Busy Life!

Life, like everyone's, has been crazy busy this month. Here are a few pics of all the fun we've been having.



Dance Competitions-Here's Madelyn with her hip hop face.


Soccer-Madelyn has been so much more aggressive this year and has a lot better ball control. It's fun to watch her grow.


Field Trips-Ethan's last preschool field trip was to the zoo. He loved seeing the animals and being with his friends.


More soccer-Ethan had fun playing soccer although he wasn't so interested in the soccer ball as much as he was running with his friends :)


Coaching-Chad wasn't the coach but he did help out during the games and he did step in and coach the last game.


Shoe Tying-Ethan finally learned to tie his shoes. We haven't focused on it too much in the past but his preschool teacher was testing on all of the things that they could do so he really wanted to pass it off. I will admit there was also a power ranger involved.


Dance Recitals-Madelyn had her dance recital last night. She was in 4 dances and looked great in all of them, but you can definitely tell that hip hop is her favorite.


Preschool Graduation-Here's Ethan getting his great scrapbook from the year that his teacher gave to each kid (we paid for the books but the time put into them was priceless) She also read a little about each kid. By the way if Ethan had a million dollars he would buy a dump truck. What would you buy?


Super Singer-They sang some great songs at the program. Ethan loves singing and has been practicing for the last month. It was fun to finally see them performed. I'm so impressed how far he has come this year. At the beginning of the year he didn't even really care to focus on letters or sounds and now he's a beginner reader!



...and here's Emma coming along for all of the fun.

Another random photo shoot

Ethan had class pictures for preschool at a park with a professional photographer. You could also pay to have individual pictures taken which I really considered but since I'm a cheapo and had my camera, I walked Ethan and Emma over to the other side of the park and took my own pictures. Here are a few of the results.

Pets

Madelyn had pet day at school a few weeks ago. We took Haylee in to be groomed, bought her a new collar and leash, and with pockets full of dog treats, off we went to Madelyn's school. I was amazed at all the dogs in one area-they were all so well behaved. The kids got to show their pets one by one, talk about the pets, and walk them around the circle. Haylee loved all of the attention. I was just grateful she didn't do her thing right there in the gym like a few of the little dogs did. It was raining outside so they had to move it inside. She even came upstairs at home for the first time. Ethan loved having her upstairs and even read books to her. Chad and I had just watched Marley and Me and we were feeling some pet guilt.



Here are Madelyn's other pets of the moment. A few weeks ago we were working in the yard a lot and Madelyn seemed to have a fascination with worms. She would collect them at school and put them in her pencil box. She brought some home and left them in the piano room (without me realizing it) In the morning she thought some had escaped...I wasn't very happy about that. She found more at home and tried to keep them for awhile until I convinced her they needed to be in their natural habitat to survive and thrive. Chad and I were both amazed that she even wanted to touch them at all.

2 Wheels and Crazy Hair

Ethan finally let us take the training wheels off of his bike yesterday. Chad took them off, padded him up (notice the helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, and gloves-he's accident prone!) and away he went. He's loving it and is telling everyone he sees that he can ride a two wheeler now. He's often giving me the list of things he needs to learn before kindergarten and now he can cross this one off along with snapping, he's pretty proud of that too.




So Emma's got a pretty good mullet growing so we often put it in a little ponytail on top of her head. This is usually what she looks like at night and in the mornings. Chad calls her a troll.

Like a Bad Dream

We keep living this over and over. We are getting better at making sure the bathroom doors are closed but she scurries for the bathroom every chance she gets. It's like she has a radar that lets her know if the door is open even the tiniest crack. This picture is when she found the drawer where the extra rolls of toilet paper were. There's nothing wrong with toilet water...right?

Easter Fun!

Here are a few pictures from all the Easter fun we've had in the last week. Ethan had an Easter egg hunt for preschool last Wed. It was windy but they all had fun and got to eat a cookie afterwards and play on the playground. On Sat. morning we always go to Chad's care center for their anual egg hunt. It's nice there because it's not as big as the city ones. I always know my kids will get plenty of eggs (too many really!) and they aren't ran over by mass amounts of kids. They usually have an Easter bunny there too. Emma didn't know what to think of the bunny. The kids also got to hunt for eggs at my mom and dad's house where they not only got a little candy they became a little richer too! They also had fun with cousins, they got to color eggs, and they had a sleepover. Ahh Good times...good times.

Emma is 1!

Emma turned one a week ago but because she was sick we postponed her birthday party until Sunday. My how a year flies by! She is growing so fast and I now have a toddler. Where did my baby go?? She was a little shy since everyone was staring at her but she warmed up by the end. She opened some nice gifts from everyone and then we sang to her and she got her own cake. She didn't mind digging into the frosting too much but she didn't really want to eat any of the cake. We left her there with her cake while we were serving cake to everyone and she started to look like she was going to fall asleep! I'm so glad she feels better and was able to enjoy her party.

All about Emma:

Favorite Food: Lately she's loving oranges, strawberries, chicken nuggets, & toast.

Favorite Toy: She pretty much loves anything she shouldn't have....remotes, pens, toilet paper

(I'll post a nice photo later!) & cell phones.

Latest Trick:I know she's not a dog but she loves barking like one lately. She really digs

Haylee....like so excited she's shaking loves Haylee!

Latest Big Accomplishment: She has taken up to 6 steps on her own now and is really

getting braver with walking!

Words she loves to say: mama (yeah!), dada, hi, bye, uh-oh, she is starting to say da (dog)

Number of Teeth: 2 on the bottom...that's it!

Latest Struggle: She hates hates hates to lay down and have her diaper changed!

Latest Change: We've switched to whole milk and we're getting rid of the bottle slowly.

Favorite thing to do: Take a bath!! She is a fish. She loves to take a bath and cries when we take

her out. She even dunks her face in the water the whole time she is in the bathtub.

Dr. Office Stats: Heighth- 78%, Weight- 35%-She has thinned out a bunch.

Something she's good at: Snuggling!

We are so blessed to have her in our family and can't imagine life without her!