Egg Hunt at Rives Baptist Church

We have been going to the Easter egg hunt at Rives Baptist Church on and off for a couple of years now. Due to the several inches of snow on the ground, they moved the hunt inside this year. They had so much to do! They had fun carnival games, a cake walk, blow up bouncy house, and a huge raffle at the end, that all three of our girls won something at. We all had a great time!

Emma at the cake walk (or "run" in her case).

Josie and her friend Brookie at the egg hunt in the sanctuary.

Addie spent a lot of time just chillin in the stroller. She did get a couple of eggs on the hunt.

The girls acting silly in the hall. :)

Both Emma and Josie won cookies at the cake walk.

Dying Easter Eggs

On Good Friday, Josh was busy at the church helping them get all set up for our first service back in our building since the renovation. Meanwhile, David and Kristi came over to dye some Easter eggs with us. We sure missed Daddy, and decided that next time we will wait...even if it means until AFTER Easter. We did have a great time though.

What a goofy look!

Josie had SO much fun!

The finished product.

The egg dying crew. Well, Addie just watched. We thought the combination of food coloring, and eggs with a one year old with severe allergies was not a good one. She looked on from her high chair. :)

Saturday Family Fun!

Last Saturday, Mom and Dad Mathew came over for some fun. It's been a while since we've seen each other. We had a great time eating corn chips and re-fried beans, thinking of ideas on how to maximize space in our home, and of course...wrestling! :)

Dog pile on Daddy! Even grandpa got in on the fun. :)

Isn't she getting SO big?!?!

Grandma getting Josie's toes!

Pretty in Pink!

Look at the lovebirds! I love these guys!

Game Night!

Friday night we had a bunch of people over for games. It was so much fun! I would dare to say, one of the best nights of the semester. As we gorged ourselves on apple pies, coffee and rice krispy treats, we stayed up until the wee hours of the morning playing Quiddler, Yatzee, Taboo and Trivial Pursuit. I think we need to do this more often.

Keisa and Jenna trying to spell the biggest words.

Sarah and Jolie's Taboo team rocked!

Nice mouth full of food, Josh!

Sarah, Jolie, Johnny, and Josh rolling Yatzee!

Nice hand, Susan! 25 Points!

Guess what we got?

No, not that cute little girl. We already had her. We got a FREE piano! A friend of ours named David is Mr. Connections guy. Seriously. He can get anything. I mentioned that if he ever found a piano, to get us one. Well, he found one...for free! We just had to get it tuned. We were told this was a $800 to $1000 piano! We are so excited. Emma starts lessons this week with her grandpa. :)

Tickle those ivories!

A trek from New Hampshire

A couple of weeks ago, we had the sheer joy of having some dear friends come for a visit! John and Katie and Katy came out for a whirlwind visit. We had so much fun catching up, showing the best Jackson has to offer (that is NTBI, of course!) and going to Howell for a little (ok, a LOT) of shopping.

We hope that this will become an annual trip for them! :) Well, Josh and I are at least.

This visit sure made us miss our third partner in crime, Naomi. She, her husband, and three little girls are serving with NTM in Indonesia. We miss you, Naomers!!!

Three of some of the greatest people I know! So glad you came! :)

Change is good

Okay. I just can't handle that much pink. I was trying to brighten up the blog. I don't know, maybe because I am anxious for spring? It was WAY too much pink.
I haven't posted in a while, but I am going to crazy post tonight! The girls are all in bed, and Josh is working on taxes, so here we go!!!

Splish! Splash! I was taking a bath...

The other night Emma and Josie were having a great time in the bath. I just had to share.

So, honestly...is the new pink background too much? I liked the black background, but I was just trying to change it up a little. Also, does anyone know anyone in Africa (Keisa!) who could have them check out our blog? I was looking at our visitor map, and Africa is looking awfully empty. :)

Perfecting the shot.

Right in the eye!

