Riding...

The kids spend a lot of time outside riding their bikes and scooters. No pictures of just Ezra this time. He got off his trike and went to play in the back yard just as I was going to start taking pictures of him. I tried to talk him into riding a little more but I only got "No ride bike Mama" from him as he ran off to play! So you will just have to enjoy him in the background of Owen and Ava's pictures!

Roasting Marshmallows...

Looks like another one for Daddy to eat!

Owen LOVES Nap Time...

He doesn't sleep, but he loves that his siblings do. It is during that time when he can do this kind of stuff with his Daddy!

Playing Outside at Papa and Grandma's

Ava Faces!

ILY

Last Friday night we dropped Owen, Ava and Ezra off with Papa John and Grandma Ruth for a few hours. Ily came with Luke and I to a youth baseball fish fry fundraiser for my Godchild Caleb. We ate dinner with my Mom, 3 of my Aunts and several of my cousins. Well Luke was on the phone when we pulled into the parking lot and Ily was sleeping. So, I just went in to pay for us and found a spot to sit with the rest of my family. Eventually Luke and Ily joined us too. Luke said that when he was finishing up his conversation on the phone he could hear Ily giggling in the backseat. When he went to get her out he found her like this!

A little Ily update for you all! Ily will be 9 months old this weekend. She weighs 18 pounds as of yesterday morning. She is an excellent baby and is always happy. Even when she gets tired or hungry she is still a good baby. We hear "does she ever cry or get upset" quite often from people and the answer for that is not really. She sleeps through the night 95% of the time. Ily doesn't enjoy baby food so we will just skip that and start her on table food eventually. She loves sitting next to her toy bucket playing with her toys and she eventually gets the bucket emptied with all of her toys scattered around her. Ily does not enjoy tummy time so if I am out of the room and she reaches just a bit too far to get a toy and ends up falling over onto her tummy she will make a growly "I don't like this" noise which is my cue to come rescue her and help her back to a seated position! With not liking tummy time she rarely to never rolls over if you lay her down and she is not crawling yet because that would result in being on her tummy. In all honesty her being a non mover makes me very happy because it is like having a newborn longer! With that being said can you guess where she is still sleeping? Yep, in her baby cradle about two feet from my side of the bed and is as happy as a clam in there! Her latest trick is shaking her head like she is saying yes and no. Usually it is going in the no direction. Her siblings think it is great and they will ask her all kinds of silly questions for her to answer no to! We are loving our little Ily girl who is getting so big. We are enjoying the stage that she is currently in and not even thinking for a second I can't wait for her to... like so many parents do. That statement goes for all 4 of our children too. They grow up so fast the way it is. I don't want to wish for them to do certain things faster than what they already do. I am content to wait for them to do things at their own pace however long it may take.

This and That

Good News and Bad News...

The bad news is that my camera died on me last week when I took the kids to the Children's Museum. Not sure what happened it worked when I left the house that morning and then when I went to take it out to snap a picture of Ezra nothing. So, so very happy we bought the 4 year warranty plan for it. We used the warranty plan to have it fixed 1.5 years ago after I dropped it and broke it and now we took advantage of it again. But, this time is different. I got a call today from the geek squad letting me know that my camera is unfixable. Bummer, but they also told me to come on in at my convenience and pick out a new camera for free because they couldn't fix the one I had! Yippy, a new camera for me! So Saturday we will be camera shopping.

Hard but Happy...

The weather has been wonderful this week! I would love year round weather like we have had this week. In the 60's with plenty of sun. Throw in a day of drizzles and rain here and there and that would be my perfect year round weather! We have been spending so much time outside. In fact both Ava and Ezra were outside from 9:30am to 7pm only going inside for meals, bathroom breaks and a nap. Owen was out most of that time too but he rested on the couch for a while after dinner because his leg was hurting and then at 6:30 he went to Awanas. So to the hard part of this section. This weather we are having is making it very difficult for both Owen and I to focus on "doing" school. At 1:30 I announced that it was time to go in for nap time and school and Owen said to me "we haven't been out side very long". Then while we were doing our school work I had to keep reminding him that as soon as we were done he could go back out. It was hard for me not to just tell him we can skip school today go out and play. I have a feeling both of us will have many more days like that before our school year is over. Which will be in less than 10 weeks. If we keep on track we should be done in the middle of May. Side note we are still doing home school with Ava but her stuff is much easier to skip a day and do 2 lessons at once. We chose to do that option today! Tomorrow is going to be another nice day and I promised the kids we would go to the park to play. So on to the happy part. With the weather being so nice it makes me extremely happy with our decision to home school our children. I couldn't imagine having to have them sitting in a building all day when they could be outside playing and exploring in this wonderful weather.

