Strawberries!

Yesterday we went to the strawberry field and picked about 3 or so pounds of strawberries! We had such a great time. My friend Ashley and her baby Ethan came along, too. The kids had fun exploring around and Ella was such a great helper! Noah was CRAZY for the strawberries. He must have eaten at least 6 or 7 while we were there. We came home and dipped a bunch in chocolate and washed up the rest. I think we are going to go back early next week to get some for jelly, yum yum!

Thank goodness Ashley brought her camera and took pics! I forgot mine at home and I would have been so sad to miss out on these! They came out great!

Last Week Play Date!

A couple of months ago, the kiddos and I joined a group called "Greenville Mommies". It's a huge network of mommies around the Greenville area that host playdates throughout the week. We are enjoying it so much because there is typically something going on almost every day. Obviously we don't make it out to a playdate every day, but it's nice to be able to look at the whole week and decided what days we can make. The weather has been amazing and we have been keeping sooo busy!! We also enjoyed hosting our first GM playdate here at the house the week before last and I'm hosting a "crawlers and under" playdate tomorrow for all of Noah's little buddies.

Here are some pics from a playdate we went to last week. Ella got to paint a little pot and plant a flower in it! She loved it! They also had some fun running around, playing outside, and running through the sprinkler :)

Pool Time!

I was just telling Randy earlier today that I needed to take a day and spend it at home so I can catch up on some housework! We have been busy everyday going to playdates and things and then when we get home we spend most of the day outside playing. We've been enjoying the weather soooo much. I've just made up my mind that I would much rather being playing with the kids than inside cleaning! I do the usual stuff like dishes and straightening while they take their nap. I'd much rather look back 20 years from now and wish that I had cleaned more, than to look back and wish I'd played with them more! And play, we certainly have!

Ella and Noah got in the kiddy pool this afternoon and had a blast! I mowed the grass while they were sleeping and when they woke up Ella wanted to go straight outside. When the sun was out it was nice and warm, but it was pretty cloudy so they both ended up cold with purple lips. They could have cared less really, but their mean mommy finally said it was enough and made them get out! I grabbed a few pics while we were out there before my camera's battery died on me!

Noah thought the pool was great once he got used to the water. He laughed and splashed and had a great time. It was so funny when Ella would splash or make a wave..he would get so ticked off at her and yell..then go back to playing!

Here's Noah trying to get some last minute splashes in before mommy makes him go inside!

Seriously the cutest little bottom ever!

Retired

Finally got around to updating my blog header. Kinda crazy to compare little Ella in the old pic to the new one. I can't believe it took me like 2 years to update it! I guess I'm set now until somewhere around Noah's 3 Birthday! Maybe I'll be better this time around :)

Farewell old bloggy picture (minus all the purple tints from before)..We'll miss you!

Spring

The thing I love most about Spring, is getting OUTSIDE! I never really appreciated that when I lived in Florida. Even though we had cold Winters that kept us somewhat inside, it was nothing like it is here in NC. It's been really hard to adjust to the gloomy, cold Winter. It makes you feel so down at times! I'm so happy that the beautiful, warm, Spring is here! I really actually prefer Summer when it's warm enough to get in the water, but I'm really enjoying Spring, too. The weather is great. Cool mornings and beautiful afternoons that make you want to stay outside all day.I have really enjoyed getting out and digging in the yard trying to get the flower beds back in shape. They are looking good so far. I can't wait until later in the season as everything gets bigger and starts to bloom.

We are also working on a garden this year! I am so excited!!! It has become one of my favorite "nap time" hobbies to be outside enjoying the quiet. I find all of the watering and weed pulling to be almost therapeutic lol! I'm so excited to have another project and I can't wait to see how it goes. I almost planted one last year, but decided to spend the year preparing for it so that we wouldn't get in over our heads..we still very well may, but I'm optimistic at this point! :)

Here are some pics from around the yard...

I moved the Hostas from along the side of our driveway...they were getting too big, so I put two of them in one of our front beds (not pictured) and moved one here to the corner of this bed. I can't wait for their pretty purple blooms to come!

I also added some pink and white Azaleas to the mix this year!

Here's what replaced the Hostas down the side..

I also added a new planter around one of

the trees in our backyard this year! I am soooo excited about it! It has made the backyard look so great! (Pardon the Hostas in this picture...Ella was "helping" me pull weeds and she tore all of the leaves off of these! Haha! Her bucket of weeds was really full compared to mine!! At least it was the Hostas of all things! They are almost grown back already.)

This afternoon, Ella helped me plant some impatients and marigolds around the tree to add some color.

