Lyvie Girl's 2nd Birthday

I really can't believe that 2 years ago today we welcomed our Little Lyvie into our lives!

We've all been enamored and in awe at seeing her grow. She adds so much to our family, and we all love her so much. We had to celebrate her birthday a day early this year because of BB and Shawn being on call. She loved all of the festivities - she was spoiled rotten again by wonderful family and friends! She is surely loved.

Lyv's Fun Facts:

She loves babies, reading books, swinging, eating candy, and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
She gives the best hugs and kisses - squishing her nose and lips against yours so there is absolutely no room.
She doesn't like to be told no- wierd I know, but would rather go to her room when she is in trouble.
She talks your ear off, way more verbal than either boys
She loves to sing and dance, and rocks out to any music
She adores her brothers and is often found patting their backs and saying, "You okay?"
She is into clothes and jewelry and always squeels "Pretty!" when she gets a new addition to her wardrobe.
Her bootie is still large and in charge, we call her Bootie as a nickname.
She always insists that we say "Thank you for Jesus." in our daily prayers. She has her dad wrapped around her little finger, and knows it!)

She has been going back and forth between a Nemo cake or a Minnie Mouse cake - Nemo seeming to be the predominant one - so I compromised with a mini Nemo cake and Minnie cupcakes.

We had our friends the Thun's over, and had the cake, but we did have to re-lite the candles due to two older brothers who like to help!

Lyv was so cute she blowed and blowed those candles to go out.
We also had to really think hard as what to get Lyv this year for her birthday, since she is EXTREMLY spoiled! So we came up with this......and it was a HUGE hit! She couldn't get enough of them, and we are just crossing our fingers that they live through the week. We kept asking her what she wanted to name the fish, and she would just say "Fish, right!" We named one Nemo and the other Gracie. All the kids really thought that this was the best thing ever, and they all woke up and ran straight for the fish tank. We've been anti-pets until we get a more permanent location, etc. But we figured a fish is one that can stay or go right?

After luring her away with the promise of more presents we watched as Lyv (and the boys) ripped opened the presents. She loved the purses, the bubble gum machine, bubbles, swimsuit, ponies, coloring books, and homemade airplane and notebook from Sam. And she continues to be showered with love today her real birthday with Princess dolls. I think it is safe to say that she enjoyed her birthday as today she was up toting around all of her new gifts.

Sam the Slugger, Jack the Fish, and Lyv, well ....

Sam had his first Baseball game of the season, and he was so excited. He really enjoys baseball, and I'm excited to see him doing well. His best skill is hitting. The coaches call him Dangerous Sam! which makes him so happy. He really tries hard, and is still working on his fielding abilities. In the mean time he spends a lot of time practicing, and most recently collecting donations and the local gas station - isn't such a handsome little ball player?Monday brought an unusually warm day - nearly 90 degrees. The kids and I had a picnic at the local playground, but soon were too hot to last outside without out some water. I filled up the pool, Jack loved! He dove head first into 1 ft of water, splashed and played! He didn't mind that it was icy cold, my little fish!

Lyv preferred the warmth provided by the hot cement - cruising on the Little Red Flyer. She has become such an emotional drama queen lately. She cries at the drop of a hat, and bosses everyone including me around. She can be so sweet showering you with hugs and kisses, but in a heartbeat she is telling me no and throwing a big tantrum. The next picture is one we've seen too often in my opinion! She is telling me NO! because I brought her a popcicle instead of an icecream cone! How dare I? We ended a playful afternoon on Saturday with some yummy ice cream cones. These two eat them until there is just an ooey gooey mess left!

Jack was a little too enthusiastic in his eathing and came away with a brown nose and a goatee! The final shot of this post is one of my favorites! Jack went to grab a baseball out of the creek, and ended up falling in headfirst. Our creek is so muddy and gross right now that he came up and was covered in slimy mud. Also note his flip flop w/sock fashion statement - the strap in the middle of his 2nd and 3rd toes instead of the Big toe! But he's didn't cry or throw a fit, he just trudged back up to Shawn and said "Dad, I fell in the creek." Only Jack!

Easter

For Easter we were lucky to have our friends the Teusher's up from Virginia. The kids played and played and played non-stop. It was so nice to have familiar faces and a constant friend. We dyed Easter Eggs and then hid them for the kids. They loved hunting for the eggs. I found myself resorting to tricks that my dad used when hiding our easter eggs - in the trees, in the car wheels, in the bkb hoop stand... I loved his creativity.
This is Sam's new favorite pose for pictures. Uncle Jake did this once and it is now the standard of "cool" for Sam and so you'll see these awesome fingers in most pictures!

The Kids with their loot!



Then we dressed the kids up in the Sunday best - and Lyv especially was pleased as punch to pose her new duds!

We followed up our great church meeting (Shawn spoke and gave a wonderful talk on the atonement) with a lamb and peas and potatoes supper! I love Easter, and am so grateful for our Savior, for His life, His death, and His ressurrection.

Central Park and 9/11 Memorial

We hit the big city, probably for the last time (definitely the last time with the kids). We went to Central Park. As we tromped through the park, the kids kept asking are we there yet? We tried to explain that this was Central Park. Jack could not be convinced and later after walking by a little concrete play area declared that that must be Central Park! It was a nice day, and the kids enjoyed being able to run free, since the rest of the time they were strapped in their stroller.

Shawn was a champ and packed the double jogger up and down Subway stairs as we made our way to the 9/11 Memorial. It was a nice day, and I'm glad we got a chance to see the memorial. It was a good chance to explain this to Sam, since he has shown a really big interest in the towers after seeing a display at the NY state museum in Albany. Jack was terrified of the subway at least on the first ride. He finally decided on the way back that there are two kinds of trains scary trains and not scary trains.

City living is not for me - I can't imagine walking all over with kids to take them to a park, shopping, etc. However if Shawn and I would have been single I think there is so much you could take advantage of. Props to my friend Erin, who lives in the city with her own three kiddos - I need me some wide open spaces.

Spring Break Fun

Sam's Spring Break was this past week and bless the school district instead of taking two days off of the end of school, they just extend an already week long spring break!) Again I had to brace myself for the possible choas, arguing, and referring that would occur this week; but my kids have been pretty good, exceeding their mom's pessimistic expectations. I did provide a boat load of projects for us to do, so that helped. With the help of pinterest we came up with a lot of fun things to do: Here is a sampling:


#1) I have to pat myself on the back, and cross my fingers that people won't look to closely at this McGiever-ed sand box. I was so sick of the dirt and the resulting mud from the dirt pile, so I converted it to a sand box. With a few bags of sand and 2 2x4's, I handsawed my way into a box, dumped the sand and called it a day. Shawn would be horrified of my lack of measuring and my deeply inadequate trench, but it works:) #2) Kite flying and marshmallow shooters

#3) Exploding Bags - the boys loved these! Popcicle airplanes - also loved these but no picture.

#4) Sidewalk Paint. Again another hit and no to difficult. The beauty of this - if it got on their clothes it washed out like nothing.

#5) Gak - Super Fun, but Super Messy! I'm still finding remnants of the gak all over.