Easter 2011

This year, Easter started on Saturday, April 23rd, for us. The Silves boys were in Lynden for soccer, Trisha and her girls were out and about, so we all gathered at our house for Grammy to give all of the kiddos their Easter "baskets".

The kids were all so excited for their special treats. We caught two 5-year olds trying to peak before Grammy had a chance to pull everything out.

 It's been awhile since we've been able to get a picture of Grammy and all of the grandkids. So, we took advantage of the situation and told the kids that once we had a picture of everyone with Grammy they could then have their treats. Not too bad of a picture. It's a little hard to get 8 kids all looking and smiling at the same time.

 

Everyone was so excited to finally get their bags with treats in them. My mom, for the past couple of years, gets each of the kids a t-shirt/muscle shirt (for the boys) and a pair of flip-flops. The rest of their bag was candy and other fun non-candy treats. They all had such a great time together!

Once all of the cousins left, our kids were ready to color eggs. It was fun to watch them all show their own creative sides.

These are only a few of the eggs. We had picked up a set that made your eggs look crackled and speckled. The eggs were looking very cool!

Because this day was also my birthday, Emily came to hang out with the kids while Jason and I went to dinner. We didn't do much else because we had two batches of rolls to make. So, we came home after dinner but asked Emily to hang out for awhile. She colored a couple of eggs with the kids (yes, we colored eggs twice) and had birthday cake with us. We told her that we were celebrating her birthday also because her birthday was earlier in the month and we hadn't been able to do anything for her until then. It was fun to have Emily just hanging out with us. The kids all love to spend time with her.

Easter Sunday was a busy day but we all survived. We started out at church very early and then enjoyed a wonderful brunch at church. After church, we spent some time at Tyler and Tanya's before heading to Grandma Silves'. (Saved us a trip to Lynden and back...church and Grandma's are both in Everson.)

Thankfully the rain let up so the kids could do the big Easter Egg hunt! My aunts do an amazing job each year. Each child was allowed to find 19 eggs. These eggs are filled with candy, little toys and coins.

Ready to go!

I'm not sure what's going on here but I remember thinking that they were too close to the busy road for my comfort!

This year, there were specially marked eggs and anyone finding one of those eggs received a special prize at the end...we ended up with two of those specially marked eggs.

We eventually made it home for a little down and to give the kids got their Easter baskets from us before gearing up to head out to the next family gathering.

I love how they, Ethan especially, try to hide their eyes and wait so patiently. Needless to say, there was a lot of giggling going on while waiting. The anticipation was killing them.

We kept it simple this year. We found miniature sock monkeys for the kids with a few other little items and of course, jelly beans!

It really was a great weekend! As much as we had fun with the coloring of eggs, Easter baskets and egg hunts, I am so thankful that our kids know the real reason we have Easter. To think we have a God who loves us so much that he sent His son to die for our/my sins and then to have him raise from the dead. I am forever grateful!

Celebrate with family!

On Saturday, April 9th, we had family over to help celebrate Brenna's birthday. It's always fun to have the cousins over, they all love celebrating birthdays and get so excited for the birthday child!

They were even more excited when they saw the hamster cage on the coffee table. They had a blast watching "Buddy" on his wheel and just running around his cage.

Brenna requested a volleyball themed party. My mom helped out with some of the decorating and I am so thankful!

Brenna helped me make two ice cream cakes and wanted one of them decorated like a volleyball. She found the perfect picture for us to use to draw the lines on the cake. I'm thrilled with how it all turned out!

She received so many great gifts and felt very loved!

Thanks to all who were able to come and celebrate!!

Our "not-so-much" baby is 12!

April 5th was a big day in our house! Our "baby" turned 12...preteen...AAGH!!! Where has the time gone? Brenna is becoming such a beautiful young lady. I absolutely love our one-on-one time, she is such a joy to chat with and just get to know better each day.

Because her birthday was during Spring Break, we were all home. Jason even had the week off! We continued on with our tradition of waking up the birthday child with singing Happy Birthday and pictures. It wasn't too early I promise!

We had a great relaxing morning just hanging out, having a little breakfast and then opening gifts. Of course, the birthday girl had a breakfast request...French Toast.

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Alyssa and Ethan each had a little something to give Brenna. We then gave her our gifts and then finale' was her Hamster cage.

She was soooooo surprised! She has been asking for a hamster for so long. I had her convinced that we would never have a "rodent" living in our house. It was the best surprise!!

After lunch, we headed off to Petsmart for Brenna to pick out her hamster and "adopt" him. Of course, I forgot my camera but here is a picture of our new family member once we made it home.

Later that afternoon, Brenna's BFF, EmmaRae, came with a gift for Brenna and had a little something in it for her new hamster. I love that EmmaRae's mom and I had chatted about what Brenna was getting and they jumped on board and wanted to get her a ball for her hamster to run around the house in.

All in all, Brenna had a great day!

Next Coupon Class: Wednesday, April 20th at 6pm

My good friends and I have been asked to teach another coupon class!  We will be teaching a "Coupon 101" class on:

Wednesday, April 20th at 6pm

at

Nooksack Reformed Church

If you are planning to attend, please email shannonvandalen@hotmail.com to RSVP!  It should be a fabulous night full of fun, laughter, and COUPONING!  :-)

It's been awhile...sorry!

I'm feeling bad that I have left you hanging with our van situation. God has been so amazing through this process and has blessed us immensely.

