Little Miss Mop Head!

Happy birthday, Aria!

Woo-hoo!  I'm one!

Why is this on my head?

Cheese!

I love my lambie

I love being one!

We love you little Miss Aria!  You are such a joy and blessing to our family!

Horsetooth Picnic

We love picnics! It is so much fun to eat food outdoors, I don't know why. So, we packed up our food and headed down the road to our lovely Horsetooth Reservoir. It was a little bit windy and chilly at times, but not too bad.

Apparently, we took too long getting to the reservoir and Finn fell asleep. Tired out before we even started.

So, we started our picnic without him and let him catch a few more zzzz's.

Once awake, he still needed some time to cuddle before he was ready to dig into lunch and go explore the area.

After everyone's bellies were full, we set off on our exploration. Down to the water to throw rocks! It was a fun and muddy endeavor.

Cadence enjoys posing for pictures, and it is usually some sort of dance pose (this is a plie).

Aria enjoyed riding in the carrier. I think I'd like that too!

From there, we wandered around the reservoir and up the hill to talk to some geese. We decided to talk like geese to each other for the walk back to the car. One honk = "Hello", two honks = "Good-bye", one long honk = "I love you" and hiss = "You're under attack!". It's a complicated system and I don't know if you'll be able to decode it, but good luck.

I love that Brad and the kids enjoy being outside and exploring nature. Our goal this summer is to try some family camping trips for the first time. We'll see what happens!

Maston Family Musicians Strike Again!

Back by popular demand...the Maston Family Musicians! With their leader...Brad! Cadence is playing the ever popular, popcorn kernel shaker. Finn loses steam at the end and decides he wants to count the band in, even though they are already going. Aria decides to add some of her own beautiful vocals. Music to my ears!

Resurrection Day!

Aria's grabbing you!

Even though Brad is not a huge fan of all the commercialism and what it has turned Easter into (bunnies and springtime), he is a good sport about it and still lets me indulge. I purchased mostly bug related items (i.e. butterfly nets, bug catchers, etc.) from the dollar bins and laid them out on the living room chairs last night. The kids get up before us, so I figured they could explore their new toys for a few minutes before they came in to wake us up. Once up, I snuck out back and "hid" their Easter eggs. I didn't hide them too well because I didn't think they'd really search, but Cadence was looking all around. I guess I will have to actually hide them, next year, to give her more of a challenge. Even in the rainy midst, they had a fun little Easter egg hunt. Cadence's eggs were filled with gummy candies and princess socks. Finn's were filled with gummy candies and Spiderman socks.

Dawn, our friend from church, bought these adorable Easter outfits for the kids and gave them to us at the Good Friday service. Cadence and Aria are so puffy...I love it! Finn looks so handsome in his vest and tie. When I dressed him this morning Cadence said, "I (Cadence) will be a princess and Finn will be a pastor, like daddy."

My parents came up for the church service and then came over for lunch and to spend the afternoon with us. It was wonderful! Such a nice change in roles to be able to cook for them for a change (though I do still love going to their house for meals, so we won't give that up just yet). My mom bought the kids this "Hot Potato" game that was a plush potato that played music as you passed it around. Whoever was holding it when the music stopped had to take a chip. Three chips and you were out. The music always seemed to stop when Finn was holding it. I think he enjoyed it because we would always laugh. He was hamming it up.

I got to teach the kid's Sunday school this morning and it was fun to read the Resurrection story on the children's level. We read the story in a children's Bible and then another version of it through the Resurrection eggs http://rainbowcastle.org/resurrectioneggs.html. The kids took turns opening the egg and then I read the message that went with that item. The other thing that struck me, while reading through that story, was that Judas Iscariot had to kiss Jesus to let them know who He was. One, it was dark (which Brad reminded me of), but two, I took for granted that they didn't have Internet, t.v., magazines, newspapers, etc. to see what Jesus looked like. So, even if he was famous around town and people had heard of Him, they didn't necessarily know what He looked like. That is crazy to think about. That Jesus could be walking through town and not everyone would know that was Him. It seems absurd in this media age, but not in His time. I hope that when we get to Heaven Jesus has a big movie screen and He'll let us watch all the things He did (i.e., creating the world, creating a baby, Noah and the flood, the list goes on and on).

Thank you Lord for dying on the cross and rising again so that we can one day be with You!

Easter Greeting

I pray you have a joyous Resurrection Day celebration!

Sink Your Teeth In

As you may recall, a few months ago Finn gave Cadence this beauty by running into her face with his head (by accident).

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This is what happened a few days ago.

Cadence took Finn's toy. Finn got angry. Cadence tried to give the toy back. Finn didn't realize Cadence gave the toy back and sunk his teeth into her side.

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I don't know about you, but I would not like to be attacked by these choppers (no matter how cute the face is that comes with them).

That was an eventful day. Thankfully, with the craziness come sweet tender moments as well.