Phone/ipad pictures!

I really don't like taking pictures with my phone and ipad....especially if I end up with a good one! I very much prefer my nice camera and the nice quality that it gives me, but sometimes it's not always right there. So, I have to resort to the ipad or iphone! These are some of the pictures that I had on my phone from the last few months...

future heart breaker after a haircut

gracie giving uncle phil some love at bret's 30th birthday party

OF COURSE the best of the pictures i took wasn't with my camera...it was with the iphone

tennis lessons!  e has had 4 weeks of tennis lessons, and he loves them!  i was really impressed with  the class.  the 3 teachers keep all 13 kids under control and teach them lots of great tennis skills.  on the first day, they already had the kids learning forehand and backhand

super blurry phone picture.  but, this was my entertainment one day while running on the treadmill!  evan was such a trooper reading gracie book after book

and THIS is what happens when you trust that your nearly 4 year old is telling you the truth when he says he wants to ride his bike in the garage while you unload the groceries.

i'm very grateful that gracie has a hard head like me!  she wears her hair up in a pony every day, and this day, she actually sat while i attempted to french braid it.  her hair is really silky, so it was not an easy task!

the french braid end result.  clearly i need a little more practice!!

the day that gracie woke up with a fever.  she was seriously struggling to take a breath, so we all headed into the dr.  unfortunately, that visit ended up with a chest xray for possible pneumonia.  luckily the xray was clear!  after some antibiotics for the ear infection and a few breathing treatments, her breathing and attitude were a lot better!  its a good thing too because i ended up carrying her in sling all day that day while she dozed off and on (she screamed hysterically if i even attempted to set her down), and i don't think i could have done more than one day!  AND, now we know that the antibiotics that she took for her ear infection caused a beautiful yeast diaper rash.  it took 1 week to figure out what it was, and we are going on 2 weeks of treatment to get rid of it

gracie the day AFTER the chest xray because she was using her whole body to take a small breath.  MUCH better!

the 3 monsters!

gracie's latest obsession - sunglasses!  

E's School Events

Evan's school had a couple of events for the kids this week.  Last night was Father's Night with the theme "Tool Time".  Since Bret was still in Nashville for work, Packaw (my dad) drove up in same fairly nasty weather to attend with E.  I think they both had a lot of fun!

 and, today was Dr. Suess day to celebrate Dr Suess' birthday and to kick off reading month at the school.  I was asked to do story time (for the ENTIRE preschool) as a part of reading month, so stay tuned to see how that works out : )!  Any way, they had a parade today and each child was allowed to dress up like a Dr. Suess character and bring their favorite Dr. Suess book to school.  Evan wanted to be Cat in the Hat, and I sort of forgot about it.  SO, last night/this morning, this is what I whipped up (using a hot glue gun, scrap fabric, and a needle in thread) for his outfit!

Photo Shoot Attempts

I tried to get the kids together for a mini photo shoot to send a picture to Bret for his 30th birthday (that he unfortunately had to spend in Nashville for work), and this is what I ended up with...

the super fake smile picture

the sneezing picture

the hug picture

the peek-a-boo picture (gracie) with the when with this be over picture (evan)

the cute but really far apart picture

Birthday Parties

On Feb 17th, we were able to make it down to Indy to celebrate our good friends' daughter's 1st birthday!  Lydia has a lot of little friends around the same ages as Evan and Gracie, so they had a blast!  This is a group shot of some of the kids.

 they also had a "photo booth" set up for pictures.  I took about 20 of the kids, and this is the ONLY one i got of them both looking in the same direction.

And on the 23rd, we had a surprise party at our house for Bret.  Well, full disclosure, it started as a surprise party, but didn't end that way when I spilled the beans the night before ; )!  And, gracie was kind enough to let Daddy and his friend's borrow her little table for drinking games.  This doesn't quite capture how funny grown men looked crowded around a little table sitting on itty bitty chairs.

 and the earthquake cake.  i have no idea what happened, but this cake started in the morning as a double layer cake, and by the end of the night, the top layer broke in 4 even pieces and slid off the bottom layer.  It still tasted yummy though!

Children's Museum!!!

Since I was 100% out of contacts and am currently sporting a pair of glasses that are held together with hot glue, I decided it was about time I make an appointment with Dr. Phil at his downtown office to get the works! Luckily, Grammy and Packaw hitched a ride with Phil, and they took the wild ones while I was at my appointment.  Afterwards, Grammy, Packaw, the kids and I headed over to the Children's Museum.  Neither of the kids had been before, and it was a HUGE hit all around!  These are a little bit in random order from the visit....

The Carousel...both kids rode by themselves on  horses that went up and down.  I did hold onto to Gracie who was excitedly neighing the entire time!

