Audrey's Visit

 My sister Audrey hadn't come and visited for a while so it was SO FUN to have her here for almost 2 weeks.  I got to meet her yummy sweet baby Remy and get to know him.  Unfortunately, I was gross sick with my pregnancy for most of the time she was here so there was a lot of lying on the couch and doing nothing.  I also felt bad because there were times when I felt like helping her with the baby but I was just too stupid sick. 

We had a lot of fun despite feeling gross and having a baby's schedule to work around.  We laughed so hard so many times, which felt so good!  She is so funny and makes me laugh.  I love the comfortable feeling I have being around my sisters.  It's a natural friendship that I'm so grateful I have.

I love your face off, Audge!!!

Brody's 7!!!

How do I have a 7 year old?  I remember when Brody was a baby and I couldn't imagine what he would be like as a toddler.  I wondered what his little voice would sound like and what querks he would have and what his personality would be like.  He didn't disappoint.  His voice is so soft and sweet and listening to him talk makes me happy.  His personality is all a mom hopes for.  He's kind and grateful (he thanks me for dinner almost every night) and he still loves to hug and kiss us. 

So for his birthday, we told him he could invite a friend somewhere fun to spend the afternoon.  I've decided to only do big birthday parties every other year.  He chose to take his buddy Kade to Adventure Crossing.  They played laser tag with Adam and then rode the go carts.  Turns out Adventure Crossing without coupons is as expensive as throwing a party.  When all was said and done, we had dropped $80!! Ridic is what that was.  Oh well- lesson learned. 

 Look at that dimply smile.  Seriously.  He was so happy.  He really looks up to Kade, who is about 18 months older than he is, and Kade is the perfect boy to look up to.  I'm so glad they're friends.

 I love love love this picture.  Brody loves his dad so stinkin' much.  He loves to do everything Adam does and wants to wrestle with him any chance he gets. 

 Brody asked for chocolate cake and chocolate icing- both gross in my book.  So there was a lot left over.  Haha.

 This kid couldn't pack it in fast enough.  None of my kids have sugar thresholds.  They could eat it all day long and not ever stop.

 Brody has been wanting Beyblades for a long time so Adam and I finally had to go to the store and figure out what the heck he was talking about.  Turns out they're a lot of fun to play.  We had a Beyblade championship game and I totally kicked trash.  I got pretty competitive considering it's a little boy battle game.

 She's a charmer, huh?

 Oh- so while Brody and Kade were doing laser tag, Audrey and I took the littles out to ride the dinky (expensive) rides.  He loved the carousal.  And so did Penny.

I wasn't feeling so hot so Audrey was kind enough to take Bridger on the mini roller coaster.  Bridger was scared out of his mind.  It's a slow and short ride, but he said he never wanted to ride it again.  The picture is crappy quality but you can see his little terrified look.  Audrey comforted him the whole time.  What  good aunt!

Bridger's Pre-K Graduation

 I think graduations are kind of silly- until you graduate high school.  It reminds me of an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" where he was making fun of his daughter's 5th grade graduation.  I can't remember the exact lines but it was hilarious.  It's true- all you have to do to graduate from Pre-K is show up and not bring a knife to school. 

 Nonetheless, it was cute to see Bridger singing his songs and loving the attention he got with me being there.  They had a little ice cream party at the end and he smiled the whole time.

 This is him getting his "graduation certificate".  Even he thought it was lame.  It go thrown on the floor of the van right when we got in.

This is his teacher's aide Mrs. Johnstun.  She is so sweet.  His real teacher had a baby right before school got out so she didn't get to be there. 

Bridger learned and grew a lot this year.  He is starting to read and is learning to follow rules and respect others so much better!  He's such a good boy who is kind to others and always willing to help.  And look at that smile- it melts me.

