Easter fun!

The girls in their matching dresses.















Enjoying a snack outside in the beautiful weather.















Last night I went to check on Liv and I found these two pictures on her pillow. It made her daddy's day.























I found little Luc sitting on the stool in the bathroom. She looked so big.
Easter basket fun.
















The death grip on the chocolate bunny.
















We had a fun Easter weekend. I thought it would be fun to take the kids to the Egg hunt for the city at a park. I know that those things are complete chaos, but I go anyway...why, I am not quite sure...tradition I guess. It was BEYOND chaos. People were pushing and yelling and parents were acting like one of the eggs held a million dollars. The kids ended up with 2 eggs each. Rex said, "Mom, all the kid strangers were taking all my eggs from me." Note to self, skip the crazy community egg hunt.


We had a fun egg hunt with the kids at home. They loved it. Lucy giggled and clapped her hands while watching the big kids run around. She found a chocolate bunny and had that thing open in seconds flat. I had to pry it out of her hands. before she downed the whole thing. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed some time outside. Hope you all had a great weekend.

I wanted to add some of my favorite quotes from this week from the kids.

Alivia "Mom, are you 29?" Me "Yes" Alivia "and you are not a Grandma yet? You are going to be really old when you are a Grandma."

Jared showed the kids some pictures of our engagement and he told them that this is when we were engaged. Rex " Why did they put you in a cage?"

I was talking to my mom on Sunday and Alivia was in the room and heard me tell my mom that I put eggs in the backyard. When Liv got on the phone she said, "I heard my mom say that she put the eggs in the backyard. She told me that the Easter Bunny put them there." Oops, busted!

Oh how I love these kids!!

I wanted to get some new pictures of the kids so we headed outside..... it was such a beautiful day today. Here are some of my favorite shots. I think they are so adorable!!! Lucy kept kicking her little chubby legs.
I love that they are such good friends.
She is a sweetie!!

We miss you Deb!

(This is a picture of my Mom with Debbie. I think she looks a lot like Lucy)

The first day of Spring is always a bitter sweet day for me. It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years ago tomorrow that my sister Debbie passed away. Those of you that knew her, knew that she was one of the most caring, kind and compassionate people I have known. Her example has been a strength to me my entire life, but especially these last 10 years. I often wonder what life would be like if she were still with us. I know that she is aware of the things that have happened in my life, my mission, my marriage to Jared, and the birth of each of my babies. And that is comforting to me. For those of you that never got to meet Debbie, I will tell you a little bit about her. She is the third oldest in my family. She was a talented person and always thought about other people. She had many friends because she was a good friend. When I was little I used to sit on the edge of the bathtub and watch her put her make-up on and do her hair & I would ask lots of questions. I am sure I was pretty annoying, but she never made me feel like I was bothering her, A few months after she got married, she was diagnosed with a disease called Scleroderma. Our family hadn't really heard of the disease. At the time Deb was a 2nd grade teacher and she loved her students. The disease progressed quickly and she started to have a hard time using her hands and bending her arms. She also found out that she was expecting a baby. Pretty much every Dr. advised her to have an abortion because the pregnancy would be hard on her body and most likely progress the disease even quicker. She & Dave felt like this baby was a miracle from Heavenly Father. It was a long, hard pregnancy, but Brian was born 2 months premature weighing only 2lbs. 1oz. (He is 12 now). Deb did get sicker and sicker, but she never complained. Her example to me is incredible. She was in pain beyond anything I can imagine, but she still always thought of others and would often ask what she could help me with or what she could do for me. Completely selfless. I was in high school at the time and it was fun to have Dave, Deb & Brian living with us. I felt like Brian was my little brother.

On the first day of Spring, March 20, 1998 Deb passed away at the age of 29. I can say that that experience was the hardest thing I have had to deal with in my life. Losing someone so close to you is heart breaking, but it strengthen my testimony in the Plan of Salvation and it brought my family even closer. You can get through losing someone, but part of you will always miss them. Every family get together you wish she could be there. We miss and love you Deb. "Onward and Upward" is what she would always say. Hopefully one day they will find a cure for Scleroderma. http://www.scleroderma.org/.

They make me laugh!!!!

So I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes from today. Alivia and Rex crack me up.

