Random Silliness

Some days we eat peanut butter like Pooh Bear eats honey.  :)






Yum!

Cousins

We had some cousin time over the Easter Holiday too. My favorite part was the Disney Dance Party.  Eli was really into it which was SO fun to watch.  Lots of video was taken I assure you!




Getting ready for the Easter Egg Hunt!




These Beautifu Girls were singing us some songs from their Spring Concert.  Very Entertaining!

Amanda came over and dyed eggs with us.

Addie ate slimy egg/water/dye goo.  Yum.  She survived!

Easter

We had a lovely Easter.  We packed a little too much into the weekend with a room re-do (lesson learned) but still managed to calm our hearts and minds and worship with our church family on Easter Sunday.

The Easter message that my pastor preached was so, so, good.   I think it will always stay with me.  It was one of those.  Here's the link.

Now without further ado.  Here is my, albeit LAME, attempt at a family pic.  You'll notice Jared and I aren't in them.  He looked great.  Every pic of me however is not so great.  Just call me vain because I am NOT posting them.  BUT here are my cute kids!  :)  That makes up for it right????





Yep these are the best I got.  It was a bit cold and NO ONE was excited about taking the pictures.  I'm glad that pictures of the kids with perfect smiles are not what Easter is all about because I would be in SERIOUS TROUBLE.  :)  They are precious nonetheless.  Hope everyone had a good Spring Break.

Oops almost forgot to discuss Eli's hat..... first and foremost let it be said that the boy pulls it off!  Am I right??  Secondly he walked into the store with Aunt Linda and I and went straight for this hat.  He wanted to get it so that he could be like Indiana Jones.  Nuff said!!  When I thought Alex might want one he was quick to tell me "NO WAY!"  He did however pick out the shirts AND he wanted them to match, which I thought was kind of funny.  Love these kids.  As for Addie's wardrobe she picked that out.  Her main request was a "PINK DRESS!!!"

My Crazies

Eli likes to mix things up a little from time to time with a tie.  It's pretty random and adorable of course.

Me capturing his fashion turned into a little sibling photo shoot.

It went downhill fast.

Love these crazies.

Addie at 2 1/2 - ish

Funny Girl!

Still loves her books.  Here she is with her cousin Andrew.

LOVES to play outside.  She always has.

Likes to pick her clothes.  Her current obsession is tights.  Like every. single. day. if possible.

Is not ashamed to twirl to show off her fashion choices.

And as of today has officially started potty training.  She picked out "Tangled" underwear and wanted to come home and watch "Tangled".  I brought the potty out and while I was on the phone with my sister she went on the potty and has gone another time since.  Crazy!  I am not naive enough to think it could be this easy but wouldn't that be nice????

That's a bit about my Addie-girl!

Winter Break

(Started this post on Tuesday, finished today, Saturday)

We have a week off school this week.  We are on day 2 and I am loving it.  I am already looking forward to having all 3 of my kids home this summer.  It just really simplifies things.  Not sure how 2 more kids than I usually have makes things simpler but I am enjoying it nonetheless.

They are enjoying the extra time at home too.  Addie is in brother heaven!  Such great playmates.  Yesterday I took the 3 of them grocery shopping and suddenly realized Addie has good reason to get cranky during our weekly grocery sessions, even her almost 6 year old brothers got antsy. Definitely gained some perspective.

Speaking of Addie, she is changing SO much.  I forgot how fun this age is.  She is saying new things every day.  She is also surprising me with her desire to do things like Mama and act like Mama and have her hair and nails like Mama or bake with me or cook with me or workout with me.  The boys wanted to be big & strong like Daddy but I wasn't prepared for this sweet spot when my daughter would want to mimic me.  It is precious and I have to document it because I KNOW this stage will pass too quickly.  In the meantime I am sewing us matching dresses and hair bows.  Ha!  Just kidding.

A big change in our lives right now is that the boys are "full dayers".  They have begged and begged and begged and I finally relented.  They love being at school all day.  They do a lot of fine motor work in the afternoon in centers.  This is great for them considering they are a bit behind in fine motor.  They are thriving in kindergarten.  Their last progress report showed that they were proficient in each area.  That is how they score them at this point (proficient, developing skill, not at grade level).  This is mind blowing.  As we near their birthday I always think back to the run down that the NICU gave us when they were born at 27 weeks.   I really wish I could have a recording of what was then the most devastating thing they could have told us outside of having lost our children.  It was so grim.  It is SO NOT the life we are living.  We are grateful.  I pray we'll be grateful for whatever the future holds. God is good all. the. time.

On that same, preemie note.  Addie-adds is doing well with her speech also.  Her Daddy and I think she is ready to graduate from her hearing impaired program however they want to hold on to us until the end of the school year.  No need for future HI involvement after that though.  Her hearing is near perfect and as mentioned in a previous post she is speaking sentences.

So this post definitely evolved into more than planned but that is what floated through my mind on this cold February Saturday.  OK off to play with some play-doh.

5 Years of Blogging

Had some spare minutes and thought I'd sit down and blog.  Not having a specific topic in mind I began to evaluate the reasons to continue blogging.  I've discussed this before but it has become a question that increases in urgency as more and more days inch by and I haven't blogged.  I have entered the world of instagram at full force and equate it to mini-blogging and love it.  The problem is that it doesn't really FULLY capture our lives at the moment and that is what I love about blogging.  Allllllllll of this to say....I just realized that as of February 20th, I have been blogging for FIVE years.  That is crazy.  And every time I read back over old blogs I realize that I have already forgotten much of what I'd written.

So my new blogging goal is to at least blog weekly.  If for no other reason than to try and keep record of some of what that 3rd child of mine is up to.  :)

In 2009 I had close to 200 blog posts.  Last year I had a whopping 46.  So, if I weekly blog at least I will be at that.  Assuming I make up for the weeks that have passed.  The point is not that it will just be on my "To Do" list but that it will be a conscious effort to keep track of this sweet time in our lives.  These years FLY BY.  My 2 pound baby boys are about to turn SIX.  Ridiculous.  Too fast.  I will attempt to slow time down and keep these memories bottled up in this jar of mine, also known as, my blog.

So stay tuned.  I also want to focus on making this my gift to my children and family.  So blog reading friends and family.  Here's to 2013.  Speaking of that, I should probably change my 2012 header.  Oy!