Mother's Day

I would be remiss if I didn't talk about Mother's Day when my title of my blog is "Loving Mommyhood and Life".  Being a mom, at this point, is the biggest, most rewarding, craziest job I have ever had.  I am so thankful God entrusted me with two healthy, happy, feral  children.  The type of love I have for them is so intense, from extreme annoyance and displeasure (putting it politely) to indescribable and unwavering love.  I have 3 jobs in life, being a daughter of Christ, being a wife and being a mom and I love them all.  Thank you, God, for allowing me to be a mom and remind me of my blessings each day, because sinful me tends to forget.

I came home Saturday from fun things and found hand-painted pictures, a card picked out by Jack and 3 roses (for Jack, Kate and yes, even Annie).  That was such a sweet thing to see. Later, I got a new Vera Bradley travel bag - sweet! Craig made me feel like a special mom.  I also want to give a shout-out to three others moms we appreciate and love - my mom, Craig's mom and our sister-in-law.  I am inspired by each of them!









On another note, I was waiting for my clients at a photo shoot on Saturday and saw this beautiful Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly.  God's creation amazes me.

Kate's First Haircut

My baby is growing up.  Kate got her first hair cut today.  I was unsure at first cutting her curls, but her bangs were out of control and she had a pretty thick mullet-type thing in the back, so I took the plunge and allowed scissors near her hair.  I took her to a great spot in town - a kids boutique, Rinse and Repeat.  They had a playroom, candy and a DVD player.  I was like, "Can I get my hair cut here?"  Anyway, her first cut was free, score, and Jack got his cut too.  We will definitely be going back for future cuts.  Kate was a pro and sat there and admired herself in the mirror.  We battle with Jack, but this time, he was much more relaxed, thanks to the beautician, and got a great cut too.

Before:
 



First Cut:


During:


After:




And finally, her certificate and baby curls:

Super Saturday

Saturday was so much fun!  My mom-in-law was in town and we wanted to head to the beach.  We went back to the one I talked about a few posts back that is only about 45 minutes away.  My mom had the triplets this weekend, so we went - 5 kids and 3 adults.  The 3:1.5 ratio wasn't too bad.  The kids were great!  We got to the beach and settled about 11 and stayed until 2.  They played in the sand, waves and fed the seagulls.

I was so proud of Jack too.  He got in the water and wasn't afraid of the waves.  We headed home and decided to go out for something appropriate for the day, seafood!  We had shrimp and scallops to cap off the day.  We were all tired, but had a fabulous day.  The weather was a perfect 88, sunny and not a cloud in the sky.  See you next time, beach!

Easter Weekend

He is alive!  The whole reason we celebrate this Easter season is to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.  I am so thankful I serve a living God!  One of the most amazing things about this weekend is remembering we aren't separated from God anymore.  We can have a close personal relationship with Him - everyday.  We don't need to make sacrifices for our sins anymore as the ultimate sacrifice was made on the cross.  The reminder was that the veil was torn in the inner court of the temple.  To show the power and awesomeness of God, when Jesus died the 60 foot, 3 inch thick veil tore from top to bottom!  Wow.  He truly was the Son of God - Matthew 27:54.

Also with Easter, God has graciously given me a wonderful family to celebrate with.  My grandparents came to town on Wednesday.  This was the first time meeting Kate and seeing us in almost 2 years.  Thursday we got Happy Meals and shopped a bit with the kids.  Friday we went to our park and played on the playground, had a picnic and fed turtles in the pond.  This one of the triplets cracks me up.



Friday night we had an awesome Good Friday service full of worship and the Lord's Supper.  On Saturday we had our Easter.  The kids opened their baskets from Papa and Gigi and I gave the triplets some owl pillows I made, some fruit snacks and books.  We let the kids hunt eggs before lunch.  This was Kate's first hunt and she took off, got about 10 eggs, sat down and began devouring the candy inside.  Jack had the most with about 40 eggs and the triplets had 25 - 30 each.















After eggs, we ate lunch and my mom got the kids a small inflatable bounce house which the spent a few minutes in after which we said, let's move this indoors because it was hot outside.  The fun continued inside and then ate lunch.



Naps came after lunch and we then let the kids play in the sprinkler and slide.  They loved it and were so funny.  Some the photos are hilarious.  Please excuse Kate in only underwear.  We aren't that redneck, we just didn't have a swimsuit for her.









Sunday morning, the kids got a few treats from us with some wrapped "saved" Christmas gifts from last Christmas (now Easter gifts) and we headed to church.  Again, another time to celebrate Christ and his resurrection.  Easter is my favorite holiday and time year - can't wait for next year!

Beach Explorers!

The closest "good" beach is almost 2 hours away even though we can get to salt water in about 30 minutes.  I wanted to find a "quick trip" beach where I could take this kids that wouldn't be a whole day event.  This beach is not huge, but has some bathrooms, water, white sand beach, plenty of little animals to explore and is only 45 minutes away!  The kids had so much fun running in the water and exploring all the little areas.  The water had tons of sand bars and was only about calf-deep on the kids way out there.  Hello summertime beach!

Kimberly Baby Shower

This Saturday, we celebrated the impending birth of Reese Abigail making her debut May 17!  Kimberly is going to be ANOTHER amazing mom to Reese.  It was a great shower full of friends, family, little girls and good food.  We are excited to meet Reese next month (yeah, that soon).

Balloon Wreath

The above Balloon Wreath is so simple to make and I love it.  1 - I love balloons and 2 - cheap to make.  Check out this site for all the details...http://www.twomoreseconds.com/2010/09/celebration-balloon-wreath-tutorial.html  and check out this one too...http://www.howdoesshe.com/birthday-wreath.  Anyway, a fun idea for holidays, birthdays and even baby showers!