St. Patty's to Easter

Here's a brief catch up in 2-3 words of March - April

Lucky us!!

Matchy Matchy!

Master Builder

Mozart in the Making!

Spring Break Sickness returns...boo!!!

A Fence!!! Hooray!!! Best day every for us and for Stone.  We are loving the freedom this allows.  He sits up on the deck and patiently waits for us to come and play.  It makes for dirty windows, but its nice to know he's right there.

Child labor is so awesome! Teaching them young!

Bleeding Blue

We LOVE Baseball! Majors and Minors this year.

Easter Best

Egg-static about Easter hunt this year...eggs had $$$ in them, so it was worth the search! I couldn't wait to hide the eggs outside this year and start that tradition with our kids.  I have such fond memories of searching for eggs each year with my siblings and going to signature spots that my dad use to hide the eggs.  I hope my kids enjoy it as much as I did.

I had to take a snapshot of Max at this age and stage.  He is my right hand man, and my helper of all things from house, to yard, to PTSA, to Young Women's and everything in between.  This is a typical Max look - complete with crazy undone hair and sweatshirt.  I can't describe how much I love love this boy!




I was cleaning Lyv's closet the other day and found this sweet note she had written to Eva. "I love Eva with all of my heart. I wish she sleeps in my room and she is so cute. Sincerely, Olyvia"  I just hope they always feel this way about each other! It made my day.

Finally - Talent Show 2017 - Lyv and her besties choreographed and performed a dance to "Can't Stop the Feeling" for the school talent show.  It was pretty adorable to say the least!

Jack..Jack..Jack..Jack...

My sweet, sweet Jack!  It has been a crazy 3 weeks for this boy! He started baseball and was loving being on the Angels.  On Lyv's birthday party day, as he headed down the stairs, he accidentally went right over the railing about 8 feet up and landed on his face, breaking his nose!  It was such a sad, sad day.  We could tell by the amount of swelling that this wasn't just going to go away on its own, so he met with the ENT and discovered his septum was badly deviated, completely covering his right nostril.  He would have to have surgery!

 

I had to add these hilarious "Safety Tips" that Jack submitted for his class.  It just illustrates so well his sense of humor and his life of living on the edge...that is to say, being a wee bit clumsy! #1 and #2 are tips based on real life experience!

My baseball boys!

Lyv's 7th Birthday

7 years ago this sweet little bundle brightened our day and our life!  Olyvia continues to be such a joy in our home.  She has such a kind heart.  She loves, LOVES, loves animals and would love to have an entire farm at our home one day.  She enjoys spending time with her friends, singing, dancing.  She is a very talented gymnast and is continuing to learn and grow in her skills.  I'm constantly amazed at how natural that is for her.  She is so fun to watch!  She is such a great helper at home, especially with Eva.  She writes love notes to Shawn and I all the time, and reminds us how awesome it is to have a girl.  She is an excellent student and loves to read and do art. We are so blessed to have her as our own!

This year Trolls has taken over Lyv's heart and mind...so we had a Troll-tastic birthday party with her friends.  There was a lot of color, a lot of giggling, and a lot of screaming!  Girls.Girls.Girls! 

Lyv's actual birthday was on Wednesday, so we celebrated all day long starting with bacon and eggs for breakfast, opening her gifts (rollerblades and a Trolls CD), DQ for lunch, stroganoff for dinner and cupcakes to light a candle for her birthday wishes.  She felt so loved that day!  (Check out Max's face as he blew the candles with her:)

Portland OR

We were bound and determined to avoid another Spring Break sickness this year...but to no avail!  Luckily it hit early on, and by the end of the week we were healthy and ready to hit the road...Portland he we come!  We took the kids to the science museum and the zoo and had a great time at both.  The kids loved staying at a hotel and swimming in the pool - and of course eating junk and more junk! 

Max had the best time at the water table making boats.  We sat there for over an hour while the older kids toured a submarine.  Maybe there's a sailor inside that 4 year old body.

Ms. Eva snoozed it up the entire time at the museum and the zoo!  Love this girl -and how patient she is so we can continue to explore.

The second day we hit up the zoo.  It was a cold rainy morning, and we lucked out having the zoo all to ourselves!  The kids had up close and personal encounters with several of the animals that day.

Especially the cats! We got face to face with the lions, cheetahs, and cougars. It was pretty amazing to be so close to them.

Our last supper in Portland we hit up a seafood restaurant...Jack of course had the most expensive item on the menu...crab legs anyone!?

Max loved "swimming" - more like hot tubbing with goggles on!  He cracks me up, but I'm hopeful we are taking baby steps to get him to actually swim!

Our final stop in Portland was the temple! This temple is gorgeous - the grounds are amazing with spring blooms, and the granite they used for the building is beautiful.  I love walking the temple grounds with all of my kids and picturing us inside those walls, all together one day.

Multnomah Falls is on our drive home and we couldn't resist stopping. Lyv and Jack hiked to the very top of the falls with Shawn - they were troopers.  Max and Sam weren't as thrilled about hiking so I took them back down to feed Eva. We live in such a beautiful area.