Easter weekend

This year for Easter we headed to Omak to spend it with our family. The kids and I headed over on Thursday morning and Ben followed on Friday afternoon. He was originally going to ride over with the Scott and Kimberly but they ended up getting the flu and couldn’t make the trip so he headed over on his own. We had such a fun time! On Saturday morning we took the kids to the community egg hunt and they got lot’s of little prizes and had a blast. I ended up getting sick on Saturday afternoon and didn’t do much the rest of the day. I tried to help color the eggs but that’s didn’t go so well. Then Sunday morning we got up and went to a church breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa and went to their Easter service. After that we headed up to Papa and Mamaw’s and eat a huge, wonderful meal at the winery. Everyone was there, it was so great to spend it will ALL of the family (that was in Omak). The unfortunate part about Sunday was that Ben got the flu that I had the day before. So he didn’t get even one bite of the lamb, ham, deviled eggs or anything else that we had to eat. The kids and I actually came back home on Sunday night but left Ben there to sleep off the flu and he headed back on Monday. Other then being sick part of the time we had a great Easter and felt so blessed to be with so much family! Here’s just a few of the pictures that we got. I have to say…I’ve got the cutest kids on the planet!!! I know you might disagree but that’s ok, I can still think it.

Here the kids are hunting for the eggs they colored the night before and a few that Mamaw stuffed with candy! It was a super fun hunt and there were a ton of very good hiding places. Here are some of the egg coloring. They always have so much fun making the white eggs turn color. Sarah was the most patient of them all…she let hers get really pretty and dark. Real quick side track – do you notice that Sarah’s hair is a bit shorter? She got a haircut on Saturday afternoon. Mamaw has a friend who is going to open up a salon in Omak just for kids and she said that she would cut Sarah’s hair. It turned out super cute. I didn’t actually have my camera but Aunt Crystal took lots of picture and I will try to post those soon. Ok, now you can go back to looking at the boys coloring their eggs.

We are still eating chocolate bunnies and lots of other candies from that weekend but I guess that just comes with the territory!

Last wrestling weekend….

Well I know that I promised some pictures and videos for our last weekend of wrestling and I am finally getting around to it. They aren’t really very great pictures but I did get some more videos. Luke’s little buddy Aiden from school came to watch. Luke was so excited and a bit distracted. It was pretty awesome to have him there though.

I wanted to show you this picture because this boy was really a tough one for Jacob to wrestle. He faced him the very first weekend and the kid just totally shocked Jacob (and us) with how fast and aggressive he was. The first weekend Jacob ended up doing alright against him but when he saw that he was facing the same “really tough” kid the last weekend, he got a little intimidated. The other boy ended up scoring a bunch of points on Jacob but he sure gave it a good fight and never ended up getting pinned. We were so proud of him for standing up to him and facing him. One of the other boys in the group of 4 didn’t really even try because he was so scared.

Wrestling was a very busy sport for us to be involved in but it was so much fun. The kids loved it and learned a ton. We are very glad that it’s over and that we have our Saturdays back but we will be doing it again next season with at least 2 kids and maybe even 3!! Jacob is on the fence on whether he will do it again but Luke for sure is going again and we are pretty sure that Zac will be out there next year. I will end this post with a couple of videos. You will have to excuse the yelling that comes from me and Ben....we are not the quiet spectators! Keep your eyes open for some more posts soon…I am way behind and have lots to share!

Our wrestling boys

I guess this is about 3 weeks late but I am finally blogging about the Jacob and Luke and their wrestling experience. This has been a crazy month and we have one more weekend but it has been so worth it. To be honest, Ben and I didn’t really know how fun this sport would be for us. We have been so surprised and are LOVING it. It has been so fun to watch both of the boys find their competitive side. We took so many pictures and these are just a few. It’s a bit hard to take pictures and video at the same time that you are losing your voice for yelling so much!

Here's a couple of videos. This was the very first weekend and it was just a take-down tournament. They would take their opponent down, get up and then do it again. My hope is to take some video this up coming weekend so we can see the improvement. They really have learned a ton in just a few short weeks.

Future Bookworm?

I walked into the living room tonight and this is what I found….

It put a smile to my face and I thought it was too cute not to share.

Jake joined in

Well he did it…Jacob decided to try wrestling. When we first signed Luke up we gave Jacob the option but he didn’t think he would want to until he went to the first practice. I think he’s enjoying it and will have fun but I don’t know if it’s really going to be his sport. I guess you never know though. Here’s a few picture of his first practice….

We are going to have a super busy March with this sport. The tournaments are every Saturday in March and for some reason they schedule the younger kids first thing in the morning. So Luke has to weigh in by 7:30 and his matches are from 8-10 then Jacob weighs in by 9:30 with his matches from 10-12. Can you say “full Saturday morning!!” It’ll be fun and I’m sure it’s just the beginning of our sports journey as a family. I will get some pictures posted after the weekend and hopefully a couple of videos too.

Luke’s very first wrestling practice.

