Mother's Day

My sweet family making my Mother's Day special.
My very special Mother-in-Law, Jan Bendick

Luke playing "Sweet Child Of Mine" in his first guitar concert. He told us afterwards that he was so nervous his knees were shaking.

I love this picture of Matt giving Luke a pep talk before the show.

I had a very special Mother's Day because Matt's parents were here and I was able to celebrate Mother's Day with my very dear Mother-in-Law. I am so blessed to have such a loving Mother-in-Law in my life. It is something I have never taken for granted. Another event that made it special was that Luke had a guitar concert at Expresso Yourself, a local coffee shop in downtown Powell. He was very nervous, but he fought through his nerves and did great!! It was the perfect Mother's Day treat!

Easter with the Suttons

Our annual Easter family picture. And our first Easter in our new home.

All the cousins looking fine in the Easter best.

Mike, Katy, Bella, Grant, Ainsley, and Lexi

The girls in their matching Tangled pajamas. BEST new Disney movie!

After a successful Easter Egg hunt our church put on. They dropped 40, 000 (yes, that's right!) eggs from a helicopter!

Ainsley digging into the stroller for her candy she collected from the eggs. She paused long enough to smile for this picture.

Matt's sister Katy and family came to visit us over Easter. They bravely drove from St. Louis with their 4 small children. We had a fun time just hanging around with the kids. The girls put on dance shows in the basement and Grant had a blast with all of the boy toys around the house. We enjoyed a beautiful Easter service on Sunday and we enjoyed making our Easter cookies while telling the Easter story. We were also able to attend an Easter egg hunt our church put on, even though it was a wet one. The twins especially loved it because it meant lots of candy! Also, it was the second year in a row that we had family in for my birthday. I celebrated 39 years this year and I plan to make this year last a LONG time before the big milestone next year.

Chicago Girls Trip

On top of the Hancock building. We were told by a man selling boat rides that the ladies restroom had the best view of the city. He was right!

Krissy kept giving us a hard time because we were always on our phones. We voted and decided Mel was the worst, either Cynthia or I was second (I can't remember), and Krissy did the best job of abstaining. It is pretty pitiful.

We bought these ridiculous flowers and wore them in our hair one night.

Walking along Navy Pier

Pizza at Gino's East!

We are showing our age by having a 'wheatgrass shot' instead of a real one. Krissy insisted it would help my stomach issues. It really just made me sick!

Once again, Krissy, Cynthia, Melissa, and I had a fabulous laughter filled girls trip. This time we went to Chicago. We owe it all to Cynthia who told us that she would get new college friends if we didn't plan something, We basically ate, shopped, laughed, ate, shopped, laughed. I would have loved to hit the museums, but of course I was the only one! We did go on the architectural boat ride and since I know absolutely nothing about architecture, I promptly forgot everything that was said the second we stepped off the boat.

We stayed at the Westin on Michigan Ave and during our first night there someone tried to break into our hotel room. The person managed to break into the room next to us as we were awakened at 4:00 am to a scuffle in the hall. We immediately called the front desk and they sent security up. We listened at the door without opening it as a woman gave a desciption of the man who broke into her room. A little unsettling to say the least and it took us a while to fall back asleep. The next evening we happened to meet the women staying next to us whose room was broken into. We got the whole story from them as to what happened and they assured us not to worry as we should feel very safe since they are abortion providers and there are ATF agents on our floor!!! Ahhh....yes....we feel so much safer now knowing our hotel could be bombed!! The next morning we found ourselves on the elevator with the ATF agents and bomb sniffing dogs. GREAT! And then Krissy and Cynthia had what they considered a near death experience on the subway going to the airport. Luckily, they warned Mel and I to take a cab, which we did! We had a blast and I already can't wait for the next one!!