April FLEW by!

Wow... it's been a whirlwind weekend. and month. and life...really! For Easter we had some friends over and celebrated mid-afternoon with a ham feast and easter egg hunt for the kids. It was a really fun day.

From there we really don't know what's kept us so busy but somehow it has been! Somewhere in there we headed to Rapid City and ended up with a Toyota Sienna van. It's the Extra Luxury Edition. Yep.. I think it's awesome...even if it is a minivan. We've had some beautiful days this month and spent time playing outside in the water. Kaden learned to ride his bike with training wheels and was OH so proud to ride it to the park for the first time. I doubt we will go to a park without it now! Kate graduated from stroller to wagon for our park trips. She just climbs around in the stroller so I realized a wagon is much more suited for her! The kids also got to go to their first circus! The elephants were the favorite (possibly because they peed and pooped for them), and they also loved the tigers and cotten candy.

Kaden also got to meet Curious George. You should have seen his excitement! He found every monkey think he had to wear... then he frowned when George came in. He told me George is NOT that big, and he knew it was the real George. Oh well, he still loved it!

Friday (27th) was a day full of happy and sad. In the morning we had our 20 week ultrasound! We found out our baby is totally healthy and the amniotic fluids levels (the worry of this pregnancy)are GREAT. We don't have to have another ultrasound for that until 32 weeks! (What, 12 weeks without an ultrasound? the most we've gone so far is 4!) We also decided not to find out if this baby is a boy or a girl. I am so excited for the surprise. I think Luke is just willing... he'd sure love to know. I kind of think its a boy because the baby is already measuring a week older and is in the 90th percentile. (Following his/her brother, Kaden!!!) Friday was also a sad day when Allison moved out. We were all sad to see her go, especially the kids. Katelyn even through herself on the floor and wailed and cried. We miss her, and were glad to get to share our home with her. It is weird to go back to "normal". Thankfully, we had a busy weekend to distract kids from the sadness. On Saturday Kate turned 2. We spent the day cleaning and cleaning...and cleaning. And making potato salad, and marshmallow fondant, and cakes. That evening my parents came and the kids were so thrilled to see them. It had been since Christmas! On Sunday, the kids and Luke and Boppa went to church while my mom and I made the cakes and wrapped presents. The cakes were the easiest I've ever done, and I kind of think I'm hooked on fondant!!! I made the marshmallow fondant, so it even tasted good. My dad said he likes it better than frosting. I loved how it turned out..and Katelyn seemed to enjoy it too!

We had cake and ice cream first at 3:30pm-right after naps! Then we opened presents and played. Around 5:30pm we had polish dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and chips. It was a fun celebration. We got her a water table, but I don't even have a picture!

Meet: My Family. The People You Never Knew You Needed to Know

I'm sitting here thoroughly enjoying the kids' naptime. I don't really have a lot to say, but it just seemed appropriate to blog while the kids were down! So, I think I'll post some pictures to inspire me!

Picture #1
These are my amazing Grandparents. They "adopted" our family the same time I was born and have loved on us ever since. In some ways they are the "realest" grandparents I've known! I just love them. They celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in June and that was what I was making the scrapbook for. We had a surprise party for them on December 26th and it was a complete hit. AND every family member (all 28 of us) was able to be there for the special party. At the end we gave them money to buy some recliners and we could tell it had meant a lot to them. Its memories I'll never 0forget.

Picture #2
This is My immediate family with Grandma and Gramps...my how we've grown. Wish I had an old pic for comparison. But I am just to lazy to ever scan in pictures!

Picture #3
This is my Grandparents with their real family...kids and grandkids. There's a lot of them too...it's fun to look back and pictures of their girls with us as babies, then of us with their kids as babies, and now their kids with my babies...

Picture #4
Meet my twin brother Brandon. Yes. My twin. But older by 5 minutes. I show you his picture first because I want you to notice how we look the least alike of anyone in my family. We are as different as Kaden and Katelyn are different. I like having a twin now. I didn't think much of it growing up. Would I want to have twins? Never. Anyway, for all you single ladies reading-he is 26 and single. Great catch if you ask me...just sayin'!

Picture #5
Meet my brother Jeremy. (He's the one ON the rocking horse.)He's the middle child. He's also the one I blame Kaden on! A talker and debate-master. A pro at both, really. It was fun to see how much Kaden is like him (and how much he will deny that) while we were together at Christmas. Jeremy tries to live in Never Never Land and never wants to grow up (if you couldn't tell by the picture), His wife Allison is good for him.

Picture #6
Meet Andrew. He's my 2nd to oldest brother. He was too busy playing with my kids to get a picture of just him. Andrew's the dare-devil, fearless one. He says I'm just a worry wort. I think he's crazy. I guess we're even. Also a great catch....

Picture #7
And finally...Meet Aaron. He's my oldest brother. (Yes...4 if you counted right...all older.) He's the engineer. The level head. The thinker of the family. He has some pretty cute little boys too... This is a self portrait. Let's just say he's better at scenery. Also, yes, that is me in the background. Blerg.

Picture #8
I guess I shouldn't leave off my parents. So here they are...my mom and dad. They are pretty cool grandparents and adore all 4 grandchildren. Mom cooks up a storm whenever we're all home and I feel bad that she works so hard. Dad's usually found in his garage or with his stereo sytsem with one of "the boys." (they hate when I call them that.) THey keep saying they are going to retire...but I'll believe it when I see it.

A Sad Goodbye!

Well...today is the last day Luke's mom will be here. Kaden has absolutely adored her. She reads to him, takes him for walks (maybe it is more like HIM taking her for the walk), spends hours watching him play outside, sits with him the WHOLE time he eats, talks to him constantly, lets him cook with her, and feeds him whenEVER he begs. What more could a boy ask for?

Probably just for her to live a little closer.

We have been spoiled for the last 2 weeks since my surgery to first have my parents then have Luke's mom here. I don't know what I'm going to do when I don't have someone here to entertain my boy while I piddle around getting things done. Kaden thinks he needs to live outside...and that mom should have nothing more important to do than that.

Katelyn has also been spoiled by Grandma. Rocked to sleep EVERY time, extra face to face time because of Grandma being out with Kaden therefore giving mom more time to spend with just her, and, of course, lots of cuddles and kisses and a few bottle feedings!

We sure do wish we could live closer to the grandparents but are super grateful for the time we do get to spend with them!