The work around the house is never ending!

Well that about sums it up. Nathan has almost painted every room in the house and now we are onto the yard.

Last spring we poured a cement pad and side walk on the side of our house and then a big pad in the back. I have the greatest dad in the entire world!!! He spent a ton of time here prepping and pouring the pads. Two of my uncles were also here for the fun. We stamped and colored the back patio which was very labor intensive and a very dirty job. But even the kids got into it.






Throwing out the color for the cement. If you look real hard you can see that my back door was open and just the screen was closed. OH what a lovely mess that created in my kitchen!!! It wasn't dusty and completely filthy at all!



Stamping the cement





That's one clean group!



Nathan and my dad then built a new deck/staircase off the back door for the patio.



Then we got dirt and started to level out the yard.




We love that we have a start to this never ending job of finishing our yard!

Ellie turned Four!!!

My baby is four!!! (Of course she was the baby when she turned four but not anymore.) Anyways Ellie's birthday was in May and we celebrated her birthday with just our family. She wanted a pink and purple cake with her princesses on top so that is what she got, and for her birthday dinner she of course chose McDonald's, YUM YUM! We gave her a big wooden doll house which she loved and of course plays with her princesses in it.

I can't talk about Ellie without having a smile on my face. She is the happiest, spunkiest little thing ever. She is always making us laugh and she loves to dance and sing and entertain. She loves playing "family" (as she calls it), playing with her dolls and princesses and she loves to dress up. Of course I cannot forget to mention blankie! Oh my, her blanket has now become a she and definitely holds a place in our home. She really could not live without this blanket. We do love blankie!

One more thing I must mention is Ellie's night time prayers. They always start out like this, "Dear Heavenly Father, please bless my uncles and please bless Bob." I guess she just really must think they need extra blessings.

Ellie WE LOVE YOU! You will always be our sweet baby girl!







I just had to put this picture in. It kind of sums up the princess and blankie obsession! She is asleep on the landing in the middle of the stairs.

Time to catch up!!!!!!!!

Honestly why is it so hard to keep up with my blog!!! I guess things have just been a little crazy for the past oh say 4-5 months. I realize I use that excuse like every time but oh well. I guess now that the kids are back in school I can start to catch up! Yeah for me! THIS IS WHY I DON'T SCRAPBOOK! Way to hard to figure out where to begin. Ok so I guess here I go...

Pancakes...Waffles...Dinner?

While I'm on the kick of blogging I thought I would post our conversation at dinner tonight. I will preface this by saying Nate is out of town this week hence the last two nights dinner menus. (Not that it really matters because there are plenty a night when pancakes or waffles are the dinner of choice, just maybe not two nights in a row!)

Abbi: "Ugh! Waffles for dinner! We just had pancakes last night!"

Me: "Uh Huh, we sure did!"

Abbi: "Can we please have something besides breakfast foods or leftovers tomorrow?"

Me: "We'll see."

Abbi: "Mom, I get breakfast food for breakfast, I get a decent lunch at school, and then breakfast again for dinner!"

Me: "Hmmm there's plenty of kids that never even get a cooked meal."

Ellie: "I wonder what daddy's having for dinner?"

Abbi: "Probably something better than waffles!"


Seriously, are pancakes and waffles not enough variety in our diet? I say as long as they don't go to bed hungry all is well!

WICKED!!!

Easter night we took Abbi and Kaden to see "Wicked". This was the second time for Nathan and I but the first for the kids. This show is absolutely amazing and probably my very favorite Broadway show. Honestly one of the best parts about the night was just watching the kids expressions and seeing how much they loved it. Abbi leaned over to me right before intermission during "Defying Gravity" and said "this is awesome!" And it really was! The cast was wonderful and we all wished we could go back and see it every night it's here. Unfortunately our pocket books are not quite that deep, but most definitely worth the money we forked out for the evening. (We ended up sitting in the most expensive section seeing as how that was all that was left by the time we could get our tickets. But well worth it and I would do it all over again!) And hey we had great seats!

One very important side note: This night would not have been possible if my absolutely wonderful husband would not have stood in line for 3 hours in the freezing cold winter temperatures to get the tickets! (I am so lucky he has decided he likes broadway musicals!!!)

Easter Festivities

This year it seems like Easter came and went so fast! Spring break was filled with playing with friends, late movie nights, painting more rooms in the house (for Nathan of course) and just relaxing not having to wake up early for school and worry about homework after school, Yeah for me!

The Easter Bunny visited our house on Friday night so the kids woke up Saturday to find that the hunt for their baskets was on. This is the first year the bunny has come on Saturday and lets just say it won't be the last!!! I loved it!!! The kids spent the entire day playing with their new Easter toys and Sunday was much less hectic! Of course on Sunday we made visits to both sets of grandparents and the kids enjoyed two more Easter egg hunts. Good thing they are all going to the Dentist next week!

