Mommy and Me Monday...

Yesterday, my mom, E and I visited our local botanical gardens

for their spring blooms festival....what a wonderful, fun day we had!

Being a toddler is exhausting work...

Signs of Springtime...

BFF's...

Monday afternoon, E and I spent time with two of my best friends. We've all known each other since we were little, and now we all have little ones of our own. It was so fun to get together and see all of our kids playing together....such a fun time, and such a blessing!

Playdate park time...

Last Friday, we met our dear friends at the park down the street from our house....such fun times!

Wordless Wednesday...

Happy Anniversary...

...to my wonderful parents! We love you!

Outdoor fun...

E has been having a great time re-discovering our backyard this year....the weather has been so nice. In these photos, she was trying to make a smiley face in her hula-hoop circle with rocks....so creative! And she's blowing air out of her mouth "talking back to the wind," she said....and I love the fact that her mouth is wide open in the first photo....she's talking a ton and probably telling a big story to hubby, who was outside with us. Bet you can't guess where she got her blammermouth ways...

Potty training...

....guess where we've been spending an awful lot of time lately?

Star struck...

...last night we had the opportunity to meet Janette Oke and T. Davis Bunn...two of my favorite Christian authors. They were signing books at the Christian bookstore right around the corner from our home. How cool is that?

What a ham...

...we found E horsing around on the guest bed after church on Sunday, playing with a hat that I wore for Easter Sunday many, many years ago. What a nut!

Happy St. Patrick's Day....

...from our little leprechaun!

My Daddy brews beer in our garage....

Big girl haircut...

Saturday morning at the park...

Yesterday morning, E and I went to the park in the morning in order to let hubby sleep in -- he's been fighting the same cold/crud we've all had. She keeps asking me to go to the playground, so Saturday morning we had the perfect opportunity - even though the weather was a bit windy. And I was hoping some outside playtime would wear E out for an early nap, so her sleeping wouldn't get too messed up by "spring forward" Daylight Savings Time! We had such a fun morning together, just the two of us, playing outside!

It's the little things...

We've had a very challenging time of it around here lately....sick little one, sick grown ups, sick cat, foundation repair, varmits (I love that word!) in the garage...and the list goes on and on....sweet hubby brought me these sweet little roses a few days ago to brighten my day. What a sweetie!

Sometimes you just gotta sing....

...Jesus Loves Me while sitting on the potty....

Lenten Workshop...

On Sunday, our church conducted a Lent workshop for families of the congregation. The activities at the event were designed to teach children about the Easter message.

We had so much fun making a floating candle table centerpiece, coloring Easter-themed door hangers and other Easter-related crafts and listening to a devotion. We even received several take-home treats including Easter and church-themed story books, and a set of Resurrection Eggs - plastic Easter eggs filled with treats and trinkets that relate to the themes of Lent, Easter and Jesus Christ's resurrection. The Resurrection Eggs set came with a study guide that guides families through a series of daily devotions with children that lead up to Easter Sunday.

The children also created a mock tomb, complete with a stone to roll away from the entrance, by using a simple glazed donut, cut in half for the tomb and a donut hole for the stone.

Such neat, simple ways to teach our sweet girl about our Savior!

(By the way, the cutie in the last pic with hubby and E is E's friend Hailey - she's exactly four months older than E...she and her parents -- dear friends of ours -- moved back to this area last year and the girls are becoming fast friends....we love it!)

Love the little red guy...

Oh what fun we had going to see this show! Never mind that we were all sick with a cold AND sweet E managed to get sick all over herself and all over the carseat and car on the drive there...what a fun experience this was! It was so funny to be in a theater with tons of screaming two and three year olds....all so excited to see Elmo and all of his friends!