A Special Day at Great Grandma's

The day before Easter, the Reeder family (well, most of us!  it's hard to get 61 people all in the same place at the same time!) got together for some family fun!  We had all of Grandma's clothes, jewelry and furniture to go through and 3 new babies to meet.  We declared (ok, I did) it "Reeder Egg-stravaganza" and just might make it a yearly event.

It was so special to gather together one last time in a home we all love so much.  Grandma's house was always such a wonderful place to be and is filled with memories for all of us.  What a special treat it was to come together for lunch, an egg hunt and making new memories.  

Audra, my mom and I meet there the day before to get the house organized and ready for the family to come over.  We had rooms set up to look at jewelry, decorations and furniture throughout the house.  On Saturday everyone was able to take something special home!!

After lunch, the great grandkids got to have an easter egg hunt in grandma's huge backyard.  They loved it and what fun it was for all of us to watch!  I don't know why we hadn't done this sooner.  The yard was perfect!

Here they all are, all gathered together!  We're missing two that were napping and a handful that weren't able to make it.

The kids had a blast checking out all there goodies.

Here are the 2T's at 5 and almost 5, having a great time together!

8 of the 12 best cousins ever!  It's such a blessing to be a part of a family that loves the Lord and are just great people!

After all the gal cousins got a chance to explore and take some of Grandma's fun costume jewelry, we let the great girls get a look and take home some fancy jewelry.  They were so cute!  Some of them ended up with big sparkly earrings and pretty glamorous necklaces.  Another special treat!

As the party settled down, we got a chance to just enjoy the house and get a couple special pictures!  The boys are hanging out on a counter where I enjoyed countless bowls of ice cream, cookies and fun conversations with my Grandma!  Speaking of which.... we came across her wallet while cleaning things out.  It had $33 in it.  Just the right amount to by ice cream treat for the whole family!  It was such a little but huge thing.  Grandma's freezer was always full of ice cream treats and it was so cool that she got to buy some for us just one more time!

Here are my sister and I on the patio.  A patio we cleaned and vacuumed (yes, vacuumed) many, many times!  We learned so many things from Grandma, valuable lessons we've taken to our own homes.  No, I don't vacuum my patio, but I do know how!

I'll miss this house!

Free Legos

Jared has always been a great example of always trusting the Lord with our money. (I mean the Lord's money that He entrusts us with!) Recently, we've been doing a little more of that.  I've seen our grocery budget stretch and make it.  One paycheck period it just seemed to multiply like the Feeding of the 5,000, there was just always enough.  God stretched us and then it was as if He say, "See, you can trust me."

"What does this have to do with Lego's?", I'm sure you are asking by now.  Well, Jared had the day off and we decided to get out of the house for some family fun.  We wandered on down to Ikea and then over to the Sacramento Mall where they had a Lego store. 

Before going in we decided Thomas could fill a small bucket with the Lego bins they have on this amazing wall.  It's all sorts of round bins with the Legos separated by shape and color.  They even have ones with the flowers, steering wheels and fancy connectors.  It's so cool!!  Thomas hadn't made it that far because he was fascinated with all the sets.  While looking at one, this couple came up to us with an offer.  They had a coupon they had been given for a box to fill off the lego wall.  They had two of them.  They wanted to GIVE one to each of the boys.  They were so sweet and just wanted to share it. We were so excited!!  I told Jared, "It's like God just handed us free Legos!!"  But seriously, it was such a fun blessing, a cool little gift to be thankful for!!

The boys had a great time walking along the wall picking out the shapes they wanted.  Jared and I sprung for a blue square plate to build on!  We got home and the boys spent the next 3 hours building away!

Jared managed to count the Legos... about 420!!

Sushi Night

I don't know if its the rainy weather or just the time of year or my desires have changed, but I find that things are a little more quiet lately.  We've had more days at home and less days running here and there.  We haven't had too many places to be or even things to do.  It's been nice.  I'm enjoying the time with my boys and the extra time to play with them while they still want mommy to play!

The slower pace of life has crept into our weekends as well. This last Saturday was open with the evening set aside for time at a friends house.  I think it was the 3rd open Saturday this month, that never happens.  Sunday was also wide open and we took it just to relax!  We had thought about going out to lunch, but instead chose to come home and see what could be made up for lunch with the few leftovers needing to be cleaned out. (it was an interesting lunch!)  The afternoon was then spent resting, reading, catching up on computer projects for Jared, playing with Thomas and napping for Benjamin.  We even got in an afternoon walk.  Thomas went for his first mile long bike ride and did fantastic!!  We had planned to go out for dinner, but decided we would just rather continue our nice time together at home.  

So we splurged for take out Sushi!!

Now, with this time at home I have spent a good deal of it finding inspiration on Pinterest, but you must know that I am by no means always doing creative and inspired things for my family and with the kids.  They are few.  Somehow they just always end up on the blog creating the appearance that we are way more creative then we really are!  So remember that as I tell you about the sushi I made for the boys!!

While Jared was out picking up our Sushi Rolls, I made the boys their own.  

I rolled out 2 pieces of sandwich bread with the roller, after cutting off the crust.

Then spread one with peanut butter and the other with jelly.

Then rolled them up and sliced them into bite size pieces,

creating pb rolls and jelly rolls!

I then pulled out our sushi plates and dipping bowls 

and even chopsticks for the boys.

They used yogurt smoothies for dip!

They were a huge hit and gone in seconds!

The evening was finished off with some card games (thomas is becoming quite the card shark when it comes to Go Fish), a story and a daddy/thomas sonic video game.

