Play time!

The kids and I got to enjoy an afternoon at the park with Auntie Hilary and Uncle Daryl and their "kids" Sadie and Bear :)

Whheeeeee!!!!

Down the slide they go.

We remembered when we were little, how we tried to get our dog Bentley to go down the slide, and it was hilarious-so we made Sadie go down...and eventually she went down on her own!

Bear was not about to escape our tortures...

Auntie Hiwey wrapping up the sliding.

C'mon Sadie!

Go fetch Bear! It was a fun afternoon :) thanks Hilary and Daryl!

Birthday wrap up

So there have been a lot of birthday celebrations over the past few months. So here they are all in a nutshell. My sister's husband Daryl had his birthday on the 3rd of February, but they had the party on a weekend we couldn't make it into town. Then my cousin Mandy and her husband Gregg asked my parents to host their daughter Lily's first birthday at their house because it was a central location for all their family, and they live out of state. So we had a big birthday bash for her. Lily's great Grandma Frances also celebrated her birthday that same week.

That dress Lily is wearing is the same dress Mandy wore for her First Birthday party...Mandy was tall!

The next day was the super bowl, and the day after that was my birthday. Since we were in town for Lily's party we got to celebrate my birthday with my parents and watch the super bowl together. It was a jammed packed weekend!

Check out all that smoke! And since I was turning 28, we decided on 2+8=10 candles so we wouldn't burn the house down ;)

After over a year of Micah promising me a lap desk, I finally got one!

And I wanted everyone to know where my true alliances were, even though we were rooting for the Colts ;)

After my birthday was my sister Hilary's birthday on Valentines Day. Following that my father had his birthday on the 18th. We couldn't be with them on their birthdays, but we did give them great gifts!

On March 15th my sister Lauren celebrated her birthday. She moved out of state earlier last year and was finally getting settled into an apartment of her own. My parents planned a trip to go visit, and my sister Hilary surprised her by flying out for a long weekend while my parents were there. I was sad that I wasn't able to make the trip as well, but there was no way to afford to go while we prepare for our move, and traveling to look for housing etc. Anyway, I made cupcakes with the boys and their friends and dedicated one of them to Lauren on her birthday :)

Then our good friend Gracie turned the big 1! Ben and Laura had a small party for her at their house to celebrate. Devin wasted no time in helping Grace open her presents by promptly opening up the gift we gave her as soon as I set it down with the other gifts. No joke...just ripped the whole thing open before we realized what he was doing! The Devinator strikes again. Luckily Gracie didn't seem to mind and enjoyed opening up all her other gifts with the help of her siblings. I didn't have my camera with me, so I took these photos from Laura's blog.

And finally to wrap up the celebrations, Micah turned 29 on the 28th, and his parents threw him a small get together at their place. Micah didn't want a cake, but asked for gluten free brownies and strawberry shortcake instead. The guys all ate the brownies before we sang-and I didn't get one :( So they attempted to use a tea light candle for him to blow out...but it was already burned down and kept going out. Oh well, he still made his wish!

And if I missed anyone's birthday I apologize, but I think I got them all! Happy Birthday everyone :) It's our last ones here before we move...

Brunette

I know I have a lot of catching up to do on here, but I wanted to get this picture posted since so many have requested it! I am no longer a blondie :) My wonderful and talented mother has always done my hair, and I do not trust anyone else with it. I knew that I would not be able to upkeep the blonde look without her when we move, so we figured it was time to go back to my roots. Well, this is darker than my natural color because I think my natural color is too mousy for me. Micah was excited for the change and I really love it. It really doesn't surprise me in the mirror like the blonde used to for me...so I guess I'm really a brunette at heart. Everyone has their own opinion, like my Dad who prefers me blonde, but in the end he doesn't have to see it everyday either-as he stated ;) This color will fade a bit, and we'll have to do another application before sealing it. In the end it will be easier to upkeep after I move which was really the main motivation for the change. But I love it :) What do you think?

This was taken at Micah's cousin's wedding where Aiden was the ring bearer on Saturday. More pictures from the wedding to come, as well as all the birthday celebrations from February and March.

Signs of Spring

You know it's beginning to look a lot like Spring Time when...
You can wash your vehicle by hand outside-and almost all the snow has melted away (look in the upper left corner for the last of the snow).

The kids can pull out the outdoor toys and play around without coats on.

And you can finally see some Green coming up!
Happy Almost Spring everyone!!

