Our newest family member...

No, we're not pregnant. And we're definitely not getting a pet.

No no no no no no.

I'm not ready for another kid. And I'll never be ready for a pet. 

No, we bought another car! We've been looking for a while at 3rd row SUVs but those guys are expensive! And then the gas that goes with them.... Phew. We were in love with the Volvo XC90 but it needs premium gas. Premium?? Seriously?

Here's the reasoning behind getting another smaller car: We only have 2 kids. There it is. That's our reasoning. We need two cars because Drew is starting school in the fall and he'll have the car a lot. In two years when he's done with school, we'll look into a bigger car. But for now, we have Baby Pepper:

She's a 2009 Toyota Corolla. And yes, we already own a 2006 Corolla. But our Corolla has been so reliable and good to us. We found our '09 in Columbia, SC. We went and looked at the mission cars they had for sale and saw this lil beauty & loved it! Buying a mission car (a car the missionaries used but aren't using anymore) has its pros and cons.

Pros: 

Low mileage. The Church doesn't have the missionaries drive the cars for a super long time before they buy them new ones. Our car only has 53k miles on it, which I consider good. 

Good insides. When I say insides, I mean all the upkeep. The Church keeps the cars in great shape. (The actual insides, like the fabric, is okay, too.)

SUPER affordable. As in, we got our car for almost $7000 less than what it's worth. 

Cons:

Let's be honest: 19-21 year old boys have been driving these cars. There are dings. There are scratches. I'm soooo not surprised, though. I think of my brothers and I'm actually kind of surprised there aren't MORE scratches. Wanna see what I'm talkin' about?

The scratches on top of the trunk are because of the bike racks. Those are the only ones I deem acceptable. The other ones I blame on the careless missionaries. 

Ah, well. That's what we get for buying a mission car. We're happy with it. I'M happy with it, since I'm the one driving it! :)

Randoms

These are just some pictures I downloaded off my phone. 

The first pic is at Gracie's birthday party. The next one is her with some face paint. She had it done at a work event of Drew's. The next one is Gracie at the park. We pretty much go there every day (it's in our apartment complex). The next one is when Lukers was sick. I made him hold a bowl because I was cleaning the carpet wayyyy too often. The last picture is of Gracie's spring toes! Yay for warm weather!

In other news, I'm getting excited for some of the travel plans for this year! On tap we have Myrtle Beach in June, Texas in August, and Washington in September! So excited to have fun & see family!

A Southern Easter

I am so grateful for the knowledge that Christ died for me and that we can celebrate Easter knowing that He rose and still lives. What a wonderful blessing it is to have a testimony of Jesus Christ.

We are very blessed to live close to some of Drew's family. Recently his Grandma Olson (his dad's mom) moved to South Carolina. She moved in with her son, Drew's Uncle John. So for Easter we went and spent the night at Uncle John's to visit them. Grandma Olson was so excited to see us! 

From there we went to North Augusta to see Drew's other grandparents, Grandma & Grandaddy Free. Their church had an Easter egg hunt on Saturday and then obviously they had an Easter service on Sunday. Sunday after church we had an Easter egg hunt for Luke and Gracie and they opened their baskets and then we had spaghetti and meatballs before we left to go home. 

I LOVED Gracie's Easter dress. It's so girly and pretty. Oh, Drew's grandma is in a wheelchair because she broke her foot :( But she's doing well.

How handsome is this little guy?!

And look at this pretty baby!

My babies are just so beautiful in my eyes.

The Peppers!! (PS That's not our house.)

And the Easter egg hunt:

I just had to include this picture:

Happy Easter from the Pepper family!

Yesterday....

We took some pretty cute pictures. I think these were all taken in between sessions of conference (a televised version of church, just in case you were wondering). 

Here's our little cupboard cutie:

Look at those chompers!!

Luke's latest thing is to ask us to make a funny face. (I think I make the best crazy face.)

Luke also has a small collection of Pez dispensers. Here he is showing *some* of them off.

That one is actually Gracie's, but whateves.

This one just makes me happy