Chicks & Easter!

Warning...this post will be phone and point-n-shoot picture intensive...hope you enjoy :)

Our friends, the Jones', have chickens now. And of course we had to go see the new chicks that have been newly introduced into their family! Jada LOVED them and Kiva was a little concerned and then played with toys.

Easter was a full day! The small group of people that we have enjoyed living life with met first thing in the morning at a park for breakfast and worship...and also a little play time.Kellie and the girls playing in the rocksI just love the bloomers poking out :)a brief easter egg hunt around the fieldIt was an old park that had a merry-go-round that was super fast...the kids didn't ever play on it, just the adults! There was a lot of spinning fun with Bernie, Kellie, Chester, Josh and Merinda all had some serious dizzy moments.then we went to mimi and papas!after a brief easter egg hunt in their backyard,
instead of Easter baskets, they were surprised with a fun pool!then off to church in matching dressesWe got to celebrate Merinda's birthday by surprising her at Messina Hoff...we took Kiva on a little day date :)Kiva eating with her left hand :) So precious!Some Aunt Ashley love
Taken from Aunt Ashley's phone...Kiv striking a pose in her swim suit!

What did Kiva do while we were in NYC?

It has been a while...so the first blog post of the evening is the update on what Kiva did while we were in NYC! Most of these were taken with a phone and sent to me so I could stay current on what our sweet Kiva bear was up to!

Back-story- The Thursday before we left my mom, "Mi-Mi," hurt her knee badly AGAIN! I felt SO bad for her. And the prognosis was another surgery :( She was a trooper and tackled it again...however, much to my mom's dismay, Kiva's vacation to MiMi and PaPa's house was canceled until further notice! Sooooo...I asked Kiva if she wanted to go to NYC with us, and she looked at me and shook her head NO!

Well, next option...send out an email to the girls/aunts in Kiva's life and see if we could piece together some time slots for them to care for Kiva in our absence. A nervous and protective mom takes a deep breath and says a quick prayer for mercy. Press send on the email. 30 seconds passes and my phone rings. It was Aunt Aubrey with a simple statement "This morning when I woke up, I don't know if I was dreaming or if it was just something that the Lord spoke to me, but I think I am going to watch Kiva next week while you are in NYC!"...WHAT??? Seriously? Lord, THANK YOU! I listened to Aubrey with tears of gratitude. So...while we were in NYC, Aunt Aubrey & Uncle Will got to practice being parents :)

And Kiva had a BLAST! Seriously, she loved all of the attention and love... and was completely satisfied and content the entire time! Aub was amazing. Pause: I just want to say that nothing is more precious to me on this earth than Brian and my girls...and there was no hesitation in my heart about how Aubrey and Will would love, shepherd and tend to Kiva in ways that far exceed any friend...throughout the years Aub and Will have been family to us in so many ways, and this was just another way that the Lord provided and gave extravagantly through the Agnors. Oh how I love them!

At the end of our trip, MiMi was feeling up to watching Kiva for a couple of days...so Kiva ended up getting her MiMi and PaPa fix too :) She is well LOVED by them (of course) and though Kiva was happy to see us, she didn't seem too concerned about when we would return! So, here goes the picture journal of Kiva's time...

i took this before we left...proof of her left-handedness!!
And I looked at these pics in my camera while we were in NYC when I needed a Kiva-bear fix!

Goodmorning from a happy Kiva

bathtime fun

an adoring Aunt Aubrey!my favorite one by far...this was sent with a message "is this cheating?" Aunt Aubrey, Aunt Ashley and Uncle Will took Kiva to Chuck-E-Cheese of course!

nyc and thankful

A quick photo update...I have so much I want to write...but I am soooo tired but so grateful. A quick recap: we were in NYC for almost a week and then we came home to an amazingly clean home but with NO A/C! So, this is the first night back in our house. NYC was really great...here are some photos of what we did! Many of these are from my phone so they are blurry...but totally documented some fun events! (I didn't bring my camera on most of our excursions:)

jada's flight...she loved it!

we rode with the phinney family from the airport to our hotels...Jada LOVES them!

seriously...look at jada's face...loves the phinney fam!

we saw Mary Poppins the very first night we were there...it was AMAZING!!

mary poppins...love her

our first full day...was BRIAN's Birthday! We spent most of the day in Central park and we started with a horse and carriage ride. It was dreamythen we headed over to the zoo...our favorites were the polar bears! They were really funny...we compared the two of them to Baxter and Tali (our dogs)...they had their personalities for real! This one was swimming and having a blast...while the other one just watched him.and then there was the petting/feeding area that was like a dream world for Jada...she LOVES animals. Really. can you tell it was super cold...Jada sported her lion hat most of the tripand yep...there was a COW in the Central Park zoo...hilarious. especially since the locals were acting like it was as cool as the polar bears...we definitely felt very Texan in that moment.fao schwarz big piano!build a bear...jada created "fancy puppy"...and she chose the outfit b/c she has matching red sparkly shoes :)this is one of those blurry pics that I totally love...we had so much fun togetherjada pushing the pedal to fill her fancy puppythis big dude was also doing his own build a bear...funny...a sight you only see in NYCJada thought the subway was so fun...

we took a ferry around the statue of liberty with the Phinney fam. (the statue is very small in the background)...it was SO cold so Brian took Jada outside while wimpy mommy and some of the Phinney fam stayed inside.in one of the stores...just having some reading time...it was such a special/sweet time with just Jada...she loved the attention!the dancers...the reason we were in nyc...they did great at project dance...even through cold/wind and rain!

Brian went to the Yankees game the last night we were there...Jada and I stayed back in our warm hotel and had some sweet mommy/Jada time.

Next blog post I will update you on some really sweet moments on our trip that I didn't get photos of...and the fun that Kiva had back in BCS. Until then...