Luke Update!

We had Luke's 1 month appointment yesterday. Hard to believe he is already a month old! He is doing great though. He had a bit of an ear infection, but both of the other kids have been sick as well, so that wasn't too surprising. He is weighing in at 10 lbs. 5 oz. (50th percentile) and 23 1/2 inches long (95th percentile!!!). We were pretty surprised at the height since Michael and I and our other kids are pretty short, but here is hoping he gets a bit of his Grandpa James' height.

Trip to Missouri and Oklahoma!

Here are a few photos of our recent trip down to Oklahoma. I didn't take many photos at all, but here are a few. We were able to go through Missouri on the way down to visit Michael's grandmother. It was the first time she had been able to meet Luke in person and of course she always loves seeing the other kids too. We were really glad for the opportunity to see her. We then went down to Oklahoma and lots of fun with family down there. It happened to be the weekend of my aunt's March of Dimes trail ride that she hosts every year, so the kids were pretty excited to go to that and get a chance to see and ride the horses. We hung out a lot with family and had a great time. We had pretty warm weather down there which was nice since we missed the last week of cold weather here in Ohio. Sorry these photos aren't organized so well, blogger has decided to be a pain today.

Curly Sue!

Lyna has this super cute friend from Church who puts her hair in curlers and it turns out adorable. Of course, said friend also has a bit more hair then Lyna, but I wanted to see how it would turn out on her. It actually came out really cute and we will definitely do it again. I learned a few things to do differently next time, but pretty good for our first time (especially since I so have not worked with these kind of curlers since my cheerleading days!). Here are some photos of my cute curly haired girl!

Easter Weekend!

We started off the Easter weekend going to an Easter Egg Hunt Saturday morning in Powell. It was a tad chilly, but not unbearable. Unfortunately, Lyna and Noah were in two different age divisions this year, so Michael and I had to split up. Since we only own one camera, I only got photos of the actual hunt part of one child. Lyna was in the 4-7 age division, so she was one of the younger ones and of course one of the smaller ones as well. She was SO sad when she only came away with three eggs, but honestly I was concerned she wasn't going to get any, there were lots of little 4 years old crying with empty baskets. Lucky for us, Noah really doesn't get or really care about how many eggs he has, so we were able to put some of those in Lyna's basket. The organizers also came around afterward and gave more to any child who didn't get many, so we ended up doing just fine. I was excited to see that this particular hunt had mostly little toys inside the eggs instead of more candy. They also were recycling the eggs to use for next year, which I thought was a great idea! After the hunt we went and had ice cream at a favorite custard shop that was within walking distance.








Later that afternoon we did some egg dyeing. This is the first year we have been able to do this because Lyna can finally touch eggs! So, it was a pretty exciting moment for the family. Turns out my husband is a master egg dyer and his came out pretty cool!





Sunday morning the kids woke up to their Easter "baskets", okay I know, the gifts aren't in baskets. I was going to put them in baskets, but they didn't fit well, so I just tied a ribbon around the goods and gave them to them like that. We decided to go simple and start a tradition of giving books for Easter. So, the kids got two books each and a few Easter treats. And yes, if you are wondering, the clothing in these photos are of my children right when they woke up. Noah slept in his clothes from the day before and Lyna slept in this swim cover up from two years ago that I keep putting in the goodwill pile and it somehow keeps showing back up! Oh well, you can't win them all.



We then headed off to Church in our Easter outfits. Lyna's dress, my skirt, and the ties were all made by me.












We decided to go ahead and do our own Easter egg hunt that evening with our dyed eggs, but it was a bit chilly outside, so we did it inside.




And one last photo of our cute Easter bunny cake!

Happy Easter!

For Easter I thought I would share this awesome video and also the Easter message from the First Presidency, Enjoy!

At this Easter season of hope and renewal we testify of the glorious reality of the atonement and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The empty tomb brought comforting assurance and provided the answer to the question of Job, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14).

Because of the Savior’s resurrection we will overcome death and become the beneficiaries of His mercy and grace. In a world of trouble and uncertainty, His peace fills our hearts and eases our minds. Jesus is in very deed “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

We give our sure witness that Jesus is the Christ. Though He was crucified, He rose triumphant from the tomb to our everlasting blessing and benefit. To each member of the human family He stands as our Advocate, our Savior, and our Friend.

President Thomas S. Monson and his counselors, President Henry B. Eyring and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, constitute the First Presidency of the Church.

Hiking at Hocking Hills

We were able to go down to Hocking Hills for a short day trip. I had never been there before and it had been a long time for Michael. It was so amazing and beautiful! We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed being out in nature a bit.