Colored Eggs

This was our first dyeing eggs experience for our family. The boys loved it. We did a dozen and they definitely could have done more. The boys are still talking about eggs and hiding different things all over the house to go and find.
What's more exciting to me though is that Zeke is still running around singing "God's not dead. No! He's alive!" and Ben tries to chime in as well. So thankful that we have been able to teach them the real meaning behind the chocolate and dyed eggs.

Ben's ready for dyeing eggs face cracks me up!

Zeke's fave color right now is orange
(yes I put the little colored things in the wrong cups)

Ben dove right in

It's hard to wait

Half way through

We only cracked one egg, not too shabby I think

Easter

We had a whirlwind morning with both boys waking up crying and us bribing them with their baskets. (we generally do baskets after nap because no bunny is coming to our house anyway) We went to church which as always is amazing. I love BC South and Matt Papa leading us in worship. My fave parts of the day were singing with my boys in kids worship, Spence baptizing, and finding out that sweet Caroline was baptized by her dad. Then we came home, the kids napped and I prepared myself for the chaos that was about to happen. We had 4 families over for linner/dunch (you know that time between lunch and dinner or I guess it could be lupper or sunch if you call it supper instead). It was crazy with 10 adults and 12 kids ranging in age 8 to 1 year. We ate great food and had a blast celebrating together.
Here is a picture recap of the day:

Zeke's basket

Ben's basket

6 am basket time fun

Notice that Zeke is still in his chair, but we put Ben across the room to avoid fights

The moms (aka "My Girls")

Jill, Michal, Keva, Abby, me

The dads

Chris, Heath, Chris, Spence, Trevor

Ben spent the entire time harrassing anyone and everyone he could get near

We shoved the big kids outside the ENTIRE time

Girls play so differently...

Z parked himself and people came to play with him

What happens at the Lairs, stays at the Lairs

We have some sweet friends who have 5, count 'em 5, boys. They range in age from 9 years to 1 month. We love adding to the chaos of their life. We have so much fun with them. Our boys do so well together and I have loved Cher since she was "marinating" Campbell (who is almost 6). When you put 7 boys together, things go go a bit awry. This past week, we lost Zeke's shoes and Ben had to borrow a complete outfit due to a water mishap.

RIP crocs

Crazy outfit that actually doesn't look too bad

Shave and a haircut...

While hanging with the Fletcherville fam, we got Ben's hair cut. Since, April used to cut hair, while cooking dinner and watching her two kids plus a few others from the neighborhood all in her townhouse kitchen I figured it would be a breeze to do in all the chaos. These were literally as April was walking out the door to go to her boys' ball games. Yes, she cut my boy's hair in the front yard with him stripped down. Don't judge me

First cut!

He wasn't so sure about what was going on

A lil mean to our photographer (Jaime)

Back home, I got the results (Jaime's camera died)

Sweet boy's big boy haircut!

It is Finished

The following video is for a song that one our worship pastors has written. It shares why we are celebrating this weekend. I'm not sure if you know or not, but Easter is about more than chocolate bunnies. We would love for you to join us as we celebrate Christ's death and resurrection. Service times can be found on our church's website. But I want to extend a personal invitation to attend with Spence and I on Saturday at 4:15. We will go for a traditional Easter meal at Chick-fil-A afterwards. We will also be at church Sunday at 9 and 11 if anyone wants to take us up on our offer. We would love to share this day with you.

Hanging with the Williams Fam

While in Charlotte, we had to go visit Lee and Sara. Baby Lillian was only a week old, so we got to snuggle her some. It was really fun watching our boys run around together. Samuel is between Zeke and Ben so they had a blast together. Of course, I didn't even take a picture of the baby girl! I guess we will just have to come back.

Playing

We put on Thomas so that the grown ups could eat lunch, are we great parents or what?!

Fletcherville

Last weekend, the Shelton crew drove down and the Phillips crew drove up to meet the Stinsons, Browns, and Coxes in Charlotte. We had it all planned out. 5 families, 13 kids ranging in ages from 12 years to 4 months. We would all get there, eat dinner together. Then we would split up dads with some kids and moms with some kids for bedtime. (The Coxes went back home since they still have a bitty baby) Then we were going to regoup, hang out, grab lunch and then drive to our houses. The first part of the plan went well, but then literally 5 minutes after the dads left, Ben woke up. We drove around with him, left him to cry, held him and let him watch tv. He ended up waking up Zeke. So, my two boys and I ended up downstairs with the moms. I was threatening to drive home at 2 am. The girls talked me down. April took over with Ben and got up with him the rest of the night. I slept with Zeke in a twin bed. Oh, and during all this Jack woke up and Brooke was up all night with him as well. By 7 am, Brooke and I were packing to go home. We called the boys and decided we had all had enough fun for one day. Even in the chaos, I am so glad we did this. There isn't anyone else I would rather have sat up all night with crying babies. I love ya'll!
Here is a quick breakdown of the families:
Browns- in seminary had Averie (12) and Austin Kate (8), have since had Atalie (1)
Coxes- have 2 kids now, Owen (2) and Oliver (4 months)
Phillips- had Kate (5) in seminary, have hadded Ava Grace (3) and Jack (1)
Stinsons- had Avery (7) and Addison (5) in seminary, and have Paisley (2)

Look at this sweet smocked girl with her car!

HR derby, fave pasttime

This is Jack, but we kept talking about how much he looked like Kate.

We added a bow and proved ourselves correct.

All the kids loved the trampoline

Brooke and Jack

Kids minus Ben who was already in bed

I had to include this because April is gonna kill me when she sees it!

Poor Pais was caught at the wrong moment.

Sweet Ata cheesin'

Averie and Ava Grace all snuggled up

yeah, this was at some random time in the night

Holt vs Marbles

*These pictures are out of order simply because I loaded them that way and don't have the energy to change it. A couple weeks ago, our sweet friends the Gastons had their second child. Holt is Zeke's bff and we kinda like his parents too. Because of this, we invited Jason and Holt to come play at Marbles to get out of the house. (Hey, we remember what those first couple weeks were like) We had a blast, I mean great friends, great place, how could we not?!

Super cute boys!

all the guys (fave pic of the day)

Our wild animals

Holt surfin'

Zeke stayed in the lawn care area until we dragged him away

Hello, John Deere!

WOW, glimpse of life in 14ish years

Crazy Connect 4, hey Andrew Hopper, I think the boys are ready to take you on

Halloween in March?

Zeke remembers that he was a giraffe at Halloween. I think Ben actually remembers he was a monkey. When Zeke found a tiger costume a few weeks ago, he insisted on dressing up and Ben joined in as well.

Zeke costume SWALLOWED Ben, but that big booty was still pretty cute!

Our tiger and giraffe

Then daddy got in on the fun

"So, Monkey, what's your plan with this Tiger over here?"

Absolute FAVE pic, look at Spence's eyes!

This Little Light of Mine

Zeke still LOVES The Go Fish Guys. While watching a dvd the other day, he began singing along with the song. He then ran to grab his flashlight to help with the song.

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine

let it shine, let it shine, let it shine