April 2018

ADD EASTER PICTURES FROM REAL CAMERA

April was a month of change...it wasn't all immediate change,  but planning for changes in the near future.  This month, John finished the interview process and accepted a job with a new company....in Alabama!  Not only is in North Alabama where we lived before and we still have many friends, the company he will be working for is directly beside the company he worked for when we lived in Huntsville 6.5 years ago.  It's funny, when we moved to Tennessee we could not have guessed that in a few years we would be moving back.  All of this change will be bittersweet--we are going to miss all of our family and friends and church here in Tennessee,  but we are excited for new adventures.  In addition to races, soccer, Carter's birthday, and more this month--John and I were doing A LOT to get the ball rolling for all the change coming our way.

I think I many have mentioned this in the March blog, since this was technically the last day of March but John, Dawson, and Carter ran the Resurrection 5k the day before Easter.  This was the first 5k that Dawson and Carter have ever done.  They ran the whole thing.  Here they are as the immediately stopped walking after crossing the finish line.  They did it in 32 minutes!  I'm so proud of these runners.  They're begging to do more races now. 

Sunday, April 1st, 2018, was Easter.

The Easter bunny left these treats for the kids.

They enjoyed going through their Easter basket before church.

After church we went to Lolly's for Easter dinner, and an Easter egg hunt.  I can't remember the exact number but I know it was over 50 eggs that were hidden for the kids to find-maybe 80-something?  I should ask Carter, he never forgets a number!  The kids had a blast finding eggs with Lolly and Uncle Logan.

Look who found the golden prize egg!

Clayton got a bubble blower in his Easter basket and he has loved it.  That's what he's laughing at here, even though it's hard to see the bubbles around him in the picture.

The kids were all yelling for me to come take a picture of "the castle we made using ALL our sand!"

Easter 2018

The tradition of afterschool chats and playing at the John Sevier playground with me and  Nora Kate and Clayton continues.  She requested I take her picture here.

Static

Nora Kate got a sandart kit in her Easter Basket and had the very best time doing the art.

One morning before church, John got the boys up early and John, Dawson, and Carter made breakfast for our family.

On Carter's birthday, Friday, April 13th, John took the day off work, and we kept the boys home from school (gasp!) and we went to Dollywood!  It was a perfect Dollywood day.  Comfortable weather.  Not crowded.  Awesome!

Our family at Dollywood.

This was also the day that we told the kids we were moving to Alabama.  We had waited until everything was one hundred percent certain before we mentioned it to them.  We told them John had gotten a new job and this would be a new adventure for our family.  We told them every detail we could think to tell them that would be important to them-information about the church where we would go in Alabama, about the Space and Rocket Center, names of people we knew and that they know that live in Alabama.  They were all excited for our new adventure!  I think part of it was just shock, but no one has had many questions about it yet, although they do like to talk about "when we move to Alabama..."

Soccer Season is going strong. This has actually be kind of a crazy busy soccer season for us because Dawson AND Carter's teams are both practicing TWICE a week IN ADDITION to each having a game each week.  So we are spending 6 or more hours at the soccer fields each week.  I'm thankful that the boys are loving it, and, as always, I love watching them play.

Nora Kate REALLY wanted to play soccer this spring, but we convinced her that since she's still doing ballet, she should wait until Fall.  Now that I see how much we are at the soccer field for just two kids, I'm kind of thankful that we are having her wait.  She's been a GREAT sport about it though, and she's a fantastic cheerleader for her brothers.

IAs the month of April went on things got CRAZIER and CRAZIER!  There were lots of relocation things we had to do in advance for moving, things we had to be doing to list our house, Carter's birthday, hours of soccer every week, a couple trips down the Alabama...busy!  After a particularly busy weekend when we had two soccer games, hosted Carter's birthday party, had the carpets shampooed in the house, and had a garage sale, I was exhausted by Monday morning.  Normally I pick up everything the kids miss after they go to bed, but I guess I missed this Barbie on Sunday night because I was absolutely exhausted-well on Monday, still feeling exhausted from the weekend, I walked into the kitchen to see her laying face down in a mess-I just laughed and texted this picture to John who was already at work, and said this was exactly how exhausted I felt that particular Monday morning too!

I am so very thankful for Dawson's WONDERFUL experience with cub scouts that we have had in Tennessee these past two years.  He's had amazing leaders, and it's been GREAT!  Here are John and Dawson at Camp Buck Tom's Scout Camp one weekend in April.  They had such a great time.  Everything they did was right up Dawson's alley-archery, whittling, etc.  This picture was Dawson and Daddy at Camp Buck Tom.

The kids sang in Remedy Church across the street from our church one Sunday.  Dawson, Carter, and Nora Kate are all in this picture, although it's hard to see them all.

This day was so fun!  I got to do a "snacktivity" with Dawson's class.  It was Earth Day, so our snacktivity was to read the Lorax and then to decorate these lorax cookies...the eyes and mustaches were a hit!

Nora Kate has been requesting French braids regularly now...it's challenging to do with her curls...unless I braid it wet. We're learning!  I think she looks so cute with the braids!

This was kind of a random neighnborhood pizza party in our backyard.  One Friday evening we had several neighborhood kids playing in our backyard.  It got to be close to dinner time, so we just ordered pizza and made it an impromptu pizza party-so fun!

This month was FULL of soccer.  The boys teams both practice twice a week and then have games on Saturdays.

Guess who loves the BABY CONE at Brusters...This boy!

This particular day after soccer games we headed to Glo Golf.  Dawson's birthday party will be there next month and we decided to go play while a couple showings were going on at our house!

Since it's all in black lights so it will all glow, the pictures weren't awesome-something I will definately have to perfect before his party.  BUT we had a great time and everyone got one hole in one.

This was an exciting and sad day.  John's new job wanted him to go ahead and start, so we decided it would be best for the kids and I to stay in Tennessee and finish out the school  year, soccer, choir, ballet, AND sell the house while John moved on down to Alabama and started his new job.  It was exciting but also sad knowing that until our house sold, he would be in Alabama Sunday night through Friday night-coming home on the weekends to see us....it was also a little alarming thinking of all the things to keep going with the final month of school, soccer, choir, ballet, scouts, and all the showings to sell our house.  It seemed that God had worked out everything for this move, so I was confident that it would all work out.  That doesn't mean it was all easy and smooth.  There was crazy and busy and we missed John, but it did work out.  John text us this picture of the space and rocket center the first day he got to Alabama and we were still in Tennessee.

This was a request by me-I requested that John text me a "first day of my new job" picture!  I'm proud of how hard he works to take care of all of us, and thankful for his new job!

These are out of order, but these are a few more Easter family pictures.

This years Easter family color was obviously blue-last year when the coordinating color theme was pink, Dawson and Carter both requested, "PLEASE, can we do blue next year?!" So, here you go!