Camp Cousin

What do you get when you combine:
3 days
1 x 4 year old
3 x 2 year olds
and 1 x newborn?

Camp Cousin!

Chad has taken on the project to design and build out our 1000 square foot basement. What a handy husband I have!!!! Uncle Lucas is pitching in big time to help him out this week as the hammers, drills, and saws work away. Lucas brings the kids, Taite and Colin, and Cyndi dropped by Mariah this AM. I have the joy of hosting, what I call, "Camp Cousin." The days are full and action-packed, with parks, playdough, dress-up, movies, bikes, bubbles and more.

Dress-up
















More of baby Cousin


And more of the littlest camper

Glee

The smiles have arrived!!!! How fun it is to see little Jade smile away. Oh it just melts our hearts. She has smiled a bit over the past few weeks...but likely it was due to...gas. BUT, starting last week and escalating more and more...we are bringing on the smiles! Here she is...6 weeks, our joyful Jaden:






We pulled out the bumbo chair last night for the first time. You could tell it was a new way for her to look at life! She did great. She is so strong!

On the Hunt...AGAIN.

After celebrating Easter at church we were off to the Flete's home for the celebration to continue.
Here is the annual couch picture...with the newest addition...our little J-bug.



A highlight of our time together was the Easter Egg Hunt for the cousins. Ready, set, go, and they were off!

Hopping to Easter

We recently created what we call, "The Easter Hop Down." This is our fun way to count down to Easter. Our hope is to make Easter a BIG DEAL. After all, what it celebrates, makes ALL the difference in our lives, forever! So, for each of the 10 days leading up to Easter, we do a craft, an outing, or something nice for another person...all in celebration of what Jesus did for us years ago, and continues to do for us to this day. We check off each day with a big flower sticker, and do a little hopping around. Above all, we pray that our girls will enjoy and love Jesus some day with all their hearts!

Here is a video of the Hop Down...



Here is a clip of our craft project today...a bit messy once again, but so fun.

A Photo Shoot!

There have been a few milestones in our lives lately, the birth of Jaden and Rylie turning 2! This called for a photo shoot! We hired Megan Newton, a former student in our ministry, to do the deed. (She did Rylie's newborn photo's two years ago.) We LOVE how she captured the freshness of our dear Jaden, and the sparkle of Rylie. The pictures just came in the mail today...so here are a bunch!

Our Sweet Baby Jaden



















Our Precious Rylie