Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter everyone!!  We had a wonderful weekend and beautiful weather.  All the kids were with us as well as my mom, dad, bff and her husband.  We had a couple of other things to celebrate too as Kara and David are both in the process of purchasing their first homes!  We all had to help decorate eggs on Saturday.  The boys did good, but ran out of steam towards the end.  Luckily, we had lots of help!

We had our Easter dinner on Saturday afternoon as Austin had a long drive home on Sunday and Kara was spending part of the day with her boyfriend's family.  It worked out well as we had just about finished dinner when the Butler basketball game started.  My sister went to Butler so we had to show our support of her team in the NCAA Final Four!  It was so great to have my best friend and her husband here from Chicago.  They were such great help and it was so much fun to have them here as part of our family for the holiday.

Our little Blake...didn't want to take pictures, but had to mess about during the ones we didn't want him in!!

This was our first Easter in our new house and luckily the Easter Bunny found us!  He had a lot of great hiding places.

After we all enjoyed some breakfast, and maybe a bit of candy, it was time for church.  It was a packed house and a wonderful service! 

It was so much fun to be together, be thankful, and celebrate that Jesus rose for us!!

First Concert!

Our church was celebrating its 20th year and had a concert on Friday night with a big service at the civic center on Sunday. There were over 5,000 people at the service. It was a great weekend and I just am amazed by how much work goes into the services each week, let alone such big celebrations. We attended our church, Northwoods Community Church, before we moved and really loved it. Now that we live about 30 mins away, we have tried to look around for a different one, but can't pull ourselves away.

Anyway, we took the boys to see Lincoln Brewster on Friday night! He was amazing. It was great to hear his story and listen to his music live. http://www.linclonbrester.com/ Blake told us that the music was making his "pee pee" wiggle!! He is definitely a boy!

There is nothing greater than hearing your kids sing about Jesus and wanting to learn more and more about our awesome God! We were watching American Idol one night and Blake asked, "Mom, why is nobody singing about Jesus?" Good question...

Last Indoor Soccer Game

Max and Blake have both been playing indoor soccer all winter. We have played 3 different 6 week sessions and have accumulated several colors of shirts (gray squirrels, orange tigers, red rhinos, green gators). This last session, Blake played at 9:00a and Max was at 9:45a. They both ended up being Brown Beavers and Dan coached both of their teams. Both the boys have really enjoyed playing but this last week was the best. Max only had 2 players show up so Blake was able to play on Max's team. They thought it was the greatest! Blake had already played his game, but was all fired up to play with Max. He actually scored 2 goals! They play a lot together so Blake is not scared of the bigger kids. And believe me, he doesn't lack for confidence! It was really fun to watch and they were great at encouraging each other and helping out. Dan had a great time too! They continue to be the best of friends...it makes me so happy! This summer should be a lot of fun for them! Hopefully they continue to truly like each other as they grow up!

Every Saturday, we would have breakfast at our favorite place in town, Judy's! This is the only place that we can take them and don't have to remind them to quit messing around and eat! The ladies that work there know our order before we sit down and are fantastic. We are really going to miss our Saturday routine now that the soccer season is over. Now, it is time for baseball!

Special Person's Day

I'm not even going to justify why I haven't posted for so long....

Max had Special Person's Day a couple of weeks ago and was able to have Dan come to school with him for the morning. I was able to sneak into the first little activity, which was a performance by the Kindergarten classes.

I had seen just a bit of them practicing one morning so knew exactly where to sit. Max was trying to be so serious but couldn't hold in the smile at times! It was really cute and all the kids had worked so hard making this a great performance!

They first did a routine with the ribbons and then moved on to instruments. They were really concentrating...

These are two of the sweet girls in his class, Katelyn and Maggie.

Great job Max! We are so proud of you!

Christmas Activites

Yes, I'm behind already in 2010! I have told a few people I would post a couple different things so these are a few things that we did before Christmas.

Here is our wonderful Christmas tree. Max is the only one in the picture because this was our second time decorating it and Blake was already in bed. You see, the first time, we were just about done and Max was at the back of the tree hanging up a really old ornament of mine (hence the back of the tree!) with a very long string. He had been warned not to reach up too high, but guess what...he did it anyway, and the tree came tumbling down! Luckily, the stand was the only thing to break...so after the Nebraska game was over of course, we went looking for a new stand. I was really wanting to get a new tree but decided that would wait until next year. I didn't have the interest to go out after Christmas to look for a bargain...oh, and it was snowing!

We decided to go to the Festival of Lights parade in East Peoria this year. It wasn't terribly cold and it is an amazing display of floats. We got there about an hour early and had to wait at least another hour for the parade to get to us. By the end of the night, we were a little chilly. We ended up sitting next to a family living here from Northern Ireland. It made us really miss our good 'ole Irish friends in England! Miss you Glenda, Warren and family! We'll bring you with us sometime!

