Peter is Three!

Well, our little guy is not so little anymore. Peter turned three years old on June 9th. Three just sounds so big! But he really is a big boy. I am grateful for his "bigness" and the wonderful person he is, but it sure seems like just yesterday I was staring at this adorable, little swollen face.

Three years ago I became a mother and David became a father as we were blessed with the privilege of having sweet little Peter join our family. We sure love our little man! His hair is still RED and he is still a sweet, sensitive little spirit. He has brought us so much joy and has taught us many lessons.

Well, we celebrated a little on Sunday, June 9th. Here are some picture of the fun we had as a family on Peter's special day:

I decorated a little :)

He woke up to us singing him "Happy Birthday"

 The wooden train was only 50 cents for the entire set at a yard sale. We painted it and Peter loves it!

Observe the smile :)

He got Bubbles!

He learned to blow bubbles :)

He got Chalk!

The cake I made has train tracks on it if you can't tell ;)

Blowing out the candles...

This is the first year he blew his candles out all by himself!

Evelyn enjoyed the cake too :)

Nicole's Wedding

We had a wonderful opportunity last week. David had one week off between last semester and the semester that started today. My sister Nicole kindly planned her wedding to take place on the week we had off. So, we flew out to California! We got in real late Monday night the 20th. Tuesday was my birthday so we just relaxed and enjoyed time with family. Grandma Jo (David's mom), made a delicious strawberry shortcake to celebrate. Yumm :) 

Peter and Evelyn had sooo much fun playing with their cousins. Anne's kids, Ryan, Natalie Jo, and Jason, played real well with our kiddos. They enjoyed swimming in the back yard and just being kids, playing and running all over.

My older sister Vanessa was able to fly in with her two little ones! It was so great to see them. I got to meet her newest addition, Jackson. He is 6 or 7 weeks old. He is adorable and such a happy camper. He's real easy going. It was great to chat and catch up a bit with Vanessa. I wish they didn't live so stink'n far away!

David, Anne, and Grandma Jo ran a 5k Saturday morning. They all exceeded their goals set for time. David came in 2nd overall. Anne came in 2nd for girls. And Grandma Jo can sure move. They all did great!

David and I thoroughly enjoyed witnessing Nicole receiving her endowment and being sealed in the Fresno, CA temple. It was by far the highlight of our trip to California. Nicole planned out a wonderful reception. My mother, sisters, and I were busy the days up to the wedding preparing food and gathering supplies. Everything turned out beautiful.

Fun at the Reynders

We love baths...

We love blocks...

We love kisses...

We love smiles...

We love tickles...

We love to dance...

We love to eat rocks???

We love to play outside...

We love to explore and have fun!

Garden

 My entire childhood I had the opportunity to help my grandmother in her garden. She is so good with plants! She really had a green thumb. I remember all of her fruit trees, her rose garden, the stocks of corn, beans, strawberries  tomatoes, snap peas, squash, zucchini  pumpkin, watermelon, etc... my grandma did it all! I even remember slinging manure in her yard one year to help the grass grow better. That was actually not so fun... Any way, since we have been married, I have dreamed of having a garden, but have not yet lived somewhere we could establish one. Well, a neighbor of ours who is also a member of our church helped encourage me. She asked if we wanted to do a garden with them. We had a good spot in our back yard, so we decided to give it a go!
The first picture shows what we had to remove to have a suitable spot for a garden. It was full of tall mounds of grass and weeds.
The second picture was the start of the clearing. Peter loves to help in the garden. He would say, "Mommy, I want to go work in the garden." I am so excited for him to be able to learn as we garden this year.

This last picture shows how much we cleared. Now that the weather is nice again, we will plant seeds very soon :)

PS: It snowed May 3rd! I guess it has been 70 years since it has snowed here in May! The craziest part was that just 2 days before it was over 80 degrees!

Shoe Fettish

These two kiddos love shoes! Evelyn especially. I don't know what it is, but if there is a pair of shoes in sight they will try them on. Evelyn has really been into shoes lately. She knows where her basket of shoes is and will periodically bring one or two shoes out saying, "Shoe, shoe." I love it! However it's not so fun finding random shoes all over the house :)

Happy Birthday!

David and his older brother Robert have there birthday's only 6 days apart. David and Robert shared many birthday celebrations while growing up. Well, this year Robert and his great family came down to Bolivar, MO the day after Robert's birthday for General Conference on Sunday and to just hang out. It was wonderful having Robert, Paige and their adorable kiddos Max and Reagan hang out for the day. Peter and Evelyn loved playing with Max and Reagan. We had a nice little birthday cake celebration for Robert in the evening. We sure like birthdays cause we always get treats :)

David's birthday was April 12th (the following Friday). Peter enjoyed giving daddy a little gift and helping mommy decorate. He also enjoyed helping me make the easiest cake I've ever made. We made an ice-cream cake out of ice cream sandwiches, magic shell, and cool whip. Absolutely delicious! (Idea from HERE)

I think Peter's favorite part of the day was eating the cake. He kept asking if we could eat the birthday cake. When I finally told him it was time, he ran and grabbed his bib, put it on and sat so nicely in his chair.

Happy Birthday boys!

Easter 2013

Easter is always wonderful but his year was quite different than any other. It was great but different. We are always around family at Easter time and we were alone this Easter. My mother's side of the family always does a large family gathering. We have a BBQ picnic in my Aunt Joyce's backyard along with a huge Easter egg hunt. We dye eggs and we go over the Easter story with symbols hidden inside numbered plastic eggs to reveal the story. We sing hymns and have a good time. Needless to say, we missed that this year. However, we were invited to attend another families gathering out here in Bolivar, MO.

We went out onto this family's ranch and had a wonderful time. Even though they weren't our family by blood we felt at home and they are in our ward (church) family. It was even more wonderful to be surrounded by so many of God's beautiful creations and to see the signs of new life. It had just rained, a lot, and the grass was vibrant green. There were little calves running around in the herds of cattle. There were little lambs scurrying around their mothers. Peter had the opportunity to help feed one of the baby lambs. And news of baby chicks was shared. I am so grateful for the beauty of this earth.

I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ who blessed us with these wonderful things that we might have joy. I am grateful that our Heavenly Father gave His only begotten Son to overcome death and sin. I am grateful for the Plan of Salvation that was made possible only through our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am grateful that we have been shown the way by our Savior. He has taught and led the way. If we strive to live as He did and follow His teachings we can find true happiness in this life and in the next. I know this to be true. I have partaken of the great goodness that our Heavenly Father and Savior have offered.

Oh! I also wanted to share what I did to tell the Easter story here at home to our little kids. I got this idea HERE. The first picture in this post is of the eggs I made. This is the Easter story adapted to the short attention spans and simple minds of preschool aged kiddos. Here is the poem:

“Easter”

E is for Each of us.  God loves everyone.

A is for A broken world, so He sent His Son.

S is for our Sins that Jesus took away.

T is for the Tomb where He lay for three whole days.

E is for the Empty tomb.  The stone was rolled away.

R is for the Risen Lord.  Jesus is alive today!

©2010 – Stacie Nelson