random may

enjoy!

 Nolan's first trip to the ER for nursemaid elbow

 my hubby

 the kids enjoying a little movie

lots of learning going on 

milk does a flower good, right mom...

all nolan 

 an original Gracie design

 in bed selfie but the light was so bright we all closed our eyes

 my love and i

The girls and I hit up pitch perfect 2 at the new theatre with lounge chairs 

nolan trying to sleep 

chair redo sorry no pics of it finished 

Gracie & Dede playing on Memorial Day weekend 

 time with Micah &Kathrina

 fun snack for the kids

 them posing

 some style right there

yum mom 

 my crazy nolan love this kid!

finally picked my christmas gift;)

Mother's Day

Our Mother's Day was just what I wanted low key and no cooking.  We went to church, went out for dinner, and relaxed around the house for the day.  Gracie had made me about ten different Mother's Day gifts with school, MOPs, and church there was plenty of love.  Nolan also made me a picture at MOP's.  When we got home he was so made he saw the picture, he said, "this not mine, this Kjells", we had grabbed the wrong paper.  No worries we did a trade and all was right for both boys.

 silly picture

Easter to Me

I know Easter is a few weeks past but I must share this with you.

I feel as though Easter is down played to what we put forth for Christmas.  I have been contemplating ways to make it a bigger deal.  One of my friends actually has this adorable tree with Easter decorations all over it.  Easter was always as big of a deal as Christmas in her family.  I loved the idea of the tree.  I loved that there was so much excitement about the holiday for her kids and not because of the candy.  Although there was some candy this year we really wanted the kids to fully understand what Easter means to us and what it means to there lives.  Without the cross it would not matter, we would not have grace and we would have fallen so short.

My parents church had an amazing Easter service.  I have been to plenty of Easter services in my time and they are all the same and hundreds of extras flood in just for that day.  I will be honest and say I did not want to go to one more service, I wanted to stay home and just hangout with my family and do our own thing.  But we all went and as we entered the sanctuary we were each handed a box of items that were used through out the service to help us better understand.  We got to see where Jesus walked and had personally a better understanding of what he went through for us.  To understand fully the pain in which he took on for me.  If you are interested in watching even a snippet from what we had an honor of seeing check out the youtube video below.  This truly meant so much to my heart and I pray it does something to yours.

He died so we could live

If you are interested in watching more video from the Easter experience including beautifully written songs that depict what he did for us, check out there youtube site. CrossRoads Easter

Easter Fun

Our recent MOP's craft was to make resurrection eggs.  The kids loved getting to open an egg each night to find a verse and an object.  Gracie helped find a basket and flowers to decorate our table center piece for easter.

 terrible blurry pictures 

but here is Nolan & Gracie swinging olive branches

This Easter we traveled to Cincinnati to spend time with family.  

 the kids helped my mom make a cute easter decoration and ate a lot of the decoration

 pretty cute

 coloring eggs

 acting silly

 Easter pics

 my dad wanted to do resurrection eggs as well

the kids of course loved it

everyone participated in the egg hunt which had money in them 

 excited about their easter basket

don't be surprised, we don't do a whole lot of candy

more thoughts on our Personal Easter experience next...