In like a lamb, out like a lion

Isn't march supposed to come in like a lion and out like a lamb?! We'll, we're having a lion of a day according to the weather. But it hasn't been all lionish. . .GooF got a snow day, and the kids all went down for nap at the same time, so we got a little nap, which is hard to come by with 3 little ones! I also had time to bake Gramma's Butterscotch Cookies while watching Rachael Ray. And the kids were still eager to play in the snow. . even if it is March 31! Off to go play Old Maid (Ainsley's way. . where she never gets the old maid, but it's REALLY FUNNY when mommy and daddy do:) ) Here's some pics of SNOW MUCH FUN. . .making mud pies for mama. . .

Trey's giggles. . .or not

I sat down to post a video of Trey's giggles bc they're adorable, but it didn't work, so I'll just write about the other two instead. . .today when we read the Bible Story of Jesus and his disciples, I pointed to Thomas, and Porter said, "That's not Thomas!" The only Thomas he knows is the train :) Porter, you make us laugh!!! And Miss Ainsley, I captured these snapshots today while I was playing My Little Ponies with you, and someday when you read this I just want you to know what a beautiful little lady you are! Not just on the outside, but you have such a genuine, giving, caring heart. . .so giving that when you found Easter Eggs this year, you gave them to the other kids. I am so proud of you!

Weekend Wrap-up

It's been a typical loud, crazy, but ton of fun weekend at our house. We spent lots of time just playing, or I should say I was watching dad play. . .as you can see from the pics, they adore him, climbing on him, jumping into his arms off the couch, and even Trey's taking after his daddy and liking computer time :) We did get to go on a date with some college friends and truly enjoyed the adult conversation and good food, although it always turns to stories of the kids, but lots of laughs! GooF spilled his water at the restaurant, so the waiter brought him more in a sippy cup :) Here's Ainsley's pic of us before our date. . .Ainsley and I got to hold a little baby girl only 4 hours old this weekend. . .at "the baby hospital" as Ainsley calls it. She was so precious!
Oh, and this is Trey. . .after his brother threw a scoop of snow on him. I had my camera handy, so snapped a pic before I picked him up :)

Crazy Baby Days

I have been neglecting my blog, because I've been trying to figure out facebook. . think I've got it down :) And also neglecting my cleaning etc, so I'll (maybe) keep this short. I tried out the Beauty School in town last night and got my hair highlighted, eyebrows waxed, etc, and it was cheap and turned out good, but it took a LOOOOOONNNNG time. This morning I had MOPS and it was an Adoption Panel and so good. The honesty, sincerity and love for God and their children in those moms was so evident. OK, now I'll begin my real post.

These are the Crazy Baby Days, and sometimes I'm in a Crazy Baby Daze, but here's just a few of my favorite things Trey's doing right now and a few updated kid pics

• Whenever he sees mommy round the corner, he army crawls as fast as he can to me and tries to crawl up me. If he's in his bouncer he smiles and jumps and reaches for me til I have to pick him up!


• When his sister is in tears, his smile and hugs turn her tears into giggles.


• He went on a date with mommy to the grocery store and helped pick out his first sippy cup.


• I love the way he snuggles in on my shoulder or anyone's shoulder!


• His excitement over the tubby is hilarious. . .as soon as I start running the water, he starts kicking and when I put him in he just splashes and splashes! Last night he learned to SQUEAL and everytime he squealed he giggled at himself. Trey and Porter splashed water , squealed, and laughed together in the tubby :)
  
• How he lights up when I sing Jesus Loves Me!
• When daddy gets home from work and he joins in the excitement, by kicking his legs, and reaching out to him! He definitely knows daddy is FUN!
• How he's sitting on the floor right now and saw a toy puppy dog, got scared and started crying :) Better go.

NESTS

Ok, so when I was driving my husbands car home from the hotel, I noticed his service engine soon light was on. When he went to start the car for work today, the light came on again, his car sounded funny, and he saw a mouse run across our garage. I do not like mice. . .they ate through one of my strollers in the garage of our last home. Disgusting!!! Anyway, GooF just looked at his engine and there was a little MOUSE NEST and he could see what wire it chewed!!! Apparently the mouse stayed in the car while we stayed in the hotel and I drove it home?! This reminded me of when we lived in an apt and we saw twigs sticking out of our grill, opened the cover and there was a HUGE birds nest covering the grill. I made him get rid of the grill! I know God made the little creatures to make nests, and we as moms can all relate with "nesting," but YUCK!

Happy Christmas. . . .or Easter

Yes, we woke up to a "white" Easter weekend. Saturday we had an Easter brunch (my mom is a great hostess and knows my husband loves biscuits and gravy) at Grammy and Grampa's house and hunted for our baskets and eggs. I always remember getting a new spring outfit in my basket as a little girl, so I've started doing that for Ainsley and got some adorable pink and green dresses/shorts/tank tops at old navy, and my mom still gets new spring clothes for us and the kids in our baskets :) Thanks to both grammy's for the baskets! One of my other favorite Easter time memories is acting out the song "Watch the Lamb" by Ray Boltz at church. As the pastor's kid, I got to carry a real lamb down the aisle. . that song still brings tears to my eyes. I loved Ainsley's Easter hat this year!Then Sat night, we had a birthday party for Madison, and Porter proudly mastered the climbing wall at it. I don't know why these pics are crooked again. . .
After that, the kids made resurrection eggs. . .you put 12 plastic eggs in an egg carton and fill them with things that tell the Easter story. . .a cross, nail, etc, and the last egg is empty because Jesus has risen! Ainsley wanted to do it over and over and over. Porter's favorite egg to open was the one representing the last supper, because it had bread to eat in it :)

This morning we wanted to make it to the 8 o clock service, so needless to say, we were rushing around. Every time I put Porter's tie on, he'd pull it off. Ryan had the giggles, bc he remembered hating ties, but Porter and I were pretty frustrated with each other. By the time we got to church (late), his tie was all crooked, his shirt was untucked, and of course the only spot left in the sanctuary was the front row :) GooF thought he looked like an action hero from a movie, with his dress clothes all messed up.

