Day 118 - Dandelion Bouquets

Today, my sweet baby boy picked me a beautiful bouquet of dead dandelions.  He called them flowers and I couldn't bare to tell them they were weeds!  He was so proud and kissed me 23435 times afterwards.  How could I resist?

Day 117 - Mama Comes

My mom has arrived from Denver.  Yay!  We haven't seen her since Christmas time, so it's been a long time.  She's coming to be here for the birth of my new nephew - who is set to arrive at any time.  We're so happy she's here!

Day 116 - Flowers, Shrubs, Trees, oh my!

The front of our house has really been needing some kind of finishing touch.  I've been working hard to get grass to grow in the back yard, but we haven't done a whole lot with the front.  I went with Rebecca and Dana today to the greenhouse and we walked and walked up and down the isles trying to find the perfect somethings... 

I'm not sure how we left that store with out purchasing ONE THING, but that's what happened!  I was inspired though to go back and find what I really want.  There were so many pretty plants and flowers.  How on earth could you choose just a few?

Day 115 - Big Wheel

For Christmas this year, my inlaws got Carsten this adorable Big Wheel.  It's been in our basement since then - waiting for someone to put it together.  Tyrus was home sick today with Step Throat (but feeling super chipper) so I asked him if he'd put it together for me.  I thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal, you know, snapping in a few plastic parts here, etc.  Uh, no.  Next thing I know, Tyrus has said he needs my assistance, and sure enough, it was me who put the whole crazy thing together! 

It's not my favorite to put things together like this... especially when little boys keep stealing the silly screwdrivers!  Ha!

Once it was finally put together, Carsten decided to take it for a spin... and then I knew it was all worth it.  :)

Day 114 - Tea Party

My grandmother recently gave Alexis a lovely little set of dishes for tea parties.  Her grandparents came over tonight for dinner so she thought it would be fun to have a tea party with them.  It was so cute... she set the table perfectly and even wrote everyone's names on the napkins.  So adorable.

Day 113 - Soon and very soon...

.... we will get to meet the little guy that's been hanging out inside of my sister's tummy!  She's 39 weeks today!  Come on baby!

Day 112 - Coloring

There is nothing Alexis loves more in the world than a good ol' box of crayons and a coloring book...  This kid LOVES to color.  It's what she wants to do in her free and fun times.  :)

Here we are at Applebee's tonight waiting on our food and all she wanted to do was color.  :)

Day 111 - Styrofoam!

We went to my in-laws house tonight.  Josh was grilling some steaks he'd marinated and my FIL was tearing down some cardboard boxes and tossing them out.  I'm not really sure what happened next since I was inside, but a bit later, Dennis comes in saying I might want to bring out my camera... 

I guess the kids had gotten ahold of some styrofoam and were having a grand old time!  Carsten was IN the trash can on top of all of the boxes! 

Day 110 - Beautiful

Is there anything more beautiful than this? 

Day 109 - Scooter Time

Tonight after church, we celebrated my dear friend Mia's birthday.  We all went into the gym to have cake and ice cream and punch.  It was fun.  One of the guys in our church rides a scooter and the kids all love to take turns riding on it.  Usually he's super happy to give rides, including tonight!

Here is Carsten and my nephew Dom taking a spin!

Day 108 - Virtual Velocity

As I'm sure you know, we own a small video gaming store here in our city with another family.  Josh was working tonight, so I took the kids over and got them all set up, and I snuck out for a bit to do some shopping.  Fun.

Day 107 - Look, mommy! Look!

This is the phrase I heard Carsten saying to me over and over again tonight as I was trying to get the kitchen cleaned up a bit!  I walked around the corner and saw this:

He's a monkey, what can I say.

Day 106 - King David's Crowns

My sister Destiny and I teach Sunday School every week at our church - Cornerstone UPC.  We teach the preschool class.  The last few lessons we've been talking about David and all of the stuff that he went through in his life.  Today, the lesson was about how he had to wait quite a while after he was annointed King by the prophet until he actually became king.  To illustrate the point, we made King David's Crown for all of the kids...  They loved it!