Marine Mud Run 2012...Kid Style

 I've done the Marine Mud Challenge twice now and although I have had a lot of fun in the past (mostly), I have been really sick from my pregnancy and know I would want to die if I did it.  My kids really wanted to do it this year and I was so excited for them!  But also nervous because I wasn't sure how they'd do.  Sometimes they freak out and don't want to try new things.  Turns out I was spot on in Bridger's case.

 Brody loved every second of it.  He was smiling in every picture.  Bridger, on the other hand, was happy until the first muddy hill came and then he started crying and got scared.  We convinced him to keep going and our neighbor, who was there with his son, took Bridger under his wing and stayed with him to keep him feeling safe.  So nice.

 It was a 1 mile run with a few obstacles in between.  Crawling through muddy water, climbing over muddy hills, crawling through cement tunnels and running through tires.  I love seeing Brody's happy brave face.  And I think next year Bridger will be more ready to handle it.

 Due to Bridger's hesitance, he stayed pretty clean.  Brody was covered in stinky orange mud and was thrilled about it!

They got medals just for participating and Brody wore his to school the whole next week.  I love them so much!

Easter

I'm not even going to attempt to catch up on everything I've missed the last few months.  Our computer crashed and we lost a bunch of pictures and also I'm lazy so sorry about that.

Here are my sweet Easter babies.....

I love them so much.  We did all the fun Easter activities yesterday so we could focus on Christ today.  It was a good day at church.  On the way there we listened to the Lamb of God choral performance. There is a song about when He died that says "Hope did not die here, but here was given" that I thought of a lot during church.  I'm so so grateful that I can have hope.  Hope that my children can become good people, hope that good exists in the world, hope that no matter how hard life gets, Jesus Christ has given me hope and the opportunity to live with Him again. I love Him so much.

Happy Easter!  

Easter Egg Hunt

Every year, we try to have an egg hunt in our backyard.  This year was really fun.  We had a few friends over and reserved a section just for the littles.  I'm always surprised how little time it takes for the kids to find the hundreds of eggs. 

 Oh the anticipation!

 Bridger's quote of the night: "I only find like one every hour!"  He was getting discouraged because he saw all the bigger kids getting more than him.  Life is rough.

 Penny found her first egg and didn't want to continue searching until the candy was in her mouth.  Gross.

 I love that Brody is getting to the age where things are just fun. He isn't as whiny and upset about dumb things as much anymore.

 I love Garrett's "special" smile.  They're going to get married some day.

We had cupcakes afterward.  I know-I'm kind of special too.

Riverbanks Zoo

We hadn't been to the zoo in years so when my parents came to town, we figured it was time to go again.  They've made a lot of improvements since we've been.  It was perfect weather and not too crowded.  We had so much fun!  It was Penny's first time to the zoo and she loved seeing all the animals...for a second.  Then she was ready to move on.

 Bridger had a rough time at the beginning.  I'm not sure why, but for some reason whenever we do something fun, he gets upset easily and usually ends up crying.  Adam and my dad each had a talk with him and he mellowed out and had fun.  Here is is feeding the birds nectar.  Brody did it too, and the bird grabbed the cup right out of his hand and threw it on the ground.  He thought it was hilarious!

 Cute boys.

 I love his smile.

 Penny usually takes a while to get used to visitors, but she took a quick liking to my dad.  She wanted to be with him all the time.  I love seeing my parents with my kids- it doesn't happen often enough.

 This elephant had his legs crossed like this for over 10 minutes!  It was so funny.  What elephant does that?  This one and also his friend next door.  Both elephants were crossing their legs!

 Penny has the goofiest camera smile.  It looks like it hurts.

 In the penguin house.

 He's so old.

 They have a farm area where you can milk (water) a fake cow and smell chickens.  Not the highlight of the day.

 Two of my favorite girls in the world. Seriously, though.  

$2 for a handful of lettuce was worth it to see a giant giraffe tongue envelope Brody's hand and to hear his little squeal of delight.  Next time we should bring our own lettuce though.

We had so much fun with my parents.  We never take enough pictures but we did a lot of fun things together.  I love them.