Something Special

I wanted to share with you something very special that happened with Nicholas last week. He has been asking about what happens to people when they die recently, and did so again the other day. I answered that those who believe in Jesus will go to heaven, and he responded with a smile, "I believe in Jesus!" Normally, when he's said this in the past, we've said, "That's wonderful!" and left it at that, but this last time, I told Nicholas that we also need to trust Him as our Savior, which means confessing that we are sinful, and asking Him to be the Lord of our life. I said, "When you are ready to do that, you can tell Mom and Dad." After thinking for a moment, he said, "Mom, I think I'm ready now!"
So, we prayed that very awesome prayer together, and Nicholas is now a true believer. We are so thankful that God has drawn our son to Himself, and for his salvation. Please pray that Nicholas will always love the Lord as he does now, and that his life will be pleasing to God.

Two New Blue Rooms

We've had a very busy couple of weeks! My sweet husband has been working like crazy (literally) to get things done around the house in preparation for Andrew's birth. He's repainted the nursery and furniture, as well as completed lots of little projects. A couple of months ago, we moved Daniel into his big boy room. Here are photos of both rooms:

Berry Farm

Daniel loved the hayride out to the patch.

Nicholas and Aryana, holding hands....Awwww!

We took a trip to the berry farm this week, and came home with 10 pounds of strawberries! They must be the biggest, ripest, juiciest berries I've ever seen. Needless to say, the boys had fun sampling them as I picked. Friends Gracie and Aryana joined us, and after picking, we had lunch and visited all the farm animals there. It was a great day to be outside with friends!

Spring Update

I wanted to take a few minutes to update you all on Nicholas and Daniel. There seem to be so many new and fun things that they're into nowadays! Despite the challenges of some bickering and wrestling that often results in tears, we're enjoying this stage in their lives.

Nicholas: He has matured in so many ways the past few months. He loves playing Uno and creating things with his legos. School goes smoothly on most days, which is a big change from the fall, when he would often fight me on the reading/handwriting lessons. I think his confidence in learning new things has greatly improved, and he looks forward to our school time now. I am really excited about what next year will bring, when we really get down to business!

Above are photos of him with a reading incentive chart that I downloaded. Every day that he does "his best reading," he gets to color an arrow on the chart. After about five arrows, he earns a small treat. Today, we completed the chart and were able to go out to McDonald's for lunch and ice cream!

Daniel: Daniel is our little extrovert. He is soooo verbal! Chris and I often have to be careful about what we say around him, because he will ask about things he's overheard, even several minutes or hours later! Like Nicholas, he is also taking an interest in board games and puzzles, but story time is still his favorite. Daniel's favorite place on earth? Busch Gardens! (McDonald's might be a close second.) He absolutely loves to look at the map of the park, and point out all the different rides and attractions.

Daniel will attend an at-home preschool one morning a week in the fall. My friend who is teaching it is very artsy-craftsy and great with his age group, so I'm sure he will love it. This will also allow him to socialize a bit more and give me more focused school time with Nicholas that day.

Andrew: Not too much to say here except that he seems to be a very active little guy who enjoys ice cream as much as his mama! I'm sure we'll have plenty of stories to tell about Andrew in the coming months...

Nicholas Turns Five!

Our sweet guy turned five years old last Sunday. We celebrated by going out to lunch, then to Toys R Us to pick out a "big boy bike." Later in the day, we enjoyed a Nicholas-requested dinner of fish and mac-n-cheese, followed by earthworm cake. (If it looks familiar, that's because I made him this cake last year, and he wanted the same thing again!)

Today was his party. Six little boys and one brave girl came over for Star Wars Jedi training. Chris taught them some Jedi light saber moves, then the kids used them on him (as well as some other good-natured dads)!

Our Family Celebration

Running away from Jedi!

Chris gives a lesson in light saber moves.

Daniel finds a battle partner.

"Cupcake Ice Cream Cones"

Opening Gifts...

Happy Easter!

Chris reads to the boys about the Resurrection Egg for that day. If you are not familiar with them, each plastic egg contains a small item representing something from the Easter story (crown of thorns, stone, etc.). Each day leading up to Easter, we read a portion of scripture and opened one of the eggs. The boys loved it, and learned a lot.

We had a great time at the church egg hunt on Saturday!

My serious little man, trying not to drop his plastic egg on a spoon.

Nicholas, concentrating on the beanbag toss.

Daniel got a sheep painted onto his face.

We let them dig into their candy (which proved to be a mistake based on their activity level later in the morning...)

Handsome boys

My three sweet sons!

We have enjoyed a weekend full of Easter festivities, and are so thankful for the resurrection of Christ our Savior. Happy Easter! He is risen!

Visit from Grammie and Aunt Tori

This is my new favorite picture. Thanks for taking it, Mom!

Sisters!

Playing baseball in the yard with the boys

Aunt Tori was very sweet with Nicholas and Daniel!

We had a great visit with Mom and Tori this month. They were able to stay for several days, and the boys loved all the extra attention! Tori is starting her college search, so we visited Univ. of Richmond and UVa while she was here. We had awesome weather, too! Once again, we wished we lived closer to Grammie...