Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Cole had to go around and find green clothes for everyone as soon as we got up. (I was a little concerned about what Emily and Addy had to wear, but thankfully we found clothes without a problem!) Here is our green team:
I'm not sure I'm going to like Cole going to school. He comes home so excited about every holiday, even the little ones like St. Patrick's Day. So then I have to figure out how to make it live up to his expectations! This morning we couldn't leave the house until we had set traps for the leprechaun, and there was no talking him out of his trap idea (which was to string tape up all through the house so the leprechauns would get stuck!). I did finally manage to convince him that tape in front of the doors was sufficient (although he did ask about the leprechaun coming through the window.)
Of course, when he got home from preschool, the leprechaun had managed to sneak in. Cole told me that we caught him on our tape trap, but that he managed to escape. He left a lot of damage in his wake, along with some gold coins.

Cole in his leprechaun hat that he made at school, along with some gold coins that the leprechaun left at our house.While he was at our house, the leprechaun unmade the beds,
Spilled the toys, (I'm wondering if this one comes back to haunt me when they start telling me the leprechaun made the mess, and it's not St. Patrick's Day!)
Spilled green frosting in the kitchen,
and turned their lunch green! (Which they would then not eat!)
Thankfully, he made up for it by leaving some of his treasure scattered throughout our house.
Hope you had a great, green St. Patrick's Day too!

Part 2

While we were at my parent's house, we not only saw lots of people, but we also did lots of fun things.
My dad always likes to amaze and entertain his grandchildren by doing strange/fun things.
One morning they were eating breakfast and he brought them smoking juice (a little dry ice in the cup will do that).
They were not entirely sure what to think about it. Although they did eventually drink it.
Playing in boxes is fun?
I don't know. There were so many people there that you could always find someone willing to do anything!
We watched cousin Logan do some paper-mache, or at least Aunt Shari and Aunt Katie do some.
We celebrated New Year's.
We played games.
We played the Wii. How many of you have grandmas who have their very own Wii?
And we played the Wii some more.
And we played the Wii even more!
Ok, I have more pictures of them playing, but let's be honest, who really wants to see a bunch of grown men who can't stop playing long enough to shower, shave, and get out of their pj's (or the clothes they wore the day before in some cases!). Thankfully they were nice enough to let Cole play for at least a little bit.

After a while, enough people left so we had room in cars to actually leave the house. So we went to a place that had inflatable slides and a pretend town.
We had lots of fun on the slides.

And there was lots of pretending to do.
Cole learning construction.
Cole driving a train.
Emily shopping.
And Chad, not wanting to be left out, showed off his juggling skills.
Eventually, everyone else had to go home and we had a little time just to spend with Grandma and Grandpa by ourselves.
My kids found out they are excellent at reading books and doing puzzles!
We miss you Grandma and Grandpa!

More Broken Camera Memories

I know it's March, but since it just snowed again yesterday and it is currently snowing, I thought I would do some more winter/Christmas pictures that I didn't get around to.

A few days after Christmas, we headed to my parent's house to see the family and to show off baby Addy. Because my family is spread from east to west and lots of places in between, we usually don't see each other very often. So we try and cram in as much together time as possible!!
Very few people in my family had seen Addy, so it was a great chance for her to be introduced to everyone.
She already knew Grandma, but loved seeing her again.
She made fast friends with Grandpa and didn't want to leave him. She quickly learned he had a great shoulder for napping on and he would even nap with her!
Addy also got to meet lots of other family.
Aunt Shari and her kids
Aunt Heather and Uncle Brian
Great-Aunt Linda
Cousin Brady checked her out also.
And Great-GrandmaCole and Emily also had a great time seeing their cousins again and hanging out with them.
Eating at Grandma's special kid table.
Emily and Tabitha cheesing it up.Emily and Weston cheesing it up. (Are we starting to see a common theme?)Emily especially had fun with her cousin Ally. Ally knew how to do lots of fun stuff and was more than happy to help Emily.
They put on makeup.
Then they paraded around like beauty queens!
They also played Barbies.
Ally also got to have a sleep over with Cole. They both thought that was pretty cool.
Then we went out to my grandma's house where my kids quickly learned they could get anything if they just looked cute enough!
Emily got rides on grandma's walker from Aunt Linda.
Emily got to cuddle up and then talk Aunt Karen finding her more milk.
Emily got popcorn from Grandma.Hmm, wait a second. Apparently it was Emily who figured out how to get whatever she wanted! I think Cole was too busy playing.
This has nothing to do with my kids, but it was funny enough to put somewhere. This is cousin Brady when he was caught red-handed snacking on the gingerbread house at my grandma's house. He just wanted some candy and no one would give him any. So he found his own!
It was great to see my family. It is always sad when it is time to go home because we don't see each other often enough and most of the time we actually like spending time together! Hopefully there will be another time soon when we can all get together again.

