Happy 3rd Birthday Jesse Bear!

Jesse had a wonderful two days of celebrating! On his actual birthday, he got a train ride at the mall, chocolate chip pancakes for dinner, and a trip to Build-A-Bear (pictures below)! The next day we had some family friends over for cake and ice cream. I really thought it was going to be a small party, but when they come 2 to 3 kids per family, the kid chaos adds up quick! I tried to do a few organized games but they all just ended up doing their own things. Almost an entire cake eaten, every kid helping to open presents, 25 juice boxes gone, quite a few cups of coffee passed around, 16 pairs of muddy shoes, 3 pee accidents, and 20 popped balloons later -I truly believe the kids have fun. Jesse was in heaven and I enjoyed chatting with the other adults ignoring the chaos. Sounds like a good party to me!

Opening Presents

His Lightning McQueen Cake.

He loved it! The best part was adding the cars to his "Disney Cars" collection.

With his new best friend "Kirby". He loves his baseball bear-drags him around all day and sleeps with him at night. (Baseball is one of Jesse's other obsessions right now). Joel helped with the name-Kirby Puckett was his favorite baseball player as a kid.

Watching kids walk away with their big Build A Bear boxes is such a great sight!
Onward to another great year Jesse!

Happy Easter

Well we all made it home safe and sound in time to enjoy a lovely Easter weekend! Of course it started out by ALL of us sleeping in until noon on Saturday after 2 days of traveling and getting in at close to midnight the night before. Coming home was harder than getting to Canada for some reason (even with the help of mom)...I was so thankful to finally be out of cars, ferries, and planes! Some of our Easter traditions had to be compromised due to traveling, but we still enjoyed our teaching moments with the kids in celebrating what Jesus did for us. On Easter morning we made resurrection rolls (the marshmallows -AKA. Jesus- while baking to leave an empty tomb in the rolls). Asher says "AWESOME-we are eating melted Jesus! Hey, Grammie! You want a grave?". Ah, how we love the words that come from children. We hope you all enjoyed a day praising Jesus and His empty tomb so we can be ALIVE with Him!

Sweet Josie, who now giggles

Asher coloring Easter eggs with his cousins

Anna

Jesse and Luke, partners in crime and best buddies now!

Our Easter egg hunt that we were able to get in between showers.

Our first family photo since Josie has been born!

Oh Canada

We made it to Canada! It was a long 2 days of traveling..2 planes, 3 hour car ride, a hotel stay, and a ferry ride. I survived a 9 hour plan journey with the 4 kids by myself. There were many bad moments (like the 2 men separating Jesse and I from Anna and Asher on a 4 hour flight, unwilling to change seats-its OK, they were very involved in passing things back and forth between us) but there were many blessings bestowed that helped us along the way. Security let Joel go to the gate with me in the beginning and sit with us until we got on the plane and at the end of the 9 hour journey, I was standing at Starbucks glassy eyed, dying for coffee, with a screaming hungry infant, and 3 children grabbing everything off the shelves and begging for cake pops, when a transit authority man in line in front of us bought a dozen cake pops, paid, and turned around and offered them to my kids. I wanted to cry! But yes, we made it! And you know what, it was worth it. My sister and I have kids the same age and sex, and to see them all together joined at the hips, it such a blessing! I hope the pictures show how much fun we are having amongst the chaos of 7 kids.

My niece Brooke turned 6 right after we arrived and celebrated with an "Under the Sea" birthday party. Even Josie got dressed up for the occasion!

Jesse and Luke enjoying some of the party decorations.

My sister lives on a very secluded island outside of Vancouver that you can only get to by ferry. It is a beautiful place full of hidden charm. We spent an afternoon exploring one of its beaches.

Anna and Brooke

The fearless foursome

My sister Nikki and I

Berdon and Asher cave exploring

The six pack

Josies

This is Jesse

This is Jesse with his "Josies"
That is what he calls his baby sister. When he sees her, he runs to her calling "Josies! I love Josies! I hold Josies!" He is completely smitten with her, and we love the nickname.

But who wouldn't be smitten with this?

Candy Heaven

Grandma Thorson came to visit for a long weekend and what does she bring with her? Yes, candy. Not just one type of candy but just about every sweet thing you can think of: peeps, jellybeans, life savers, peach wheels, sprinkles, fruit roll-ups...all with the purpose of building peep dioramas with the kids. What is a peep diorama you ask? Yes, I asked the same thing. A cake decorated with peeps and candy to tell a story from the bible. I think this may be a new "preparing for Easter" tradition in our family as the kids had a ton of fun. We won't mention how much candy they ate in the process (or how much cake we have eaten since!).

Anna chose to tell the story of Queen Esther. (It has to be a girly Bible story of course). Neither her or Asher could zone in on the Easter story so we were a bit flexible in the stories they chose to tell.

Asher did David and Goliath. He was super creative and even made sheep out of giant marshmallows to stand next to David (since he was a shepherd). The peep you see in the foreground is holding a "Bible" (the peach wheel) since it is a Bible story, he says. I just loved how he did his characters!

And Jesse did the Ascension. His main purpose was the cover every inch of cake with candy but here he is telling his story.