4th of July!

I think the 4th of July is moving up in the ranks to be my favorite holiday.  Jed always gets the afternoon before and the day of off, the weather is usually warm (though sometimes too warm), there are BBQs and who doesn't love some patriotic colors, parades, music and declaring our pride in the greatest country on Earth?

We started off our weekend (along with nearly every other resident of Des Moines and the surrounding areas) at the Yankee Doodle Pops concert near the capitol and enjoyed a picnic dinner.

As you can see, we all had a good time :)  Love those smiles!

Lainey's friend Oscar and his dad joined us along with several other friends.  It was really a perfect night... until the fireworks started.  Not only could we not see them behind buildings and porta potties, but the my kids didn't really appreciate the sound of them without a view to go with it so we sceddaddled quickly.  It was waaay past bedtime anyway.

The next morning we decided to take it slow and eat pancakes (definitely a good choice) and go to a later parade.

Wyatt really got the hang of the fetching the parade candy thing preeeetty quickly.

They even caught a popsicle and shared it very nicely.

The kids took extra late naps (so did Jed and I!) and so we just grabbed a quick dinner near our house and then wandered around our new favorite place, Easter Lake.  

Then we captured probably the best family picture we've ever taken.

Cannot put into words how thankful I am for these 3, their smiles, hearts and love.  Can't wait to add another sweet one to the mix at the end of the year!

Easter

We had a fabulous time celebrating Easter this year.  I loved that it was later this year.  It doesn't feel much like Easter when you're practically wearing winter coats like we were last year.

We started our celebrating this year with making resurrection rolls!

We just dipped marshmallows in melted butter, then a cinnamon/sugar/brown sugar mixture then wrapped them in crescent rolls and then dipped and rolled them the same way.  They turned out perfect and Lainey was in awe of the empty tomb!

Saturday we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at Walnut Creek in Windsor Heights.

They did a nice job putting the event together.  Older kids were outside and kids 3 and under were inside.

Wyatt was slow and meticulous about his egg gathering.  He examined each egg he put in his basket.

They had face painting and a bounce house too!  Way fun!

That afternoon, we headed to my Grandma Charlotte's in Knoxville for some fam time!

My Grandma lives next to a farm pasture and they have horses.  We have to search for the horses every time we go there and most of the time, they come down to the fence, which is always a hit.

Easter Sunday we went to church and then had brunch at my house with my parents after.

After naps, it was too beautiful to stay inside.  Jed is training for Dam to Dam so he needed to get a long run in.  He ran to Gray's Lake, we drove and walked one lap while he ran one lap then we played for awhile at the playground.

I can hardly believe it's getting to be tank tops and shorts weather!

We finished off the day with a trip to Orange Leaf for dinner for a snack, naturally.

We had a great weekend celebrating our risen Savior!

Easter Sunday

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter Sunday today.  Lainey's vocabulary grew this weekend as we taught her a few new words ... Easter, died (as in, Jesus died), and alive (as in, He is alive!).  She repeated the sequence a few times, which was really sweet.  I'm glad she seemed to have caught on (in her own toddler understanding) to the real reason we celebrate Easter, because she also was pretty excited about things like eggs and baskets this week/weekend too!  Holidays are always a good excuse to dress up a little and take a few pictures so we did some of that today as well.

Sweet girl before church!

Me and my big sweet boy!

While Lainey was napping, I went outside and hid a few Easter eggs in the yard.  The great thing about little kids is that they have no idea what to expect when it comes to things like this.  Lainey could have cared less that I only put 1 or 2 of the cheapest brand of jelly beans in her Easter eggs.  Or that I put packages of fruit snacks that she got in a package from her grandparents that she had already seen in the bigger eggs.  It was still just as fun! So after Lainey woke up and when Wyatt went down for his nap, we went outside.

Checking out the loot!

Then Wyatt woke up so I could catch a few pictures of both of my cute kids!

So sweet to share!

He is SUCH a little stud!

A poor, poor attempt at a family photo.  (Lainey didn't get the memo.)

I hope you all were able to enjoy your Easter holiday as well celebrating the death and triumphant resurrection of Jesus!