Stars on Ice

Olivia and I went to see "Stars on Ice" with Melissa and Ellie Benson. We had a wonderful girls night out, including dinner at Applebee's. Evan Lysacek and Sasha Cohen were absolutely amazing!!

Sister & Brother Day

My dear, sweet daughter loves, I mean LOVES, "days". You know, birth"days", holi"days", Mother's "Day", Father's "Day"...really any kind of "day" like that. So she came up with a Sister's Day! Ethan quickly wanted to join in..."hey, what about brothers?" We made sure that they understood that these "days" only come once a year...I wrote them on the calendar as evidence :) We gave them a special treat of donuts in bed and made them little signs. They were overjoyed!

Happy Sister's Day Olivia!!


Happy Brother's Day Ethan!!

Walk for Water

In April our family joined hundreds of others along with our church, Mars Hill, to raise money and awareness of the horrific drinking water conditions in Africa, specifically Rwanda. The families of Rwanda often walk 6 hours one way to collect water that will be needed for daily life. To give our children a glimpse of what this life would be like and to show our own support, we walked the couple miles to a river and filled our empty milk and water jugs and then continued walking with jugs full. This was a little more difficult with the cold temps and winds, but nothing in comparison to what over a billion people worldwide have to do to obtain water - dirty, muddy, filthy water. I am so glad to have had this opportunity to share this experience with my children and husband.
Showing off our cool Walk for Water t-shirts...


Walking with Jack and Sam...so cute

Harbor House Inn ~ 7 years later

Last week Scott and I spent a couple of nights at Harbor House Inn. We were celebrating our 7 year wedding anniversary (which isn't actually until April 26). Harbor House is where we stayed on our wedding night. It was so relaxing and fun just to be together - footloose and fancy free! We walked the boardwalk a few times; sat on the porch and watched passers-by, talked, or just read; went out to eat; spent time by the fire. It was so wonderful to reconnect without any other distractions.

Our cottage was the same one we had our wedding night. Love it! It has a fireplace, it's own porch, and a huge whirlpool tub.




Relaxing on the porch...




A walk on the beach...

April Showers

Ethan has no complaints about April showers. They bring many of the things he loves...puddles, mud, boots, a lake in our backyard...

He Has Risen!

I love to celebrate Easter! What AWE-some words to proclaim: He Has Risen!

My children are blessed with a wonderful childhood. Their Easter memories will be of waking up Easter morning to find their hidden baskets...





Then it's off to a noisy, joyful celebration at Mars Hill.



From there we go to Papa and Grammy's for a delicious meal and spending time with family.




Looking for Easter eggs...


Easter baskets and stuffed animals...




Family pics...




Dessert!


Then we head to Great Grandma Laug's for another egg hunt and visiting with family.
Love those Laugs!



Kyle, Meg, Marianne, Ella, Sienna, Olivia.





Another Easter basket! Showing Aunt Lori the goodies...






Finally, it's home for appetizers and relaxation with Nana. Nana gave the kids the movie "Princess and the Frog" so we watched a bit of that and played Memory.