FCC Kids Takeover Sunday

As soon as I walked into the auditorium, tears rushed to my eyes, when I saw my sweet girl there front and center, leading our church in worship.  I can't say thank you enough to the Kids Life volunteers who pour into her life.  Who tell her that He loves her and cares about her life.  Who teach her His truth.  Who have fun with her and love her for who she is and who she can be.  I could not be prouder of her and the sweet little light she's shining. 

 

 

Life Group at the Field

How sweet are these people?  We let our Life Group know that we wouldn't be making it to group on Tuesday because Harper had her third softball game.  So, what do they do?  Show up.  They came to cheer Harper on and do life alongside us.

I'm so glad that Grizzlies got a win (and Harper went 4-4), since we had quite the cheering section.  The Grizzlies are now 3-0 and Harper is loving it.  Truth be told, so are we.   :)

Easter 2016

Why, oh why is it always SO COLD for Easter!?  Year after year we find these cute little Easter dresses, only to have to scurry at the last minute to find something presentable for the girls to wear under or over it to keep warm.  Good news, this year was no different.  :/

But, that didn't keep us from celebrating!  I think it is pretty customary for kiddos to get a new pair of Easter dress shoes, but we decided to skip that and do something a bit more pratical, so the girls found that the Easter bunny left them some new Natives instead.  FCC is a pretty casual church, so if we bought them the traditional sweet white dress shoes, they'd be worn all of once and then thrown to the bottom of the shoe buckets in their closet.  At least these, we know, will be worn more than one time.  To round out their candy-deficient Easter baskets, they had some books, a Brain Quest set, and some Shopkins.  Despite know chocolate Easter bunny, they seemed pretty excited about their surprise!

 

 

I worked the First Time Guests table at church, so we went over early for me to get to my serving spot.  We had so many first timers--what a blessing to welcome them to our church and community.  And I just loved that FCC loved on its members and guests by offering to take a family photo.  Hallelujah, I'm finally going to be in a picture with my girls!

After church, we joined the Fertitta and Cromer clans for lunch at the Salem House.  The girls enjoyed running around the property there before we were seated.  Mimi was so sweet to bring them Easter candy and money, and Granny gave each of the girls Easter money as well.  Between that and the money that MarMar and PapPap sent up, each girl ended up with $20 for Easter (and we always match what they are gifted for their savings accounts).  Maybe Easter is the new Christmas. 

 

 

Sue always likes having a group family picture, so we tried to get one before the kids melted down ready for naps.  The kiddos did well, but our solicited photographer...not so much.  We ended up blurry, but still a sweet picture of all the Fertitta family together for Easter.

 

Christmas Sunday 2015

It's Christmas Sunday and this little sweet peas are ready to go celebrate His birth!  And really, they are super excited to give their Kids' Life teachers they candy covered pretzels they made this morning.  Last week Harper spotted a Christmas tree candy mold that fell out of the cabinet while I was cooking dinner.  Since then, that child has been a dog on a bone about making them.  (I love that FCC offers a second service that doesn't start until 11:00 because it lets our Sunday mornings be leisurely family mornings.) I didn't manage to get a picture of the final product, but they ended up pretty cute considering a 5.5 year old was the chief creator.  

 
It was so warm today that we actually had to worry about them melting on the ride over to church.  The chocolate sticking to the little plastic pretzel bags they were wrapped up in should've been the least of my worries considering I think that both girl dropped theirs twice on the way in to church.  Nothing says "Merry Christmas, we appreciate you!" like broken, melted chocolate pretzels decorated by a two-year-old.  Ha!  Haley and Bailey were both sweet to act excited about them, though.

The girls had the prettiest silver Christmas dresses to wear for today (they wore them for their Santa pictures a few weeks ago), but Mama didn't feel like wearing much other than yoga pants on Sunday morning, and they were feeling the same, so who was I to stuff them in glitter tights and tulle.  So instead, we ripped the tag off a little sweater dress that I bought at the Gymboree outlet over Thanksgiving because Harper had a little cropped sweater in that pattern already to match.

I don't know that we needed sweaters and boots with this weather (we certainly didn't need a coat!), but it was nice to have a relaxed Christmas Sunday morning to snuggle and "bake" together.  Makes me excited for my time off over the holidays to make memories with my girls s'more.  

Fertittas in Wonderland {Halloween 2015}

I am such a cheesy mom.  I get it.  I embrace it.  We haven't done full fledged, family-wide matching Christmas jammies (don't count it out!), but this is a close runner up.  For Halloween, each member of our Party of Four dressed as a character from...

The Fertittas in Wonderland-- Halloween 2015

Alice in Wonderland!

One glimpse of my girls and it's obvious they are no twins, but that doesn't stop me from matching coordinating them every chance I get fairly often.  First, they were Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion.  Last year, they were Dottie and Kit of the Rockford Peaches, the sister duo chronicled in the best ever movie A League of Their Own.  Harper is nearly five and a half, so I know that my years are limited for getting to help sway her vote for what to be for Halloween.  Really, this could be the last year.  I knew Harper would be a super cute Queen of Hearts, and Willa would be adorable as Alice in Wonderland, but my initial searches on my favorite sites didn't yield any cute costumes, so I thought we may have to keep looking.  Then, the Chasing Fireflies catalog arrived in the mail, and when Harper spotted that black and red gown with tiara headband, there was no need for negotiations.  She was sold.  And we knew Willa would be a-dor-able as our sweet little storybook heroine.  What I loved even more is that we wouldn't need to buy anything but the dresses.  We had shoes, tights, turtlenecks, and headbands already to match.  

Last year, the girls loved that we dressed as fellow Rockford Peaches (Sam as the Coach and me as another player), so I thought, why not dress up with them this year?  Enter the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat.  Mine was a super cheap Amazon.com costume that needed some serious mom-ification before it could be worn in public, but Sam didn't have to look any further than his dad's closet to find this fun vintage suit that was first his Grandfather Smith's.  He may have laughed about wearing that plaid jacket and canary yellow slacks, but let me tell you, I think he felt like pretty hot stuff.  I wouldn't be surprised if he tries to pull it off for another occasion.  :)

Sweet Girls with their "Drink Me" potions

Off to Trick or Treat!

Alston as Robin

So excited about her candy from Corrie and Mimi

The Superhero Family-- Cromers 2015

The last two years we have had some pretty horrible Halloween weather, so although the girls are used to doing lots of festivals and activities, they've never really had a full evening of trick or treating, so their expectations have been delightfully low.  :)  We met at Corrie and Jeremy's house to take some pictures of the cousins in costumes, and then went out to the Salem campus at FCC for our church's Trunk or Treat ministry.  The girls were so excited to meet up with Bryce and Isla there!

Kiddos on Halloween 2015

So, about forty cars later, our Halloween festivities were finished.  No really!  We threw the candy bags in our trunk and all went to eat together at Jersey Lily's.  We love that they will hold their private room with barn doors that slide close for our group of fifteen.

UPDATE:  And here's the best part.  We are a week and a half out from Halloween, and the candy is still in the trunk.  Neither girl has even asked about it!  Ha!  Now, that is a successful Halloween.