Easter and More

So I am a little behind on my blogging so I am going to take some shortcuts :-).  We had Easter weekend which was a fun, busy time for us.  It included family in town, lots of fun playing outside with cousins, a race for me, a 7th birthday party for Briley, being "egged" by a neighbor and then having to "egg" another neighbor, the always fun Easter egg hunt at my parents (Lissy got the golden egg) and of course celebrating the most important "holiday" of the year-the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We had beautiful weather so the kids got to enjoy a lot of time outside.  During some inside time, Ellie and Bella made a sign for Briley for her birthday.  It had different pictures of different things they had done together and the theme of Briley's party.  They did a great job with it.  I enjoyed part of my time outside doing the Arise race Saturday morning.  I did both the run and bike which was a 5K run followed by an 8 mile bike.  There was a pretty stiff wind from the south though which made the run and bike up Osteopathy a little hard.  The ride back was definitely nicer (and faster).  It was a small crowd and once Andrea and I realized we were the only ones there in our age group for the run/bike, we decided to stick around to for the awards.  She got second and I got first :-).  And I had by support crew there again following us around while the twins hung out with everyone at my parents' house.  Andrew took pictures of our friends again.  When we got home so I could shower, I got stuff ready so we could "egg" the Mareks.  This involved getting twelve eggs ready to hide (including an empty one to represent the empty grave) and a basket of goodies.  Then it was time to head to my parents to enjoy spending time with family while Andrew had to get some work done out at the ranch.  That night was Briley's Teen Beach Movie birthday party and then it was time to head home so the Easter Bunny could come.  But then Andrew decided to invite Jackson down to watch The Ten Commandments so the Easter Bunny couldn't come until later.  We decided to go to early service for church the next day so it was an early morning.  The kids were up early though trying to find baskets.  They enjoyed their new trinkets, ate some candy and then it was time to get ready and head off to church. 

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Romans 6:-11

After church, we stopped by home to change and catch up on a few things around the house and then headed to my parents for a yummy brunch and the Easter egg hunt.  The kids were definitely more competitive this year but Lissy beat them all and found the golden egg.  She didn't mind rubbing it in with them too :-).  As the afternoon wore on, everyone started heading home. 

Jackson is enjoying climbing trees these days.

Bubbles

Lincoln pouting :-)

Last week was pretty low-key except I had some sort of a cold for part of the week.  Thankfully it wasn't as bad as the one Andrew had a couple of weeks ago.  But I took Zicam religiously hoping to hold it off.  The kids didn't have school on Monday and we had some rain off and on so I thought it was a good time have the kids clean out their rooms and wash sheets.  We cleaned out under beds, closets, and just junk in general.  Since we had a neighborhood garage sale coming up on Saturday, they started putting stuff aside to sell.  We took a break in the middle and went to Pizza Hut for lunch so Jackson and Ellie could use their Book-It coupons followed by some quick grocery shopping. Jackson and Ellie had their last Elevate at church and we only have a few more weeks of small group.  Since we actually have a yard, the neighborhood kids sometimes congregate back there.  I wasn't able to get a picture with all of them in it though.

One night, Lincoln and the twins provided the entertainment.  He somehow got shoes on both the twins plus sunglasses and they had a dance party for us.  It was pretty funny :-).

We got some rain on Thursday, so Jackson's baseball practice was cancelled so I took him to swim practice instead and was going to do some grocery shopping.  Well I also forgot that the pool was closed for some maintenance, so he got to be my shopping partner.  He can be a fun and helpful kid to shop with.  He pushed the cart while I got everything.  Then he helped me bag and put the cart away at Aldi.  Friday I was able to finish getting everything ready for the garage sale the next day and we got to enjoy the last Parents' Night Out of the semester.  We went to AJ's with some friends and had a nice time. 

Andrew was up early the next morning for some turkey hunting.  He actually took his secretary, Aubri, and her husband for their first hunt.  They weren't successful but I think they enjoyed themselves.  Plus they got some horseback riding in after they were done.  My day started a little later than Andrew's but I thought it would be fun to try to chronicle most of it, so here we go...

