our life

Easter 2012

Dying Easter Eggs

Tate did not want to stop dying eggs!

Easter baskets

We had a "fancy" Easter lunch after church at Red Robin and then stopped by a park to snap some pictures.

all it takes is a bowl of cereal

Baseball practice has started for the boys and some days it is a task to get home from school, changed into baseball gear, and out the door in 45 minutes.  Gage is usually really tired after school and just wants to relax.  We have discovered that the best thing to do is get him dressed in his baseball gear and then feed him a bowl of cereal and life is all better for him.  He is so much like me, I don't function well when I am tired, hungry or both.  The boys have their first baseball games tomorrow, now for a busy spring!

Fruity Cherrios, a favorite!

my helpers

I walked into the kitchen to see that Tate had cleared out the utensil drawer.  Wasn't planning to reorganize that drawer, but I guess it gave me an opportunity to wipe out the drawer.

Caught in the act.

If you know Tate well, you would know that he was more than happy to wipe the drawer for me.

Yesterday we had some extra time before leaving for school so I asked Jaden to prepare a meal for us to have for supper.  It is a delicious chicken broccoli braid that he has helped me make before.  He chopped all the veggies and mixed the ingredients while I finished getting ready for the day.  It was so nice to not have to  prepare supper and it was ready to go in the fridge by 9:00 am.  I hope that Jaden continues to enjoy cooking.

34 and blessed

I celebrated my 34th birthday on Sunday and feel very blessed.  Two early birthday presents that I received and I'm totally enjoying are a new camera and an iphone.

The kids had gifts for me before church.

Jaden and Danika gave me candle, a chocolate bar, and some sweet homemade birthday cards.

Gage gave me a bag of chocolate and two little nerf footballs so we can play together.

The card Gage made me.

I requested a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, knowing that Tyler and the kids wouldn't be making a cake themselves.

Tate doesn't have many words, but he sang Happy Birthday the best he could, so cute!

Enjoying the cake!

Love my family!  So blessed!

a football party

Celebrating Gage's 7th birthday with football cupcakes.

A football table cloth that Tyler made.

Kick the field goal game and footballs for party favors.

Yummy snacks and gatorade, Gage's choice.

Our big 7 year old!

Gage decided the order of the party.  First he wanted to open presents, then have everyone sing Happy Birthday to him, and then eat, which is when the all the kids went to the backyard and played the rest of the time.

 Gage loves cherries, so Scott and Mo gave him three jars of cherries.

The kids spent the rest of the time playing "flyers up" in the backyard with Gage's new football.

Here's how we really look.

Love our 7 year old!

celebrating gage

We had so much fun celebrating Gage's 7th birthday!  His day was extra special at school because I volunteered in his classroom for a bit in the morning and Tyler was at school all day helping out as part of the "Watch Dog" program at their school, which encourages dad's to get involved.  Gage requested chocolate chip cookies as his special treat for his celebration at school.  We took him out for supper at Red Robin that evening and had a fun football party on Saturday, pictures to come soon.

Singing Happy Birthday to Gage!

Gage & his teacher Mrs. O'Neil

gage's birthday invitations

We celebrated Gage's birthday at school and then had a party with all our family friends.  Gage told me that at school he made invitations to invite two friends to his party at Chuckee Cheese.  I told him that he wasn't having a party at Chuckee Cheese and thought that would be the end of the discussion.  Well, the weekend of his party I got a phone call from a mom of one of the boys in Gage's class.  She told me that her son said he was invited to Gage's party, but he had left the invitation at school and was wondering if they missed the party or not.  I had to explain to her about the confusion and that there was no party at Chuckee Cheese.  I then invited the boy over to play at our house the following week.  When he came over to play his mom sent the invitation with him so I could see it.

  Oh.my.goodness!  Crack me up!  Makes me laugh every time I read it!

You love Chucke Cheese!

danika's straight hair

Danika likes for me to straighten her hair sometimes, so I did the other day.  Her hair is so long, I don't always realize how long it really is until it is straight.  She also picked out her outfit and wanted to wear all "blue" which is unusual for her, she usually wants all pink.

This is the pose she wanted to do.

She got a little too into the posing and started throwing her hair around.

Then Tate wanted his picture taken.  Nice hair buddy!

Cheeseball!

the baby of the family

Yes, Tate is definitely the baby in the house and I know I treat him like the baby.  He is my little buddy and almost always at my side.  During the first week of his life I remember my mother-in-law saying that I never put him down.  That was a true statement and now 2 years later, I still carry him or cuddle him often throughout the day.  At supper he would rather sit on my lap than on his own chair.  The other night I ended up holding him while eating.

Here we are talking about getting rid of his pacifier.

Love him so much!

my little reader

I don't often get to sit and listen to Gage read without other distractions and noises going on around us, but tonight it was just Gage and I on the couch reading.  Love those moments!

Reading "The Eye Book"

Then he got a little silly.  It could have been the part that says our eyes see "pink underpants" that got him going.