MAN DOWN!!!

So I missed my blog yesterday. In my defense- I fell asleep in my clothes at 8:30pm and woke up at 3:30am to two ice cold hands on my feet (Annabelle had a nightmare). So I am going to cheat and post twice today. I am on my way outside to take some pics of my sweet babies playing in the water! I love AZ!! Remind me of this when it's 115 for the 10th day in a row! Post again tonight!!

Almost midnight

I just came into my room and saw the computer and realized I STILL HAVEN'T BLOGGED TODAY! Yikes! Okay... Short and sweet! I finished a Bible study tonight- Beth Moore's Breaking Free. It was awesome! Ladies- if you've never done a Beth Moore study, GET TO IT!! All of her studies involve homework time, but not too much and you will be spending a lot of time in the Word. This particular study focused on how we often let our lives be ruled by sin- and we don't even know it. She is a wonderful Bible teacher and so knowledgeable. Plus, her sweet southern accent puts a kind spin on anything she is preachin! I try not to "sell" people or things on this blog- but this study was amazing!!! To learn more about Beth Moore's life and ministry go to www.lifeway.com

6 down, 24 to go!

Easter with Team Sanborn

Here are a few of the pics from the Easter season- starting with easter egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpas, moving to Easter Eve morning at Mimi's, then Easter morning at our house and ending with easter egg hunt at Aunt Brenda and Uncle Kim's. Details from the Easter on yesterday's blog, but pics today!! Happy Easter!!

Annabelle and Andrew hunting for eggs at Sanborn's

The first "swim" of the season

Easter Eve morning getting Easter baskets at Mimi's

Of course they got the movie Alvin and the Chipmunks to go along with the "build-a-bears"

Oh sweet brother- the Easter Bunny has come, please wake up!

If you have ever had Easter at the Cates home you know exactly what this is... A trail of Robin Eggs leading from Annabelle's bed to her Easter basket

Andrew's Trail

Andrew's basket

Annabelle's basket

Our new family tradition of Daddy reading the Easter story

Collecting our "trails" to put in our Easter baskets

Posing for the camera at church

6 of the 7 great grandbabies... Blakeleigh was sleeping

Caiden, Cooper, Annabelle, Andrew, Brenton and the little guy in the back is CJ

Annabelle loves that her eggs are easy to find... All are hot pink!

Andrew says- what hunt?! I dominated those eggs sucka!

The Theme for this month is "Big"

The theme of "National Blog Every Day for a Month" this month is "BIG". So sometimes we will be blogging about big, and sometimes not. Today, we are. Today was a BIG day. Of Course first and foremost was the day it self. Easter- it's a pretty BIG deal. Thank you Lord, for dying on the cross and saving us from ourselves.

We had a BIG day with our BIG family, 7 kids under six (for one more day anyway- happy b-day tomorrow Caiden), 8 easter eggs for each (that's 56 easter eggs stuffed with goodies and hidden in Aunt Brenda and Uncle Kim's yard), 8 first cousins (kind of like aunts and uncles), 12 grown ups (who we love so much and are also related to us in one way or another) and this is the BIGGEST part of the day- 14 BIG hours with no tantrums. Yes that's right guys!!! BIG deal!!!! Church (not at our church with sunday school and familiarity) for almost 2 hours. Sitting still too!!! Move to Aunt Brenda and Uncle Kim's for almost 4 hours- again, no tantrums even when it was time to leave. Playdate in Jillian and Elliot's yard for 2 hours in the evening, no tantrums. Dinner and bedtime with no tantrums. BIG deal again. I am feeling so blessed for so many things today. I am blessed by my savior who died for me, blessed by the grace extended by that same savior everyday, blessed by an amazing family, blessed by the "easter Bunny" who always knows just what my kiddos need (thanks Mimi), blessed by the memory of my sweet Daddy who would have loved every minute of today, blessed by my husband who was so helpful during the chaos, and blessed by my precious babies BIG day with no melt downs. I guess you could say I am blessed BIG time!

Never Leave a Child Unattended

Well, sometimes this goes without saying. Just as I start to let my guard down- WHAM-O!! As the mother of Andrew Jess Yecheneku Sanborn, I am VERY aware of the reality of the name of the post. Lately the kids have been playing really well together for really long periods of time. Today I took Andrew home to change our clothes (we went to breakfast at our Mimi's house in our jammies-pics to come tomorrow). Annabelle stayed with my mom, so it was just my baby boy and I! I changed Andrew and started to change my clothes when I heard the service door from the house to the garage shut. I was not alarmed by that since Andrew often gets himself into his car seat when he is in a hurry to go somewhere (BTW, we were going to Target). I am, however, ALWAYS hesitant to leave Andrew aka "Handy Andy" in the garage too long for fear he would recognize the tools in Bill's arsenal as Pat, Rusty, Dusty, Squeeze, Flicker, and so on. For those of you reading this blog that are unaware- those are some of "Handy Manny's" tools (a hammer, a wrench, pliers and flashlight respectively). While Andrew loves his play tools, he has not realized the difference between the toys and the real things yet. For example, the weight of the tools, the way they can cause damage or serious bodily injury to others. I digress... So as I hurriedly throw my clothes on and race to the garage to prevent my 4 year old from inflicting injury on himself, I discover the tools are not what I should be worried about. The car is. As I swing open the door, I see Andrew standing on the top of the van. Yes, you read that right. He was standing on top of the van. I tried not to panic for fear or startling him and causing him to fall to his death (or at least or first ER visit), I calmly said, "Andrew, that is very dangerous, please get down". WHAT WAS I THINKING!!??? He sat down on the roof of the van, grabbed the edge where the sliding door was open and swung himself inside the van. He then got in his car seat, we drove to Target and never spoke of the incident again. And what did we learn from this little incident... "Never Leave a Child Unattended"!

Sweet Nothings...

Okay here it is 11:00pm on the 2nd day of the "blog everyday for a month"- I am barely making it today, and it's only day 2!!!!! Today we had a super busy day which included "quiet time" where I was the only one who fell asleep. I woke up to the smell of poopy pull ups (Andrew has had some gastric-intestinal issues), and Annabelle saying "I want popcorn". You would think my "power nap" would have left me refreshed, but alas... So at the end of our day, Bill still isn't home and I am doing shower time alone. Usually this would warrant curse words or result in bath less children but today was different. Today I wished I could have frozen time. I watched my sweet babies bundled in fluffy towels, sitting on their knees on a bath mat facing each other. Andrew would say, "Annabelle tell me somethin" and touch her chest. Annabelle would say, "Eyeball" or something just as sentimental. Andrew would repeat what she said and they would both laugh so hard they would drool. They would point at each other and say, "ew- you're drooling" and laugh some more. Seriously, I wish I had a video camera, but I think the semi-nakedness may have been censored by the "powers that blog" . Don't get me wrong, they fight and bother each other and make faces at the one that is in time out. They brawl with the best. But today for about 5 minutes, I got to see them as more than brother and sister, I got to witness them becoming friends.

Well- Here Goes Nothing...

So I have been a major slacker about blogging lately because we have been so busy, which isn't that why we decided to blog in the first place? To keep you all informed of all our crazy antics? So I decided to commit to "National Blog Every Day For A Month", Yikes right??!! Hopefully this will get my bootie into the habit of blogging everyday. Plus, I was totally put to shame by a certain unnamed friend who is in Africa blogging by candle light with intermittent power outages. So I guess wanting to watch "Modern Family" isn't a good enough reason to skip it!! And I will be suckering all of you readers into blogging if you don't already (ahhem- Alyson). It's fun it's easy- well, we'll see!! So check back with us often and happy reading!