Jakey is Two!

Here are some more pictures of Jakey's birthday party. So many people who love him, we are so blessed! We had a fun, low-key birthday. These pictures are all out of order, but atleast they are up. :)


Nana
Beautiful and yummy cupcakes from Serena
Luke and Serena
Colby
Jess and her beautiful kids
Auntie Cole
Jared, Kellie, Anne, and run-away Jake...
Tyson, Cade, and Noah
We tried...





Papa

A little excited!

We had Jakey's birthday party last yesterday. Jakey likes to brush his teeth...NOT having us brush his teeth, but putting toothpaste on his toothbrush and "brushing" his teeth. The Coles got him some toothpaste and a new cars toothbrush, and I think you can see how excited he was. Over toothpaste.

Sneak Peak...

I have lots of pictures to upload of Jakey's birthday party today...but I'm too tired. So I'll do it tomorrow! Have a good night, we had a great time with our family and friends today, I'll share more tomorrow:)

19 minutes...

I was reading today in The Primal Blueprint, I'm still in the first few chapters, but I was reading. It was talking about families now versus thousands of years ago...I know, I know. But one thing that really struck me is that the average American family spends 19 minutes a day on average of non-television time together. What makes it even worse, is that actually thinking about if that was us or not...there are many days where that's probably true. Where we are all together in one room, without the tv on, talking, playing, or eating together. Sometimes just getting us all into one place for dinner is a challenge. I feel like we are pretty good about spending time together as a family, but when I actually examined our time together...we need to improve.

One thing I remember from growing up was a family that would walk together every night a lap around the neighborhood. Not really for exercise, but just to have that time together to talk, chat with the neighbors, and be together. We did it last summer, not every night, but we do a lot of family walks. As soon as this wonderful Oregon weather clears up...we're getting outside after dinner every night. Sometimes you need to be intentional about things...this is one of them that's going to take the front burner.

Doing a little more of this:

Laughing...
Running...
Being...
Getting...
Playing...

Discovering...
Fighting...
Flying...
Shooting...

So what about you? Do you get in your family time? How? Any tips/ideas?

He is Risen!

Easter is always a fun holiday to spend with family. I was at a volleyball tournament yesterday, so I missed the egg hunts, but it seemed like the boys had a great time, especially after Jakey realized there was candy inside. I guess Noah would pick up and egg and shake it, if it wasn't heavy enough, he would throw it aside and keep hunting. This was his last year at the top of the food chain...next year he'll be with the "older kids" and actually have to hunt for his eggs.

Here are a bunch of pictures, all in random order. I'm not even going to try and move them all around, so I'll just put captions by them so you can see what they are. We didn't bring our camera, thinking we'd just use my parents, but there flash isn't working, so we didn't get a ton of good ones, but enough to capture the memories.

Look at that greedy little face...
Daddy helping Jakey-boy.
Nicole with her heart pillow. Please note how big those jeans are on her...she's down over 70 pounds!!!
A boy and his ball...
A little excited about the bean bag toss...obviously playing it the correct way;)
This is all the "hunting" they had to do:) But they still loved it!
Jakey looks so old here in this picture...he was so focused reading a book:)
Papa and Noah doing our "traditional" Easter basket hunt. We get a map with directions on it (ie. 5 steps North, 3 steps East) which lead us to our baskets.
Look at these traditional eggs Noah did with Nana! lol...no mess!

Daddy and his boys...
This sums up Jakey right here...
Since my parents lived in Germany before I was born, we have had a lamby cake and take our picture with it ever year...I never eat it, but the tradition is always fun. It's to remind us that Jesus is the lamb of God...
The boys got some Canadian hockey jerseys from my parent's recent trip to Canada!
Having an awesome lunch with amazing people!
Our growing family...and by growing I mean getting older...
Jakey is obsessed with candy, he will be going through withdrawls...
Marveling at all the eggs...
Love that face...

With Auntie Hannah!

We had a good Easter celebrating our Risen Lord! We watched a clip of the old school "Jesus" film, and it's so interesting to see Noah absorb in some of the true Easter story. Doing the "worldly" Easter celebration is fun, but it's so special to get to see the true meaning of Easter being passed down to our children. Hope you had a great one!