Day 105 - Disgusting Diapers!

We got to celebrate the impending birth of my new nephew today!  We played that silly game where you smoosh different types of chocolate bars into diapers, warm them up, and then have people guess what it is.  It was a lot of fun... but there is something slightly disgusting about sticking your nose into brown "mess" in a diaper - even if it is just chocolate!

Day 104 - Getting Ready...

Tomorrow my sister Dana has her second baby shower - this time from friends and family.  It's going to be held at my clubhouse here in the neighborhood.  Tonight, I made some signs to help people find their way...  think they are readable from the cars?  Hopefully.

p.s. - I'm loving the Cricuit machine!

Day 103 - Scrapbooking

My friend came over today for a bit to scrapbook, and you know what?!  She left her fancy-schmancy Cricut machine at my house!  Woot woot!  After dinner, I whipped that bad boy out and cranked out a few pages.  The kids joined me in the effort.  So fun! 

Here's some of what I made:

Day 102 - Spring School Pictures

One difference between this school and the previous one is that they do pictures twice per year, instead of only once, like the other school.  I decided that I'd let the kids choose their outfits for the day since I didn't really expect to have a second set of school pictures for this year.

Tyrus chose his favorite t-shirt and jeans.  :)  And Alexis, true to form, chose her fancy black and white dress.  Gotta love my kids!

Day 101 - Stripes

Here are the kids playing out in the background this evening as I was cooking dinner.  I didn't notice it until later, but all of them have on stripes!  What a beautiful evening it was, too!

Day 100 - Whee!

It was a beautiful day, so I thought I'd take Carsten around the block for a walk.  It was nice to get some fresh air and enjoy the weather!  Afterwards, we stopped at the local park and I let him swing a bit!  Fun.

Day 99 - All work and no play

My dear husband has about 58940 irons in the fire, poor guy!  He works full time at his regular job, helps run our gaming center as his second job, has many church and social responsibilities, plus he goes to school full time - and that's not to mention our family at all!  Whew! 

This is how we see him a lot of the time... busily cracking away on his Netbook, trying to get homework done!

Here he was tonight, before church, trying to get some more stuff done in the 7 spare minutes he had!

Day 98 - Making Memories...

Remember how my grandma had open heart surgery a while ago?  Well, she's doing fantastic now and my dad and uncles need to take care of some stuff for her, so they came in from Denver for the weekend!  What a treat to see them!  My uncle brought along my cousins Erica & Bryce as well!

Since everyone was in town, my dad decided he wanted to cook dinner for all of us... so we made pork and beef roasts, wild rice, fresh green beans, asparagus, rolls, yogurt pies - AND my grandma brought brownies, too!  Delicious!

Here is my dad and Tyrus prepping the green beans...  and while we were waiting for the meat to cook, Alexis asked Grandpa Mark if he'd like to color with her... so they did.

Here is my dad and grandma... she was talking about her scar and how it feels almost normal now!

The coloring in this picture isn't great - BUT, I love that me and my sisters got to spend some time with our cousins who live so far way!  Very cool!

Day 97 - Tacky, Wacky & WEIRD!

We had our Annual Tacky, Wacky and Weird party tonight at church... in honor of April Fools Day.  It's was a blast - nothing matched, everyone dressed really funky, we had a catwalk runway, and just laughed a ton.  Everyone was supposed to bring their own chair, which was very funny when we were playing Musical Chairs! 

Normally stuff we do is done really well and matches perfectly, but occasionally, it's fun to let loose a bit and do something out of the ordinary!

Here is me and Alexis before we left... Josh said he was thankful we have a garage so our neighbors wouldn't see us coming out of the house!  On the way to church, Alexis kept ducking in the backseat every time we'd pass a car... hee hee.

Here is me and my friend Mia... she had blue hair!

And Chris... lol

The whole group!  So klassy!

The food was super cool, too...  Stuff in (new) garbage cans, a Kitty Litter Cake - complete with Tootsie Rolls, cabbage in the tea, stuff in dog dishes, etc...  Ha ha!  So fun.  What a blast!  Can't wait until next year's party!