Got in the shower, Ellie and Lincoln both up and hung out in the bathroom while I showered;  had to get Jackson up later for ball practice; only had time to get ready and start a load of laundry as people were already looking through stuff by 7:20; took stuff out of garage over to LaBeths since they were letting me set up in their driveway with them, set up and started selling; Lincoln begging for scooter; sold grill as wheeling it out; Lincoln begging for scooter; sent Jackson off to practice; checked on twins around 8 and they were already up screaming (I thought they would sleep longer since the house would be quiet)-could see us through window; got them changed-two poopy diapers, breakfast, watching Cars 2; sell stuff including our changing table that we have had since Jackson :-( (I think the only piece of furniture we actually bought for the nursery since we borrowed everything else-but it was just from Target and not worth holding onto),

 

Check on twins and find them in our bathroom-could be a lot worse as they are brushing their teeth with Miles graciously helping Bennett; sell stuff, check on twins; change load; tried to grab a banana or snack; Ellie kept up her good job at working as the cashier; Lincoln begging for scooter; one of the neighborhood boys kept buying our stuff (his mom eventually showed up and asked us to please cut him off :-); Ellie went inside to grab a drink and came back to tell me the twins had boxes everywhere and I went into discover food all over the floor;  went outside to show Tiffany a picture of it and came back to beads all over the floor;

 

 got it cleaned up; turned on Mickey Mouse (the traffic was still pretty busy outside so I didn't feel it was too safe to let them come outside); Jackson got home from practice and went inside to watch twins; sold a little more stuff; Andrew showed up; started packing up; time for lunch-packed lunch for Ellie and Lincoln and they ate outside with friends; took twins out after lunch and the kids all played;

 

Andrew went to office; laid the twins down, cleaned up more messes and put stuff away from garage sale; wrote up menu and grocery list; start prepping dinner and managed to spill jar of minced garlic; thought about hanging our new outdoor lights, but sprinkling off and on with some lightning so worked on dinner; had a talk with Ellie about tithing off of her money, she starts crying because she struggles with wanting to keep the money but not wanting God to be upset with her for not doing what he asks of us :-); Andrew gets home and mows lawn, gets Jackson to finish out back after he moved and stacked logs from garage; eat dinner without incident; Jackson cleans up without being asked (hoping to earn some more money); Ellie follows suit-it was very pleasant :-); Andrew takes Jackson out to play catch while I finish cleaning up from dinner; Ellie finds Miles playing in the sink in the basement but cleans it up with a couple towles for me; Lincoln doesn't make it to the bathroom in time, Andrew cleans him up while I finish cleaning up after dinner; Andrew heads back out to play with the kids; I take down lights, put up new ones with Lincoln helping me by climbing up the other side of ladder; lights up and look good;  watch twins chase each other around tree and laugh; toys put away and off to Home Depot to look at grills; twins scream a lot; try to ignore them for a bit but have to go; get home and I do baths, put away laundry; Andrew lays twins down and the others watch a movie as I research grills; Miles ticked off and screaming but then we hear their door opening; Andrew goes to put him back in bed and tells me to come-there is blood all over face, on clothes, sheets, crib and carpet; realize it is bloody nose and we clean him off a bit then Andrew gives him a bath while I clean the room, still trickling a little so get him out and hold him while getting it to stop then off to bed, eventually for all of us...zzz.

 

And today we were able to get some stuff done in the middle of the rain.  Andrew and Jackson went to the office in the morning and came home in time for me to head to the store before church.  Then Andrew took the older kids with him after church to pick up our new grill at Home Depot and then some mulch and soil at Wal-Mart.  We worked fast and got some mulch spread and Andrew also put some grass seed out before a big storm rolled in. 

 

You knew it was coming but it still turned intense pretty quickly.  Our neighbor across the street had his twins out in the yard in their pack-n-play while he worked on his weed-eater.  It wasn't long from when it first started sprinkling until it was pouring and blowing sideways so he just picked up the pack-n-play with the boys in it and ran to the front porch :-).  Then their basketball hoop fell down and barely missed their car.  It was crazy how much rain was coming down.  While it was raining the kids read on their Kindles and watched tv while Andrew rode the bike and I ran on the treadmill.  And thankfully the rain cleared off in time for Andrew to grill up some steaks for dinner.  Well, he started the process in the rain but it cleared off soon after.  So we enjoyed a nice dinner and then Andrew and Lincoln headed out to finish up outside and pick up stuff around the yard.  Ellie decided to start her own triathlon training and ran and biked around the block a few times :-).  Alex and Lincoln played for a little bit running their trucks through the soggy grass.