Happy Easter!

South Carolina!!!

We were lucky to visit with my parents during easter week. They live in this tiny town called Union, South Carolina. It was a 12 hour journey from our house by plane and by car. I shed so many tears of joy when we arrived. We were especially lucky to have my two sisters, Emily and Heather, drive up to be with us. It is so wonderful to be with family!

Probably the favorite part of the trip: fun with cousins!

Emily, Ruthie, and Grandma

This is now one of my favorite flowers. It was in bloom everywhere. I never payed much attention to it before. IRIS- so beautiful. Joseph reminded me that the first bouquet of flowers he gave me were Iris... another reason to be a favorite.

I love this baby!

Grandpa does too!

Under the Magnolia trees.. at Rosehill Plantation

Who can resist a giant tree like this?

Cousins...

James loves grandma hugs!

Always in the action...

My mom was kind enough to drive us up to my sister, Heather's house in North Carolina for a quick visit. Here is James with his two year old cousin, Julia.

Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. Revolutionary War site.

At the front of the battle front with Julia and Heather

Can you believe how lush this place is? I love it!!

Grandma leads the troops into battle

James is ready for action

Grandma and the boys

Playing at the feet of Nathaniel Greene

How would you like to have this kind of grass in your front yard?

Cross Keys House: famous because Jefferson Davis stopped here for tea during the civil war era. We were here to check out the reenactment

the boys especially liked this..

and this...

I am amazed at how serious these people get at reenactments. This is the inside of a tent.

We so enjoyed our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I have to admit, the plane ride back by myself with three kids was a NIGHTMARE, but I would do it again!

Rewind

These pictures are for my records... This is the house one month ago... Unfortunately, we still haven't gotten to painting the exterior

James is pointing to the old entrance to the boys room.

Drywall in progress...

I am totally jealous of this: the boy's new closet. It's larger than mine!

Randoms from last month at Irvine Regional Park. The boys made themselves some cool forts.

David with his buddy, Eli

Drum roll...

Here it is.. the almost finished product. While the boys were away at fathers and sons tonight, I finished up the painting. We still need rugs, window coverings, pictures hung, a mantel for the fireplace, and a closet door, but we are close to finished!

The biggest decision was on floor covering. We went with tile.. that looks like wood. I think it turned out pretty nice. We are all about being "kid friendly".

The garage... what a mess. It's become the landing spot for all our extra dust and junk.

How about these cute helpers? This remodel signifies some big changes: a big boy bed for James, and Ruthie has graduated from the hallway to her own (pink) room!

8 months old

I sure wish she wouldn't grow so fast..

Birthday fun

28 must be a lucky year, because I was fortunate to have my brother and his family meet us at Disneyland for my birthday! Joseph was sweet to take off the entire day so that we could have lots of play time at the park. The highlight for the boys was "Jedi Training". It is the cutest show. They choose about 40 kids from the audience to be trained as Jedi knights.

Darth Vadar interrupts the training to try to convince them to join the dark force. As a side note, James is OBSESSED with Darth Vadar. Though he wasn't chosen to participate, he was definitely into the action as shown in his face:

David gets to fight Darth Mal... Can you guess? The dark side is defeated!

The highlight for Joseph and I was Club 33. I even got my own special dessert!

James enjoyed it the most:

The only thing that Ruthie got to sample were the crackers

My sweet brother and his family:

Here are the boys on the way home... I think they had a good time.