Easter 2014.

On Saturday, Ethnie had the opportunity to be a part of a service project through church. She got to make food bags for homeless children in the twin cities. There are over 9,000 homeless kids in the metro area. That was shocking to me. The girls filled the bags with snacks, like trail mix, dried fruit, granola bars, and fruit snacks. Then they made a card for each bag decorated with stickers. These bags get sent home with homeless kids at school on Fridays. For some of these kids, it will be the only food they will have until Monday when they return to school. It was a humbling experience and a nice thing to do in the spirit of Easter. The girls were able to fill about 180 bags.

 excited to give away her cards.

 great job, girls!

Easter Sunday was very nice. We had a very uplifting service at church with inspiring music and talks. Even the children got to go up front and sing two songs. It was Emmett's first time being old enough to sing with the other children and he actually stood up there! I came with him, but he was brave and stood there silently. :) Then Ethnie got to give a talk in her Sunday school class. She spoke about how the Savior influences her family. She did a great job!

 

Emmett has been very attached to an old stuffed rainbow trout from Cabela's that we have (a gift from papa and grammy). He's been sleeping with it all week and hauls it into the living room when he wakes up.

ready for church

The weather was absolutely perfect and made this Easter that much brighter and uplifting. After church we had Matt's family over for Easter dinner. It was a feast and I was so grateful for it. I also hid some eggs in the yard for the kids to hunt. Emmett still needs help with this, but he was able to find quite a few eggs. Dad helped. ;) 

 stud.

 I couldn't believe how fast Ethnie was running around grabbing eggs.

 she was DYING to get her shorts on.

 If you look up in the tree, you'll see Ethnie's adorable bird house she painted over the weekend.

I hope you all had a beautiful Easter! I am so grateful to know that Jesus Christ lives!

meet Zena.

This is Zena, Emmett's speech therapist at Children's. He has had two sessions with her and so far, so good! Zena is very kind and patient and Emmett seems to warm up to her well. Mostly, these first two sessions have been to get to know each other and ask me a lot of questions. She started working with him on saying what he wants in a full sentence, instead of pointing or grabbing. For example, she will hold up two toys and try to get Emmett to say, "I want the _____." He hasn't said it yet, but he will with time. Hopefully, things will continue to go well with Zena.

On Monday, Emmett had his screening for preschool with the school district. It went as well as it could have gone, but Emmett was unable to do many of the tasks asked of him and that was hard to watch. I started crying and had to get it together! I know Emmett is smart and will learn successfully at his own pace, but it made me so sad to see him struggle with simple things. Special education is going to do another evaluation to see what he qualifies for.

On a lighter note, the kids have been playing really well together this week and that makes me very happy! The best sound in the world to me is listening to my kids laugh and giggle together. Those messes are the ones I'm willing to clean up. ;)

my weekend that melted into spring(late).

 Last weekend was lovely.  I spent some nice time with the kids and almost all the snow melted. :) Can't get much better than that, right?

(Thursday) I took the kids to Como Zoo Conservatory to trigger any memories of what it feels like to be around vegetation. We saw some really cool frogs! The two in the photo above are red-eyed tree frogs napping on the glass. So cute!

poison dart frogs.

can't remember the name of these guys.

We had another snow storm, which resulted in 6.5" of heavy snow-turned-slush in a matter of hours. Not funny. At least Matt and the kids had fun having their (hopefully) last snowball fight.

On Friday, after the storm passed, Ethnie and I had a day date to spend some time together. Because recent events have forced us to put most of our energy and attention on Emmett, I really felt Ethnie needed some time with me away.

So, we went all the way across Lexington Parkway to the community center to go swimming. ;) Two of Ethnie's friends were there too so she had a blast. I love watching her swim. She's so little and cute and always proud of herself when she figures out how to do a new "cool trick".

After swimming we headed over to the MOA to Skydeck, Ethnie's new favorite place to go in the Mall. We shared some food and played games. Ethnie won the jackpot on one of them!

She used her 600 tickets to buy a stuffed animal seahorse. Yes, it costs 600 tickets to get a small stuffed animal! She was so excited about it. I love my girl. :)

The weekend was also very spiritually uplifting because our church has what's called General Conference. It takes place in Salt Lake City, but is broadcasted all over the world for the congregation to watch. The leaders of the church speak about whatever they feel inspired to tell us. It happens twice a year and really recharges my spiritual batteries. I am grateful to have spiritual guidance like that in my life.

Hope you all have a great warm rest of your week!

family, friends, and the beginning of april.

We had a great weekend up north last weekend visiting my parents. The kids love staying with grandpa and grandma! We also got to see my grandparents, which was great.
On Saturday, we took the kids to the Northern Trackers Railroad Club in Crosslake. This place is adorable and we can't wait to go back! This model train museum is run by 40 members and is very impressive. It's worth the trip if you are in the area! In the summer the museum has an outdoor track and a garden. And before you leave each child is given a coloring book and sheet of stickers. :)

You are not allowed to touch the trains, but the sets are interactive. There are many buttons you can press that do different things, like sound the horn, turn on lights, or move people.

checking out the outdoor set.

we always have a tired little boy when we spend a weekend up north.

Matt and the kids left Sunday night, but I stayed in town for two more days to stay with my mom and visit my newest cousin. :)

This is my cousin Rob's new baby, Navy. Isn't he the sweetest? I couldn't stop staring at him.

Navy has the cutest curly mohawk.

It was so great catching up with Shawna and Antje (Navy's mom).

so snuggly. 

Also, if you didn't know, April is autism awareness month. National autism awareness day is today, April 2nd.

wearing blue for autism awareness day.

Hope you all are having a great week!