happy easter.

flashback time.

sunny easter 2013.
happy easter 2012.
another easter 2011.

last night i got their baskets ready. well, no actual baskets, but the stuff that goes in one ;) i wrote a note from the easter bunny…

… that i left up on my computer this morning. and had to explain to them how "i did think that my chair had been moved!!!" and how rude the EB was to not even ask me ;)

and then today, we went to the beach. we talked last night about possibly going to the little elm lake - and then this morning made it official. i made sandwiches, got snacks ready, packed them up in suits, got 209384029 things needed for the day packed into the car - and then left. lol

miller was afraid of the sand for the first half or so. that was fun. lol


corbin slept most of the time. but then was a happy girl.


aidan and sawyer competed to build the best hill of sand.


reese just hung out and watched everyone.


the water was freezing. it didnt stop A and S from getting in. it was a happy day.

every day is a happy day. that is never the problem. the problems are in the moments. the few seconds a day that take my breath away. it can change the course to bad, or to even better. until the next moment comes.

i felt it once today while driving to the beach. bad.
i felt it at the beach. good.
i felt an overwhelming, chest clutching feeling of love while talking about snacks tonight upstairs. good.
i felt it when reese touched and simply mentioned her head tonight. bad.
i felt it when she went into my bedroom, got her walker, stood up, and walked into the family room with it. good.
i felt it when she reese asked if i was a kitty (meow meow). and then scratched my head and meowed back, tonight, when i was putting her to bed. good.

no, that was great, actually. all of those good moments were great.

its not something that i will likely ever get away from. this will happen for decades. forever. reese will have a long day with her kids and call me over a glass of wine and tell me that her head hurts.

...and my breath will be taken away. just like that. and then it will pass, like it always does. when i rationalize my (only semi) irrational thoughts into compartments.

we got home, took some naps (not reese! don't kid yourself!), made dinner together, aidan set the table bc she "wanted to be fancy!" (lol), then we took baths, and watched frozen (duh).

it was a happy easter. as it should be. i hope that your day was filled with love and happiness and remembering what the day was meant for.

I Corinthians 6:14 “By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.”

the beach.

a few weeks ago we made the joke "lets just get in the car and go...." but of course thats almost impossible. packing, getting ready, planning around chemo and counts....

this wkend it was perfect. literally, perfect. last week we decided to go ahead and book a room for galveston. i have wanted to take them to the beach for so.dang.long. knowing they would love it. but pieces never came together. i always had a shoot or something for the kids here... but this wkend? we were good to go.

after finally finding a hotel that wouldn't make us book 2 rooms for 4 kids (lol geez!), i started packing - multiple bathing suits, every sundress in the house (yeah for one weekend...), doing laundry galore, setting it all up in rows by the back door to put into the car - only then to realize we needed a trailer tray thing on the back of the suburban bc we wouldnt fit it all in haha

ej worked a full day on friday so we left town at about 730pm? it was perfect. after traffic, but then the girls fell asleep for most of the trip. we got to hotel galvez at like, oh 1am? we had a few stops on the way -- changing diapers, potty for the bigs, more drinks, filling bottles (luckily i had a fridge in the car so we had milk, juice, snacks, etc. available all wkend without having to buy that!)... and getting out just to run around. or cry bc it was late. whatever ;)

we get in and the girls jump around on the hotel bed. we had 2 ideas for set ups - 1. two queens or whatever, but then i figured A and S would either BOTH have to sleep with one adult in one (while another adult and reese was in the other) or they'd fight about it somehow. 2. one king and we all bunk up however we want, but bring sleeping bags. miller in pack n play, either way.

we chose option 2 and it was perfect. we are a bunk up kinda fam so night one - A and S made pallets on the floor by our bed and night two, sawyer slept on the bed with us, too. it all worked perfectly.



we didn't wake up til 9:30am or so on saturday morning. so we were well rested and ready for the beach. outside looked miserable, though. :( cloudy and spurts of rain, but i got them dressed and packed up for the beach - rain or shine - it was happening. we grabbed some breakfast and headed down to a spot right by the hotel.

sawyer ran in first (*this* image is a cloud overlay. you'll see how dreary the sky actually was in a min - this and the jumping A and S one are the only cloud overlays. the rest in the whole blog is natural sky)



then went aidan, with her.



see how foggy some of these are? my lens was so fogged up from humidity, but after several mins of waiting to adjust, it kinda looks cool lol



we set up our beach tent from the elements and reese watched, at first.



miller played. she loved the free reign.


it started to sun up!! and all the kids went to play in the castle making sand!


EJ tried to get a pic of me and the girls. oh geez.


we went in for naps - after lots of showering. haha tossing suits off, rinsing them, hanging, cleaning bodies with sand... the girls said they had "itches in their britches" LOL

then miller and reese fell asleep immediately while aidan and sawyer went with EJ to grab some lunch. we woke up and got ready for pleasure pier.


teacups for A and S.


then it was LOG RIDE time!! haha ok so i am showing the far away pic and then the close up of their faces on the first two. oh aidan lmao


i waited for a long time with R and M and they ate and played.


there was no line for the BIG rollercoaster so EJ ran up and through it and we hung out on the pier.


carousel time. again. they did it first thing when we walked in, too.


we went back to the hotel by about 8-830pm? EJ then took aidan and sawyer down for a night swim at the pool and i played in the room with miller and reese - then put them to bed. we all went to sleep easily saturday night, as well. it really was an ideal set up.

i woke up early on sun bc EJ sneaked down the night before and got me an appt for a massage at the spa!!


sunday morning -- (humid as hell as you can see from the cloudy lens on this first pic), we went down to the beach one more time. it was sunny, but a storm was rolling in...


i teared up so many times. i just kept thinking what an amazing time we were having. everyone was happy, kept saying "this is the best day ever", we werent stressed - just doing our thing and having fun. i am lucky to have a husband who is as go-with-the-flow as i am. we just move from thing to thing rolling along, packing up a hundred items, getting each kid lathered with sunscreen like an assembly line, tossing in and out of the shower, picking up where the other needs help.... in 2 weeks we'll have been married for 6 years. and knowing each other for 8 years. and 6.5 of those years have been with kids - and thats just how we function, i guess.


we did a late check out - so we showered, re-packed the car, and then drove around galveston for a few (wanted to show the kids the huge cruise ships haha) - then we drove out of town. R and M already asleep in the car...

got home, unpacked, all in bed - and today is back to "normal". swim lessons for aidan, sawyer has her kindy pre-eval thing this afternoon, dance for both at 5pm. this week we have chemo starting tomorrow... so prayers that it all goes as "easy" as it can go.

people liked reese's bald head - likely wondering what happened with that badass scar. they watched her laugh with her sisters and try desperately to walk while i guided her to stand, so she could play exactly how they were. she was such a normal 3 year old - and the giggles and love from the skelte girls towards each other seemed to draw points and eyes - and endearing smiles of care and curiosity.

because every day normal is awesome, too. its not even "new normal" anymore... it's just normal.