10 Months Old

Noah. Noe. BB. Brudder. Noey. Little Mister. Baby Boy.

At 10 months, you are such a joy! You love giving kisses. Always have a huge smile on your face. Make a raspberry sound with your lips and tongue. Show us with your hands that you are "so big". Crawl everywhere. And get into everything. Eat anything and everything we give you. Have never eaten a food that you didn't like. Give high fives. Over and over again. Say Mama, Da-da, Ella, Dah-Dah...the list goes on. Your favorite sound to make right now is "Bop Bop Bop". You love dogs. I mean really love them. You sleep on your tummy. Love your Mr. Bear. Think everything revolves around you. Maybe because at our house, it does. Clap. Sing. Love your Sissy. So much. And she loves you. Love playing "rough" with Daddy. You're sweet and sensitive. You give the sweetest "cuddles" on command. Have an adorable toothy grin with your 6 pearly whites. You make us all feel so special and loved and we can't get enough of YOU!

"The Happiest Place on Earth"

I'm sure there are lots of "happy" places on this Earth..but Disney definitely lived up to it's title this past week when we went to Magic Kingdom. It was super crowded, but we still had an incredible time! It was really an awesome day. It's been awhile since we've taken a trip together to have some fun since most are usually trips to visit family. Even though we did spend a significant amount of our Florida trip visiting family and friends, we had alot of fun!!! I'm really glad we bit the bullet and paid the outrageous prices at Disney, because in the long run the memories we made were priceless.

Here are a couple of pics from our day. You can see the whole album by clicking HERE.

Also, here's a short video of how we ended our day. It couldn't have been more perfect. Just as we were walking down Main Street to the exit, the last round of the electrical parade was also going down Main Street. We stopped at the end and watched the rest just one more time..Ella was waving bye bye to all of the characters and got to wave to Cinderella one last time.

Greenville's Largest Egg Hunt

Just got home from "Greenville's Laregest Egg Hunt". It was put on by our church, Discovery Church and another church here in Greenville, Ignite Church, as well as the Boys and Girl's Club in Winterville. It was a great time and there was an awesome turn out. I think there was somewhere around 700 kids registered?! That's not counting the parents and babies..not to mention alot of people who showed up late and didn't register. Wow!! We had a ton of donated prizes, too. They gave out a bunch of Easter baskets, a Wii or two, Xbox 360? , Flip Camera, and a TON of other stuff! It was so awesome to have so many people pitch in and donate stuff so that it could be completely FREE to the community. It was a great time!

Ella LOVED it and got a bunch of candy. We are all slightly sunburnt and realllyyy exhausted, but we had a great time! I just uploaded several pictures to facebook...Click here if you want to see them :))

I'm so looking forward to Easter...I'm off to finish packing for our trip next week and going to dye some Easter eggs with my little girlie! Hope you are all having an awesome week!

The Easter Preliminaries have begun!!

As Easter is getting closer and closer, all the fun and excitement is building! This has been the first year with Ella that she actually can understand holidays and all the fun that goes with them. I love her anticipation over everything! Finding the balance on holidays like Christmas and Easter has been tricky for us, too. I'm a tradition nut..I love them! My favorite memories in life are the ones of things that we always did together. I used to love hanging out with my family even as a teenager and I want that so badly for my family.

With Easter coming closer, we have been once again trying to find the balance between the Easter bunny and Jesus. We have been having a ton of fun with the eggs and Easter baskets and singing "Here comes Peter Cotton Tail..", but we've also been trying to spend sometime remembering what Easter is all about. I've really been shocked at how much Ella is finally starting to grasp. Don't get me wrong..it's still all very surface level. But she is really starting to grasp that it was something really BIG and special that He did. I love it.

As for me, I have been particularly awed this Easter. I just keep looking around at my beautiful family. Every minute with them is pure joy and I suddenly feel overwhelmingly blessed. I dont deserve all of these great blessings and the wonderful family that God has given me. I dpnt deserve Jesus giving up his own life for me. That's the biggest part to grasp though..He knew what a clumsy, selfish, stubborn girl I am...yet He willingly did it anyways!! That my friends, is true love worth celebrating and I can't wait to spend Easter celebrating! I'm also looking forward to leading worship with my amazing hubby, too! :))

On a lighter note..here are the pics from Ella's Easter part at Pre-School today! :-)

Little Brother says Sissy's class is SUPER fun!

Ready to go hunt some eggs!

This video is so powerful, you should definitely watch it! Looking forward to doing this song with the band on Sunday!

True Love from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.