Easter

The Ugly Egg contest this year was only posted on facebook, because we didn't have much time by the time we got to dying the eggs.

from left to right:

Randi, Brad, Garrett, Embrie, Maren

turns out that will all the votes in, Maren is the winner!

Easter morning my kids woke up with empty baskets in front of them and a note telling them to go find the eggs. Nobody seemed to be too worried about the empty baskets yet, but it was puzzling.

While hunting for eggs (which they LOVE to do) they stumbled upon some new baskets and some goodies. Funny, the Easter Bunny must've known they'd practiced hidding and finding eggs so often that their other baskets had taken quite a beating!

I have some plans to do some more spiritual things leading up to Easter next year. I wasn't quite on top of it this year because I was planning a sharing time Easter lesson (both my older kids got to hear anyway), which was also cool. But, we had a great FHE about who we are and talked about the things that Christ did for us. 

I'm so blessed, ..We're all blessed, really. No matter what. Whether we wanted His gift and sacrifice or not it is done for us. I'm so grateful for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He has saved me and saved us all.

Kiss me! I'm Irish

Well ... sort of Irish. Callahan is an Irish name and we do both have Irish ancestors so hey, when it comes to St. Patrick's Day ya gotta go big or go home right?

(or in our case we're just really into holidays period.)

The kids had fun things going on at school for St.Patrick's Day and so I helped them make some shamrocked t-shirts to wear.

Garrett wanted his to say "Top O' the Mornin'" and Embrie chose "Kiss me I'm Irish". They were pretty cute.

That must be why the leprechauns always visit and play tricks on us!

All of the kids' stuffed animals had been moved around doing different things.

These ones were found in the hall set up for a tea party. Maren didn't skip a beat when she walked out of her room, just sat down and joined them.

And they left the kids some cookies, coins, and silly glasses too!

We also had green bread for breakfast, an Irish dish for dinner, and mint chocolate chip milk shakes while we watched (traditionally) "Darby O'Gill and the Little People."

he lost it!

Back in February...or March ... I think... geez! see! if I don't get it down in this blog I forget stuff.

 Garrett lost his first tooth!!!

This boy was so stoked! I think he was most excited to get on the 'tooth chart' at school with some of his other classmates. He placed his tooth under his pillow and wa-la in the morning he had a dollar! But mostly I think was excited to get to school and tell his classmates.

Just another one of those reminders that he is growing up!

Little bit about Maren

Maren turned 18 mo. old in February.

A little bit about our baby:

Boy does this girl love her daddy! She prefers him to anyone else in the family. Everytime she gets dressed she says "I show daddy", even if he is not home. She likes to run to him so he can tell her she looks "cute cute".

Here she was hanging out with him before he went to work.

Here she was after he left....

She thinks she is a super big girl. She likes to play with Embrie's toys maybe even more than Embrie does. Forget that "baby stuff"

She thinks she can do whatever they're doing. She has even to my dismay learned how to climb up to the top bunk bed.

She has learned to use a spoon and fork pretty well. Very early on she wanted to do this and she is pretty good at it considering.

Here she is playing the tablet which is fairly new to our family.

She thinks she can wear makeup (mascara in this case)

she loves to bruch her teeth.

And she loves to play with her friends.

She has been an amazing talker early on and now she is starting to sing songs (yes she knows the words) and talk in phrases.

She also thinks that if she wears little bloomers under her dresses that they are underwear like big sister's.

I think this little girls is trying to be bigger than her britches. Don't grow up too fast!

Valentines Day

You know, these are the moments that a mom or a dad just love. We have valentines buckets and the week before v-day we all decorate and make valentines for each other and secretly put them into the buckets. I love that they love doing this for each other. To see the excitement they feel when they "give" is so encouraging.

It's not just about receiving after all.

Scooby Dooby Doo

Happy 4th Birthday Embrie!

She partied it up with Scooby Doo!

We read a couple of scooby-doo books, did some coloring pages and we played a scooby-doo mystery game where we had to find the clues

team 1

team 2

These kids had so much fun playing that clue hunting game! They were a super excited bunch! I am glad that Embrie has so many awesome and sweet friends.

 

A Merry Christmas

For the Christmas season this year we tried to do something different. Something to focus a little more on Christ and what he would have us do. The first FHE before December we talked about serving and how we can do this for Christmas. Our goal was to do 24 days of service. So we had a jar with slips of paper in it, and on each paper a different service idea be it big or small, the kids helped us come up with some of these ideas. And we tried to do one of those services for each day up to Christmas.

I didn't plan as much of it in advance as I wish I could have but I think its something that we'll try to do every year just as a reminder to us about our Savior and the REAL gifts of Christmas.

*****

Garrett and Embrie did their usual cookies for Santa. This is a big deal at our house, they love it.

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Just a few random Christmas morning shots...

Garrett and dad both got remote control helicopters

We're a lucky bunch it was a fun relaxing Christmas.