Broken Camera Pictures

My camera is going through a rough patch and only works about half of the time, so I am going to try to get caught up on a few missed events while waiting for it to start working again!
For example,
A month or so ago, Aunt Katie came up to visit and to watch Kira while her family went on vacation without her. (I put that in so 10 years from now she will know to be offended that they ditched her for Cancun!) Chad was also gone for the weekend, so Katie and I had 5 kids under 5! Being the brave people that we are (or tired of being trapped in a house), we decided it was time to venture out of the house to McDonald's, because who doesn't like McDonald's?!
The kids had a great time. (except Kira, who is once again deprived and doesn't know how to play at McDonald's!)
Or maybe they didn't? Maybe we have found kids who don't like McDonald's!
At this point, with 3 kids crying, we knew it was time to go! Funny though, Aunt Katie suggested ice cream on the way out and suddenly there were no more tears. (Except of course for Addy who I think cried the whole time we were there. Maybe she won't get to go to McDonald's when she gets older either!)

Happy Six Months Addy!

It's hard to believe my little baby is already 6 months. She is such a joy in our lives. She loves to laugh and play. She likes to "talk". She loves it when her brother and sister interact with her. She is truly a blessing!

More Kid-isms

Ok, kids do so many funny things that I could probably make this a weekly post. Maybe I will!

Two weeks ago, Cole stayed after preschool to play with a friend. When he came home, he was telling me all about his friend's penguin on an internet game that Cole also plays on occasion. The next day, he came rushing in from preschool and told me I had to get off the computer because he and his friend were going to do something on the penguin game. So, being the nice Mom that I am (or because I was really curious), I got off the computer. He then had me call his friend so they could get on the same server and could see each other's penguin. Then, they spent the next 30 minutes talking on the phone as they were playing this game together! (They can't type and chat like most people do yet, so they did it over the phone instead.) I am amazed and a little appalled that my not even 5-year-old is sort of playing games on the internet with his friends.

We were watching TV one evening and Emily saw a commercial for these mini My Little Ponies. As she usually does when she sees something she wants (I think she learned this from Cole), she asked if she could get those one day. I gave my usual response of "We'll see." Chad chimed in and told her that he would get them for her when she was potty trained. She looked at me and said, "what's potty train?" (Obviously we have a long way to go still, even though we've been working on it for several months now!) Later that week she was talking to Grandma about what she wanted for her birthday. (I'm not sure how she managed to steer the conversation that way, when her birthday is not for several months.) Emily told her that she wanted these small ponies, which of course, Grandma agreed to. Later still that week, we saw the commercial again, and we went through the same conversation about her wanting them. Chad again told her that she could have them when she didn't wear diapers to which she sassily looked at him and said, "My grandma get them for me for my birthday."

Addy obviously thinks she is ready for big people food. One day we were eating dinner and she was sitting on my lap. I had a Jello Jiggler in my hand and was starting to move it towards my mouth when she grabbed my hand and tried to pull it towards her mouth.
She was also sitting in her Bumbo chair by me, while I was fixing dinner one night. Behind her chair was a bag of Fritos. She kept trying to turn around and grab the bag. She finally succeeded and had a great look of triumph on her face. She was not so happy with me when I promptly took the bag away!