Spring Break Bee Party

My friend, Tiffany, had a temporary lapse of sanity last week and invited 20+ children under the age of 6 to her house for a "Spring Break Bee Movie" party. It was actually a lot of fun. She had the bounce house up, bee crafts, lunch and Carter's favorite: a chocolate fountain. He spent most of his time there.

Chocolate

If anyone is thinking of going to the Chocolate exhibit at the Science Center--don't waste your time! I was so disappointed and just so you know, you don't get samples all along the way. Next time I'm going to Malley's chocolate tent instead and eating all of their samples.

Even though I was disappointed in the lack of samples, we had good company and the boys enjoyed the rest of the museum.

The bellies at the wall of chocolates.

Carter, Where are you?

So, I thought the transition into the big boy bed had gone pretty good. Carter has always been really good at going to sleep and continued to be good in the bunk beds. He doesn't come out or cry after we say good night and goes right to sleep...or so I thought.

Carter put me into panic mode twice this week.

First on Friday I put him down for a nap while I showered for my cousin's birthday. After I was ready I peeked my head in, just to check on him and to my suprise his bed was empty and his room was a disaster. He had dismantled his railroad crossing coin bank, taken all of the knobs off his chest of drawers and there were toys all over the room, but no Carter. I went downstairs to see if anyone had seen him, but he was still MIA. I went back up to his room and happened to look up on the top bunk (he NEVER sleeps up there) and there he was, curled up with his blanket, sound asleep.

Last night, as Keith and I were going to bed, I peeked into his room (because watching my boys sleep is my favorite thing to do ever!) and again, no Carter. I quickly scan the room and check the top bunk this time, but still no Carter. As I'm just about to call out to Keith, I look down at my feet and there he is, sound asleep on floor, clutching a piece of string he had been playing with earlier. So cute! I really wish I had taken a picture!

Happy Easter

a week late! We have been really busy this week and I've been putting off posting Easter because I was so disappointed in my pictures. It was a good holiday weekend none-the-less, so here was our Easter:

COLORING EASTER EGGS

After a day of sledding, my mom, brother, sister and her husband came over Saturday to dye eggs. The boys of course had a blast.

EASTER MORNING

Leading up to Easter, Ty kept reminding us that the Easter Bunny left an egg right by his bed last year and how cool he thought that was. So, this year the boys woke up with Easter eggs at the foot of their beds and came running into our room to tell us. They could hardly wait to get downstairs to find more eggs. Carter kept yelling "Thank you, Easter Bunny!"

Note: the Easter Bunny pulled through and brought Carter his bubbles and Ty his Bionicles.

GRANDMA "PUPPY'S HOUSE"

After church we went to Keith's parents for an Easter egg hunt and fun with the cousins. Yes, I only got one good picture.

GRANDMA NOLL'S HOUSE

Last stop, my parents house. We had a great dinner with my cousins and family. Carter went through the house and opened all the eggs hidden for the hunt while we ate, so after we found and refilled all the eggs, the boys had another egg hunt (like the needed more candy).

Please ignore my pregnant fat face.

St. Patty's Day

All of my other pictures from St. Patrick's Day turned out HORRIBLE, so this is all I got...

We had a fun St. Patty's day (despite the fact that I was completely sleep deprived after being up with Carter from 1 am to 5 am with an ear ache).

Ty helped me pick out food for our green dinner: stuffed green peppers, grapes, green jello shamrocks, green gatorade and shamrock cookies and green grapefruit slush (my favorite!) for dessert. The boys enjoyed having everything green at dinner.

A leprechan stopped by our house when no one was watching and left treat bags for the boys filled with candy, money and a toy. Next time the leprechan needs to remember to bring the boys the same toy so they don't need to fight over the best one!

Snow Forts, Silly Hat Day and other random pics.

Just a mod-podge of pictures from the last week or so...



oops, don't know how that this got on here twice...

By the way, it is snowing again! Alot! Where is spring?

Our Weekend

I really have to get better at taking my camera with me, so no pictures of my night out with my high school girls Friday night, our cute outfits at the church cannery Saturday or Ashley's dances at Cole's birthday party Saturday night (just kidding Ash).

I did, however, take tons of pictures at the Burton maple festival. Keith's family used to always go to Geauga County to watch the maple syrup be made and eat at one of the all you can eat pancake breakfasts. Ty has been really curious lately about how syrup is made from the sap in trees, so since this was the last day of the festival, we decided to take the family to check it out. It was really cold, but I think the boys had a good time.

Ty's Prayers

Wow, three posts in one day! That's what happens when you are stuck inside all day!

