May Happenings - 4

normally, i find it somewhat irritating to receive duplicate gifts for the kids...unless a store has an easy return policy, the store is someplace that i regularly visit and there is little to no line to wait in.  however, when evan received two bubble mowers for his bday it might have been the best thing to ever happen.  he didn't receive them on the same day and the day he received the 2nd one, he opened 20+ presents in less than 2 minutes, so i'm not sure that he even remembers that he got two of them!  so, we had no sharing issues, and both kids have a blast  with the mowers!  we "mow" the sidewalks around our house at least twice a day!

you can't properly mow the sidewalk unless you are chewing on your tongue...

busting out the pool for the first time!!!!

ever day, we do the tour of sports...a little golf, a little baseball, a little soccer, a little biking, a little basketball, etc.  you name it, we play it.  at least once a day!   when bret pulled some weeds out around our magnolia tree, evan capitalized on the opportunity to practice for future golf dilemmas.  

gracie LOVES strollers.  she is constantly asking for a stroller ride.  every day, we go for a 4-5 mile run in the morning, and while evan talks the entire time, gracie typically is so chill that i frequently ask e if she is even awake!  and after we are done, she spends a ton of time buckling the harness.  as soon as she gets one buckled, i can hear her yelling "oboe, oboe, oboe" which to her translates to open.  and repeat.

May Happenings - 3

Evan completed his first year of preschool!!!  I canNOT believe that he only has one more year until kindergarten.  

super blurry, but it was probably because his head was on a swivel trying to spy his fan club!

clearly he did not enjoy singing the songs at. all.

his moment in the spotlight!

and, his teacher, Mrs. Hiatt!  He loved her...so much so that he started calling others near and dear to him Mrs. Hiatt ;)!

AND, he couldn't let a moment pass without showing Grammy and Packaw how good he has gotten riding his bike without training wheels!

and, he is still learning that the bike goes the direction he looks...this is a VERY hard thing to remember when it is a sunny day and looking at your shadow is oh so interesting!

May Happenings - 2

Happy Mother's Day to ME!!!!  The kids and Bret gave me (literally) the best Mother's Day present EVER.  I cannot believe that we have made it this long without it, and I am incredibly blessed to have such great kids that will sit through (and actually request) stroller rides so that this Mommy can get some much needed running in!  Bret spoils me so much by letting me stay home with the kids and then on top of it all he buys me such a great gift...of course, it might have been to stop me from whining about never getting to run ; )!

gracie sometimes does try to boot evan out so that her baby can go for a ride.  and, yes, that baby is naked.  gracie has some personal issues with the baby wearing clothes.

with the nice weather, i decided to try to sun bleach gracie's cloth diaper inserts.  i hung them up, gracie took them down and evan missed the point of what we were doing altogether : ).  but in the end, the diapers dried and i guess the cup did too!

May Happenings - 1

WOW.  May really flew by and my updates on the blog have been very sparse!  This is mainly because we spend most of the daylight hours outside!  Evan has also recently stopped taking naps altogether after several weeks of ugliness trying to get the child end bed and asleep at a reasonable time.  When Bret and I got to the point where we were dreading putting bed time, we decided to test the waters of nap free Evan.  We have had several more nightmares (he gets them when he is overtired/not enough sleep), and he has been getting out of bed during the night more, but we will see how things progress in the next week or so.  My main blogging time was when both kids are sleeping, SO with Evan up all day, it has been a tad bit more difficult.

Here are some pictures from our activities in May!

Mowing!  Bret has had to mow at least every 3 days with all the rain and nice weather.  He was doing it so frequently that every time Gracie heard any type of lawn tool - mower, trimmer, edger, blower, etc - she would stop and her tracks and screech "DADDY"!

we have played in the hose and tubs and water tables countless times already!!

we have spent a lot of time going for walks and bike rides!  gracie really likes to put e's helmet on and try to ride any one of his bikes.  unfortunately, she can only fit on his old tricycle.  big news (pictures in a later may update) for e...he can ride his big bike without training wheels!!!  just in the few weeks that he has been riding, i have already seen vast improvements on how steady he is.  he is nervous to turn because the bike is big and he can't put both feet on the ground like he can his skuut, but by the end of june, i'm pretty sure he will be on his way!

we have had lots of hugs!  these two bicker and pick on each other constantly, but gracie is still obsessed with evan and e loves his baby sister.

we started landscape  project 2013...had i realized how difficult tearing out some of the current landscaping would be, it would have been landscape project 2014.  the kids weren't sad about it though because it gave them a huge dirt pile to play in!

gracie is a huge fan of springtime since she can hide behind and walk around all the bushes that now have leaves.  for some reason, she will only walk right next to the house between the house and our landscaping instead of walking in the grass or on the sidewalk.

no idea what is going on in this picture!  apparently he is sitting on his plane and finds that to be amusing.  he has such a great sense of humor that i hope he never loses!