*I was given the Jelly Cat bunnies for this post and there is a discount code available at the bottom of the post.

Hippity hoppity Easter’s on its way!

I love everything about celebrating Easter. It’s the most important day for me as a Christian and also just a beautiful spring celebration. We love being outside to hunt for Easter eggs, visiting the Easter bunny, giving the kids Easter baskets before church on Sunday morning.

I’ve started gathering up a few things to put in their Easter baskets and wanted to share some of those goodies with you!

The sweet girls from Peek a Whoo offered to send the boys each a monogrammed Jelly Cat bunny. If you’re not familiar with Jelly Cats, they’re pretty much the softest, most plush, snuggly stuffed animals in the history of ever. They fill my kids’ rooms and playroom and I’m so excited to give them these cute monogrammed bunnies for Easter!

I started browsing around on Peek a Whoo and wanted to give the boys a couple of these precious Zubels. They are the most adorable knit dolls. I got them each a pirate and a puppy.

I love to throw in some special books. This year, I wanted to give the boys my copies of Peter Rabbit from when I was a little girl. They are old and worn, but they are special. I also decided to give them an illustrated Bible. We have a bedtime Bible that we love but this one has beautiful images and is a lot of fun to sit down and look at.

We love to dye Easter eggs and fill plastic eggs with candy, too, of course. I can’t wait to give the boys their baskets this year.

Use code BUNNYBLUE for 10% off your Jelly Cat monogrammed bunnies!

Whoa… so it’s been a little while, huh? Things are good. We’re feeling settled and our hearts are still. Some of these little updates have already been mentioned on Instagram and all of my pictures are straight off my iPhone.

We drove up to Indiana for Todd’s college roommate’s wedding back in February. It was a really fun celebration and we loved getting to be with old and new friends for the weekend. Because there was so much snow in Indiana and my dad was traveling, we brought my mom back with us for a couple of weeks.

It’s always amazing how fast two weeks with my mom will fly by. She fits right in here and we settled into the sweetest rhythm. We saw The Lego Movie with the boys and had a little campout on the living room floor. We watched House of Cards and The Good Wife and just hung out. We went to the fabric store and got a start on Hayes’s big boy room. (He is still in a crib. I keep thinking that we’ll move him, but he’s never tried to climb out and we moved Hudson at 20 months, so I’m kind of enjoying having him in the crib…. where he can’t get out!) We had a tearful goodbye. Hudson dreaded KK’s departure for days. But we’ve already scheduled her next visit. We’re thankful for each day with her!

We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by watching the annual parade on Devine Street and then going to some friends’ house for some outdoor fun. It was a great day.

Hudson is officially registered for Kindergarten. Oh my… time flies. He’s so ready and I’m the one who is dreading it.

I went to Los Angeles for less than 48 hours last week. Molly and I went on behalf of Dr. Smith’s to the Biggest Baby Shower. We handed out samples to expectant mothers and talked about why we love Dr. Smith’s. It was a lot of fun and the weather was absolutely amazing.

Then the dreaded stomach bug hit me, then hit Hudson, and then hit Todd. Now we’re all just praying that Hayes doesn’t get it!

Soccer practice started up again on Sunday afternoon. It’s amazing what a difference a year makes. Hudson loves it this year, whereas last year was kind of a disaster in the beginning. He has so much more confidence and understanding of what’s going on, and he talks about it like he loves it. I’m excited to watch them play.

Hayes isn’t playing yet. He’ll be 3 in May, so he didn’t make the age cut off. There are a lot of little siblings at our games and practices, so we just got Hayes his own ball and we’ll let him just pretend to play and watch what’s going on.

Hudson has declared that he wants to invite “his boys” over for a pajama party birthday party at his house. He’ll be five in June, so we have a  little bit of time to think about that. I had hoped to get by with a small family party this year, but I think we’ll just have a small party at home with his best buds and let them just play with toys and eat breakfast food.

We’ve been watching Frozen nonstop for the past few days, probably like every other family in America. The boys are obsessed and so am I!

During this lenten season, I decided not to give up anything, but instead to give more of something. I decided for a few different reasons that I would wake up a couple of hours before my boys every morning, dive into the word, and study His words more. (I guess, technically, I am giving up sleep, but I’m giving these hours to the Lord in the morning.)

I am not a morning person. I’m a nice person in the morning. It’s safe to talk to me in the mornings. But I’m a night owl. My habits have always been to sleep as late as my boys will allow and then rush in the mornings. We go through our day, and then around 7:30, I’m rushing my kids into bed. I’m ready for my time. My patience is dwindling.  And then, at the end of the day, when the boys are in bed, I soak up the hours. I stay up until almost midnight just because I love those hours.

It’s when I’m most productive. But I’ve decided to make a change. To wake up before the boys. To soak up the word. To start the laundry. To pray for my family members and our day before their day begins. To shower and get dressed before they’re up. To get all of my needs taken care of with patience and care because self care is important. My needs are important. (Washing and drying my hair is important! Ha!)

But when I’m not careful with my time, my needs compete with their needs. And my needs keep me from having open eyes and an open heart to even the needs of strangers around me.

And I want our bedtime to be precious. I want to talk to them and tell stories. And read books slowly. I don’t want to rush through that process. I want to go to bed with the same feeling of praise that I have when I awake in the morning.

It does take a while to establish habits, but I want to regularly wake up, study His word, and pray. And then still be singing when the evening comes. To start my day with God and to ask Him to stay with me all day through my decisions and my words and my tendencies to lose my patience.

 The beautiful “Let me be singing” sign is from Between You and Me on Etsy. My beautiful friend, Tara, creates these unique, beautiful signs and I love this one that is hanging in our home. This sign is the cry of my heart as I pray that each day I am still singing when the evening comes.

You can use code BEBRIDE for 10% off your purchase with Between You and Me

I have absolutely loved being a contributor over at Every Day Cheer. It has been such a fun creative outlet for me and I’ve loved seeing the community grow.

Because we love it so much, we are doing a huge giveaway this week! We’ve each compiled our favorite things for one lucky winner. (You’ll notice my very favorite Heart Knot!) Head on over to Every Day Cheer to enter!