REX: "Mom, when I get big, I want to be superman and blast off. And I want to be a missionary, a daddy, a uncle and a papa."

ALIVIA: "Mom, something is wrong! There is a striped monster under my sheet. We have a problem." She was supposed to be going to bed. Nice try Liv. It is amazing the things they come up with to buy some more time.

REX: "Mom there are 5, no 6 snakes in my bed." Last week he said he could hear raccoons climbing up the house.

Alivia and Rex occasionally fight when they are getting in the car. This is what I heard.

ALIVIA: "Rex, it doesn't matter who gets in the car first as long as I am first to get in."

I asked Rex why he is so handsome and he said..."mom, why do girls like me? It's annoying." Yep, he is only 3!!

We have a tooth!!!

Lucy finally has a tooth. It finally popped through last week. She loves wearing Rex's sunglasses. Oh..we love this little goo.

Trip to Michigan!!

29th Birthday! My mom made me a magnet board cake. (that's a whole lot of candles)
Elder and Sister Schill
Celebrating my mom's birthday.

The WMU mascot

The Institute and Church Building in Kalamazoo.
One of the classes that my parents teach.

I celebrated my 29th birthday for about a week. We went to dinner with some friends on Tuesday night to celebrate my birthday. Then on Wed. the whole family went to lunch for my birthday. On Thursday the kids made me a strawberry shortcake and they showered me with drawings and love notes (my favorite!). After the kids were in bed Jared & I had Gandolpho subs and root beer from the bottle (also a favorite). So my real birthday was on Friday the 7th. That morning Lucy & I flew to Michigan to visit my parents on their mission. They are serving in the Michigan, Lansing mission. They are teaching Institute at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. It was so neat to see them in action. We celebrated my birthday that night at a great Mongolian Barbecue place. It was great to experience a little piece of their mission.

Two of my sisters flew in to celebrate my mom's birthday. We had a fun time going to church with my parents. They attend a small student branch. The members were so nice and we had fun meeting all of the people that we have heard so much about. It was so neat to hear the students express their love for my parents and to see how much the students meant to my parents. Missions are amazing and I am so happy that they are having this opportunity.

We had fun exploring an Amish town called Shipshawana. We ate at an Amish restaurant which was AMAZING!! We also walked around part of the campus of Western Michigan University. It is a pretty city. It was a fun trip and very memorable. Jared was able to stay home with the Alivia and Rex and they of course loved having lots of Daddy time.

Yay for March!!

So Mr. Weatherman said that we were going to have 50's all week. We got the bikes out and the kids spent most of the afternoon outside. It was still pretty cold with the wind, so we got Alivia's kite out that she got for her birthday. She ran down the street trying to get it up in the air. She finally got it up for about 10 seconds. We have a park in our subdivision and it has been tempting us for a few weeks now. It has been a little too cold still. We are VERY excited for flowers, picnics at the park, bike rides and shorts. March is a fun month.

Dancing and the piano

Lucy loves dancing and singing. As soon as any music starts playing, she claps and wiggles and jabbers, It is really cute. Most of the time we have Hannah Montana blasting because Alivia LOVES her music. When we are in the car Lucy will kick her legs and flip her head back & forth to the music.
I also usually find Lucy playing the piano. She loves to reach her little fingers up and play the notes. Maybe she will play the piano when she gets older.

Show the contents of my purse!?

So my friend tagged me and I am supposed to show you what is in my purse. Lucky for you I just cleaned out my purse not very long ago. So here we go.....

1. my wallet

2. a size 4 diaper (no wipes, so lets hope it just a wet diaper)

3. a spare binky

4. a water bottle

5. a few toys for Lucy

6. Costco coupons (love that place)

7. my cell phone

8. A Gandolpho's menu

9. Hand sanitizer (I use it on everything)

too BIG!!!

So a few weeks ago Lucy stood my herself for the first time. We all cheered and she was grinning and so proud of herself. A few days ago she took her first couple of steps. It is hard to believe how big she is getting.

The other night I was working on a project and Lucy was on the couch watching me. Before I knew it she was sound asleep. She looked so adorable! We are having so much fun with her. She is at a fun age. She also just learned to give kisses. The first kiss she gave me seriously melted my heart.