Our Pretty Princess

In honor of the royal wedding today I am posting pictures of our pretty little princess:)  The other day I was putting some things away in Callies closet when she started pointing at the pink and purple tutu that was hanging up in there.  She kept pointing and grunting and finally I asked her if she wanted to wear it.  She enthusiastically nodded her head yes so we put it on.  She was very proud of herself.  She posed for multiple pictures and walked around like she was big stuff.

 It was pretty funny.  However, even pretty little princesses play with trucks, especially with two big brothers!

Easter Weekend

We started off our Easter weekend with a somewhat lazy Saturday.  We woke up and got donuts for breakfast and then headed to run a few errands.  We thought it felt somewhat nice out so we took a pizza to the park to eat a picnic and let the kids play a little but it was a little more windy and cold then we we thought.  After we got home Grandma and Grandpa stopped by with Uncle Bone and Uncle Pete!  The kids were super excited and Gabe got to show off some of his baseball skills(I really should get a picture of that) Ty even showed off his batting stance(again really need to get a picture) Pete brought the boys each a cute t-shirt(actually future Aunt Kim got them, thanks Kim!) We attempted to get a picture of them together, in case you can't quite make out the words on the shirts they say "I'm a Cyclone, Just like my Uncle"  Ty had fallen down the slide and skinned up his elbow which is why he's got the red Lightning McQueen icepack.

After they left it was nap time for Callie and the kids watched baseball with Daddy.  That evening we went over to my parents house for dinner.  Grandpa and Grandma had Easter basket for each of the kids and they were able to find them shortly after we got there.  The boys each had a veggietales watch in their basket and they each had a pair of sunglasses.

After we found the baskets we headed outside to find some eggs while our burgers were on the grill.

Can you guess whose basket is whose?

The next morning we got up and ready for church.  I attempted a few picture of them in their Easter outfits, we got a few cute ones:)

After church we headed out to Andrea and Alans for dinner with their family and Grandpa Matt and Grandma Nancy.  After lunch the kids got to have an easter egg hunt and they each had 5 color coded eggs to find.

 Callie doesn't quite get the whole find Easter eggs concept quite yet, she would just wander around a little and if she came across one she may or may not pick it up.  She was more interested in the animals, like the cat, she would screech with delight when she saw it but then the minute she got close to it she would screech in fear.  Crazy girl.

After they found their eggs we went to see the goats and chickens.

They also had a few baby ducks that the kids were able to pet.

Before heading back in the house for dessert we attempted to get a picture with all the kiddos together, I think it's impossible to get them to all look at the camera at the same time but these aren't too bad.

We had a great Easter weekend with family but most of all praising God for his Son who is no longer dead but risen.
" Jesus Paid it all.  All to Him I owe.  Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow!"

Oh What a Day!

With small children anytime you do kitchen activities they have the potential to be messy.  I understand that.  Our day yesterday however was messy, crazy and bloody, yes I said bloody.  The day started off pretty well we ran to the store to pick up the few things we needed to make our treats.  We got through the store pretty quickly with kids doing a great job helping get the few things we needed. We got home and started our rainbow jello treats right away.  Gabe laid out the cups.

  Then dumped the jello into a bowl,

after I added the boiling water he stirred it and then added the cold water.

  He then supervised as I filled each cup with red our first color.  Ty even helped out a little.

 Then we moved onto the cookies.  As we were doing this Ty decided it would be a good idea to get the computer chair(on wheels) and bring it to the counter so he could get a little bit higher(it's tough being vertically challenged) as he climbed up I told his to get down as it wasn't a very good idea to have a chair with wheels to stand on, he did and then Callie climbed up, my hands were covered in dough and flour and as I was going to wipe them off to get her down Ty came runing by the chair knocking it out from under her and her falling flat on her face from the chair to the floor.  1st blood incident.  Her poor little chin got scraped up and her lip bled pretty good for awhile.  Gabe freaked out because there was blood, Ty freaked out because he knew he had caused her to fall and of course Callie freaked out because she was hurt.  After getting her cleaned up and the floor cleaned up we got back to cookie business.  Gabe helped me cut out the shapes

and then once we had a pan full we took them out to the table where the boys got to use egg yolk paints to paint them. 

