Hayden the Great

Quick story - Hayden was super excited about the egg hunt they were scheduled to have at school the Thursday before Easter. With great jubilation he darted around the playground looking under plastic cones, behind slides, buried in sand and other places the sneaky Easter Bunny decided to hide them!

He excitedly brought over his basket with several eggs in it and we chatted a bit about how much fun he was having.

A few minutes later he discovered that one of his classmates didn't have very many eggs so he ran to his basket, grabbed half of his eggs and gave them to his friend. Seriously made me tear up!

Another quick story...when Hayden and I were going through his Valentine's Day cards from school and I was reading through the names and as soon as I said, "This one's from Grace" he stopped, grinned and said, "She's pretty"...and my heart stopped!

Here we have Grace

Teacher Appreciation

I whipped these up last night using this Our Best Bites tutorial
We stuck M&Ms and a Chick fil a gift card inside!

Pretty sure this one needs no introduction...

We did "Death by Chocolate" on Wednesday and, from what I hear, these were a hit :)

I Scream, You Scream

Easter Hats

The kids had an Easter Had parade at school and we were given pretty much free reign on what to do, so we just went with it! Kind of goofy, if you ask me :)

Very Hungry Caterpillar

Hayden's school is amazing! They have an entire week devoted to Eric Carle so over spring break everybody takes home a green circle and decorates it with a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme! There were some really cute pictures!

Here's Hayden standing in front of his

Here's the front of the caterpillar

A closeup of Hayden's...

Cookie Exchange

I bake the BEST chocolate chip cookies on the planet. Seriously. Well, apparently so do some of my friends! We couldn't come to an agreement so we decided to have a cookie exchange! Here's some pictures of the festivities!

(This was over a month ago...I'm just THAT bad of a blogger...)

The Beach

My little Valentine ♥

Swing Set

A couple of weeks ago Santa brought this swing set by since it was too big to fit in his sleigh on Christmas Eve! (Truth be told, there was a mix-up at Toys R Us)

Anyway - It took a lot of effort and help to put it together, but it was so worth it! I promise next time I'll post pictures with children actually on the thing...but I was rather proud of myself :) I did, in fact, put about half of it together myself!

I have this friend...

My friend, Trishelle, is totally freaking amazing in every way. She has this zest and passion for life that is so seriously out of this world. Callous words NEVER escape her tongue and she flutters around buoying up everyone with whom she comes in contact. Her testimony of the Savior is inspirational. She takes being a mother and wife to a level indescribable with words. Her family is her world, her friends are her passion and her Savior is who her life is centered around. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Yesterday on her blog, she posted this: "I may have shared the advice a clergy member gave to us a few years ago: When someone comes home, make their entrance a big deal. Make them feel important by letting them know how excited you are to see their face"

I must admit, I was literally reduced to tears. Most of the time when Mike comes home he is greeted with chaos. I am either in the kitchen trying to make something for dinner or behind my computer trying to catch up on work. The kids are whining, the TV is blaring and there is probably a poopy diaper that needs changing. It is not a peaceful, serene escape from the world that I have always longed for in my home.

So here's to trying to improve myself in a small, simple way with a promise to change the mood in my home, even for a brief moment.