Happy Easter!

Easter is always such a powerful time of year for us, it's great to see the kids, as they continue their journey in their own relationships with the Lord, gain more and more of an understanding of the powerful sacrifice made for us. With Brienna having her First Communion, it ended up being an explosive year for her and we just pray she continues to look to him for comfort, guidance, and meaning in his plan for her. Course they also love the anticipation of all that candy, & the time they get to spend with all their awesome cousins!!! Below are some fun pics attesting to that fact, we are so blessed to have such amazing families, a strong love for the Lord and his work, and some of the cutest dang kids anyone has ever seen!!!

Happy Birthday our Beautiful Brie!!!

So hard to believe we held this little child in our arms weighing only 6lbs and 6 ounces!!! I remember she developed a reaction while in the hospital to the strong detergents they use to wash clothes so we had to bring a sleeper from home for her to wear. It was HUGE on her and it was an "up to 8 lbs" newborn size. Grandma picked up a preemie outfit for you and Auntie Liv also found one, you practically lived in those two outfits for almost a week!!!! I remember thinking how can she be so tiny! You brought so much joy to us that day Brienna and you continue to marvel us and those around you with your tender heart, caring ways, and of course all those big hugs! Mommy always tells you how beautiful you are and remember that beauty is more about what's inside than outside, you shine so brightly with your inner beauty sweetheart, don't ever change that! Of course, we think you're just as beautiful outside as well! Plus, you have the most adoring little brother that just idolizes you and looks up to you each and every day, he too loves his big sister!!!! Hope you have the most amazing day peanut, we love you very much and thank the Lord with each and every living breath!!!

Love Mommy, Daddy & Conner

Sacrament of First Communion

Congratulations Brienna!

Watching the dramatization of the Last Supper prior to witnessing Brie take her First Communion was extremely powerful. We were so blessed to celebrate on such an auspicious night, we watched Olivia and Brienna glued to the stage, when Judas walked away signifying the end of the play they both said "We want to watch more" and "what happens next?" Tears of joy watching her take the body and blood of Christ for the first time and a special blessing from Pastor Jedidiah just for each child, it just filled our hearts to be a part of it all.

Here are some snap shots from the night, thank you all for coming and celebrating Brienna and supporting her as she prepared for her First Communion you all mean so much to us and we love you!!!

Brienna led us to the alter where two of the gentlemen that played disciples washed their hands and dried them with this towel below, a keepsake for her.

Brienna and her friend Cassie by their banners made during our session last Sunday.

Brienna & Pastor Jedidiah who played the role of Jesus

Brienna and her banner

Brie & her Godparents

Brie & Olivia

Nana & Papa's turn!

Cuddle time with Grandpa & Grandpa too!

We love you Brienna & we're proud of you!!!

The beautiful First Communion Candidate ready to go!!!!

Growing up way too FAST!!!!

It's official, Brie survived her first shaving experience! She was really nervous, especially since she'd have to show off those legs in a dress tonight. With a lot of help from Mommy she was so excited to start this right of passage, is she really a young woman at this point? Yikes!!! The pleading to shave her little legs has been a year long battle, being blessed with an abundance of hair from her father has left her self-conscious about it for a while now. Yet I knew that while it seemed exciting to her right now, this would diminish in like what, one week? So we put it off for as long as possible, well that day came, it went and she's still smiling. I figure that will last about a month OR until that first time she nicks herself!!!

Pretty Toes & Nails

Brienna was treated to her first pedicure tonight along with a manicure, she thought it was awesome and is so proud of her little flowers, & is thinking she could get used to this! She's had a manicure before when the Steele girls treated her to her first about 2 years ago, and she still talks about that experience, yep she's my girlie girl. She's wearing pretty sandals with her First Communion dress so this was a must after a long winter ignoring her piggers! What a fun time Mommy got to spend with her little girl! I'll have to join her next time but this gal isn't ready to wear sandals anytime soon but would love it if spring would warm up the temps a bit so we all would feel compelled to spend some time pampering our selves at our local salons!!!!

Decorating Eggs!

