Asher's Baby Dedication

The weekend after Easter, we had Asher dedicated at church. During the dedication they spoke about the profound passage in Deuteronomy 6:7-8 where we as parents are commanded by God to "diligently" teach his Word to our children "when you sit in your house, when you lie down and when you rise up." Wow...so basically I'm supposed to be teaching/modeling/seeking/praying God's word in all moments of my day. What a huge responsibility and great privilege to me as a mother and Austin as a father! Oh how I pray that in the chaos of my days that I can slow myself down enough to teach about God's great glory, His eternal promises and His unconditional love.
Here are some pictures from that sweet day -

Okay so here we are on stage...if you notice, Braden is either a.)wallowing in the floor b.) walking all over the stage (while I pray he doesn't trip on a cord, fall down and start screaming in the middle of the dedication) c.) begging for a snack d.) giving high fives to our friends kids at the other end of the stage e.) saying for the hundredth time "I wanna go see Toach." (Austin's dad) And the answer is...f.) all of the above. Okay so I will admit, this was not Braden's shining moment, but since we were trying to maintain some sort of peace in front of the entire church, there was not much we could do except pray that the pastor talk a little faster so we could go sit down.
After the church service we invited both of our families to come over to our house for a little brunch. It was an incredibly, beautiful day, so we spent the entire afternoon outside enjoying both boys and our families. Here is my sweet daddy with all of his daughters and one of his grandsons.

Toach and Uncle Tyler -

Aunt Shannon and little Asher -
Braden, resting on Tyson after a busy afternoon of playing. Please ignore his crocs with his outfit. I asked Austin to change him and instead of putting play clothes on him, he took his dress shoes off and put on his crocs.

And here is a sweet picture of Braden playing. I love how the sunlight was hitting his face!
All in all, a great day! So thankful for all the wonderful people who are such a huge part of my children's lives.

Easter Pictures

Okay so here are some pictures from Easter and all the fun activities surrounding this special holiday. My camera's batteries were dead of course so I didn't get too many pictures, but we did manage to stay out of the mud this year unlike last year. Here is a little reminder of how Easter went last year (keep in mind I was prego and Austin was out of town). Braden just couldn't resist the temptation to wallow in the mud after church -


Here we are dying some Easter eggs at home...Braden was covered from head to toe in blue dye by the time we were finished but he thoroughly enjoyed himself...especially once he figured out that the eggs crack if you drop them -
Ta Da -
Let me just stop here and say how much I have enjoyed reliving these holidays through the eyes of a child. Everything is new and magical and fun and exciting and I am so thankful to be able to become childlike again as I experience these ordinary days with such amazing little people. Oh how I will miss these days when they are gone...

On Easter Eve we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at our friend's home. This was such a fun party as we joined all of our dear friends and all their boys (how do we all have boys) to hunt for Easter eggs and let our children run around. Here is Braden showing me the surprise in his egg -

Hunting with daddy -

Braden and I...once he discovered this car that is in his hand, his egg hunting was over -

Sweet Asher holding an Easter egg. He enjoyed the festivities in the comfort of his exersaucer -

These are the bunny cupcakes I made for the party -


Here is Asher enjoying the grass in his Easter basket -
Of course my camera died before I could get any pictures of Braden opening his Easter basket. He got lots of Veggie Tales loot this year and he was quite pleased!

Here is our family picture...so thankful for all of my boys -
Well my baby turns 7 months old tomorrow...more on that later.