Pottery painting!!

 A little while back, my sister Natalie and I took Abbey and Luke to paint pottery for the first time! We had some thank you gifts we wanted to make for some people who have been very helpful and generous to our family.

 

 

 

 

They both LOVED it and the gifts turned out so cute! Definitely on our to-do again list!

Easter Weekend

Yesterday morning we woke up to beautiful spring weather for this first time in a long time. Our Church hosted it's annual "Epic Egg Hunt", which we were so excited for!
 

"Hey! There's chocolate in here!!!"

 With our favorite twin buddies...

Some protein to (hopefully) counteract all the sugar...

This morning we made cinnabunnies for breakfast before heading out to Church...

 And this morning's photo session outside went just about as well as you'd guess with two two-year olds...

Gah. Love them.

Happy Easter all... He is Risen!

A lil' family vacation

After all our party fun, we came home and packed for our trip the next day!

Sunday morning we woke up and had breakfast, and then loaded up the van and headed off to the beach!

We'd been planning and saving for this little trip as a way of celebrating surviving two years together as a family of four =).

The kids snoozed during our nap time/car ride over, and woke up happy to have arrived at our hotel. We promptly set up camp and had ourselves a tasty snack...

 The weather wasn't so great on the day we arrived, but we still enjoyed looking at the ocean!

 What's a family with two toddlers to do when it's raining at the beach? Head to the indoor swimming pool!

After a fun afternoon of swimming, we headed back to our room for dinner and baths and family movie night =). We popped popcorn and watched Finding Nemo. The kids are starting to really take an interest in movies, and it was so fun to snuggle in together and enjoy it as a family!

The next morning we woke up to sunshine!! At the Oregon Coast!! In March!!! God is still in the business of miracles people!! =)

After a few minutes of digging in the sand, Luke just took off exploring. He's so funny that way! He's not a darter or one who runs away, he's just so curious and LOVES to have the freedom to explore =). So, Daddy dutifully followed behind our adventurous little man...

Meanwhile, Abigail and I stayed and played in the sand together...

 Even the most adventruous among us get tuckered out sometimes...=)

My sweet babies...

We all had so much fun playing. Luke and Abbey could have stayed down there all day, but lunch and naps had to take place at some point!

That afternoon we went to the outlet malls to do some shopping and then some more swimming.  The next day we just took it easy around our hotel room, enjoying the chance to relax a bit...

We are so grateful for another wonderful family vacation to the beach! We had so much fun that I'm already figuring out how to make it happen again soon =)

Here's to memories made...

A Party Post

Last Saturday we celebrated the twins' 2nd birthday.

We started the morning off with "birthday chair", a tradition for David growing up that we plan on continuing within our little family too!




Then we let them open their present from Daddy & Momma -- a train set!

It's hard to say who loved it more - the Daddy or the kiddo's...

Probably the kiddos...

 

 After a leisurely morning of birthday pancakes and playing with trains, I headed to the church to set up for the party. My Dad, stepmom, sister, and sweet friends Steve and Lisa were all there to help too! Thank goodness for them - by the time we were done, the place looked great!!

The night before, my sister Vanessa and two of her friends spent sweet forever making and decorating these beauties:

 SO fun!!


My sister Natalie tackled these for us:

The great thing about having a Sesame Street birthday theme is you can just decorate in primary colors and it looks like it all goes together but is still fairly thrifty compared to all the licensed decor.
 

 We had Crack bread, cream cheese sausage balls, chips, goldfish crackers, cookies, little smokies, veggies, fruit and cupcakes.


Dave and I are SO grateful our Church is so willing to let us throw birthday parties there! We love our house, but it's quite...cozy. There is no way we could host a large gathering here in our 990 square feet! Plus all the kids had so much fun using the play equipment =).

 

 

Time to sing!

And just like last year, Luke dove in face first!

Sister keeping Daddy close while snacking =)

Ahhhh the life of a 2 year old... =)

Then on to the presents...

Luke supervising while Grammy and BopBop opened his new helicopter for him...

A picture of our whole family on David's side!

Once again, we were so blessed with many family and friends to celebrate with! Abbey and Luke got SO many new fun toys and also a one year membership to a local children's museum!