It's been almost 4 years since we've decorated Easter eggs, the last time we had more casualties (Brienna & her ability to explode eggs while blowing them out was the cause) than eggs to decorate. Since Conner was suffering from yet another cough/cold yesterday it seemed like the best time to start the tradition up again. So while he lay watching a movie and in between nebs, he helped Mommy dig tiny holes in eggs and blow out all the "yucky" stuff inside as he called it. Little did he know all that yucky stuff made for a great breakfast this morning. After Church we got out the color and dunked eggs, forgot how much fun it was, really brought back great memories of being kids. It was great seeing that they haven't changed anything much, same wire dippers and everything!

Conner watching the tablets dissolve, patiently!

The fruits of all their labor, great job kids!!!

So glad to we've reinstated this tradition, just have to leave the cleaning out of eggs up to Mommy!

"Buck"

Say hello to the most adorable little donkey we've ever seen! One wonderful family brought little "buck" in this morning for the celebration of Palm Sunday! So not only did the sanctuary come alive with the dancing palms but with a procession of buck and all the Sunday school children singing, it was so profound. We were on the fence in bringing Conner since he has a cold again but well worth every second to see the excitement in the kids' eyes, they both loved petting buck and laughed when he "hee-hawed" while walking away after showering him with so much love and attention!

Turkey's, Loon's, & Turtles Oh My!

This weekend we saw our first upper 60's low 70's temps, spring has finally sprung! Our day lily's are starting to come up and the first real thunderstorms rolled through all night last night. They were quite the sight and the big "booms" had us up for most of it (well Mommy anyway). I honestly think that the show must have awakened all the fauna as well. For today we set a record at our house, we awoke to the sound of loons! Felt like we were on vacation up north, but no, it's just one of those sounds that soothes the soul! We have roughly 5-6 loons on the lake this year, a first since we've been here.

That wasn't the only treat, later we were able to glimpse one of the two bald eagles that is nesting in the tree line nearby. On our run this morning, Brienna and I saved a big turtle from being squished on the road and up about 15 feet we saved a baby turtle from the same demise. Caterpillars were everywhere! During lunch we watched a pheasant (rooster) trot through the back yard, Steve was itching to grab his gun! That's not all, later in the afternoon we caught THREE wild turkey's (hens) scampering past as well! It was all Daddy could do not to run and take a shot! We had our own little Mutual of Omaha happening in the Reese backyard today, it felt like a jungle as Brienna says!

Monster Trucks!

This morning, after breakfast was over, Conner slipped into our room to catch a few minutes of cartoons before heading off to school. Not having yet honed his channel surfing skills, it took him a while to get from HGTV all the way down to PBS, but to what does he behold on his way? A MONSTER TRUCK show! Who knew such an event would be televised at 6:30am! The giggles, whoa's, hoots, hollers, and "Mom, Dad, you've GOT to see this one's" were so contagious we all had to come & watch. As into the details as he is, Conner even commented on how some of the drivers wore their hair, apparently he thinks a mow hawk is cool! Everyone (including Brienna, excluding me) thinks we'll be partaking in a show as soon as one comes to MN again.

Progress

Tonight at the soccer clinic, Conner turned over a new leaf. He still very much skips around instead of runs, quite the thing to watch, but has gotten this aggressiveness thing for the ball down big time, and WAY before little miss Brienna did. During last night's scrimmage, Conner actually went into the pile of boys, retrieved the ball, ran with it, and yes, SCORED!!!! As I sat in the dentist chair, this text came in, "8 goals and counting!" I thought he was giving me an update on Brienna, nope it was Conner who was stealing the show last night. A while back when we were trying to get Brienna to be more aggressive we told her to think of the ball as one of her favorite foods/candy and that she should get it and keep it! Well it was so sweet to hear that before Conner's session, she told him to think of the ball as a big chocolate bar! She's grinning from ear to ear and taking full credit for his big night! Brie you are such a sweetie and a great big sister to your little bro! Brienna's all girls team beat up on the boys team pretty badly winning with ease, she ended the night with 3 goals. LOVE these soccer clinics! Brienna takes to the fields starting next week, hope the temps start heating up or we parents are going need to seriously bundle up on the sidelines!