Tony turns 29

Tony turned 29 yesterday!  I feel bad his birthday was in the middle of our moving week, but it ended up being a GREAT day anyways.  We met for brunch that morning and then I got to work on a little project I for one of his gifts...

Each balloon had a message from a friend or family member.  I asked each person to include something they loved about him or a memory.  It turned out to be a really special gift :)  After I had finished taping all the messages to balloons, we got a phone call asking if someone could come view the house- of course. So into the closet the balloons went! 

 birthday dinner

We were meeting daddy for a special birthday dinner at Steak & Shake, his choice and a childhood favorite.  While we were getting ready to go, our agent texted me because our first showing had placed an offer on our home.  What?!  We had only been listed online, a small number of places, for less than 24 hours.  We were thrilled!  Happy birthday to Tony!

After dinner we came home for dessert and presents.  Tony is a wonderful father & husband.  He excels at everything he does and I'm so proud to be his wife. 

  Happy birthday Tony! 

 

We love you!!!

Family Announcement and Pictures

 Bentonville square

 Well, this is the last place I have to post our family news that we are officially leaving Northwest Arkansas.  Tony accepted a job in Utah and we'll be leaving on the 20th.  It all happened so fast!  This new job is an exciting opportunity for Tony.  It's taking him down a different career path that he has been wanting to go.  Really, it's a huge blessing.  We're excited to live by our families and old friends again, but so sad to leave this area behind.  I love our friends so much and our ward has been incredible.  This really is the perfect place to raise a family.  Ah...I start thinking about it and I start crying so onto some pictures :)

 

 a dime to ride in "Sam Walton's truck"

Coincidentally, the boys and I did a little town exploring the day before we found out about the job.   We were wanting to try out a new cupcake shop on the square, but they didn't open for an hour after we showed up. We explored the square, visitor's center and the 5&10 shop to kill some time.  We wanted those cupcakes!  Well, I guess I wanted a cupcake is more honest :)

 vintage style toys in the 5 & 10 shop

 downtown square

 Even the prisoners are picturesque in Bentonville :)

Charlie was so excited to see "Jail guys"

The morning didn't go as planned, but we did end with our main goal: cupcakes :) 

I'm so glad we had this morning to enjoy where we live.  I love Northwest Arkansas.
(I am making my blog public so I can better keep in touch with friends here.  You can remove my updates blog from your list--thanks!)

Happy Easter

 The Easter bunny found us!

Easter with little kids is just the best.  I loved hearing Charlie tell me things he had learned in primary/joy school... 

"Jesus body went to heaven and came alive again" 

(talking about the sacrament) "mom, the water is for his blood and the bread is for his elbow." 

(putting his hands together, then apart) "he went up and then came back together"

The gospel is really quite simple.

For the life of me, I could not find our Easter baskets.  How do you lose baskets?!  I'm guessing they got stepped on and thrown away?  In case they popped up last minute, I opted for $.97 buckets and didn't do any grass.  This mistake ended up being genius.  The boys loved their buckets, they didn't break or tip over during eggs hunts AND we didn't have to vacuum up any grass.  Win win!

refusing to eat anything else, they had chocolate for breakfast

Opening their treats from the Easter bunny.

Church that morning was very exciting.  It was finally Charlie's chance to sing with the primary kids up on the stand.  He has been wanting to do this for the past year, at least.  He walked up there, stood in the front row and waved to us.  We had been practicing "Easter Hosanna" for the past two weeks.  Man, that song has some big words for a 3 year old!  But I could hear his little voice on the last word of each sentence.  Yes!  The first thing he said when he came back to our pew was, "I'm bigger now."  haha he was feeling pretty darn good about himself!

Charlie got some special treats from his sweet sunbeam teachers

I started prepping for dinner after church.  We invited some friends over for dinner and an Easter egg hunt.  I'm so glad we have other family-less friends to spend holidays with! We had a big dinner then the daddies hid the eggs out back.

homemade rolls-a first time for me! 

 They turned out so beautiful I had to take a picture.

It was a great holiday.  I'm thankful for all the blessings we have through Christ's atonement and resurrection.  

Happy Easter!