Another day on the slopes

The last couple of times we have taken the family skiing the weather has been gorgeous! We end up taking off coats and jackets half way through the day and just enjoying the sun. This last Saturday was another great day. The kids are getting quite good. Abbi and Kaden were adventurous, skiing up the side of the main run to the the fresher, bumpy, steeper snow. Kaden was of course excited to find new hills or little jumps to go off under the ski lift, and Ellie just gets going and flies down the hill. It's all you can do to get her to slow down and stay with the rest of us. She puts her arms strait out to her side and becomes the "Ellie plane". She leans from side to side and practices her turns, but there are times when everyone else on the hill better just watch out because she enjoys the speed!

So I really wish that I was 1/8 the skier my husband was! The sport is just so natural for him, granted he has been doing it his whole life. Skiing is something that I guess I am just going to have to learn to love. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing like mastering the bunny hill (which I have definitely done this year, seeing as how someone has to stay with Ellie, and Abbi would much rather stick to this hill). Honestly though, the only time I ventured to an upper hill this year I realized just how out of shape I am and how I really need more practice! My knees, my back, my legs... let's just blame it on pregnancy for now shall we! The next week my doctor did strongly discourage, let's not even say discourage but basically FORBID me from skiing. I kind of took that as you can't ski because you can't risk falling, so just stick to the bunny hill and you'll be ok! It is however getting tricky being 5 1/2 months pregnant now and zipping up my ski pants, and of course bending over to do up my ski boots is almost quite impossible these days.

Geesh the struggles I go through just to have family time together! What fun times!!!

It's a Boy!!!

We found out on Monday we are having our second boy! We are dang excited and I am thinking how less maintenance boys are! I am however going through with drawls on the baby dresses, and bows and frills and so forth, but loving that we will have even numbers. I better gear up for another active child though because if this one is anything like his big brother I am in for it!

Nine years old already!

Abbi turned nine this February and I can't stop thinking about how fast our first nine years have gone. It is crazy for me to think that in nine more years she will be 18 and graduating from High School. Sometimes I just wish I could keep my children young forever!

Abbi has always been my little miracle and I often look at her as my little 2 lb. baby and think how lucky we are to have such a special spirit in our family. She has been through quite a bit in her short nine years and I know this has definitely made her stronger for it! She is strong willed, determined, energetic, a good sister, friend, example, and of course so much more. And how can I not mention her love of animals, dogs especially. I don't doubt that one day she will be the owner of plenty of dogs, and probably big ones!

We celebrated her birthday over a few days. The 25th her actual birthday we celebrated with just our family and she got the new bike that she had been wanting. The next day we had the family over for cake and ice cream and of course it was dog themed with a dog cake. Friday we took her to the restaurant of her choice, none other than McDonald's! To end the weeks celebration we went skiing on Saturday which was a beautiful day.

Happy Birthday Abbi, We Love You!!!

Celine Dion finally!!!

So we finally made it to the Celine Dion concert! We missed going to see her while we lived in Vegas, which I truly regret because that concert was amazing so I hear. And then it was cancelled from last November and rescheduled for this February. I have to say I think she is amazing! She was a great performer and her voice is to die for!!! Anyways it was a great concert and finally a night out for Nathan and I!

Sleep my children Sleep

So when it comes to bedtime around here there are nights that we do whatever it takes to get the kids to stay in bed. (Of course I am mostly speaking of my youngest one!) Well the other night for some unseen reason, Ellie decided she was an eagle and could not go to sleep unless she had a nest to sleep in. "What, you want an eagles nest?" "Yes an eagles nest!" "A nest?" "Yes a nest!" OK???..... So Ellie's wonderful daddy created a beautiful eagles nest out of blankets and pillows. Of course Kaden thought this was pretty cool so he decided his bean bag was going to be his nest. Unfortunately Abbi was not feeling well enough to participate in the activities so she ended up sleeping on the couch in our room. However even if she had been feeling better, I'm pretty sure she would have preferred her own bed over a nest.

This all happened on Sunday. It is now Wednesday and the two youngest are still nestled tightly in their nests! Whatever it takes is all I have to say!


Don't know why this is posting vertical...oh well you get the idea.





Last night and tonight's addition to the eagles nest...a dog house built over the nest!

My birthday boy!!!

How does time fly so fast? I feel like it was just yesterday when I was holding my sweet baby boy and now he's 6. Kaden has always been the busiest most adventurous little guy ever! He is also so tender, loving, and affectionate. Just the other day he told me that he hoped we had a girl baby because it would give him one more girl to protect and be a good brother to. OK how cute is that! (I had to laugh silently though because there's also a whole lot of brother teasing his sisters older and younger that goes on around here.)

Anyways, Kaden wanted a Star Wars birthday this year so most of his gifts and cake were centered around this theme. Nathan had been out of town but flew in on his birhtday and suprised the kids. The following day Kaden chose Chuckie Cheese for his birthday dinner (honestly what a place! and I mean that in the craziest way) and then later we had the family over for cake and icecream.

Happy Birhtday Kaden! We Love You!