St. Patrick's Day 2014

 

 

 

 

We had a fun St. Paddy's Day this year.  We finally tried making the rainbow rice. 

Layla loved making it and Grady loves playing in it. 

I am nervous about the kitties getting confused and going potty in it :) 

 

 

 Layla's big interest this year was making leprechaun traps.  The kids made a bunch of traps.  One was made out of a Kleenex box and the rest were made out of legos and plastic bins. 

 

Still no leprechauns caught though! 

The kids thought the mess was fun and liked the candy and green necklaces he left behind.

Cheers!  We hope you had a fun day celebrating too! 

Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun

  Our ten day forecast looks to be all temperatures in the 30's and 40's which sounds amazing to us. 

This winter has been cold and long and snowy.  The daylight is lasting longer now and the sun is sneaking out a bit more too.  The upside to a long cold winter is that any teeny tiny sign of spring is especially sweet.

 

Here is how we have been keeping busy for the last few weeks. 

Hopefully these are our last freezing weeks of the season! 

 

 

I  really wanted an open floor plan when searching for a house this time around. 

I am not sure if I ever envisioned gutters (currently car racers) being apart of the open floor plan but it turns out they make for a fun winter time activity.

The kids are playing "a storm is coming" in this picture.   Yikes! 

This looks a lot like their version of "vacation" and "moving day" play too.

 

What our living room looks like on a typical day.  Lots of cars and tractors.

Layla celebrated her 100th day of kindergarten!!

Grady has become an avid McQueen fan.  He only likes to call him "Ka-chow" though.

Library time

Layla had a fun Fancy Nancy birthday party to attend! 

She wore her best Fancy Nancy outfit.

We took Grady bowling for the first time.  He is hooked. 

I love bowling with the kids, I do a lot better when bumpers are involved!

Lots of morning shows get watched in our bed before school. 

Layla does the watching and Howie is a bit of a late riser and likes to snooze. 

Layla and I wake up Grady right before we head down for breakfast.

Bedtime stories.  Layla has her favorite blankie (can you tell it is well loved!?) and Grady has his three favorite sleeping buddies.  He loves his paci, lovie and blankie. 

Sometimes I surprise the kids with breakfast in bed on school mornings. 

You can tell Howie wakes up a bit when bacon is involved.  

 

School fun fair! 

Spring??  Trying to grow some seeds again this year for our garden. 

Here are the cute plant markers Layla made

 

And we are hoping a few birds make their home sweet home with us this year. 

The kids built some birdhouses to bring them our way!

 

11 more days.  The countdown is on for Spring!  But honestly, I will take anything above freezing temperatures :)

Shea is SIX!

Oh.my.goodness.  Shea is six. 

He celebrated with a Lego friend party and a fun family party! 

 

The Lego party was Shea's first big kid party.  Somehow Grady ended up at the party too even though he was a bit under the 5 & 6 year old age range!  It worked out because Grady had a blast!  He was working the table with chatter during cupcake time :) 

 

Shea at age six is a:

 

Loyal friend to his brothers and cousins. 

It always warms my heart to watch him make sure Liam & Layla are included when

a bunch of his buddies are swarming around.  Shea & Grady also get along very well.  Grady loves his "Hea."

 

Creative boy (loves to be described as creative!).  He really enjoys his art projects!

 

Energizer Bunny.  Shea does not require a lot of sleep.  He never has and even kindergarten has not slowed him down!

 

Pictures from Shea's kid party are below!

 

  

 

 

Big Legos!

Brothers!

Grady & Liam loved the Duplos.

  

 

The kids loved racing their wheeled Lego creations!

 

During the "Happy Birthday" song :)

Present opening!

Happy birthday to our sweet, getting big too fast, Shea!!

Happy Valentine's Day 2014

 

We love Valentine's Day around here.  The red, the pink, the hearts!!  

 

Here are Layla and Grady with their current favorite toys.  

Grady helped make a heart out of Thomas the Trains and Layla had Li'l Woodzeez surrounding her.

 

Grady and Layla completed A LOT of orders this Valentine's Day in their Valentine's Day store.  Cassie bought this little store for Layla when she was two or three.  We get a ton of use out of it and switch things out with each season and holiday.  Layla is ready for the flower shop to make an appearance!

 

Our family was in all different directions for breakfast this morning.  Ryan was at work serving all the hard working bus drivers breakfast.  It has had to be a stressful winter for bus driving!!  My parents had Grady so I could help with Layla's party at school!  My mom said that Grady took a liking to the box of chocolates that my dad gave to her for the big day :)  Thank you mom and dad for watching Grady!!

And I had Layla with me this morning!   We enjoyed her class party.   

 First Valentine's Day homemade box.  Layla was very proud of her creation.  It turned out so cute. 

When I left her classroom, it was stuffed full of valentines. 

And just a few photos of the kids!

 

 

Three years ago today we saw a sneak peek of Grady via ultrasound to make sure the 

3rd trimester was going well.  Time flies. 

 

 This picture is the perfect picture of these two.  Silly and kind of wild.  Very silly.  

 

We hope you have a fun day!!  XOXO