Spring Break 2012

This year the girls and I started Spring Break with a trip to Kansas.  We headed out as soon as Hadley got out of school on Friday.  My Aunt Krista and family had been in Kansas that whole week and we wanted to get to town to see them before they headed back to Minnesota.  The girls put Lady to work reading as soon as we walked in the door.

Eryn and Ethan were at Mom's when we got there.  The girls were very excited to see Ethan and we headed out to ride bikes.

There is something about this picture that I just love!

Ethan was the only one that could get the kettle car to go.  Reminded me of another little boy named Alex (I have a picture of Alex that this reminded me of but I can't seem to find it).

On Saturday my Aunt Krista and family and Granny and Grandpa came to spend the day with us.  We had a great time.  The highlight of Hadley's day was playing football with Uncle Tim, Cole and Cade.  She had to call daddy that night just to tell him that she had played football.  Both girls loved playing outside and at the park with Claire.  They even talked Aunt Krista into reading them a book.

Jillian and Claire reading.

On Sunday we visited Lady's school library and played on the playground.  I am so glad we spent 3 days outside because on Monday the rain started and didn't end until Friday.

After the playground it was time for a little rest.  We decided a show on the kindle would be fun.

On Monday we were able to go out to Audra's to celebrate Caroline's 2nd birthday.  It was great to be with my friends and get all of our kiddos together.  We have 7 now and baby boy in July will make 8.
Jillian was all smiles with her friends.

Callum didn't know what to think of all the loud girls :)

Norah Kate

Barret decided he didn't want me to take his picture and would close his eyes.

I missed getting a picture of Lydia.  Here is Caroline the birthday girl.

We decided it had been a long time since we took a group picture.  Here are some shots from our attempt at getting 7 kids to sit still.
Hadley 4, Lydia 4, Jillian 2, Caroline 2, Callum 17 months, Barrett 4 and Norah Kate 4.

We added baby boy in as well.

Next up was present opening.  Caroline had lots of helpers.

On Tuesday we spent the morning at Mom's and then headed back home.  We were all ready to see Mike!  Mike got home a little early one day over Spring Break and we continued to work on packing boxes.  This is what we looked up and saw.

I think this was the girls' idea of packing their comfy stuff.  It kept them busy and we got some packing done.  It was a great Spring Break and I spent the last weekend of it on a girls' trip.  I will post more on that later.

Picnic

On Tuesday when I picked up the girls from school I surprised them with a picnic at the park.  Hadley said, "Best day ever mom."  That made my day.  We played at the park for a couple of hours.  The weather was beautiful.  Then we went to the library and back home to play outside more.  Needless to say we all slept very well Tuesday night.

Here are some pictures from the park.

24 weeks

 I am 24 weeks pregnant with Little Man.  We still are not 100% set on a name but I think we are getting closer.  I have been feeling pretty good.  His most active time is about 2am so that has made me a little tired these days.  The girls are really enjoying talking to "baby brother."  Today they were talking about what gifts to buy him when he is born.  Jillian is convinced she needs to buy a Barbie Jeep to drive him around in.  Hadley said she has a teddy bear she would like to give him.  I can already tell they are both going to be great helpers when he is born.  He will probably have 3 mommas.  I had a doctor's appointment last Thursday and everything looks great.  Back in another month for my lovely glucose test.

I can't have a post without some pictures of the girls.  They have really been troopers lately.  We have been spending a lot of time packing the house and they are just rolling with the changes.  They both are very excited about living in an apartment until the house is done.  I hope this doesn't change.  Hadley had strep this last week and it knocked her down hard.  She was on the couch for 3 days and is just now feeling almost normal.  Nobody else in the house has come down with it yet and we are hoping it stays that way.
Here are a few pictures of the girls before we headed to church today.

President's Day

I am still playing catch up from February.  Over President's day weekend we had visitors.  Mike's mom brought his sister and nephew down.  They were visiting from Baltimore.  The girls were so excited to see their cousin Thanasi.  They got right to work playing as soon as he got here.   We went to the park, out for frozen yogurt and to the zoo.  It was a busy 24 hours that they were here.  We all had a great time.  We had so much fun that I only snapped a few pictures.

Tammy, Mike and the kiddos

 Posing at the zoo

 We were so glad they came to visit.

Vacation Days 4 and 5

I am still trying to blog about our vacation from a month ago.  We have been a little busy around here.  We spent the last two weeks getting our house ready to go on the market.  We are also making lots of decisions about the house we are building.  Back to the vacation...

We spent Day 4 of our vacation enjoying Disneyland for one last day.  We spent all day there and all the girls did great.  First we had to stop and buy some Minnie Mouse ears.  All the girls got them at some point during the trip but we didn't get a picture of them all together.  Jillian was ready to pose in her ears.

Next up it was time for Toon Town.  We visited Mickey's House.

Pluto looks a little different than I remember.

This is a look into my future.

There was a little roller coaster in Toon Town that all of the little girls loved.  Unfortunately pregnant women couldn't ride it and my dad doesn't do any roller coasters.  Here we are waiting for the crew on the roller coaster.

Next stop was Minnie's house.

After Toon Town our group split up for awhile.  Jess and her crew stayed to watch the Mickey parade.  My crew headed over to California Adventure for the Phineas and Ferb show.  Phineas and Ferb our a favorite at our house.  Jillian was very tired at this point and fell asleep on the way over to the show.  I tried to wake her up for the show but she wouldn't wake.  She woke up about 10 minutes after the show and said, "Where are Phineas and Ferb."  She was very sad that she missed it so we had to go get ice cream to make it all better.
Waiting for the show to start.

Here comes the Phineas and Ferb dance party.

Ice cream makes everything better.

After this we rode some more rides and called it a night.  Everyone was very tired.

Our last day of vacation was spent shopping and relaxing.  We headed to Downtown Disney for some shopping and lunch at Rainforest Cafe.  The girls were getting all their loving in before we had to say goodbye the next day.

Can you tell how much the men love shopping?

Jessica and I had to get a belly picture in.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to watch the Super Bowl.  The girls did some coloring.

 

 The next morning we all said goodbye and headed home.  It was a great vacation and we made many great memories.  Thanks Dad and Terry for a great time.