Benton Days 2018

Benton Days was so much fun this year! The kids had decided to participate in the Fun Run and the tractor pull. They were too nervous/shy the previous years, but were all for it this time! Nick was out of town on a guy's weekend in Stockton, so it was just me and the kiddos. He was really sad he missed out on it, but we sent lots of pictures!

They got their numbers pinned on and waited for their turn. They both did great! They didn't win the races, but were so excited about their participation ribbons.

 After the races, they did the tractor pull. Funny story....there were different weight classes for each group. They scale was weighing everyone about 6 pounds heavier than they really were (I only knew because the kids had doctors appts the day before, so I knew how much they'd weighed there). Tessa got put in the next weight class because of that and I wondered how she'd do against the bigger kids (who were all boys except for maybe 1 other girl). She kicked butt!! Tommy did really well too and had a lot of fun doing it. I think they both ended up getting second in their division!

 

After all the competition events were over, we went to the school for face painting and games. They LOOOOVE getting their faces painted. Tommy chose batman and Tessa chose a butterfly. Cuties!

They jumped in the bouncy house, ran the obstacle course and did a few other things before it was time for the parade. Nana and the Whitsons and the Cains all met us to watch it together. It was a lot of fun!

The weather was really warm that day, so after the parade, mom, Brooke and Michael all came over and we hung out outside while the kids played in the mud. The simplest things make them happy. I think they played for at least 2 hours without complaining once--it was so nice! Tessa looked like Amazon Woman--ha!

Overall, it was a great day! The only thing that would've made it better was if Nick had been with us!

Busy, busy, busy!

 April was a busy month! We had a lot going on, but all of it was fun. Brooke turned 25 and we decided to plan a surprise party for her. She had wanted to do something fun but couldn't think of anything, so she thought we were just going to have a party at their shop. But we ended up renting out the cutest place called The Arcade and inviting all of our family and friends. It was a lot of fun and I THINK she was surprised. They had all kinds of vintage video games (I might have spent the whole time playing Paper Boy--remember how fun that game was?!?)!

Not too long after Brooke turned 25, Esther Grace turned 6!! She had a fun party at Exploration Place. It was kind of hectic because it was a Saturday and it was rainy outside, so it seemed like all of Wichita decided to show up at Exploration Place that day. But the kids still had SO much fun!

 The kids had the CUTEST spring program this year. They had been singing the songs for at least a month before their program, so I had a few of them memorized--ha! They were supposed to dress up like frogs. I had gotten the note a few months ahead of time, but of course I procrastinated until the night before. I whipped up little froggy visors that thankfully everyone could tell was supposed to be frogs (side note--if you need a solid colored tee in a pinch, Hobby Lobby is the place!). They looked so cute!

 

Tommy actually sang in this program and did a FEW of the dance moves....not many, but it was better than last year! He seemed to kind of enjoy himself.

 The kids had dentist appointments. Tommy didn't have any cavities--woohoo! Tessa had a bit of swelling back by one of her spacers and they said it was fine and to just brush it good every day.

 We showed up to Nana's one day and her and Tessa were dressed like twins! It was so funny! Even down to the shoes.

 I got some sweet kisses in with my favorite nephew!

Tommy's glad to be back to dirk bike riding! It's been kind of chillier than normal for April, so we've spent a lot of time inside. But it's finally warming up and he's been able to ride again, so he's a happy boy!

 He's been more interested in reading lately too, so during the chilly nights, he's been reading a few chapter books. He's very excited to be able to read harder stuff! I'm proud of how far his reading has come (and super impressed with the amount of work the teacher's have put in to teach him that!).

 Tessa's been drawing on anything and everything she can get her hands on. That girls LOVES to color!

April has been a fun month! Busy, busy, busy.....but we've had a few sweet slow moments too. I took the kids to Target one day and they were really good, so we got a pretzel and an Icee to share. I managed to capture this cute picture (which I'm sure they'll hate in a few years). Love these sweet kiddos!

Tessa Grace

Tessa has been so fun lately! While she's always been more comfortable and a little more silly around us as her family, she started out her life being fairly quiet and reserved, so we always thought she would be our mild child. Welp.......not so much. In the last several months, she's really started coming out of her shell and it's SO. FUN. She's pretty witty in a grown up kind of way and has been saying things lately that have caught us off guard and made us genuinely laugh! She can be a tough egg to crack, but it's been worth the time and effort we've put into getting her to loosen up a bit.

The other day, her and Tommy were wrestling around. She stopped and yelled, "Mom! Tommy kicked me in my nuts!" Me and Nick started laughing and explained to her that she doesn't have nuts. She said, "Well fine, then he kicked me in my berries." We were DYING. 

 She also has a HUGE amount of sass. Everyone says she's so sweet and I'm all.....have you met this child?!? All kidding aside, she is USUALLY really sweet, but if you cross her wrong or say something she disagrees with, you better look out! She whips out her attitude in a matter of seconds!

 She thinks she can do everything by herself. EVERYTHING. I try to teach her things, but if she tries and can't do it, she doesn't want help or correction. She wants to just keep trying until she gets it right. She was super proud of herself for "mastering" the towel wrap on her head!

She's really started to keep us on our toes and we've loved every minute of it!

Easter Weekend 2018

We had a fun Easter weekend! Saturday was fairly warm and sunny. Nick had to work that morning, so me and the kids started out with an egg hunt at the school. There were a lot of kids there and I wondered how on earth there would be enough eggs for everyone, but then we figured out that there were only a small amount of eggs and the rest was candy spread all over the playground. The kids LOVED it! And they got sooooooo much candy. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the weather while we were out.

The rest of the day turned out to be a big day for Nick. He's been wanting a tractor for the longest time. He's been looking and looking for a good deal and FINALLY found a tractor that looked good and was a fair price! So we loaded up and drove to Newton so he could check it out.

Once we got there, it was super windy and got really chilly, so I ended up staying in the car the whole time. The kids were so excited about maybe getting a tractor and were running all over the land we were on! Nick got to test drive the tractor and spent a good deal of time talking to the owner and decided to go forward with buying it.

He was SO. EXCITED. And I'm not gonna lie....I think his tractor's sexy, so I  was excited too ;)

He spent the rest of Saturday playing working with his tractor. It was fun to watch him enjoy it so much!

Saturday night, we dyed some Easter eggs and got the house cleaned up  (too bad his tractor couldn't help with that) and ready to host Easter lunch for both of our families the next day.

Easter morning we got up and around and headed to church. I told the kids the Easter bunny wasn't real this year. I'd been debating it anyways and then Tommy asked me if it was real and I just couldn't say yes. Why do we put so much time and effort into these fake characters? I still gave them baskets, but they were minimal and the kids were just as excited to get them as they were when they believed the bunny was real!

I didn't manage to get a picture of our whole family, but got one of the kids!

We enjoyed a wonderful sermon and then both of our families came for a lunch and an Easter egg hunt. It turned out to be FREEZING cold that day. Like....30 degrees and windy. But the kids wanted to hunt eggs anyways, so after our lunch, they headed out. It was a quick hunt! Everyone was ready to get back inside and get warm.

 Once they got inside, everyone opened their eggs and picked their prizes.

My mom had bought all the girls matching shirts and the boys a polo to go with it, so we had to get a picture. It's not the best picture, but I'm impressed you can actually see most of everyone's face!

We got one with their other set of cousins too!

I'm so glad our families were able to get together to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord! Time with family is precious and we certainly don't take it for granted around here. It's crazy how the years have flown by already and we know it's not going to slow down any time soon.

Here are all of our Easter's in the past: 

2011

2012

 2013

2014

 2015

2016

 2017