fun in the rain

I think we have gotten more rain in the past 2 months than I have ever seen in my life! J doesn't seem to mind.

The other day she went out in all her rain gear and spent about 1 1/2 hours outside. B and I just sat and watched her. It was great entertainment.

You would have thought it was a sunny 80 degree day, instead of a downpour.

She loved every minute. She had to come in two times and change her pants because they were soaking wet, but she kept going out.

She would fill this blue bucket and water plants. Then she gathered the little helicopter seeds and let them float. She would pick up flowers and put them in her bucket. She had a blast

It was raining the next morning when we dropped the boys off at school. She wanted to go out again, I told her to wait because it was really cold. She went out a few hours later and came in mad. She said,' thanks a lot mom' I said, what's the matter, she angrily said, 'it's not raining!' She had missed her morning opportunity. But good news for her, it started raining again that afternoon, she was a happy girl

and so it begins

Now that this sweet little nugget is mobile, a whole new world has been opened up for him. He loves exploring his surroundings, and of course, getting into everything. G left this box of envelopes on the floor and B found them. He had a great time!

my boy

Something that not many people know about my little G is he is a list maker.

He loves it.

That's how Saturday morning jobs get done. It was tears and fighting to get him to even do the smallest job until one day I suggested he make a list. He loved it!

This was the list he made for this Saturday (all of his own doing).

Get Drest

Make bed

dust

Wii

Get rete for soccer

Go home from soccer

Get a donut?

Hunt for cobwebs

Play mareo cart

or mareo galipsee

or mareo bros

After each item is a box that he checks off when he is done. My favorite is 'get a donut' complete with question mark.

A MOBILE MAN!

After 10 months and 10 days of life, this little man figured out crawling, literally overnight it seemed. One day he would only sit, and the next day he was slowly army crawling to toys, then the next day he was army crawling it ALL over! It is SO stinkin' cute! He uses his left arm to help him along and his right arm to pull him forward.

This is the position he usually takes to get around. It is opening up his world and he LOVES it!

A few other things about the cute guy;

His top teeth are breaking through

He has figured out how to wave (about 2 weeks ago) and it melts your heart

He is starting to get his little personality

He loves watermelon

He is really loving trying different foods and textures

oh this girl...

This sweet girl of mine cracks me up!

She was born with a little joking/teasing streak that keeps me SO amused!

I was reading a couple journal entries (that's all there are) about when she was little and how, at 17 months, she would take toys from G and run from him laughing, while he chased her down.

The other day she came and asked me for a piece of fabric, which she does a lot. I didn't think to much about it.

She stayed up in my sewing area. About 15 minutes, she comes back down, hiding something behind her back just grinning.

She walked over to me, pulled this out from behind her back and said, 'how would you like to SIT on this?!" and just starts cracking up.

I LOVE IT!

spring break re-make

For spring break this year we kept telling the kids we would take them to an indoor waterpark. After talking, we decided DC would be better weather and headed down there. We felt a little guilty because it wasn't a hit, so we took the kids to splash lagoon in erie, pa this past weekend. They had friday off (a little weird, considering they get out of school in 3 weeks, but whatever), so we headed on over.

It was a HIT!

They had so much fun! They didn't want to leave. We took them over for a while in the day, then C took them over later that night and it was empty! They went on every slide and had a great time. Then C took them back over first thing when it opened, while B had a nap, and once again, there was hardly anyone there.

I think they decided they wanted to move to erie. It was a great family time!

This red slide was one of their favorites! I think they went on it about 40 times, no wait, maybe 41 :)

the boys LOVED going on this tube slide

This was C and J at splash down. She is one daredevil!

Loving the water!

g's authors tea

G's school had an authors tea. They had written books about themselves, and then we got to come and have the kids read them to us. It was really sweet. G was SO excited to have B there.

I had to include this picture. This little girl in his class wouldn't leave B alone.

G looks less than thrilled.

What a sweet little guy! I can't believe this school year is almost done!

Some of my favorite lines from his book was when he was describing himself and he said. I have a bele butin (belly button). I have glassis. I have small eyes. I have a big bele. When he was writing what he wanted to be when he grows up he wrote; I want to be an astronot when I grow up and a arkeallogist (archealogist) too.

What a cutie!

mothers day

I don't know if I should admit this on such a public forum, but mothers day is not my favorite day. It seems the day always comes to a close and I feel inadequate. Inadequate because I am not perfect. I don't always have 'a happy smiling face'. Some days I am ornery. Some days I am sad. Some days are hard. BUT I know that my kids love me regardless and so does my Heavenly Father and what's even more important is that i LOVE, ADORE, and ADMIRE my kids.

I guess if any of us were perfect what would we have to work on.

