Back from Spring Break

We just sent our spring break down in the desert. It was so fabulously wonderful to get away from the rain and cold and into the heat and sunshine. The video depicts what we spent most of the week doing. Literally...jumping in the pool. Even when it was windy, overcast and 68 degrees, we spent much of our time jumping...




I don't know if you can hear it, but Robbie LOVED this game. It was his idea to jump in the pool all the time. Every time we pulled him up from the water he would say, "I wanna do that again!"

Happy 6th Birthday Katie Bug

I firmly believe that we are born with our personality. My daughter continually confirms this for me.

6 years ago today, she came into the world abruptly and swiftly. She decided it was time and out she came, whether I liked it or not.

Not much has changed 6 years later.

Katelyn marches to her own drum. She always has. It is a good thing that she has always been so cute...

katelyn at 15 months
She is a performer who doesn't really want to be in an actual performance. She is an extrovert who doesn't want to play with her friends. She loves clothes and shoes and hair ribbons, but continues to wear the same outfit until I make her put it in the dirty clothes. And don't even start me on brushing her hair. She wants chocolate cake with chocolate frosting that she is not ever going to eat. That she is puzzling is to put it mildly. But yet...with that craziness comes great, positive emotion. She LOVES to see you. She will kiss you until you think your cheeks will fall off. She is excited about stuff...not everything, but lots of things. She moves from sad to happy very rapidly. It's easy to convince her that life is good. She loves almost everyone.

And today was her day. She had been ramping up for it for the last 2 weeks. "How many days NOW until my birthday, Mommy?" I thought she might blow a gasket this morning, she was so excited. But no. She made it through the day, the cake, the treats and the presents. No tantrums or drama to speak of. She even went to bed without a fuss even though we could not find her brand new American Girl Doll Kitten.

Wow. I guess my baby girl really is maturing. Who knew?

Happy Birthday, Katelyn. We love you dearly. Even when you make us want to pull our hair out. We love you dearly.

Photo Friday-Christmas Family Photos

Lots of photos at Christmas time means lots of shots of family members, some combinations we don't get to see often. Here are a few I shot...

padyn and kate

kate and robbie everyone-my sisters, brother in laws, mom and stepdad, cousins and us

colleen, me, mom and christie

bella and padyn

trevor, christie and bella

christie and trevor (trevor LOVES his mommy!)

the girls with grandma

padyn, kate and bella with gretchen, my mom's new addition

trevor, robbie, my dad and step mom (the beanies were a stocking present. thanks, papa)

Happy Friday.

Photo Friday-Christmas Day

As always, it was a lucrative Christmas in our household this year. As well as busy. We manage to open presents at 4 different houses in the span of 31 hours, ate countless cookies, and spread good cheer (and germs) to most of our close relatives. Here's a photo perspective of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. More photos to come....

Robbie won for the biggest present this year. It is a new train table for his new trains (and his 32 million cars...)Padyn and Katelyn...happy as can be that Christmas had finally arrived.

This was the Christmas of Lightening McQueen for Robbie. That will be a whole other blog post. But you can see here that one of his favorite presents was his LM jammies. He demanded to put them on right away. And yes....he is pushing around two LM's.

Padyn got her much needed bigger rollerblades. I don't recommend skating in fancy dresses, though.

The big hit Christmas morning was Robbie's new GeoTraks. I bought them (and two other sets) at our rummage sale this fall. We are only giving him one set at a time. Everyone loves playing with them. Daddy was particularly excited to put them together Christmas Eve after the kids were in bed.

Maybe Robbie is unhappy because he is jealous that this isn't actually his new beanie?

This is not his new headlight, either.

Kate is dashing in this wig headband from Mimi and Grandpa.

Padyn is starting softball this fall, so to prepare her, Papa got her a new bat, mitt and softball.

More photos to come late. For now, Happy Friday and Happy New Year!

More Photos From Grandma's House

We spent a few days before Thanksgiving up at Grandma and Grandpa's House. We didn't have as much snow this year as last, but we did find this cool trail that we had never hiked before. There were waterfalls, red trees, a rushing river, and HUGE boulders. Something for everyone! I won't narrate each picture...you can just make up your own story.

End of a Thankful Day

So many things to be grateful for today. So many things to be grateful for everyday. It's good to have a day that forces me to put it all into perspective.

Thank you, Lord, for the abundant blessings that I do not deserve but gratefully accept.

And if I were to make a list of all those things, this would be at the top...

Happy Thanksgiving.

Photo Friday-Funderland

Thanks to the teacher in service day today (sorry, teachers, that you still needed to work today and we didn't), we had a random Friday off of school. And since it was a beautiful sunny (yet chilly) November day, we decided to take a family outing to somewhere we had never been-Funderland. Yes. That is what it is called. It's a little tiny amusement park in our state's capitol city. There are only about 9 rides. We only rode on 8...but the kids loved every minute of it.

The Octopus Ride (Padyn was too big for this one)

The Cars

Padyn as a train

The Carousel

The TrainThe Log Ride

The Airplanes

The Dragon Rollercoaster (the girls favorite)

The Tea Cups (Mommy refused to go on this one)

Happy (Fun) Friday! Hope you had as great of a day as we had.