easter

easter marked the last "first" holiday we are going to have as a family with veronica and henry. tomorrow, it will be a year that little miss v came home forever!

we had an absolutely perfect easter. we did all the fun things leading up to sunday....

egg dying


easter egg hunts






andrew had his easter celebration at mops and made this beautiful cross



and tj made this at church. can you see what it says?



the boys had spring parties at school. they made bunnies and eggs. they did crafts and ate candy. and all of it was a lot of fun.

but, i am also so glad that they know the true meaning of why easter is so important. when we asked tj why we celebrate easter, this was his answer....

"on the friday before easter, jesus died on the cross. and on easter he came out of his grave and now he is alive. jesus did that for us. yay"
(i actually had him type that, with a little grammar help from me.)

tj's answer is so simple. he doesn't questions anything. he just accepts god's love and sacrifice for us. amazing.

easter morning greeted the kids with baskets. i love seeing all five baskets lined up with their names on them.





i'm not going to lie, i loved getting veronica dressed up. keith bought her her dress :)


and, of course, the boys were in their easter best too.


we went to church, we had an easter egg hunt at home, and we had dinner with our family. we even did a little playing in the sprinkler and lounging around outside.






perfect day.

in your eyes

i'm not sure how it happened, but we have five children with five different color eyes.

from lightest eyes to darkest....












#3 and #4 are closest. it was hard to capture the true color of #3. they are actually more green than the picture shows.

can you guess who is who? it's actually pretty easy :)

the biggest turns 7!

so. i'm a little late on this post, but my big man still deserves some celebrating.

TJ just celebrated his 7th birthday!! (i sorta can't believe i have been a mom for that long!)

i LOVE birthdays! i love making my child feel really special. so, we did just that for tj's birthday.

we started off the festivities with a birthday party at a local ice cream shoppe for his friends from school. they had a blast!





on the day of his actual birthday, right after he woke up, and ate the breakfast that he requested (porkroll, egg and cheese on a bagel....yes we ARE from NJ!) we blindfolded him and took him outside to get his gift.....


a GO KART! i'm not sure who is more excited about it, keith or tj. although, tj was pretty pumped. his first words.....when i saw that in the driveway a few days ago, i thought it was for uncle matt!!




next, it was off to school with some treats for his class...



after school, a favorite friend came over to play and stay for dinner. as requested by the birthday child, we had bbq chicken, "vegetables on the stick", and hot dogs for his friend. only tj would ask for veggies for his birthday dinner. when he went out for dinner with mimi for his birthday, he requested salad works! he did the same when gramps took him out to dinner. no wonder he's so skinny!

amia and pop pop stopped by (all the way from florida i might add) for some birthday cake.






i think tj had a really great seventh birthday! i am so glad. he deserves to be celebrated. he is such a great kid. i know every mom says that about her children, but i really am just so proud of tj. he is such a fantastic big brother, he is kind and compassionate, he is curious and eager to learn, he is super sweet (especially to me),he's confident, and he is faithful and loves jesus.

i love my biggest to pieces. and, tj will always have a special part of my heart because it is he who first made me a mom.

this is what happens....

when i let the laundry go a little too long.

half of my life

16 years ago today, keith and i started dating. it may seem like a lot to some. it may seem like a little to others. but, for us it's a big deal. because today is the day that marks exactly half of my life spent "dating" keith.

one. half. of. my. life!

i can still remember so clearly the day that keith "asked me out". i was 16 years old, keith 17. we were driving home from our friend jessica's house. he was dropping me off in his 1968, army green colored corvair. i had to be home early because i was helping my grandmother babysit my little sister, katie. she was actually really little at this piont. only 5! we were sitting in my driveway and keith said, "will you go out with me?" i mean, that's what you said when i was in high school. that's how you determined if you were going to be girlfriend and boyfriend.

i liked keith a lot. but i also had a bunch of boys that had been pretty mean to me right before this. so, i said......"maybe. can i think about it?"

i know. it's not like it was a marriage proposal. and i was only 16. but, i was nervous.

keith called me 30 minutes later. i was laying with katie in her bed getting her to sleep.
"did you decide yet?"
"no, not yet."
(something keith will NEVER let me live down!)

i let him wait three days. yup. three days. i know. i was mean.

monday night came and i called him on the phone. i told him that i thought we should start dating. he already knew i was going to say yes.

we dated the remaining year and a half of high school. we dated all through college (separate colleges) . and we got engaged a year after we graduated.

saying "yes" to keith was the best decision i ever made. i'm not saying there hasn't been bad times or hard times. but through it all, keith has been my best friend, my biggest fan, and my most loyal supporter.

i am so thankful for him and so grateful that he put this amazing man in my life.

it's not much.....

...but it is definitely something!

little miss V is sporting her very first ponytail today!


it has taken a long time to get to this point. when we first met our little gal she had almost no hair at all.




(pictures taken a year ago today)


a year later, we can just put it in a little ity-bity ponytail.







i think she liked it....