An attempt at a photo shoot

Today we attempted a photo shoot of the kids in the sunny city we live in. ( We are moving to a city where we won't be able to see the sun very often.) I will let the pictures tell the story of how it went :-)

A Surprise Package

I got a surprise package from my sister Holly today. The most treasured thing in it was those Sundrops you see sitting on my table. Sun Drop is my most favorite drink of all. You can't find Sun Drop outside of North or South Carolina much less on the other side of the world so the fact that she sent those to me was a special treat!!

A Miracle!

This morning John woke up early and left for a drive to our new city. He had planned to drive with his good friend Daniel so they could leave Daniel's car there. Daniel and Kayla are moving with us to our new city but they will be in America this summer so they wanted to go ahead and have there car up there. The drive was going to take them about 13 hours so they left really early. John kissed me good bye this morning and I rolled over and went back to sleep thinking nothing out of the ordinary would happen today.

As I was jumping out of the shower this morning I could here my phone ringing. I ran to answer it and it was Kayla she was crying. She said she couldn't believe that the van was totaled and that all of our stuff had been destroyed. ( She had assumed I had already heard from John at this point.) My heart dropped into my stomach as I asked her if John and Daniel were ok. She said "You haven't talked to John at all?" I said "no" and she reassured me they were ok but that I should call John right away. As I hung up the phone I was shaking and I realized I had several missed calls from John. I gave him a call and the first thing he said to me was "Honey, we were in a wreck we are ok but we shouldn't be alive right now." I just started crying. John told me that they had hit some traffic on the highway and had come to a complete stop. A rather large truck was trying to get stopped behind them and couldn't. It flipped on top of the van crushing all of the van except for the driver and passenger side! After we got off the phone I just fell to my knees and thanked God that he spared their lives.

Later that day John sent me pictures of the wreck and it was then I realized that this was a true miracle. God obviously has plans for John and Daniel on this earth and it was clearly not their time to die.

Zeb's Party

We had Zeb's birthday party today. We actually had a joint party with his friend Zoe who just turned 4 as well. They are only two days apart. It was the first weekend the pool was open. May happens to be the hottest month of the year (in my opinion) in this spring city we live in, so it was perfect for a swim! There were lots of cupcakes, chips, salsa, and veggies to be eaten. Lots of fun to be had by all!








Notice how each of my children are eating their cupcakes. Zeb has resorted to licking the plate. Layla is trying to figure out how to stuff the entire cupcake in her mouth and sweet Kayleigh is trying to be so neat.

Happy 4th Birthday Zeb!!!

My sweet little Zeb turned 4 today. He is such a little blessing to our family. He is so detail oriented and "sees" the world in such a different way than I do. I love to see it through his eyes. He is so loving and affectionate. He gets super excited about things. I can't imagine life without him.

This morning we celebrated his birthday. I have been asking him for a while what he wanted for his birthday. He has a friend named Jubilee that has a tricycle. He has told me several times that he wants a Jubilee bike. So we bought him a tricycle of his own. He has had a truck that he has been riding since he was a year and half. The wheels are literally about to fall off of it. I have been praying and hoping that they wouldn't fall off until we got him a new tricycle and my prayers were answered!









Zeb loved his new tricycle. So much so that he decided to give his little sister a ride!






That afternoon we called all his little friends to come to our courtyard to have a race with Zeb and his new ride!

Kayleigh's cast is off!!

I should have a picture to document this event but I don't. I just wanted to post and say that we took Kayleigh's cast off today. Of course John and I were expecting her to just get up and walk around the room but in fact she is quite frightened. I guess it is going to take a few days to get used to walking again. I am thankful for no more baths with plastic bags around her leg, or her in a stroller all the time. I'm thankful that cast is gone!!

Kayleigh...

Has lost her first tooth! It has been loose for what seems like months. Yesterday we were strolling her through church and she said it just fell out. The tooth fairy came to visit her last night. She walked out this morning to tell me the tooth fairy must be Chinese because she left her Chinese money!

From April 2012

Happy Easter!

We have had a great day celebrating the resurrection of our Savior! Our crew came over tonight for a yummy dinner of appetizers and dessert. So fun!

Dying Eggs

My friend Michelle came over this morning to dye Easter Eggs with the kids. It was a lot of fun! I think this year was the first year that Kayleigh and Zeb were really into dying eggs. They really loved it and were sad when we had dyed them all. They kept asking me for more. I loved watching them design their own. I am looking forward to many more years of building family traditions like this one.

Easter Egg Hunt

Three of my mom friends here in our city decided a while back to start a little library for the kids. It has been wonderful. They just sent emails and asked if anyone had kid's books they would be willing to donate to the library. They got tons of responses and as a result we now have a wonderful little library for our kids. Jenni, one of the mom's that started the library, has graciously allowed the library to be in her home. So every week I take the kids to library time to check out books and have some fun time reading. Once a month they have a story time where the kids listen to stories and then do crafts. My kids love it and it has been a huge blessing to all involved.

Today was another story time that ended in an Easter Egg Hunt. The kids were super excited and loved every minute of it. We did the egg hunt in our court yard that actually has lots of water and stepping stones in it. I felt bad for Kayleigh because she could only participate in the egg hunt as far as I could push the stroller. We had to go around the outside to look for eggs but she found quite a bit. Plus, her friends were very gracious with her in helping her get eggs as well.

So thankful for the library, egg hunts, and a day like today.