Family Pictures!

In March, I finally decided it was time to get a new family picture. I can't tell you the number of appointments I have set and then canceled. It is just so much work to get everyone ready and keep their clothes clean. Mostly, I kept thinking I would finally loose the rest of my pregnancy weight but I gave up and we went for it. I will admit that they turned out alright, although the experience was less than pleasant. The photographer would not listen to what I said and the first pose she did was to lay each of the boys down on their backs and take a picture from above. My boys don't love professional pictures as it is but that was a bad start. They were both bawling and that continued for the rest of the photo shoot. I have learned a few things through my several photo sessions. First, I always need someone to help. I usually tell my mom that I can do it on my own, but this time I was prepared. She came with me! My favorite part of the whole experience was when I had to sit with the photographer and choose my prints. After the screaming and mayhem, and I was over the top frustrated, she had the nerve to offer me a portrait package costing $900! Are you kidding me? I wouldn't spend that even if the pictures were stellar, but screaming kids blown up to 20x24 and framed--- no. Anyway, we now have a picture with all of our children in it. At least for now, we are up to date.

P.S. You can expect us to get a new family picture in about 1 year. We will then need to update it to have a new addition in it. Yes, we are expecting our 3rd in November. (My doctor said that 3 would put us over the top, and I can only imagine how we are going to handle 3. Wish us luck!)

Easter Fun!

We don't do much for an egg hunt at our house, but what we do is enough. Chad, Tyler and I spent Thursday coloring eggs. I use Tyler's name lightly as the dye was so far away from him that he couldn't even reach it. The Easter Bunny visits our house on Saturday. Chad had a lot of fun collecting the eggs. Tyler mostly enjoyed putting the eggs back in hiding once Chad placed them in his basked. Tyler also loved the basket itself. He enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with it. I think he kept doing it because we kept laughing. It was so cute! On Sunday, we had several good visits with Chad about why we celebrate Easter. I don't think it sank in. Growing up, our egg hunts were awesome. I think we even hunted for eggs into my college years. My dad would always find himself a basket-usually one that was a decoration in our home. That meant that it was either so small it couldn't even hold one egg or so large it could hold the cat. It was probably more fun as I got older to watch my dad than to collect eggs as a kid. Fun memories.

Winter Wonderland!

This is really not what I expect for weather in March. On Saturday, we had nice weather and spent some time outside. This is what we woke up to on Sunday. I think it is caused by Global Warming! So, to ease the irritation, I put on some Christmas music. I really contimplated setting up the Christmas tree, but opted for Christmas lights outside instead. We have still not taken them off the eves of the house so Dave got the extension chord back out and plugged them in. I won't be surprised when my tulips bloom through the snow.

Valentine's Day

Dave and I took advantage of a casual weekend together to celebrate Valentine's Day. Since the last time we took pictures of just the two of us was probably our engagement pictures, we went out to a park and snapped a few. It was SO COLD! We went do dinner and a movie and just enjoyed time with no kids. Some much needed R and R.

Happy 1st Birthday Tyler!

The face says it all! Tyler turned 1 year old on January 14th. The time has flown!!! It really does not seem like a year since he joined our family. He was okay with the cake, but once the ice cream was served, he would not be left out. He made a royal mess, as one should on his birthday!

Here is Tyler with his cake and presents. We had a fun time being together just us and the clean up was so much easier. We'll celebrate with everyone later this month for our January birthdays party.

Messy! Messy! Messy!

Tyler's favorite place in the whole house is right here at our dog's water dish. If we couldn't close the door, he would be wet constantly. The problem is, this dish holds a lot of water! On this particular occasion, Tyler got a little too far before I caught him. He had the dish dumped, the clean dishcloths in the water and he and the floor was soaked! You can see how proud he is of his mess! At least he had fun in the process.

Happy New Year!!!

Our New Year's Eve tradition has become bowling. My entire family heads to the bowling alley and we throw a few balls. The kids love it most and Dave. I get bored after a while. Last year I was so pregnant that I couldn't get the ball to go straight. This year, I was busy keeping Tyler from crawling down the alley.

Tyler's favorite place was at the ball return. Thank goodness, there were no smashed fingers. We just had a good time.

The rest of the evening is just family, food and not much else. We all visited and some played games. I am proud to say that my family was the only one to stay until after the ball dropped. I guess that means we are still young!