 

In the Dino Dig!  Evan is DINO CRAZY, so we actually made two trips to this section of the museum.  On the second trip, Even spent the entire time digging up dino bones!  He also spent a great deal of time chatting with the Museum employee about dinosaurs..specifically his favorite dinosaur, T-Rex.

Gracie digging in the sandbox!  She was a little bit of a sandbox bully and would shove other kids a little to one side with her hips if they got a little too close to her "area".

Digging!

Evan's other love, HOT WHEELS!  This exhibit might have been Packaw's favorite too....he loved looking at all the cars in the display especially since he had most of them when he was little!

and gracie doing the dino dig...she was a little less into it than e

staring up at the cool glass structure that runs through the middle of the museum

and gracie scheming how she can get into that car

driving away!

Happy Valentines Day

On the day before Valentine's Day, I was able to go help out at Evan's preschool during his Valentine's Day party.  HUGE thank you to Aunt Krisce for coming over and hanging out with Gracie during the party ; )!  I also signed up to make cookies for his party, and I may have gone a little overboard (huge surprise...right?, but the kids loved the sugar cookies in the shape of hearts with pink icing drizzle, peanut butter blossoms rolled in red sugar with hershey hearts on top and cookies and cream cookies in the shape of hearts : )!

yummy ice cream and cookies snack!

playing a game with his buddies...kind of like musical hearts except they went around in a circle and stopped on hearts.  some of the hearts had actions (do 4 jumping jacks, spin 3 times, do a little dance, give a hug, etc) and some were blank.

another game with his friends....kind of like hot potato, but they passed a valentines day stuffed animal instead

very proud of the crown that he made

Our recent new achievments

my new achievement...i made this super cute new skirt for gracie the other day while everyone was sleeping.  i kind of love it (but i'm also biased)

and gracie loves herself and giving herself (and everyone else) hugs and kisses.

and somersaults!  i have since taken better footage but yet to get it on the computer.  when gracie turned 19 months old, she decided to teach herself how to do a somersault and start talking. since then, she has become a somersault pro and every day she says and tries new words.  Tillie, HI, and cheese are still her favorite things to say, but NO is quickly becoming a strong contender for the favorite spot : )!

I have no pictures, but E also started tennis lessons this week.  For being 1 of the 3 new kids that had never taken tennis lessons (out of 13 kids ages 3-4), he did AWESOME.  He had some excellent forehands.  I didn't take any pictures because no other moms were taking pictures, and I didn't want to look like a crazy lady quite yet.  AND, evan's group was on the far end of the court, so I couldn't see him that well.   To take a picture, I would have had to lean my whole body over the railing, and I'm sure that would have looked a little interesting!

Balloons and Growing Animals

I really shouldn't go to Target...ever.  Every time I go, I try to give them all our money.  Of course, I end up getting a few things in exchange, but most of the stuff I buy isn't really a need.  Even when I go with a list of things I NEED, I end up with those things plus twice as many things that I don't need.  For this trip, some of the things were punch balloons and little tiny pill like things that "grow" magically into animal shapes when put into hot water.  They kids loved both things, so it was totally justified spending : )!

fun with the balloons.  balloons have been another "burn the energy out of evan" activity.  i blow a balloon up, give it to evan and turn on the tv to a music station while i'm making dinner.  i tell him he has to keep the balloon off the ground until the music stops, and every minute or so, i would mute the tv.  it keeps him busy while i'm making dinner and gives us a slight hope that he might go to sleep at a decent time!

wonder what the cow will turn into if i put him in the water?  gracie LOVES cows and horses...she especially loves to MOOOOOOOO and NEIGH.

what will it be? what will it be? what will it be?  trying so hard to be patient.

gracie showing evan her latest one

happy guy with this activity!!!

Can you tell what our big thing has been this week?

That's right!  Gracie has been very big into using the potty this week!  And, she has gotten better and better at letting us know when she has to go so that we have had more successes than accidents!  And, for the past two days, all of her accidents have been right in front of the potty.  She is the best at telling you when she DOESN't need to use the potty...just ask...if she doesn't need to go, you immediately get a "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!".  AND, you can't really tell in either of these pictures, but on Wednesday, Gracie had her first haircut!!!  I tried really hard to let it grow more, but I just couldn't handle how shaggy and mullet like it was any more.  Once she realized what the sucker was (and that it was yummy), she sat very still and patiently on my lap while Amy (my hair stylist) cut about an inch off the sides and back...she even got a few layers going : ).  Nothing off the front because I'm not planning on bangs with this gal...she doesn't fuss about pony tails and having her hair back in clips.  She also has her Daddy's high forehead!!