Do you remember awhile back I posted this? I can’t even begin to tell you how many times Luke has asked me when his practices were going to start. Well, the day finally came and he had his very first wrestling practice tonight. He was so excited. Actually Ben said that he had a smile on his face the whole time. He had such a great time and it’s going to be really fun to see how much he learns this season and if this will be something he wants to continue with after the season is over. Just look at the pictures….can’t you see you the joy? One more thing that I need to add – we gave Jacob the chance to sign up for wrestling too. He chose not to but when they went to sign Luke up he started to wonder if he might want to. The coach told him that he could come and watch the first couple of practices and then he could decide. After tonight he is saying that he wants to try it out. So I may be posting more pictures next week of Jacob the wrestler too. Keep your eyes open for more pics to come of Lukie too.

Now I’m off to watch some more Olympics. I'm loving them this time around!

WOW Results

First let me tell you all that this was the hardest WOW that I have ever done. If you missed what I was doing click here to get the details. I don’t know why but I was so unmotivated and just had a really hard time getting my rear in gear to get it all done. I wish I could have done more but all in all I think it turned out alright. Thanks Becky for hosting this again! It sure helps me get stuff done.

The first pictures are of the game closet. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out the best way to organize the mess and didn’t really come up with a good way. So we (Ben helped a ton) just took everything out, threw away all the games that were missing pieces or were broken and then put it all back in. You can see all of the games now and the very next day the kids were playing games again. It’s amazing what happens when you clean up a little bit and can actually see what’s what.

Here is the closet….this is the one that I really wanted to spend more time on. I was hoping to get some new shelving for the back wall and be able to move some of the stuff from the top shelf down and as you can see, the box is still there. I did get all the clothes off the floor and put back into the dressers though and that was the biggest problem.

I will keep working on the closet and I may come up with a better way to do the games but for now I am happy with what I got done. I also didn’t get the bathroom painted. I will be counting down the days until the next WOW Becky!

Another WOW

Alright, here we go! Becky is hosting another WOW week and I finally figured out what I’m going to do for this one. I actually am planning on doing two projects this time. If you don’t know what a WOW week is go see Becky here and she will explain it, you can see what her project is and you can also see who else is playing along and what they are doing. So these are my projects…..

#1 - Ever since we got home from our Christmas break I have been wanting to organize our game cupboard but have just been putting if off. I thought this would be a great thing to work on this week. Here are the before pictures….

In the last picture you can see that I gave up trying to fit everything in the cupboard and am now putting “extras” in this box. My kids can’t even find games that they want to play because it’s such a mess in there. My plan is to have it all “nice and neat” by next Monday and post pictures of the finished product.

#2 – Now this one is a bit embarrassing for me so please don’t judge ;) As you might already know from here we just painted our bedroom and all the furniture. Well, it’s been a couple of weeks now and I still haven’t cleaned up my closet and filled the dresser back up yet. Yes, we have basically been using the closet floor for our dresser. See, I told you embarrassing!

So, my second goal is to have all the clothes put away and my closet more organized. It is pretty hard for me to show you the inside of the closet but I know that the next time you see the it, it will look so nice :) Do you see the box in the picture? That has been there since we moved into this house….almost 2 years ago. Oh my!

The other thing that I really wanted to do for the WOW this time was paint my bathroom but I’m afraid that I can’t get it all done. If I somehow find extra time I will post after pictures of that too. I’m feeling a bit ambitious apparently. I will have the first two done for sure and maybe, just maybe I can get the bathroom done as well.

If you want to see other WOW projects or if you want to join in on the fun go see Becky. Did I tell you that you might get a free coffee from her?

Summertime Fun……at Pavilion Park

I’m going to do a little “flash back” to summer since I was so bad a blogging over the summer. I took so many pictures over the summer that I never blogged and I’m sure I won’t ever get all of the blogged but I will slowly go back and see what I can do.

One of the things that we did several times last summer was meet Ben for lunch at this pretty cool park. We are within walking distance from it so we would pack a picnic lunch, load up our bikes (we usually rode) and head out to meet Daddy. The best thing about this particular park is the splash zone! Unfortunately everyone else in Liberty Lake and the surrounding areas feels the same way. It gets really busy some days but it’s still fun. Sarah never really gets in the water, Zac usually just watches but Jake and Luke have a great time. You can’t really see my kids’ faces in these pictures so in case you are wondering who’s who……Luke is in the red and white suit, Jacob is in the gray, white and yellow, Sarah is the only girl and Zac didn’t make it into any pictures.

Looking at these pictures sure makes me long for summer again. We’ve had a very crazy winter, if you can even call that. The only time my kids have been able to play out in the snow was when Ben and I were in Cancun. Which reminds me, I need to show you pictures of that trip to don’t I? Anyway, I can’t wait for the weather to warm up. I know we have a few more months of cold but a girl can still dream right?

On Monday Becky is going to start a new WOW project week. If you don’t know what that is go to her blog and she explains it well. You don’t need to know Becky to join and you don’t even need a blog to join in. Just let her know and she will let you know how to do it. She even does a drawing for a prize at the end. It a really fun way to get a project done around the house that you have been putting off for one reason or another. I will be doing it this time so check back on Monday to find out what my project is going to be. I honestly have now idea yet what I will be doing but I have 2 days to figure it out!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!