Fun Day

I have to admit, I like to have things in order. Sure, sometimes my house gets a little out of control when I can't keep up with it, but overall I like things clean and tidy. I'm not much of an artist-no I take that back-I'm not an artist, at all! My sister Lauren got all that talent. I'm more of a musician. But anyway, I don't do much with art, and so pulling out the art things for the boys is not always something I think about. I also dislike the idea of the mess kids and art can make. For Christmas I got the boys this folding table and chairs and figured I could use it as their art table, and I wouldn't care if they colored off the page then. But it has been in the garage for the past few months-and so it hasn't seen much use. We had our friends over for family night, and I broke out the table for the kids to play some games on. Since it was out, and the boys have taken to sitting at their little desk in our office while we're working, I figured it was time to bring out their creative side a little. So out came the art box! I figured we'd start slow, and just color at first, but I'm hoping to expand and allow them to do some painting and other things when I have the opportunity to supervise appropriately. But this is a big step for me :) I know, not the best parenting admission, but it's something I want to work on!

They did a great job together, and there was hardly any fighting over crayons. I think they were just so thrilled to be doing something new :)

Then because the weather was so beautiful we went to the park. I was hoping to wait for Micah, but he was having a long day in the OR and I ended up taking them myself.

They played so well together. And Aiden was wonderful about making sure he could see me and I knew where he was. We talked about strangers before we went, and I think he really understood.

Devin was my Mr. Dare Devil. Since it was just me with the boys I had to go on everything with Devin and couldn't take some of the pictures I wanted to get. But he found the tallest slides and wanted to go down them over and over. And then went down the biggest swirly slide by himself. Aiden doesn't even want to go down those slides. Actually Aiden is still very tentative when it comes to being adventurous...and that's ok with me. One fearless boy is enough for me!
Overall it was a great day for the boys, and I loved it :)

Melting

Our weather has finally started to get a little warmer and most of our snow has melted. But we still had a few piles that were just not melting because they're not in the sun for very long. Both Micah and I thought we should shovel them out so when our house had a showing, there wouldn't be anymore snow. The boys wanted to get in on the action, and everyone had their own methods of getting rid of the snow. As you can see, Micah wanted to just rake it and spread it out so that the sun would melt it later the next day.

Devin figured that sweeping up the ice chunks were the way to go.

Aiden and I both had the same idea of using...shovels! What a novel idea ;) It wasn't as inventive as the other two, but it got the job done. In fact everyone got the job done, and it was great working together as a family!

Throwing snow chunks at the mailboxes also helped break them up too ;)

It was fun to work together. And I'm only a little sad that this is probably the last snow the boys will see for a few years, and why I wanted to get these pictures for them to remember how fun it can be. But honestly I'm not that sad to see the snow go!

The Aidenator

I feel bad for Devin as I am only posting about his mischievousness...and Aiden hasn't been a total angel over the years either-but let me emphasize that Aiden hasn't been nearly as troublesome as Devin! Aiden was just that kid who didn't try to get into anything-ever. He didn't crawl until he was 10 months, because he just didn't care to. He was always content with whatever was around him, so he had no motivation to go and get something else. But then he recognized how easy it was to get around, and started walking 2 weeks before his birthday. I thought I would be in for it then, but he was still very mild mannered.
However he has his moments. This one in particular was right after we moved into this house, and we were having issues dealing with the moving company and getting things fixed that they broke. I made Aiden a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then the phone rang. I was on the line with them for about 20 minutes in the next room, and it was a pretty heated conversation. When I hung up, I was drained and just sat back on the couch for a minute. Then I realized it was quiet...too quiet! Aiden was just behind the half wall a few feet away from me, and I was starting to panic because I knew something wasn't right. I turned the corner and came across this!

Oh the goober! He really wasn't a fan of the jelly apparently-and felt it was much better used as finger paint. It was one of those moments where I was totally stressed out and at my boiling point...but I took a deep breath and told myself I was sure to laugh about this later. And I'm so glad I did. I know that as long as my children are safe and happy, that's all I can ask for. And by this picture, he looks pretty happy :)
I know that even though Devin is probably already giving me gray hairs, I love him and he is healthy and happy-and one day, maybe not in the so near future, I will look back at all his antics and laugh...a lot! And I know this, because so many of you have told me how much you look forward to hearing about his escapades and that they make you laugh. I'm glad my life can bring you such joy :)

Flowers

No explanation needed...just the Devinator at it again!

Did I do that?

I was upstairs in the office, on the phone getting some billing things straightened out and figured they couldn't get into too much trouble during lunch time-especially with Devin strapped in. And of course I was wrong! Nothing is safe when the Devinator is around ;)
PS I did move that vase back a few inches before taking the picture...it was truly on the edge of the table!