easter festivities!

what a wonderful celebration Easter is!

the kids are old enough that they are truly understanding that this holiday isn't just a holiday. we were able to spend several nights this past week reading the story of Christ's last week, watching a couple touching videos, and having some great discussions about why this "holiday" is truly something to celebrate and be grateful for.

and of course, we had some fun too! 

on saturday evening we headed over to Smith's for a big eggstravaganza!

there were bunny hop races, egg dying, egg races, the oreo game, and a great big egg hunt!

on friday we had the missionaries over for dinner. they shared a fantastic video with us and asked us if there was anyone we wanted them to share it with and jack immediately asked if they could visit his teacher. he's such a good missionary. i think if he could go on a full time mission right now, he wouldn't hesitate. hopefully he feels the same at 18. we gave them her address and after they left, we had a special prayer that his teacher would feel the spirit when the missionaries were in their home. later when talking about it with jack i asked "what if Mrs Floyd doesn't want to have the missionaries in her home?" and he said "why wouldn't she???". it was a good reminder for me to have simple faith like that. the missionaries did stop by, but his teacher was out of town for the weekend.

we did our traditional easter scripture egg hunt on good friday.

easter morning!

the easter bunny brought the kids books. and jack and ellie each also got a book lamp to read at night.

ellie is loving the Brownie & Pearl books right now.

this picture makes me laugh because charlie is shoveling in ellie's chocolate bunny and she is just about to realize its hers :)

this boy got the first harry potter book and was jumping up and down in excitement. thats my boy! 

he started it last night and couldn't stop laughing on the very first page when he read the description of Mr Dursley. it was a great mom moment for me. these books are still a little advanced for him right now, but he is determined to read them. out of nowhere he became obsessed with HP so we thought we better grab a broom and fly, er, i mean run with it :)

our house

we closed on our home in florida yesterday.

we are so relieved to have that taken care of. 

there were a few surprises at the end that kind of left chris with unpleasant feelings. so much so that he said, "i don't think i'll ever buy another house!".

 I'm just glad its off our hands.

it's kind of bittersweet for me.

it was a great little house.

when we moved in, ellie was only a few weeks old and it was a prefect fit for our little clan.

jack was about 1 ½. 

those days of sleepless nights are a bit of a blur in my mind.

but we made that little white house on the corner 

our little white house on the corner.

so many wonderful things happened while living in that house.

fun visits from cousins and grandparents.

holidays.

charlie.

art shows.

family home evenings.

girls nights.

preschools.

kitchen makeovers with grandpa.

birthdays.

i would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

it was a great little house.

a perfect day

last thursday was the first absolutely perfect warm day!

 charlie and i put on our swimsuits and played in the backyard the whole day.

i couldn't get over this cute little face. 

i pulled out the camera so i can remember it just like this- forever.

it was a perfect day!

of course, the nice weather didn't last long...
we had a big storm last night, complete with eerie tornado sirens and all, which totally freaked the kids out as they were trying to go to bed. but i guess thats spring around here and i'll take it because we have green grass!

ohio to arkansas... and back

we had our first visitors to the natural state!!!

arkansas isn't exactly at the top of most peoples spring break vacation list, so we feel pretty special that marc, delauna, and caiden made to drive from ohio for the week!

we all had so much fun with them and hope that caiden has had some time to recover from the constant attention of three, very active, kids!

caiden certainly got a workout with these three

he also taught jack and ellie how to do "the crow" pose. pretty freakin' awesome!

we went out to eat a couple times, visited the nature center, went to the theater to see mr. peabody, and the mamas even got away for an afternoon to visit the art museum and get pedicures. but mostly, we just hung out and caught up on all the brower family happenings. 

marc even picked up some squid for jack to try. he's definitely not a fan of the canned stuff! but they did introduce him to calamari, which he loved.

this was such a wonderful visit, we can hardly wait to plan a trip up to ohio to see everyone there. each night while tucking the kids in bed, ellie told me that this was the best spring break ever! we love being browers :)