Blake had his pre-school program on the 14th. It was the most popular event in town! They combined all of the classes that attend on Monday, Wed, and Friday. It seemed like a hundred kids! Each child must have had parents, siblings and grandparents all come as there were not enough seats in the gym! What can I say...there were 5 of us for Blake! He did a great job and I just love hearing him singing about Jesus. We were in the grocery store a couple weeks before the program and he was just busting out "I love Jesus yes I do, I love Jesus what about you??!!" This is Blake's teacher, Mrs. Hansen. Our parents are longtime friends so I was thrilled to know that she was going to be his teacher this year. She is just a little bit taller than the kids (hee, hee)....and is wonderful!

My mom and dad went to visit my brother, Sara and Clyde over Thanksgiving and brought back presents for the boys. They started a countdown on the 15th of Dec. Each day until Christmas they opened a numbered present. The boys had a great time with the game. Thanks Craig, Sara and Clyde!

Max also had a Christmas program at school. The Kindergarten class always does the Nutcracker. We actually took a field trip to Bloomington a couple weeks before so the kids could see the ballet. Max was Fritz and really did a fantastic job. He was so animated and played his part very well. We were so proud!! Max's teacher, Mrs Elsas, was my pre-school teacher and also a longtime friend of my mom's. She is about the same height as Mrs Hansen! Good thing my kids are used to short people!

Do you think they will still love each other this much next year??!! Hopefully many, many more! They really are the best of buddies! Love you guys!

Congratulations Kara!

Kara graduated from the U of I on Saturday. There were 365 December graduates and they were only allowed 5 tickets a piece. Dan, her mom (Michele), step dad (Lou), grandma (Carol) and her boyfriend (Pierce) were able to attend the ceremony. I offered to stay home with Max and Blake and get ready for the party. The boys would have had no interest in being there and they also had soccer that morning. Austin drove from KY to U of I on Friday night to stay with her on the last night of her college career! He was able to get into the ceremony at the last minute as there were a few empty seats. David stayed home with us and watched the boys play soccer. The proud Papa!! Kara graduated in Actuarial Sciences and will be starting at State Farm in January! We are so proud of her for working so hard in her classes and at her internship with State Farm the past couple of years. There are not many job offers at the moment and she was given an offer driving back from her interview this summer. It was a wonderful blessing for her and a huge accomplishment! Kara had some extra challenges (and opportunities) while in college as we spent most of that time in England and her mom has been in China for the last couple of years. Thank goodness she had Pierce and his family to help provide her a "home" away from school. They have been an amazing support system for her and we can't thank them enough! Kara and Pierce were able to have some wonderful experiences traveling the world too. I do think (and hope!) she is very happy to finally have some family in the states. Michele has to head back to China after the new year to complete the last year of their China assignment. I know that they are very anxious to get back home (to the USA!). Kara and Pierce are a little bit nervous about this new phase in their lives. He will be graduating in May so they will have a few months of a long distance relationship. I don't think they will go too long without seeing each other as Kara will be missing him and Reuben. She will be living with us but I'm sure will be spending a lot of time in Champaign visiting her boys! We had plenty of food and drink...and loads of desserts at the party. Pierce's family was able to make it, including his new half-brother, Croix, who was just 2 weeks old! (His dad married a woman named Jenny and they are now starting a family together!) My parents were also here to help celebrate. Michele's mom, Carol, was visiting for a few days and really enjoyed being with the kids. Blake is just happy snuggling with Reuben!

Congratulations Kara. We are so proud of you and know that you will continue to have many more successes in this next phase of life!

It's wrestling time!!

Max and Blake started a new sport a few weeks ago...wrestling. They have practices 2 times a week and then we can sign them up for tournaments on Sunday mornings (yes, it is a horrible time!!). We just completed our second one today and it was from 7:30a until almost 1:00p. There was about an 1 1/2 hrs in between each of their matches. The matches only last a few minutes but they are intense! The first tournament was at Woodruff. It was a lot of fun for both of them as they each wrestled 3 people and beat all of them. Yes...the outfits are very sexy!! This was Max pinning one of his guys. He is one on top, of course! My camera doesn't take good pictures at all in the gyms.

Blake...the winner!! Check out that belly!

The boys with their number one fan, secret coach and brother!

We headed to Washington today. It wasn't as much fun for Blake as he lost the first 2 matches and one his last. He finished strong after shedding a few tears in the other matches. That is not very fun for a mom to watch! I absolutely hated seeing him cry and not being able to run down and give him a big hug. They keep the parents in the balcony just for that reason! Max won all of his today and got another first place medal. He also got a tooth knocked out! He had 2 very wobbly teeth this morning and I had a feeling that one of them would come out today. For some reason he just hates pulling them out! He lost one just eating watermelon. So hopefully the tooth fairy remembers to come visit him tonight.

The boys had a big cheering section today with Austin, David, Kara, Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad and some of our friends came too. Thanks for coming everyone! (Terry, Lisa and their kids had to leave so didn't get them in the picture!)

It ended up on a good note, but it was tough for Blake and Mommy today! We are signed up for one more tournament in January and that might be it. Great job Max and Blake! We are so proud of you!!