Bike Seat

We love playing outside and the weather is slowly but surely starting to warm up.


We had to test out our latest toy - the iBert bike seat. It's surprisingly more easy to steer, feels more secure and is so much fun! Both Ender and Eisley love riding in it!

Royal Wedding

We're watching the royal wedding.
Emmett's Comments:
The princess looks very beautiful, doesn't she?

They kissed again, they must love themselves very much!

She [the princess] kind of looks like you when you were married. (thanks honey, too bad he wasn't there!)

After watching the kiss on TV, Emmett and Flora turn to each other and kiss.

Garage sales

Garage sale season is so much fun.
We already had the boy Melissa and Doug boy magnetic doll set. I found the girl one and now the two kids can play together.

I don't have a picture, but some other favorite finds so far include a giant transformer, a small video game remote shaped transformer, some groovy girl dolls, a dinosaur, a super hero matching game and last but not least Eisley's new socks. This girl loves socks!

Silly Putty!

I now know that you can get silly putty out of hair with hand sanitizer (hanitizer as Eisley's calls it) or baby oil.`

Do you see what I see?

What is he smiling about?

Look at those puppy dog eyes.

Do you see what I see?

Yep, that's a tiny little tooth (no not the food chunks, the tiny little almost invisible line in his gum). Did you have to pull out your magnifying glass?

Sea Life MN with my cousins

Where are we?

Sea Life Minnesota!

The kids loved it! We saw sharks, jelly fish, octopus, saw fish and an alligator gar (yeah, I hadn't heard of it either, until today). We even saw 3 people cleaning the aquarium walls while wearing scuba gear. Two of the people carried wands to protect the cleaner from the sharks.

These are my sweet cousins and my sweet kids. They get along quite well.

And the whole gang wandering around MOA (my mom is taking the picture).

And to top off a wonderful day, I got my birthday present early. A new bike!

Day with Nana

It was one of those days when we fit in all kinds of fun things.
Easter egg dying.

Skateboard track building.


Music making.

The best part was that we did it with Nana!

Eisley's hair!

Eisley's shaggy little puppy dog hair is gone. Replaced is a stylish little diva! I love it! I loved my little shaggy puppy too though :)


I'll post a few pictures from the actual cut later. I took just a few on my phone. Ender got a little trim too!

Emmett is a big help around here. This game he designed for all the kids to play. Look closely at Eisley's face. Yes, they were all thrilled. Sylvan looks like he's plugging his ears but he's actually trying to listen. I was pointing to my ears telling the kids to "listen with their ears" while Emmett explains the game and then to follow the directions. Emmett tried, but he had a tough audience!

Then we played outside in the rain/snow.
It started out as snow and then turned to rain. Eisley likes to wear shorts all the time since returning from Texas.
Eisley was saying, "I need my mittens!"

Skipping naps!

This is what happens when we skip nap.

What the kids are saying these days

Emmett has a crush. He has it bad. Here is what he says about this girl, Mikayla.
"Doesn't Mikayla look so pretty?...I love Mikayla. I love her till my heart reaches the heaven. I only love my family and Mikayla until my heart reaches the heaven....I changed my mind, I want to marry Mikayla." He has always said he wants to marry Flora, my nanny girl, but now he's "changed his mind."

We always pray when an ambulance drives by. Today while I was driving, an ambulance drove by. I glanced in the backseat and saw Eisley's eyes scrunched closed and her hands gripped together praying, "Dear Jesus....amliance..." I couldn't understand the words, but it wasn't the words that mattered, it was her precious little heart connecting with her heavenly father.

We also pray when I load up all 5 kids in the car. I take it very seriously that my nanny family lets me drive their kids around. The other day as the kids and I were driving away from our play date I hadn't thought to pray. With in moments of driving Eisley calls out from the backseat, "Mommy, say 'Dear Jesus'!"

This morning Emmett's eye was bothering him - he was seeing double. As he was eating breakfast, he paused for a moment as he bowed his head and prayed, "Dear Jesus, please help me not see 2 of everything. Please help my eye feel better. Amen"

Later today we were looking for Emmett's bike helmet. Once again he bowed his head, "Dear Jesus, please help me find my helmet."

Passover Seder

My mother in law does a Messianic Passover Seder each year. It's one of my favorite traditions. It adds such depth to our Easter celebration. I look forward to this tradition becoming even more meaningful and special as the kids get older. For now including the kids entails speed reading, nibbling on matzah, cups and cups of grape juice, and of course finding the afikomen!
I love this picture of the 3 dipping their parsley in the salt water.

Rearranging

Today I shoved the kitchen furniture to the side to prepare for a little photo shoot I did for my friend. Turns out the rearranged furniture spurred the imagination of the kiddos. They played under the stools, chairs and tables forever. It was darling.

Then I snapped a few photos of my kids. Of course!

Daddy's home!

Life is so much more fun when Daddy is home!

And tonight, Daddy took the kids out for a fun night so I could do taxes!

Chilly!

It may be a bit chillier today.

But we're Minnesotans.

A little chilly weather doesn't stop us from playing outside!

Park Weather

Loving this warm, park going weather.
But I'm loving this boy even more!

Lauren's birthday party

Today we celebrated our dear friend, Lauren's, 4th birthday. It was a fabulous day.

We walked to the park.

Planted flowers.

Ate these gorgeous cupcakes Marie made. Aren't they fabulous?!

And played with Lauren's new toys!

The kids had a blast.

Ender's Army Crawl

Ender's on the move. Here is his army crawl.

Ender and Morgan

This is Ender. And this is Morgan.
Ender and Morgan were due on the same day.
Ender and Morgan were born 1 day apart.
Morgan's mommy visited Ender at the hospital on September 6th.
Ender and I visited Morgan on September 7th (or 8th?).
They are bound to be life long buddies.

We had new friends over tonight.
All families who attend the 8:30 service at our church. We always see these people at the nursery, or in the same area of the sanctuary. We figured it was time to get to know each other. We had so much fun and will definitely do it again. Let's me honest, it was a little crazy.

11 kids means that a few get to help take care of the baby.

Pop Beads!

Pop Beads!
Encourages fine motor skills.
Enhances creativity.
All the kids love it!
The little kit I bought has animal pieces so Emmett can make dogs or star fish.
Eisley likes to make jewelry.