This mothers day I didn't feel the usual guilt, the kids made it so sweet.

I got up and found all these notes around the house that G had made.

He led me to this one first

Then showed me this

Then this

and finally this.

He is so sweet. I can't believe he is only 5, he is wise beyond his years.

K also wrote me a sweet note and then had made a mothers day book at school.

J hung a sign too that she had made, it was her name. She felt left out and wanted to contribute. It was sweet.

I also got a crepe maker, which was used that morning :)

C gave the kids a talking to before I got up in the morning and told them not to ask me to do anything because it was mothers day. G asked me for some cereal and then C looked at him and said, 'what' so he said never mind. Then he said he needed a bowl, which I handed to him, and he said, 'mom, did you do that because of all the notes that I made?'

At the end of the night, we went to tuck the kids in and i walked into the boys room to a big mess of toys and suits on the floor. I said, 'what a mess' G looked up at me and said, 'did this ruin your mothers day?'

I have great kids and a great husband who I am so lucky to have in my life. Thanks for making it a great day, I felt So loved!

things that have kept me so smiley lately

G went with C and K to their scout activity the other night. A local reporter snatched this picture of G and his 'daddy' and it made it into the paper. G was so happy. He just kept saying, 'I can't believe I was in the newspaper'

I love the picture!

Seeing J wearing this pink twirly dress.

We saw this at costco for $12 bucks and J FELL MADLY IN LOVE WITH IT!

She wanted it so bad. I don't like buying things just to buy them, so I told her to ask dad (hoping he could bear to say no) needless to say, we left with the dress and a little girl wrapped around her daddy's finger :)

I LOVE seeing her wearing it and twirling in it, it's just perfectly feminine!

I love these bright blue eyes,

BUT

how exciting,

his bottom teeth broke through last week! It has been a long time coming, and poor kiddo was so uncomfortable, but aren't those the two cutest little things ever?!

K is also so thoughtful. When he goes to bed at night, he tells c to give his new baby sister a hug from him and tell her that he loves her (she's still not born yet). All the kids are so sweet and can't wait for our new ones arrival.

My little G is also 'my little snuggle bug'. When I sit down, he grabs a blanket and walked over to me and says, 'mom, I think you need a snuggle bug' then he curls up next to me and shared his blanket with me and sing a little snuggle bug song. It melts my heart. He is such a sweet boy!

These sweet kids keep me going and laughing. I feel so blessed!

end of school...

As the end of school gets closer, I always get excited knowing the fun things the kids get to do as things get wrapped up.

Last week G had his school program. He was so excited which I found funny because our kids AREN'T performers, but he really enjoyed it.

This is G going onto the stage.

This is the best picture ever. You may have to click it to make it bigger, and K was being the photographer.. but you can just see his excitement.

He kept telling us that he got to play a drum in his program and that it was really loud and we would probably have to plug B's ears. He wasn't exaggerating! He played it during the song 'there's a big wheel a turning in my heart' and he hit it 3 times during each verse. He did GREAT! Right on the beat and so loud. It was the best ever!

So excited to be up there with his class.

So, a funny little side note. I kept wondering what they wanted the kids to wear, I never heard, so I figured it was whatever. I assumed that because we live in a lower income area and they didn't want parents to feel obligated to dress kids up...whoops! G basically got home from school, hurry and did homework, and played outside for 2 hours. We loaded them in the car from playing outside. We showed up- girls were in dresses, boys in nicer dress shirt, and us, well, not so much. G still looked nice, at least he had on a collared shirt and not kung fu panda, but I made a mental note for that one.

This was such a great night! It was fun to see G's excitement!

green thumb?

The weather has been pretty nice, with spouts of rain, so the dirt has been calling to us.

We decided to try our hand at planting. We'll see how it goes. I don't have the best track record.

We planted a ton of flowers. Also, basil, cilantro, peppers, raspberries, and some tomatoes. The kids had a blast planting! G made it a point to tell me that this will be his first time planting, EVER! He was quick to point out that I didn't let him help last year...good job mom :( (in my defense, we planted LATE in the summer, and the ground was SOLID, I didn't know if he would get frustrated trying to dig in hard dirt)

They did great!

G woke up the next morning and excited ran to check on his specific flowers he had picked out. He was disappointed and wondered where the flowers were.

All in good time my sweet boy.

planting away. C looks less than thrilled that I was taking pics

they loved digging in the dirt.

J kept bring us over worms she had found

I had to include some of the gorgeous blossoms and flowers that are showing up ALL over! J is in heaven!

This was a plant we saw at a greenhouse and we loved it!

for those or you 'west coasters' this is a magnolia tree (after a crazy tornado watch rain storm), and they are gorgeous and smell even better

We love these pink blossoms all over

Happy Spring to EVERYONE!