family: Easter 2013

We began our Easter festivities on Friday. We spent Good Friday as a family. Shopping for things for our garden, eating lunch at Chick Fil A, and going to church on Friday evening for a special Good Friday experience. It was such a great day!

Saturday was a fun filled day too! We started the morning with an Easter celebration at our church for the kids. Singing, dancing, bubbles, chalk, coloring, cupcakes, hula hoops, the story of Jesus, and an Easter egg hunt with friends!

 

Our second festivity of the day was an Easter Egg Bash thrown by my nephew's mom. She did a great job planning such fun activities for the kids. Cupcakes, egg pinatas, candy, egg dying, an egg hunt, and fun playing on the playground. It was a fun day with family!

And last night, the Easter bunny visited our house in celebration of the resurection of Jesus Christ. We are spending Easter Sunday celebrating Jesus! We went to church this morning and the rest of the day we will spend as a family. He is risen!

 

family: fun photo booth

Back in November, our church had a fun celebration to celebrate Project Relaunch. Our church location will be moving and expanding in the coming months. At the party, there was a fun photo booth- complete with silly props. Here are a few photos that I participated in...

 

Thrifty: pretty purple dress

I got this dress on Friday during my mini thrifting trip to the local Goodwill. It's Calvin Klein and was only $5.00. Like I said in my last thrifty post, it almost didn't come home with me due to it's size label. It says an extra small and this mommy of 2 babies is not an extra small! I typically wear a medium so I almost didn't try it on. But I remembered a really important thrifting rule- don't listen to the label, try it on! So glad I did! I wore this pretty purple dress to church this morning.

Dress: thrifted; Calvin Klein
Tank Top: Downeast Basics
Earrings: The Jewel Box
Sandals: Target

daddy in the dunking booth

Today our church is having a charity event for the Dream Center (non-profit after school/summer ministry for children in the area). They are having a motorcycle ride, plus food and games at the church. Josh is such a good sport. He's actually in the dunking booth now... I just got these fun photos from facebook:

 

we are busy!

School is back in full swing. I have been so incredibly busy! I'm enjoying being back at work now because Julianna is doing great at daycare! She's started to take 2 hour long naps there so she's in a good mood when I pick her up in the afternoon. Balancing work, baby, husband, and home is a challenge. But I just have to remember, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing well!


This past weekend was especially busy for us. My friend Laura and her long time boyfriend, Drew got married on Saturday evening. Julianna went to her Maw Maw's house for her very first sleepover. I think she enjoyed herself there! :)


The wedding was beautiful. It was on top of the Kress building at the Kress Terrace in downtown Greensboro. Sunday was also a busy day. I helped decorate the church for the church's 3rd birthday celebration, enjoyed the service, greeted for the 2nd service, birthday party for Nathan, and then a baby shower for Jennifer and Ben (a couple at church).


It was a busy but great weekend!

gratitude

Julianna and I just returned home from our outing of the day.

We stopped by Ready Mart #1 to visit with my brother, Nick. I put the 4 bags of trash bags of clothes in his truck. He's going to take them to his church for their clothing closet. The message on gratitude at church on Sunday made me realize that I don't need to make a few dollars off of those clothes. They will be put to great use at Ward St. Mission (http://www.wardstreetmission.com/). I am thankful that I have plenty of clothes still in my closet even after pulling out a total of 5 trash bags. My goal this week is to try to show as much gratitude as possible. I have so much to be thankful for!

Speaking of church, Josh and I recently started attending a new church. Five weeks ago, we decided to try out North Ridge (http://www.northridgenow.org/) because we had heard amazing things about it. After just one visit, we knew that it was the right church for us. Making the decision to switch churches wasn't easy. We had grown to love many of the people at Bailey's Grove but NR was just a better fit for us. We also have the opportunity at NR to get involved more with the community and I'm also hoping to work with the children's ministry. There are so many awesome things going on at North Ridge and I'm very excited to be a part of it! Josh and I (and Julianna) already feel so loved and welcomed there. God always leads us in the right direction.

Now back to our outing, we chatted with Nick, picked up Josh's check, and then headed to the bank. Waiting in line at the bank drive thru was torture. Julianna hates being strapped in her carseat if she's not moving so she had a mini meltdown while we waited. It seemed like an hour but it was probably closer to 4-5 minutes. Next we headed to the mall to go to Belk. I had my eye on a cute top there about a month ago and I wanted to see if it was on sale yet. It must have been my lucky day because they only had one left, it was my size, and it was on sale! Regular price $58 and I got it for $13.99. Woo hoo!

We browsed through a few other stores in the mall but this is the only thing I bought. I went into some of the stores that I used to shop in all the time but they seemed to "young" for me now. When in the world did I grow up and start shopping in the women's department??? Sometimes I just about have to pitch myself when I think about the fact that I'm married, I'm a homeowner, I'm a teacher, and I'm a mom! I guess I'm not a little girl anymore.

7 weeks old today!

Today, Julianna is seven weeks old!

The 3 of us have been quite busy the past few days. Sunday, was an amazing day at church. We were blessed to hear Dr. Ray Young speak in the am and pm services. The pm service was especially wonderful because he was preaching on rearing children. He gave some great, practical advice. It was a good message for all parents, especially newbies like Josh and I. We hope and strive to be great parents to Julianna!

Monday and Tuesday, our church held East Coast Soul Winning and Church Growth Conference. We had several wonderful speakers and fabulous music. It was all so touching. Especially a group of girls from a girls home in South Carolina. The church was filled with tears as they were giving their testimonies.

Speaking of church, last night when I went to pick Julianna up from the nursery, this is what I found:Before we left for church on Tuesday evening, my mom and dad (nana and paw paw) stopped by to visit our little on. My mom brought a few goodies for us, including a piece of antique glassware that was my great grandmother's from the early 1900s and a little musical teddy bear that was mine when I was a baby. Such treaures to have!