Dear Grandpa and Grandma

Dear Grandpa Don and Grandma Cheryl,

Thank you for the Toys R Us giftcard you got me for my birthday. On Saturday dad took me there and I picked out this sand and water table. You put sand in one half and water in the other. It came with lots of cool shovels and things, too. I love it!
Unfortunately I sometimes like to dump the sand onto the deck and mom gets mad at me. She says the sand needs to stay in the table or the buckets. I think sometimes mom forgets I'm only 3!

I can't wait until it gets warmer here, this will be so much fun to play with this summer. I love the umbrella on top, too, which will be nice when it gets hot out.

Thanks, grandma and grandpa, I love you!

Emily

Big Dipper

Ok, I know it's been way too long since my last post. I was swamped with "log" work last week, as well as the usual stuff like AWANA, MOMS group, piano lessons, tutoring, and then scrapbooking at church all weekend. Thankfully I have an amazing husband who was so helpful with watching the girls while I got my work done and then even let me scrapbook all weekend. And I did get my sister's graduation scrapbook done, which was a relief.

I don't have many new pictures, but I thought I'd make a plug for my favorite ice cream shop Big Dipper. I LOVE ice cream, it's probably my favorite food. It's a little "mom and pop" ice cream shop in Blaine, near Hwy 65 and Main St. They make their own ice cream and it's delicious. We took Emily there on her birthday (after her dinner of choice at McDonalds). As you can see the girls got my love of ice cream.

P.S. If you know our friends Jon and Laurie, they had "Megan Grace" this morning :) Everyone is doing great.

SPOILED!

I just wanted to post some pictures showing how spoiled these 2 girls are (and it's not our doing, it's the grandparents!)

Here is Easter morning, discovering the Easter bunny had come. We bought them nothing, this is all from grandparents.

Peeps at 7:30 in the morning? Can we say a prayer for the church nursery workers right now?

Except for Bri's dress, the rest of both of their Easter outfits were actually the ones grandma bought them last year but never got worn because we all came down with the stomach flu the night before Easter!

Our budding chef (birthday gift from grandparents):

Emily was dying to try out her new cupcake set from grandma:
The girls having a tea party with new tea set from grandma. The older girls had to be decked out in princess gear for the tea party.

Needless to say, the girls have had lots of fun with all their Easter and birthday gifts. And Emily still has a giftcard to Toys R Us (also from grandparents, surprise surprise) she still gets to use!

3 years old already?

It's hard to believe it's already been 3 years since this little sweetie entered our life.

Happy Birthday, Emily!

Emily's Birthday Party

Emily has had a really fun birthday weekend so far. On Friday we met some friends at the Minnesota Zoo -- the girls actually lasted nearly 5 hours there and were really good. And for the first time we were actually with friends who have all boys!

Today Emily had a little birthday party with friends. We started the morning with an Easter Egg Hunt in our yard, then had brunch, played a little, had cake, and played some more outside since the weather was beautiful. Her actual birthday is Monday, but since it's so close to Easter this year we kind of had an Easter egg theme.

Tomorrow the girls are looking forward to wearing their Easter dresses to church and opening their Easter baskets from the grandparents!

Strawberries

I am a newbie to the food market "Aldi" -- if you've never heard of Aldi, it's a smaller chain grocery store with very cheap food and mostly off brands you've never heard of. I discovered a few weeks ago how great their prices are on a lot of things (including cheese, which we consume a lot of.) Their produce prices are also really good and the other day they had strawberries for $1.69. Emily tried to open the package even before she was in her carseat, but then when she couldn't get it open, decided to just leave the container of strawberries on the passenger's seat so I wouldn't forget about them when we got home.

When we got home, I decided to let the girls wash the strawberries themselves since I was busy putting groceries away and they were antsy.

Then they started eating away. These strawberries were so good even I didn't need sugar on them!

Then I strung strawberries and bananas on a straw for a kebab; they thought that was pretty fun.

We did have something else for lunch in between here, but topped it off with strawberries and ice cream for dessert.

I think we need to make another trip to Aldi to get some more strawberries!

The Purpose Driven Life

My brother posted on his blog a couple weeks ago that he was starting to read The Purpose Driven Life, so it kind of inspired me to read it again. I loved the book when I read it several years ago so I thought it would be good to go through again. With our world is crazy as it is nowadays, we all need to have a purpose in our life. Here is an excerpt from "Day 3" of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren . . .

"You weren't put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity. One day you will stand before God, and he will do an audit of your life, a final exam, before you enter eternity. The Bible says, "Remember; each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God. . . Yes, each of us will have to give a personal account to God." (Romans 14:10,12 NLT) Fortunately, God wants us to pass this test, so he has given us the questions in advance.

First, "What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ?" God won't ask about your religious background or doctrinal views. The only thing that will matter is, did you accept what Jesus did for you and did you learn to love and trust him? Jesus said, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6 NIV)

Second, "What did you do with what I gave you?" What did you do with your life--all the gifts, talents, opportunities, energy, relationships, and resources God gave you? Did you spend them on yourself, or did you use them for the purposes God made you for?

The first question will determine where you spend eternity. The second question will determine what you do in eternity."


I don't know about you, but being reminded of my purpose makes me want to make sure that each day I live is not wasted.

And if you're looking for a greater purpose in your life, check out this excellent best-selling book. It's easy to read and will change your life. Thanks, Brian, for the reminder!