Here comes Peter Cottontail...

(oval embroidery hoop, tulle tied on the same as here, and a little picket fence bunny:)

hopping down the bunny trail...sooner than ever! Easter just snuck right up on us!!!  I had my St. Patrick's Day decorations down and Easter up promptly after the 17th, but I'm just showing you now:)  I had a lot of fun decorating for Easter.  I love the springy colors!!!

my ever changing shelf...

subway Easter art we did last year, the eggs you see there are MDF, the brain-child of Audrey, after she saw them on a Groopdealz one day and we decided to see if we could cobble together materials to make them ourselves.  Big thanks to Michelle for donating the MDF and our other friend Sam for cutting them!

the eggs before being decorated:)

my picket fence bunnies were inspired by these...i had white bunnies so i decided to paint the sticks instead of leaving them natural. i had the eggs to make the banner i linked to...but i liked the bunnies better and i ran out of room to put things:)

the jars are painted on the inside, i poured paint in the bottom, maybe 1-2 inches and then turned the jar upside down on a paper plate to let it drain out. it's pretty cool to watch. there will be spots where the paint won't be uniform, i just took a foam brush and gently evened it out, and you really can't tell:)  more eggs, more bunnies...the printed subway art is from eighteen25 they have lots of different ones for different seasons/holidays and i really like them:)  i always print mine 8x10 from Costco and they come out beautifully.

another shot of the picket fence garland....

close up of bunny jars

close up of eggs,cause i love the bling on the little one:)

so we are ready for Easter! and frankly, i like the decorations so much, they may stay up for the majority of April, since Easter got a little short changed being in the same month as St. Patrick's Day:)

Lucky

I LOVE green, so St. Patrick's day is a good excuse to use a lot of green!!!

this wreath is inspired by this one.  the hearts I used are 7 inches and they each took a 3 yard roll of ribbon.   If you had a little bit more, like a SMIDGE then it would be perfect, because it is really tricky to wrap the points of the hearts and the bottoms of the hearts.

see tricky...ergo the shamrock in the middle. and i wrapped mine with twine so that i can take them apart for storage. there is no glue involved in how they are put together, for my wreath:)

free printable from here the glittery shamrocks are from walmart, a bag of like 8 for $2 i think:)

this vinyl was from a groopdealz that happened recently, so cute! the shamrock is a pick your plum from last year that we covered with a napkin!

still loving on my rainbow sticks this year, the LUCK was from pick your plum last year too, also covered with a napkin

and here is my homage to Brian Regan...LOVE him, he's so funny! do yourself a favor and listen to this so you can laugh!

checking in

Life marches on. this we know.  I can hardly believe that Camryn is 3.5 months old.  It baffles me how time is flying... Ethan will be 8 this year, which means he'll be baptized. I have to daily remind myself that Avery is actually 5.5 years old not 4.5 as she seems to be frozen in my mind.  They are all growing up. And that is a good thing.  But it just seems to happen so fast.  I feel contemplative lately, I start feeling this way a lot at night, probably because it's quiet:) (it is night time as i write this:)  Also I have been following along this family's journey on Facebook.  Their son passed away at age 10, last Saturday.  They knew it was coming, but it is still the hardest thing they will ever do. I really believe that. I don't think there is much harder than dealing with the death of your own child.  I asked my dad that when my parents were here after Christian's funeral (my parents have a child that passed away, my brother Micah).  I asked him if there was anything harder than this.  He said no.  I believe him.

Having a new baby is awesome, tiring, beautiful, healing and hard.  I don't know what I thought it would be like to have Camryn so close to Christian.  I actually don't think I thought much about the logistics because quite honestly, I just needed to take things as they came and not stress about it (this is still true).  Camryn was born on Christian's 15 month birthday.  33 minutes into the 18th...they are birthday buddies.  I am convinced that they are good friends.  I just have a feeling about it.  For our family it was the right decision to have Camryn when we did. It wouldn't be right for another family maybe, but I knew that she was essential for me.  She was a lifeline.  But all the hormones and worries and fears of being pregnant and then having a brand new person are hard, especially when you are still grieving/trying to figure out how to grieve with this new dimension thrown, lovingly,  in.  We are navigating these waters as best we can. One day at a time.

As I care for Camryn, of course I think of Christian. How much we miss him, everyday, all day long.  How things might be different if he were still here.  Everything would be different if he were still here.  But I also can feel how I am healing.  At least a little bit. In some ways I feel like to heal would be to forget, but it doesn't have to be that way. And I will make sure that healing isn't forgetting in our home.  Healing is healthy and healing will be remembering and honoring our Christian who isn't here.  But he is here with us in spirit.

I just wanted to get some of my thoughts and feelings down...I have written many blog posts in my mind, but they haven't made it onto the computer yet:)