They both enjoyed making each cookie look just right.

 After they were painted we baked them

 and then after they were all done we piped frosting on them(well I did)

 

Now during cleanup in the kitchen I heard Ty tell Callie something, I didn't think much of it as this happens quite frequently at our house.  Then as I went in to check on them after I heard Ty tell Callie no again I saw what he was talking about.  Somehow Ty had grabbed the box of food coloring we had used to paint cookies off the counter(I swear it was moved clear back so it was out of reach of children but who knows) and had taken it into the living room.  He got out the green and managed to get it all over the floor by the loveseat and his hands.  Callie had then gotten into the box and continued the rampage of food coloring all over our white chair and on herself.  It was a mess.  I have never seen such multi-colored children ever.  I kind of wish I would have taken a picture just to document the mess but at the time I was too shocked, angry, in disbelief that I just had to clean it up.  Both of the culprits then had to be bathed and me too since I now had it all over my arms and hands as well.  Ugh what an afternoon.  Wednesday night things had seemed to calm down somewhat and we headed to D6(our church's family ministry) I delivered our Easter/thank you treats to the kids teachers

 and then went to help out in the Kindergarten classroom as always.  I was doing a game with my small group when I saw Gabe walking back down the hallway.  When he saw me he ran into our room and said "Mom, I lost a tooth!"  I said I didn't know you had a loose tooth buddy, Our pastor who is also Gabe's teacher for D6 said he didn't, he fell.  Oh my, looking closer at his face he had a skinned up nose and chin and his lips were fat and puffy.  Apparently he was pushing a truck on the floor and tripped and his face planted into the truck.  Knocking out his tooth(thankfully the top front tooth that is still a baby tooth and not a bottom middle that is an adult tooth)  I was told the amount of blood was crazy.  In a way I'm kinda glad I didn't have to clean up that bloody mess as well.  I tried to get a picture of his gappy mouth but his poor lips were so swollen it was hard for me to get a picture of it.  I did get this one and you get the idea.

  His tooth came out clean, root and all, I have never seen a tooth like that and it is rather nasty.  Troy told us he did great and hardly cried at all.  We are thankful he was in there and able to calm him down and take care of him, what a crazy night and day!  I hope our Thursday proves to be more clean and less bloody!(and in case you're wondering I moved the food coloring to the highest shelf in the cabinet, just in case)

Signs of Spring

Our grass is green, our daffodils, hyacinth, magnolia and crocus are in bloom and our children are loving the outdoors(well minus the bees for Gabe, he is terrified of bees)  With the nicer weather means playing in the tree house and little slide in the backyard.  I finally took the camera out with me to snap a few pictures the other day.  Ty is a huge slide fan.  He likes this little one.

but he's a big fan of the big green one too.

and of course no trip to the back yard would be complete without a wrestling match or two on the slide.

Gabe enjoys the slide too.

although I think he enjoys the tree more.

Callie likes the flowers, but mostly she likes to pull them apart and try to eat them.

The big brothers love to help her go down the slide.

She is just happy to be outside with everyone!

We are looking forward to many more nice days to play outside!

Because I Want to Remember

I was looking back through some old pictures and videos we have on our computer yesterday(I am attempting to get them archived and somewhat organized) and I came across several old videos of the boys talking and doing various things. Their voices were soooo different, they sounded so little. So in an effort to capture them at various stages in life I interviewed them yesterday. I want to remember their little voices. It took a few takes of each to get one without them jumping on each other or picking their nose but I think I got a few that will work.

Gabe age 5(almost 6)



Ty age 3 1/2




Callie age 18 months

Photography by Gabe

We have been enjoying the beautiful weather lately with lots of playing outside, trips to the park and riding our bikes but I haven't taken many pictures of it.  Gabe however loves to be a photographer and grabbed the camera the other day for one of his impromptu photo shoots, Callie seems to be his favorite subject but he did get one of Ty.  Here are a few of his pictures for your viewing enjoyment.