God is Great!

Been meaning to get a picture of Addison in her onesie. I bought this as a surprise for Stephen. A Cubs reference of course but she is our true little miracle on Addison Street. I don't know how Stephen managed to sneak his favorite things into two out of three of our children's names. Luke, of course referencing Star Wars' Luke Skywalker and now Addison, the address of Wrigley Field and his beloved Cubs.

Daddy is home from Ohio and his very scary ICU stay. This will now and forever be referred to as "The Ohio incident." Thank you for all the prayers, we definitely felt the love and support.

"God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us." Ephesians 3:20

We are thankful we have our loving Father at work in our lives, with all the craziness and unknown lately, we would be lost without his guiding hand. God is Great indeed!

Kayak down the Bayou

Last weekend a few mom friends and I decided we could go kayaking down the bayou, funny because none of us had ever kayaked before. We thought it would be a fun substitute for our normal Girl's Night Out. In the planning stages it was more like 7 or 8 mommies but alas, only the four of us were brave enough :)

We are woman, hear us roar! This is the beginning of our three hour paddle trip, we were still full of energy in this picture.

Out on the bayou, we ended up paddling about 8 miles total that day. The trip was super relaxing and fun. We got to catch up with each other (granted we didn't have a cocktail in hand) and our guide was so informative about Mississippi wildlife. I highly recommend the trip and will definitely do it again.

The three little monsters, sorry I hadn't taken pictures in awhile. This was it!

Look how long Addison's hair is getting! She is looking so old now :(

Germany!

For the enjoyment of my loyal readers, this blog is about to get a lot more interesting! We are headed to Europe, Germany specifically. Steve is being deployed to Germany for six months to do CCATT missions again. As a family we decided being together is our primary concern so the children and I are tagging along. Watch out Germany, here we come! We will be living near Ramstein Air Force base but we will not be living on the base. We are excited to be able to travel a bit around Europe and experience all sorts of different cultures. Passports have been obtained, airline tickets have been bought and German lessons have begun (umm, kidding obviously). The only German phrase I am trying to learn is 'Ich verstehe nicht' which translates to 'I don't understand.' Definitely will be a very helpful phrase for me, don't you think?

Love and Marriage

One of our wonderful babysitters got married this weekend and we were lucky enough to be included in the fun. It was the first wedding the children have attended so they were very excited to see Emily "be a bride." The girls.

The boys.

Emily and Josh and the kiddos.

One of our other favorite babysitters, Ashley was a bridesmaid in the wedding. Stephen and I were hoping we could leave the kids there with Emily and Ashley and have a date night out on the town but no dice.

Easter Celebration

Easter morning, up bright and early to see if the Easter Bunny came!

Every Easter morning it's the same shot of Amelia holding an Easter basket with rollers in her hair.

Amelia reading Addison a new book the Easter bunny brought her.

Addison was excited about all the eggs she found :)

All ready for church to celebrate our Savior rising. Luke and Amelia were running around the house shouting "Jesus is alive, Jesus is alive!"

Easter dinner at the Countryman's. God Bless Vickie and David who have four grown children of their own, all out of the house. They invited us, the Ethridges and the Grahams over for Easter dinner, that meant 10 children under 7 years old. Sillyness was had by all. Happy Easter!

Quick Visit and Coloring Eggs

My parents stopped through to visit us for one day on their way back up to Wisconsin. Grandpa wasn't feeling well but we couldn't miss the opportunity to take Grandma Nancy out to Horn Island. It was hard to tell who was having more fun, my mom or my kids!

Cute daddy and cute baby, I'm a lucky momma.

Grandma Nancy and the kids showing off some of the friends they found. Grandma is holding a hermit crab ( I think they found 8 or 9 this trip) and Amelia is holding a "glowy." I don't know if that is the right term for it but that is what my friend Cynthia calls them. They are like little jellyfish but they don't sting. Amelia loves them, they gross me out. We also had three giant stingrays following us all around the beach, really close to shore. It seemed as if they were curious to what we were doing. We also saw to dolphins swim really close to our boat right as we were leaving the island.

We had the whole island to ourselves. It was an awesome, special day. Glad you got to share it with us mom!

Beach bums.

Here's a picture of Casper the Ghost with my mom, oh wait that is me :)

Today I realized, uh oh tomorrow is Easter and we haven't colored eggs! So we got right on it before Stephen had to go to work. Addison dropped one egg in the bowl and then decided she rather go on her swing.

Luke colored about five eggs and ditched us for the swings too.

I know Amelia looks like a poster child for "Feed the Children" but we were all still in our jammies and she just happened to wear this Native American tye-dyed shirt last night. Yikes. Amelia was a trooper and she colored the rest of the eggs for us.

Hooray, the finished products!

Egg Hunt

After church we had a picnic and an Egg Hunt in the park. It was a beautiful spring day.

Addison got the hang of picking up the eggs and putting them in the basket. Although she was mumbling, "ball, ball, ball" to each egg.

Luke found a sweet spot.

Off goes Amelia in the big kid category.

This looked posed but she was actually running by me still on the hunt for more eggs!

Addison Kate is 14 months!

Addison turned 14 months old yesterday. The above picture about tells it all. She is devilishly cute and sometimes just a plain little devil.

Love this one. We were all in the kitchen, out comes Addison wrapped in toilet paper with a trail of it being pulled off the roll behind her. She was saying, "This, this, this." Look at that expression, "Who me?"

She looks so sweet and innocent here. Looks can be deceiving.

I had to get this shot because Addison has been walking for a couple of months now but this is still how she walks. Hands up and out to the side and often that tongue sticking out too. She walks like such a little princess it makes us laugh.

Visiting with Grandma Joan

The Boskovich Boat had a long winter nap but it was time to rise and shine and take Grandma Joan out for a boat ride.

We wondered how Addison might be on the boat after a few months but she was just as chill as she always was on the boat. Not one peep out of her, she just lounged out on Grandma, ate her puffs and looked at the scenery.

As we were coming home on the boat Luke said, "Mom, my eyes keep leaking!" I think the wind was making his eyes water so he thought wearing my sunglasses was a great solution.

After the boat we went out to eat and then down to the beach to play at the playground and in the sand.

Easter parties

This week was also Easter parties at the children's schools. Luke's school had an Easter egg hunt, crafts and lots of yummy food. We took Amelia out of school for part of the day so she could join the family in the fun. She was so excited to be a big kid and help the parents hide all the eggs for the hunt. Luke got quite a haul!

Addison laughed and laughed at the Easter bunny and waved to him but she had no interest in being held by him so instead we had the whole family meet the Easter bunny.

Amelia and I made bunny cupcakes for her class party. Amelia was very excited to pass out the cupcakes to her friends. After a few minutes the sugar kicked in and 22 children were doing bunny hops all over the place. Thank goodness spring break was about to begin!

Amelia and some friends sharing their treats.