Ivy's blessing

We were able to bless Ivy on Easter Sunday-okay, I guess Steve blessed her, and he did an amazing job.  My brother in law was joking around that Steve should be the official 'family blesser' and just bless all the babies because he is so good at it and it is really true.  He really has a way with words and it was beautiful.  The spirit was very strong and it was a reaffirmation to me that Heavenly Father knows and loves our family and we are so blessed that he sent Ivy to us.  It is amazing how our family feels complete with her.  She is a beautiful, amazing, sweet little girl.  One of the things Steve said in her blessing that surprised me was that she will serve a mission.  I thought that was pretty cool...I was stubborn and had to have a couple of blessings tell me that before I was willing to consider it, so I guess good to start on her now! 

We were so blessed to have so much family here for her blessing and I can't believe that I didn't get a group picture of everyone.  I was so busy worrying about food, etc.  I totally spaced it.  So sad.  But we really are grateful that they were here!  Also, I made Ivy's dress...it was my first use of a pattern, ever so I am pretty proud of it.  My mom cut it out while she was here and I sewed many late nights to get it done.  I didn't get a great picture of her in it...when I finally took her out to try the light was horrible and the pictures didn't turn out.  I have been meaning to put her in it and try again...even though it was 3 weeks ago, I still might do it! 

Easter Egg Hunt

After Ivy's blessing and a fun dinner with our family, we had a little Easter egg hunt.  The yard is only so big so it wasn't too hard to find the eggs, but I think the kids still had fun.  Candy is candy, right?!  The older kids were really sweet to help the little kids and to give up some of their eggs for them.  I was impressed with how nice they were to them. 

Easter Morning

We had a super busy Easter since we blessed Ivy that day, but the Easter Bunny still came to visit and the kids were spoiled with plenty of fun stuff!  It was even more fun since Grant was here.  The Easter Bunny found some fun things at a consignment sale-not looking forward to when they are old enough to figure out that things aren't new:) 

The Baskets...

Emery has been eying this my little pony toy for months now at our friends house so she was pretty excited about it!

Davis showing off his new church clothes

Almost every picture I had of Emery she was shoving her face with candy! 

Davis got a new game called Ned's Head.  I have it at work and little boys love it.  It is disgusting-you have to find things in Ned's head without looking-throwup, dirty Q-tips, dirty diapers, etc.  

Grant enjoying some early morning Easter treats. 

 

Easter Weekend

On the Saturday before Ivy's blessing /Easter we went to the park with the Larsen's and shot off rockets that they had built. It was super fun...the kids loved chasing them and trying to be the first one to get to the rocket wherever it landed. I thought it was hilarious after they shot off the last one, there were kids in different corners of the field pouting because they hadn't caught the rocket. Those Larsens, not competitive at all! Grant just thought it was fun to run after the kids.

Uncle Micah hanging out with Ivy at the park

That night we colored Easter eggs. I made the mistake of saying we were having a contest for the best decorated eggs. As I mentioned above, there is a little bit of competitiveness in our family and they were all about a contest. Christie and I had to get a little creative and come up with an award for each kid. It all came out okay with no hurt feelings and they had some great eggs. It was fun to see what they each came up with.

Glad to see Emery coloring on an egg and not one of my walls.

Mammoth Caves

We were so lucky to have Micah (my brother), Christie and Grant come visit us for Ivy's blessing. While they were here we went on a little trip down to Mammoth Caves. It is so beautiful there and the kids thought the cave we went in was pretty cool. We had a great time and even had enough time to stop at the Zappos outlet on the way home. It was a great day.

The only way for Emery to stay out of trouble...strapped in tight!


Some sibling love...
Coming out of the cave

Ivy Love

Ivy sure gets a lot of love...from her brother, sister, aunt, cousins, etc! Here are some pictures of our pretty girl and some of those that love her!

Davis Learns to Ride a Bike

At the end of March, Davis learned to ride a bike! Steve was super frustrated trying to teach him...I was inside one night when they were practicing and Davis comes running in telling me he rode down the street all by himself. When I asked Steve what he did to help Davis figure it out he said he got tired of holding on so he just gave him a big shove and let him go! I guess the moral of this story is just push them when they don't get it:) He has gotten really good really fast and rides around like a maniac. Good thing we live in a pretty secluded culdesac. He wants to go bike riding every day, all the time. He thinks he is big enough now to play with the 12 year olds that live on our street and ride their bikes out together. It makes me laugh but they are really nice to him. He is super proud of himself and I have to say it was kind of a moment for me when he first learned. It is a monumental achievement in a child's life when they learn to ride a bike! That is big stuff!