What a blessing it is to have these special little days.  Unplanned family bonding are special memories I hope to give my wonderful little family.

Valentine's Day!

 What fun Valentine's Day is when you have a son in school!  He was so excited to take his special treats to his friends.  We found some springs at Target that he chose.  We didn't want to just do those so decided to turn them into animals.  Thomas chose a giraffe!  So you can see it down below.  He's passing them out to each friend by placing them in everyone's goodie bag!  I found a clipart of a giraffe that we printed out and cut in half.  We placed the head above the spring and the body below, making the spring the neck.  I then added "From you head, down to your toes, God Loves You!  and Thomas signed his name.  He was happy with them.

We celebrated as a family with a yummy dinner and goodie bags.

We made heart shaped pizza which we enjoyed after a trip to coldstone to enjoy dessert before ice cream! (and yes, thomas' hair is usually a mess because he loves to wear his sweatshirt hoods all the time!!)

A little more on family...

It's been a few weeks now, but when Andrew was just a week old, I was able to go and spend the day with my sister and her family.  I wanted to go up and there and be a help in whatever way I could.  That meant my sweet ones spent the day with Grandma Matlock having fun so I could just focus on the Byer's family.

I got to snuggle this precious little blessing:

And play with this sweet one:

It was a day full of blessing.  Ross got out of the house for a little bit.  Audra and I got to visit.  I folded her laundry and even did a few dishes.  Then I got to hold Andrew while everyone napped and get dinner going!  All throughout the day, I got to be "Auntie."  This is a role I haven't really gotten to focus on lately!  Benjamin and Ethan are just a few weeks apart, so for all of Ethan's life I've been busy being a mommy (just as it should be, yes.  but, a little sad to not have had the time to really get to know Ethan).  That Friday, I got to focus on Ethan.  We read books, played with trucks, visited and just had a good time.  Audra and Ross left for awhile and I got to give Ethan dinner.  He had fun eating yogurt with his hands and I had fun just enjoying him.  We bonded.  It was a blessing to me and a blessing for my sister.  We were best buds by the time I left.  He even cried!

Then, just a few days later, they Byers family made their way to our house for the super bowl and we all got many more blessings of life with 3 little boys running around!  As you can see below, the boy-ness is really kicking in!  They are all little boys now.  Not babies, not too much toddler left in them, just all boys!  We rode bikes and they had their first wrestling match!  Ethan and Benjamin loved tacking Thomas and Thomas couldn't get enough!

Benjamin was fascinated with baby Andrew and would just stare at him.  That was a blessing to my heart!

 We had superbowl sundaes and all enjoyed them!

 And here they all are!  The 4 cousins!  Maybe someday a girl will get thrown into the mix!

I had to get these two cute shots in of the guys on the bikes.  They aren't quite able to move them around too much, but it was fun to watch them have fun and try.

Oh How Time "Bounces" By

I was able to spend yet another wonderful day with my college girls just a couple of weeks ago.  As I always say, it's so good to be with them!  We find a little bit of time to have such good conversations between the sweet (and not-so-sweet) interruptions of our now 7 children.  I think we know the time is precious so, somehow, we always jump right to the heart of the matter.  We are able to share encouragement with one another, the hardships of discipline, the wonderfulness of our husbands, talk through big upcoming decisions.  Our hearts are knitted together because of our time together in college.  It's such a blessing to have one another!!

It's also just so cool to see our kids grow up together.  They love being together just as much as the mommies do.  Before heading of the bounce house, Kristine pulled out her phone to show me a picture of our oldest 3 when they are all about 18 months old!!  It's amazing how much time has passed by!!

Now that the kids are older, it's fun to get out of the houses and take them somewhere that they can really have fun and run off that crazy energy!  We decided on a bounce house.  All of them had a great time!

Benjamin loved it, for about 5 minutes, then he was back to running around!

Here they are, all but the sweet baby who is sleeping just out of camera shot.  Aren't they cute?

Our three oldest, all with in months of one another.

Christmas Day

What a joy to celebrate Christmas Joy, Christmas Day, Christ's Birth on a Sunday!!  Sure, it made things a little more scrunched, the morning a little rushed, but to be in church and sing of His glories on a day to celebrate His the coming.  The coming that meant our salvation!!  Glory!!  I feel like I should, like I could end this post right there... but alas, the pictures!!  Hopefully, He was honored in our celebration.

Sweet Thomas!

4 and a half years old

snuggling his spiderman he received from Grammy Berry

With his superhero shirt

The boys checking out their Christmas goodies

 and Thomas already hard at work in his notebook.

Sweet Benjamin

at 17months

also, holding Thomas' spiderman

At Church, all dressed up for Christmas Sunday

Took the opportunity to snap a picture with a good friend

My family, 

my beautiful boys and my wonderful husband,

what more could a girl want!!

We enjoyed an amazing dinner, mostly prepared by my in-laws.

BBQ'd lamb, mashed and scalloped potatoes, lots of veggies and delish rolls!

Lots of time after for playing games, football, naps and talks over coffee

What do you do before 7am at your house?

Well, we take the trash out in the rain.

Take turns getting a good look at the sun rise, in the rain,

put on a sock puppet show, complete with the puppets tickling, talking and singing,

 (here's stripee)

 turn in to toilet paper, mummies,

then bust out of them and make a big pile.

oh and just so you don't think we are too creative that early....
we also watch cartoons and can hardly take our eyes off them for a picture!!

 yep, it was an early morning here in the matlock home.  pray for me!!