After church the Easter bunny had left baskets at our house. . .Trey's first Easter and he got diapers and baby food. This boy. . the minute I start getting baby food ready, he smacks his lips. .. apparently he likes diapers too!

And then we went out to "the farm." Every year as a little girl, my family would go to our friends farm and eat and have a HUGE Easter Egg hunt (1200 Easter Egg), plus candy hidden everywhere. Some of the eggs have points in them that you can redeem for prizes. It's a fun tradition! Porter was pretty serious. . crawling through trees on the muddy ground to get an egg with a dime in it :)And some other random wknd fun. . .we had a family puzzle night, and

looking out my window to see father and son playing baseball :)

Better go, the boys just got home from a date to Menards to get white doors for our playroom, bathroom. . .am going to paint the trim/doors in the basement white. . thanks Kristi for the idea!!

PS I think we started another new Easter tradition. . .the Nelsons called us over tonight after tubbies for a Barbie Princess movie. . .GooF acted like he didn't like it, but he was pretty into it :)

Thrilled to the Gills

The kids were of course super excited when we told them we were planning a little Spring Break trip to a hotel. Ainsley announced that she wanted to sleep with mommy, then decided she wanted to sleep with Trey, and Porter ran and got his sleeping bag/backpack and put a Mt Dew in it for daddy :)

The first thing they wanted to do was swim, then have pizza, and before the night was over, EXPLORE the hotel with their slippers on and flashlights. . pretty cute. Ryan and I enjoyed seeing how thrilled the kids got over their little Spring Break trip. . . .getting to eat continental breakfast in bed, jump from bed to bed, riding on the luggage cart, pressing the elevator buttons, Ainsley wearing her new flamingo swimsuit, and coverup, and sunglasses and flip flops :), and using the vending machine were some of the highlights! And I even struck up a conversation with a mom of three little girls. . .am constantly amazed at how moms can always relate with fellow moms, even if for a short while at the hotel pool. It reminded me of when my dad used to coach my basketball team and I would come off the court saying I met a new friend. Some things never change! And last but not least, there was Porter falling out of the bed this morning. . .his siter had hogged the bed and was even sleeping on his beloved Thomas pillow!!!! There were 3 in the bed, and the little one said, "Get me out!"

Painting pottery, PJ's and pals

Tonight we had a Girls Night Out to paint pottery in our PJ's with my friend Michelle and her little girl Madison. You're officially on my blog now Michelle :) My sister and my niece came too, and in Ainsley's ideal world, she would've painted 10 different pieces of pottery, but we settled on rainbow jewelry boxes. All three girls decided they are now going to be artists when they grow up. I love how they think. . .one day they want to be a soccer player, the next an artist. . . to be 4! Then, we ended the night at Barnes and Noble with hot cocoa and a cookie. . .teaching the girls young the importance of Starbucks!

And here's my BIKER BABE from earlier today. . . .Half the fun for my little dress up darling, is putting on all the gear. . . .as you can see from this pic taken last summer, she enjoys putting the gear on her little bro too!

A picture's worth. . .

. . .a thousand words

From the Mouths of Babes

Whenever my oldest sister calls, she's never sure what she'll hear me telling the kids. . . things I thought I'd never say. And I am constantly amused by the things my kids say. In fact, I keep a journal for each of them, where I jot things down, and looking back over the past few days, here are a few of their comments:

I said, "Ainsley, what's Trey doing?" (it was awfully quiet) She replied, "Being smashed by his big brother." Shortly after, Porter said, "I like our new baby. We need another baby. We need lots of babies."

And then there's Ainsley, who told Trey, "I present you to be my royal husband." And, "Trey, everybody loves you. Even people you don't know love you!" And "Trey, you're quite a handful!" Yes, she loves carrying him around. . .proud big sis.

One more cute saying. . . .we dyed Easter eggs tonight and Porter LOVES egg salad sandwiches, which he calls mustard sandwiches. He said, "Mustard Sandwiches are my FAVORITE THING I'VE EVER EATEN!!!" Here's to our day in a collage:

Better stop posting, my cookies keep burning :)

Sunshine, Shades and Shamrock Shakes

The kids were eager to play outside today after nap, and it felt great to break out the sidewalk chalk, soak up some rays, and come in with rosy cheeks!

Even Trey got sunglasses :)

As for shamrock shakes, they're one of the best things about this season! As we were driving home from church Sunday, Porter asked if we could pick up burgers (daddy used to bring them home every Tues in the summer and we'd have a picnic, but it'd been awhile), so we gladly agreed, I got my shake, and we had a picnic in the living room instead (due to the snow). Here's to last summer and burgers! Thanks to my little burger boy, I got my shamrock shake!

The army crawl

"Spike" (notice the hair after his tubby) began army crawling today! Here he is stopping to pose for a quick pic! Spike's also been busy chewing on his brothers truck :) which makes noise when he bites down!

Thanks Grammy for the cute little monkey outfit. . .I'd say it's quite appropriate :)

Ainsley got invited to a friends house to play this morning, and she had so much fun! She got to play dress up, hide and seek, read books and her favorite part was their kitty. She used to cry when I dropped her off places and now she cries when it's time to go :) Here's the picture she made for her friend.