Easter, Rain, and Birthday Struggle

Easter weekend was fun. Went up to Washington to visit family.


Snickers getting ready for his first long car trip. He upchucked before we left Springfield, so was able to spend the rest of the three hour trip in his crate in the back. He loved it, I guess. We never heard a peep out of him.

We arrived Friday night just before the tornadoes hit in St Louis. Dad wasn't home yet, so we ate something and gave the boys a bath. They really love their bubble baths, since we don't have a tub at home.

On Saturday, is was rainy and chilly, so we just hung around. Saturday afternoon we met with my dad's family to have dinner at Ponderosa, then back to his house to visit for awhile. Ed, Erika's boyfriend, also brought his son, Evan. He had so much fun with my boys.

We thought we would die eggs with the kids. Even though after 10 minutes or so it was really the adults doing the dunking.

The kit was a Monster kit. You see the tri-colored one with the purple "antenae"? Colton decorated that one. He said, "This one has no hair because it's a daddy." Poor Willy.

The kids' Easter baskets. Since everyone else gave them tons of candy, the Easter bunny decided that fruit was a great idea. And my boys were thrilled!!

The boys received some neat bubble blowers in their baskets, but they were kind of tricky. Here's Willy trying to show Colton how to make the bigger bubbles.


Sunday, late morning, we headed to Erika's place for BBQ. She did a fantastic job getting everything together for us, last minute.

Snickers met his cousin, Max, for the first time. Max is quite shorter than Snickers, but Snicker still isn't a fan of him. He did figure out that he can jump higher than Max, though.

We came home Sunday night to thunderstorms. It stormed through the night and the day on Monday. Dark, gloomy weather. When Willy came home we saw that some water had seeped up into the crawl space. So he got out the pool pump to pump it out. I told the kids they could get their raincoats on and hold the umbrella for him. I then went upstairs to work on some Thank You cards for MOPS.

The doorbell rang, I ran downstairs to find Willy at the front door. I open it and he says, "Get your camera, you want to check this out."

My boys decided to "splash" in the water in the ditch.

Only it was more like swimming.

I love how they can just let everything go and enjoy oppurtunities like this. I have learned so much from these two.

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I headed out this morning to do some shopping for post-Easter sales. I went to Hobby Lobby to also pick up a clear mounting block, since mine has found itself lost.

I found these for Lucas and Caleb. I guess they are birthday gifts. I want to make them a garden on their birthday. Since we are hopefully moving in the future, we really can't. I've decided to buy a big (really big) planter to plant a few flowers in. We are going to make them a stepping stone on their birthday and these dragonflies will go perfectly in there, also.

I really really want to make their birthday a time to celebrate them and their short lives. But grief is quickly storming in and I find it to be a struggle. I have lots of ideas for the month of May, for the five days that are really all about them, and their bithday. None of it seems to be enough, though. I should be planning a HUGE bash for them. Worrying about finishing invitations on time, what large, fun gifts to get them, and what their cake will look like. Instead I am struggling to celebrate when my heart really wants to break all over again.

I wanted to close this with a magical moment. As I walked through my dining room to refill my cup of coffee a few minutes ago, I noticed the light above their shelf on the china hutch was on. The "touch" spot is at the top of one of the doors, so Ethan couldn't have done it. It wasn't on when I first sat down to write this. Thank you, sweet baby boys.