tulips!

Our annual trip to the Tulip Fields in Woodburn was 2 weeks ago. The kids and I had a great time together! The weather cooperated for us and gave us clear skies for most of the morning. It started sprinkling just as were leaving to head back home. The kids were {mostly} happy, so all in all it was a good day. I posted a few pictures of Mikayla amongst the flowers already, but there were so many fun ones that I just had to share more. It was such a different experience than last year. If you don't know what I'm talking about you, just go take a look for yourself. (FYI: Most of the ones I'm sharing of Mikayla are more of her "outtakes" since I already shared the really good ones last week. The adorable thing about this sweet 4-year old is that she loves to pose!)

I absolutely LOVE these next ones of my two sweet, adorable, but totally UN-COOPERATIVE children!

Yep, and that's as good as it got!

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Before leaving the farm, we took part in a few of the activities they had there. These pictures weren't nearly as "WOW" as the ones in the tulips, so here are just a few.

never too late for Easter!

I'm trying to play catch up with some pictures from week's past! I still don't feel like I have much to offer in the blogging world other than some cute pictures of my kids, so for now that will have to do. (By the way, thank you to everyone who has left me comments recently. Although I haven't replied or reciprocated the comment love, I really do appreciate each and every hello!)

I almost feel like it's pointless to go all the way back to Easter, but then again I would love to have these pictures documented for the future, so here you go (even if it's just for my mom and dad)...

The morning started with a visit from the Easter Bunny. This year "EB" didn't quite represent. There wasn't even an Easter basket! I guess he/she was confused on which box that Easter basket was packed away in. Great thing is...neither of the kids cared! They loved their goodies anyway...with or without the basket.

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Typical shot of the two kids together.
This one was attempted right before leaving for church...on our new front porch!

So, what do you do when only one is smiling and the other isn't?
Crop the other one out!

Mikayla looking smiley...

And then it was Austin's turn...Now, why can't they just be smiley together??

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After church we headed to Grandpa Charlie & Grandma Ruth's.
We had a delicious lunch and the kids each got an Easter card with "cash" in it (as Mikayla calls it).

I have no idea where she got this, but since she had no pockets in her dress, Mikayla decided to stick it down the front of her dress. Ummm...let's not do that in the future, OK sweetheart?

The grandparents also planned an Easter egg hunt (the only one for the kids this year). I pretty much relied on the in-laws to give my kids the "Easter activities" experience since my mind was elsewhere with all of the packing, moving, and unpacking.

Humor me kids and give me one cute shot with your baskets.

And, OK, we're done. What's in these things?

Before leaving for the drive home, the kids got to dye eggs...
told you I was relying on them for the fun?

All in all a fun day of celebrating the Risen One, good food, and being with family! Who could ask for anything more?

birthday preview...more to come!

Mikayla had a wonderful birthday...
she got to celebrate THREE times!

More to come later after I unwind from a morning of *sweet* chaos with three of Mikayla's "fairy" best friends!

my birthday girl

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL 4-YEAR OLD DAUGHTER WHO BRINGS SUCH A JOY TO MY LIFE AND FILLS MY HEART WITH LAUGHTER. I CAN'T IMAGINE MY LIFE WITHOUT THIS SWEET BABY GIRL.

haven't been by in awhile...

Not sure if you've noticed, but I haven't been by in awhile. *wink* Getting settled into our new house and still continuing with daily life has been a serious balancing act. So, my blog has been put on the back burner...yet AGAIN! I really do hope to be back one day into my regularly blogging groove.

In the meantime, I was featured today at Tip Junkie



for my Water Bottle Tag tutorial

I created last June.

Go visit Tip Junkie for more Teacher Appreciation Gift ideas.

Hope to "see" you all soon!

a gift to give - Easter bunnies & chocolate

Look! I actually did something crafty...


We're moving in less than a week (for real this time) and I just couldn't resist giving our current neighbors one last gift for the holidays! I already shared this Easter bunny, but yesterday during the kids' naps I whipped up 5 more to use as gifts for the neighbors.


I wanted to give them some sort of a treat, too, so I filled empty bottles of Starbucks Frappucino bottles full of Easter candy.

{a bunny's not complete without its cottontail}

Instead of using ribbon around the lid, I cut strips of decorative paper and glued them, followed by a circle punch from green, a scallop punch of pink and a Happy Easter greeting from the Boos Family (printed off from the computer) to go on top.

Mikayla loves going to the neighbors to hand out treats. We'll just have to wait until the rain goes away...it's been a wet one today.

Want the tutorial to make one of these bunnies for yourself? Visit my Stampin' Up! blog to find it.

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It's amazing how quickly a year goes by!
This was our "sweet tweet" we gave last year for Easter.

here's the scoop

In my last post (5 1/2 weeks ago!) the title was "25 days to the BIG MOVE".

Well...those 25 days have now come and gone and we're still living in our "old home" (as Mikayla calls it). The long story short? Our buyers had an issue with their loan and it took 2 weeks to straighten it all out. Which means, we are behind in everything by 2 weeks. BUT, we are extremely thankful that it's all still happening...because at one point there was a 50/50 chance that it might not. We were supposed to move 2 weeks ago, and then we were supposed to move this weekend, but the appraisal paperwork on our current home took longer than expected (go figure!), so we had to postpone our move and we are supposed to move sometime next week or next weekend.

All in all this process has taught us to trust in Our Provider, have patience, and learn to live simply (because so many things have been in boxes for the past 3+ weeks!!).

We are way ahead on the packing (which is a good thing), so I thought I would take a few minutes to share a couple of {sneak peeks} of the new home! These will serve good for some "before" shots...I can't wait to be able to share the "after" once we're all settled in.

Just a sampling for now...

{Master Bathroom}

It's true...in our old "master bathroom" (if you can call it that), we didn't have a bath tub and only had one sink. My husband used the guest bathroom with the kids, and I got my own teeny tiny bathroom! Looking forward to spreading out a bit more in the new house. Although, I guess that means more to clean, huh?

{The Back Deck}We're looking forward to having people over to hang out in our new backyard. We've never had a deck before, so it will be fun to set up some patio furniture to enjoy those warm summer nights!


{The Entryway}I just love the light fixtures in this new house (well, minus the few burnt out light bulbs in the entryway). I also adore this high front window as it lets in lots of light to the entryway.


{Eat-In Kitchen}In the new house, we have both a formal dining area (which we most likely will not be using as such), as well as an eat-in kitchen. It is a beautiful space that I can't wait to put our kitchen table!


{The Kitchen}Having a kitchen island is going to be so much fun! We've already ordered bar stools that will tuck under the countertops perfectly (well, at least we hope!) These light fixtures are adorable and look at all the cupboard space on that island!! We don't plan on painting the entire interior of the home, but the kitchen is on our list of walls to paint...we want to paint it a color that makes the beautiful cabinets *pop* a bit more.


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I've had a few extra minutes while my parents have been in town to take my Stampin' Up! stuff out to their house and enjoy some lazy days while the kids play and my mom and I craft (with the postponing of the moving dates, I'm very grateful for that time to get away!). Check out my Stampin' Up! blog to see all the craftiness that I've been up to.

Isn't this the cutest little bunny?
Go check out my {other} blog to find the tutorial.