Spring Goings On

In a rare turn of events, all 3 children in my care today are still in bed at 8am, so I'm taking this opportunity to catch up on the blog, and add some new pictures from our latest happenings.

 I'm not sure when I took this picture, but I think it's pretty cute! Bridget loves to read books, and is happy to sit with anyone who will read her one.

 One Saturday night we went out for pizza with Trent and Jenae. Our quick stop at Benj and Karen's turned in to a long stop, and pretty soon the Leman's ended up there as well. We had a grand time chatting and eating popcorn, ice cream, and scotcharoos. The kids were in the their glory! Carter and Crey are exactly a month apart, and they enjoyed their popcorn at the table. 

 Crazy scene of everyone eating and making food.

We've enjoyed some nice days outside and it is WONDERFUL to be able to let the kids run around! I'm anxiously awaiting the day we get our swing set! There's nothing like making your little brother push you around the car....

This picture is out of order...the kids (esp Bridget) are loving the sidewalk chalk they got in their Easter baskets! In the past week they've used almost all of it. I think we'll be investing in lots of chalk this summer.

Easter Sunday we went to Luke's mom and dad's for the evening. His mom had an Easter egg hunt for the kids in the basement, and Bridget's candy was mostly gone by the end of the night. Neither child was cooperative for any pictures...

Julie and Brice were, however.

 Like I said....not cooperative.

 Everyone else searching for their candy.

 These two hooligans love to brush their teeth...it pretty much gets done at least twice a day.

 Once again, out of order. The Saturday night before Easter my family came over for supper and the kids got to open their Easter "baskets" from my mom and dad. They got bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and bunny ears. :)

Carter's new prefered morning activity is to watch The Wiggles in Bridget's chair before she wakes up. Once she gets up, he quickly gets demoted back to the highchair. 

He is pretty sure he needs to feed himself all the time...and this is usually the result. Bathtime!!

This past Saturday night we went to the Grimm's for supper. We always have fun being with them, and I love getting some baby Shiloh snuggles. One of these days I'll remember to take a picture of her...

These two are going to be best buddies. They're about 5 months apart, but are the same size, and are both major trouble makers. I'm afraid of what will happen as they get older. What one doesn't think of the other one will!

Yesterday was my mom's birthday. All the adults went out to eat and left the kids with a babysitter. Then we came back to mom and dad's for dessert and hanging out. Bridget has been looking forward to this party for weeks and talking about the cake we'll eat and balloons we'll have. We did get some balloons for the party. I'm pretty sure 5 balloons is the most entertainment $5 will buy for our kids. We brought them all home because, to quote Adam: "you might as well let your kids play with them. If you leave them here we'll just suck the helium out of them."  We got to go through mom's skimpy garage sale, and I brought home all my American Girl doll stuff. 

Pictures

It's been awhile since I last posted. But we haven't had much going on, and looking through my camera, I haven't taken many pictures either. And who wants a post without pictures?? Never fear though, I actually have a couple to post!

The other week the kids got their pictures taken by Cassie Knepp. She did Bridget's one year pictures the other year, and since Elise (who always does their pictures) was in the hospital having baby Shiloh, we called Cassie! She did a great job, even though the kids were pretty uncooperative. The pictures of them together turned out pretty much exactly like ones did last time.  :) Anyway, I picked up my cd of pictures last week, and here are a few of my favorites!

Visiting

A couple weeks ago we made the trip out to Quincy to visit Kenton and Heidi. We had a great time getting to hang out with them, even though with all of our kids not a lot of sleep was had and it got a little crazy at times. :) We took the kids swimming at the community center on Sat afternoon, and even Carter loved it! The kids all got a long really well. I think the best quote of the weekend was Ridge chasing Bridget up the stairs with Bridget yelling "no Ridge, don't kiss me!"  :)

Ridge and Bridget watching a movie together. Bridget was so enthralled she couldn't tear her eyes away from the tv. 

 Slate ready to go swimming!

 The boys on Sunday morning. Bridget was NOT interested in having her picture taken. 

 Bridget loved the ipad, and quickly figured out how to work it...scary. 

 Carter giving "baby" Slate a kiss.

 I am so impressed with Slate (and Heidi) as slate will often go on the potty...at 8 months old! This picture just makes me laugh!

We got back from Quincy about 7 on Sunday night, and Monday morning we picked right up where we left and headed to Kate's for a play with Kate/Jade and Amanda/Jace.

Carter loves babies...I think he was playing peek-a-boo with Jace...Jace wasn't too impressed. 

 Smothering Jade in her bouncer. 

Us moms. 

My kids were total terrors the whole time, getting into EVERYTHING, throwing things, throwing tantrums...I'm sure Kate and Amanda were so glad when we left and they got to hand out with their two little babies!  :)

Snow Days

We've very much been enjoying the several inches of snow we've gotten over the past several days. The kids have had a grand time playing it! (pictures toward the bottom of this post.)

Every morning that Luke's still home when Carter wakes up, he gets a book, literally throws it in Luke's lap and begs to come up in the chair to have it read to him.  :)

 We brought our extra queen mattress up from downstairs and put it in Bridget's room, thinking that we would begin the transition to a big bed. When she saw it in her room, she started crying and saying "I don't want to sleep in the big bed!" So, needless to say, this isn't going to be an easy change for her. She's still sleeping in her crib, and tells me every nap time that she only wants to sleep in her crib. They have made good use of the mattress for jumping on, however. Carter esp loves it because he can so easily get on it!

   

Kisses!

Luke had a meeting one evening, so we headed over to my mom and dad's. Both kids love to play the piano. The listeners aren't so hot about the music they make...

 The other week we had our first day watching miss Ava. She's going to be a regular at our house in the future. Both kids love babies, and I'm pretty sure they couldn't leave her alone all day. When I came out from putting Carter down for his nap, Bridget had her and Ava all set up with books and Bridget was "reading" the Three Little Pigs out loud.  :)

 Carter's tired signal....sucking his thumb and rubbing his ear.

We went to pick up our 1/4 cow and 1/2 pig last week. This is the grump...

 And here's the happy boy!

 Little buddy is in LOVE with the broom, mop, Norwex mop, and sweeper. One of his first ten words was "broom." The other day I quit mopping for a minute to answer my phone. When I hung up I couldn't find my mop. I found Carter in his room rocking and "bio-ing" the mop!

Reading books...a rare but darling occurrence. 

 This past Friday the kids woke up to lots of snow and they loved watching Luke shovel the driveway before work.

 Carter found the leaf blower attachment and hauled that around.

 Neither kid had snow boots so after my chiropractor appt on Fri morning we went and got some at Walmart. Let me tell you, if you want to get a steal on snow boots, wait till the end of Feb to buy them! Bridget's are about 4 sizes too big, but she can at least walk in them. And we may get several years use out of them!  :) I also got those little snow shovels for $2.50 each, and they have been quite the hit. Neither one liked the sleds. We'll try them next year. 

 First taste of snow...she didn't like it. 

Our little snow man, complete with milk jug lid eyes and no nose!  :)