On February 10th, our van was hauled away. It was a sad day, however, we knew God had something in store for us and it was just a matter of time. Little did we know that two days later we would be going to Edmonds to look at van and end up driving it home.

Yes, we bought a van but not without the help of some very special people. You see, we were not, and still are not, in the financial situation to replace our van. God knew that when all of this happened and he was already working out the details and working in the hearts of some very special people. To this day, we do not even know the names of most of those involved but I hope that they know just how much we appreciate them and how loved we feel. We had committed to a $$ amount with our income tax return but knew that wouldn't be enough. God provided the overage of that amount and we were able to purchase a 2001 Chrysler Voyager van. WE LOVE IT! I have a picture to share, it's not the best. I keep forgetting to take a picture for the blog and so I just went out to the garage to take one. (Nevermind the shelves full behind it. That's a work in progress!)

Every time I get in the van I am reminded of how God really is taking care of us!

Other things happening... We've just been going along with life. Jason is starting to get busy at work again so that is always a good thing. This is the time of year when he has special projects to take care of in order to get things ready for the new orders that will be coming in. He has a week of furlough coming up so he is trying to get most of these projects completed or as close to completed as he can before that week. It will be nice to have him home during the week of spring break with the kids and we are hoping that we can maybe do at least a one night get-away as a family.

I've been keeping busy with running "Mom's Taxi", working a few hours a week between the bakery and helping out some friends with their business, and then "Auntie Day" with my nephews 1-2 days a week. "Auntie Day"s are my favorite!! I get all three nephews and we just play all day. I love that they get excited to come and see Auntie! I've also been involved in Women's Bible Study at church. We are doing a 10-week Beth Moore study, "A Woman's Heart - God's Dwelling Place". This study has been absolutely amazing and the group I am in is a wonderful group of women! We have been studying the Tabernacle and every detail about it and the things in it. What a blessing this study has been! I have learned so much and it has really applied to so many different things that we are going through. Each week I am reminded of God's grace and how much he really does love us and that he really is caring for us. Things may not be happening in our time and we just need to trust him.

Brenna is loving 6th grade and is really doing well. She just started 3rd trimester today. Hard to believe that we are on the homestretch of finishing her first year of middle school. She has a birthday coming up in a couple of weeks, April 5th. She is going to be 12 and mom and dad are feeling old. We are officially pre-teen stage...AAGH!

Alyssa is also loving school however, right now, she is really enjoying her art class that she has been taking the past couple of months. We have a very talented 9-year old...yes this mommy is bragging a little! I love it when she brings her projects home at the end of each month. Her art teacher is Brenda Calvert and I highly recommend her! She has a love for art and a passion for teaching these kids. Alyssa looks forward to every Thursday afternoon!

Ethan...this boy is growing so fast and has really become a sweet boy! His favorite days are when he gets to spend time with his cousins and loves them like they were his own brothers! He also loves going to preschool. This week has been pretty special!! Our baby has started to read. YES...READ!! He is so proud of himself. We started him the "Dick and Jane" books that the girls started with. It's been fun to listen to him! Today we got a pack of "sight" words from his preschool teacher to start working on. Below is a video that we took tonight of him reading...be sure to pause the music before playing the video.

A conversation to remember!

Today is an "Auntie" day! This is when Wayne, Weston, and Wyatt get to come play while their mommy and daddy are at work. We don't like to call it day care because it's a play date for the big boys and I get lots of snuggles with Wyatt!

Our morning started out with the big boys at the piano. I knew this meant LOUD but hey, they were happy! The "noise" stopped and I began to listen to Wayne and Ethan as they were talking.

Ethan:  "Wayne, I'm going to play a song for Jesus now."

Wayne:  "But Ethan, I want to play a song for God. We just need to play our songs together."

Ethan:  "Wayne, Jesus and God are the same person."

Wayne:  "Huh?" (the music continued.......)

I love it! I love that the boys want to do things for Jesus! I love that they, already at this young age, are wanting to do things that please him. At this point, I was not going to stop the "music". I wanted them to be proud of that "joyful" noise they were making for their Jesus, their God!!

The final goodbye

This morning we said our final goodbye to the van. It is being hauled away as we speak and never to be seen again. Ethan is pretty sad that the van will be smashed. He wasn't thrilled that Wayne's grandpa was going to smash our van...at least that's what Wayne kept telling him as they watched the van being loaded. I had to sit the boys down to explain that Wayne's grandpa would not be smashing the van that he was just taking it to it's "new home". That seemed to stop the debate and I now have a happier 5 year old.

I think the weirdest part for me was driving it up on to the ramp of the truck. I didn't think I would have to be involved with this process, or was hoping I wouldn't have to be. However, there was nobody else around to help so I had to do the job.

As I was getting ready to start the van, I began to question our decision. However, once the van was started and I was listening to it run I quickly realized that it did not sound "healthy". We have been babying this van along for a couple of years and it really is time to stop pouring money into something that is going to have continual problems.

The replacement search has started but nothing has been found up to this point. We are grateful for the vehicle that is being loaned to us to use until we find a replacement. God's timing really is perfect! We could not have planned things to happen as they did. So many people have stepped up to help in any way possible. They will never know how much their help means to us. There are no words that express how we feel. We are completely overwhelmed with the love that has been shown to our family.

Here are a couple of pictures of this morning's event.

 Being chained down for the ride it is about to take down the Guide Meridian.

 Final safety check happening...I think it's funny that the Lynden Security guys were driving by in their LPD car. As if they knew this was going to be happening and needed to make sure things were going as they should. HA!