I just had to record (for my memory's sake) Ty's latest prayers. They are priceless.

Last night as the boys were saying their prayers, Ty included this,

"Please bless Carter to stop saying bad words (note: I have no idea what bad words Carter was saying) and bless him to be more like me."

Again, tonight Ty asked that Carter please be blessed to be more like him! Apparently Ty thinks he is pretty good. So silly.

Tonight Ty also added, "Please bless us to stop crying and having to sit in the corner (told you it was a rough day with major cabin fever) and please bless us to stop burping and farting." Lovely!

He then asked me to please pray for the same things in my prayer.

I love this time with them, to see them grow and learn! They amuse me each day. I'm grateful for each of their sweet prayers and tender kisses each night (they are so affectionate at bedtime)!

Snowed In--Again!!

What do you to when you are snowed in-AGAIN? Today there is a major blizzard blowing outside and we are stuck in (since yesterday), so Keith and I got some serious home projects done.

• Cleaned out the kitchen cupboards


• Cleaned out the pantry (realized we have WAY too much candy in the house!)


• Cleaned out the refrigerator (almost as good looking as Stephanie's)


• Painted the first color on "Sissy's" (Ty has named the baby "Sissy") walls


• Cleaned the bathrooms--hate that job!
• More laundry


• Cleared the driveway (yes, believe it or not everyone, our neighbor brought over a snow blower and Keith actually cleared the driveway tonight!)

The boys had a pretty severe case of cabin fever and Keith was dying all day to get the Jeep out in the snow, so the three of them went "joy riding" tonight and had fun digging people out of the snow. I stayed home and busted out some projects of my own (I'll post more about those later).

Church is already cancelled for tomorrow (kind of bummed because we had a leader from SLC visiting), so who knows what we can accomplish then!

P.S. I stole the snow picture from Stephanie, but she just lives down the street, so it counts.

LOVIN THIS!

Lovin this new dance show on MTV! You have to check it out. Yvonne, it makes me want to get back out there!

Peace and Quiet...

..at last! The kitchen's clean, the floors are done, laundry's folded, Carter's asleep and I finally showered. Time to enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts (not much longer).

Today so did not start out this way! We woke up once again to find out that we were snowed and iced in! Everything was closed--everything except work that is. So I bundle the kids up and got ready to venture out, hoping not to slide off the road on my way. Instead of taking the kids to the babysitting, my friend Stephanie offered to have the kids come over there. So, as I'm pulling into her driveway, it happened. Yep, my car got stuck! Completely! So there's pregnant me and Stephanie with a broken rib, trying to dig my car out of the ice and snow (Stephanie's sending pictures). Thank goodness for nice, retired neighbors! We finally got it out, but not until it was too late to teach my class. Oops!

So Stephanie and I decided to make the most of the day. I didn't dare try to get back into her driveway, so she and the kids piled in her 4-wheel drive SUV and we all headed to my house (where we almost got stuck again!). We spent the day:

baking brownies (a must on snow days)

baking Amish Friendship bread for ourselves and Mr. Brown (who dug me out of the snow).--Thanks Taci for the yummy starter, this is one of our favorites!

destroying our basement and jumping in the bounce house--relax Keith, it's all cleaned up. (I know the picture's completely out of focus...)

eating way too much pizza,

dealing with this sweet child... (is it wrong to be looking for a boarding school at 2 1/2 years old?)

and surfing the web. While "blog stalking" we found this awesome website/blog that I have to share! The Pioneer Women Cooks! We fell in love with this lady and her recipes. Don't be turned off by the name (I wasn't interested at first either), this lady has great recipes and best of all: step-by-step pictures and instructions--just what I need!! I can't wait to try some of these out. She's also quite funny too!

Now I'm off to play Uno with Ty while I wait for my dinner date with Keith at Brio. (Does it count as a date if you are going with your in-laws? I say "yes," if there's no kids, it counts!)

Finally...

a break from the snow!!! I have been reading all my friends' blogs in Utah, seeing them at the parks and zoo, feeling sorry for myself, but today we finally got a taste of the nice weather! I know, it won't last long--it's already dropped 20 degrees outside! That's okay though, the few hours we got to spend outside today was totally worth it!

Here are a few images from our trip around the block:

This was my view as we walked to the park: isn't it great!

Yes, it was 60+ degrees out and Carter still insisted on wearing his snow boots!

Carter giggled the whole time he was on the swing! So happy to be there!

*** Cute Ty comment today: "Mom, even when I'm mad at you, you're still a good mom."

I totally needed this today! This boy knows just the right thing to say to me!