
The children and grown-ups all gathered around.
He healed the sick and have sight to the blind.
He taught everyone to be loving and kind.
But some people did not understand the way Jesus fit into God's special plan.
He hung on a cross, and that's where he died.
The people who loved him just stood there and cried.
But Jesus God's only son didn't stay dead.
"He's alive! He's alive!" the glad angel said.
His friends were excited and jumped up and down.
They spread the good news as they ran through town.
This story's amazing and all of it's true.
He died on the cross for me and for you.
If you love Jesus, believe and obey,
then you can see Jesus in heaven someday.

Hope all of you had a blessed Easter!

Best Buds...

Christian had a playdate this week with his best friend from school, Izac. He was so excited!
Izac is such a sweet boy. The cutest thing is that he calls Christian by his full name. He will say, "Is this your toy Christian Hopkins?" or "Hey Christian Hopkins, do you want to go outside?". Really cute. ;)

Fun times on the swing set!

They even played school together working on their sight words. I am so glad Christian has such a sweet best friend! :)