That is all for tonight. However Luke just emailed me a funny picture that he took of Ily with his phone the other day so I will try and post that before Friday!

30

It is official I am no longer in my 20's. I turned 30 this past weekend. And, YES I am struggling with the fact that my name goes with that age a little bit. Now, don't get me wrong I don't think 30 is old. In fact even as a teenager I never thought 30 was old. But, saying that I am 30 makes me feel old. Why you ask? Well because in my mind I am still 24! Seriously I know that sounds silly but that is what my mind tells me. I am only 24 not 30. Yes, six years ago at this time when I really did just turn 24 I was still in the brand new Mama stage of my life. My baby bug Owen was only about a month and half old on my birthday. My Bug and his other 3 siblings are the reason that I stopped aging myself at 24. I know that the last six years have gone extremely fast for me and I wish they would slow down. It truly seems like just a few months ago that I became a Mama for the first time and not the 6 that it really has been.
So with all that being said yes I am 30. I had a great birthday! I spent the day with Luke, my Mom and the kids. We went shopping and had lunch at Red Lobster and then came back to our house to relax for the rest of the day. Saying that I dislike clothes shopping for myself is putting it mildly but that is one of the things we did because my children's present to me was to buy new clothes. So, for them I suffered through the experience. In all honesty though our trip was very successful and even fun! I got several new things to add to my lacking wardrobe. We also bought supplies to build Owen a new Lego table for his room. I will post pictures of the finished project soon!

More Sledding!

Friday Luke came home around 12:30 after being gone for work since Sunday night. We were excited to see him but he wasn't feeling good and was tired. Owen and Ava wanted to go sledding at the park again so I decided to take them while the rest of the family took a nap. Or that was the plan. However, little Miss Ily greatly disagreed with the plan. She wanted to play with her Daddy that she missed all week long! So Ezra slept while Ily kept Daddy up and well entertained! Owen, Ava, and I enjoyed our trip to the park and mostly had the hill all to ourselves.

Crazy Hair Night...

It was crazy hair night/bring a friend to Sparks a few weeks ago and Owen brought his sister! Although she wasn't his first choice she was super excited to go with him all the same!

I think she might start going every week from now on. She wasn't old enough back in September when he started but now that she is 4 I think she can go. I just need to make a phone call to the church to find out if she can continue going or if she needs to wait for next September to start.

And, of course Ezra insisted on having crazy hair too!

Sledding

Early Thursday evening I dropped Ezra and Ily off at Grandma Ruth's so that I could take the kids to the park to go sledding! Olivia was at Grandma Ruth's so we invited her to join us too! We had a blast. I was shocked how many times all three of them went up and down the hill. I thought they would eventually get tired and say they were ready to go, but that was not the case. I heard several moans of "do we have to go" and sadly the answer was yes, because it was getting late and none of us had eaten dinner yet. As we walked back to the van it made me happy to hear how many times the kids (especially Owen) thanked me and said how much fun they had. Then it was back to Grandma's we went where dinner was ready and waiting for us!




Thanks Grandma Ruth and Auntie Rita for watching Ezra and Ily for us!

Playing in the snow...

We woke up to LOTS of snow on the ground on Wednesday. The kids and I were so excited to finally have good snow to make a snowman and a fort! We were out side for about 2 hours in the morning and at least another hour after we were done with school and nap time. The neighbor girls came over to play in the snow with us in the morning.


While we were busy playing in the snow our neighbor Jeremy kindly came over and cleared our drive way for us! Then he even came back over and did it again after the city snow plow went by leaving a massive amount of snow at the end of our driveway.

Oh, and I can't forget to mention at 5:30 that morning I got a phone call letting me know that the public school was canceled for the day. REALLY? I was so not pleased about that phone call. In fact it scared the living daylights out of me. I went into panic mode because Luke was out of town for work and I thought something happened to him. Then I answered the phone heard the prerecorded message and was relieved but annoyed all at the same time.