No damage done!

A Short Visit With Tomesia

Two Sundays ago, Tomesia was up in Michigan with the kids for Casey Shank's baby shower, and for a little belated birthday celebration with Alex. We were so glad that they could come by our house for a couple of hours, since Emma could not travel. It was so great to see them all again!

This is such a silly face. She looks like she plotting something...

My sweet niece Ivy is growing up so fast!


Alex and Emma seeing what Aunt Mesia brought.

Solomon is so good with Addie. He is so loving.

Emma's usual position. She is becoming a permanent fixture on our couch.

My gorgeous sister. She and Joe just celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary. Congrats!

Lunar Eclipse

I thought it might be nice to get some pictures of the lunar eclipse the other night. It was SO COLD! I wish I could say I had some amazing shots, but they are just okay. If you got a chance to see it in real life, it was AMAZING. How awesome our God is.

Here is when it first started.

This would have been awesome if I had used my tripod. I think I was shaking because I was so cold!

I like this one too.

Here it is at the full eclipse. I'd like to take credit for this, but it's not my picture. A friend of ours named David came over and borrowed my camera and tripod, and I was fine with that. I was way too cold after being out for an hour! It's a great shot though.

Surgery pictures

Many of you wanted to see some pictures of the surgery, so I thought I'd post a couple. The last one is just a picture of the incision, but the tape is a little bloody, so it may gross you out. Just a fair warning to those with a weak stomach.

Here is a before picture. It is really hard to capture how big the lump was with the camera. Most of it wasn't noticeable from the outside anyhow.

Here's my girl before the surgery, all hooked up. Emma got to take Bun Bun in with her, and she had "foot surgery" too!

Here is the incision. It is pretty big. I was surprised. I think she might get her stitches out next week! Right now, Emma is just passing time by coloring, practicing letters, and watching "Black Beauty", her new favorite.

Emma's surgery

Everything went well! They removed what turned out to be one really big lesion from her foot. They called it a benign fibroma, whatever that means. We are just so thankful that everything is okay and that our girl is healthy!
Emma is doing a lot of resting right now, looking at books, watching movies, and coloring. She is bored though. This girl does not like to be down. Please pray for her recovery. Saturday morning we are going to the doctor so she can look at the incision.
Thank you all so much for all of your encouraging words and most of all your prayers!
I'll post some pictures soon. My computer decided to die this week, so it makes for posting pictures a little difficult.

Addie is cookin'

Addie was having fun cooking some food for everyone. Maybe I need to put her to work in the kitchen soon. :)

A new look...

Emma has been asking for a haircut for a while, so last week she got eight inches chopped off! I miss her long hair, but her new do is cute! :)

Before the cut.

After. What a cutie!

UPDATE: We got a surgery date for Emma: February 21st at 7:45am.

NTBI skate night

I confess, I haven't really felt like posting much on our blog. I want to be able to post that we have a surgery date for Emma, but we are still waiting. So, while we wait, let me pass the time with some pictures from 70's sk8 night. :) I think it was a good event, and we all had a lot of fun, if we skated well or not. :)

Strike a pose! Here we are avoiding the rink at all costs! (L to R: Me, Jenna, Conni, Marley, and Gracie)

David and TJ were some of the few that actually dressed up that night.

Our dorky skates.

Please keep our peanut in your prayers! We are praying that the paperwork will go quickly so we can see what those lesions are.

The MRI results

The results are in. Emma's head scan was all clear! Praise God! We are so thankful for this news. They did find three lesions on her left foot though. They would like to do surgery to remove these soon. We are just waiting on all the right paperwork with our medicaid to do it. They will do a frozen biopsy while she is under, and depending on the results they may send her to the U of M for a full body scan, to see if there is any other masses.

Please keep our little in your prayers. We will keep you updated when we learn more.

Fishy kiss.

"I'm gonna eat your nose!"

I love these guys!!!