Good Friends & Muscles

Congratulations to our friends Shannon & John who just had their 3rd baby - a girl, Rylee Megan!! Yay!!! They have a son, Jack who is 4 months older than Abby, another son Noah who is only 1 month older than Chris, and now Rylee who is 9 months younger than Alex.

Shannon is my good friend that I met at storytime 2 1/2 years ago when we were both pregnant with our 2nd. We kind of gravitated to each other - seeing that we were both stay at home moms, pregnant with a 2 year old. Needless to say we had a lot in common. Now Jack & Abby go to school together, we talk almost everday on the phone, and we get together with the kids at least once a week. Her friendship is such a blessing - sometimes I don't know if I could survive the week without her!! It also helps that the kids play so nicely together and our hubbys get along pretty well too.

Anyway - on Monday I was watching Noah for her while she was in the hospital having the baby. Chris & Noah were playing together and this is a conversation I overheard:

Noah: Chris - do you have muscles?
Chris: Yes. (he then proceeds to flex both arms with such fervor that his whole body was shaking), do you?
Noah: Yeah, right here (as he points to his flexed bicep)

It was so funny to see two 2 year-olds comparing their muscles - typical boys!

This is the Deck that Jim Built

This is the deck that Jim built

These are the kids
That play on the deck that Jim built

This is a smile
on Mommy's face
To see the kids

That play on the deck that Jim built

OK OK - that's about as creative (or corny) as I'm gonna get. I just had to show off our new deck that Jim has so painstakingly been building for us all fall & winter. All that is left for him to finish is the steps!!! I cannot describe to you how nice it is to be able to walk out onto the deck and enjoy our backyard - right from the dining room! Since spring FINALLY arrived last week, the kids have just about been living outside. Every afternoon they have been busy playing on the swingset, in their sandbox, running around, and tiring themselves out so they sleep SO soundly! (Now you know why I'm smiling) Here are a few pictures of us enjoying the outdoors:

Here's my 83 year old grandfather pushing Abby on the swings!

Abby swinging.

Alex loves his new swing!

My 3 cuties on the swings.

An artsy fartsy picture of a blossom on our flowering pear tree.

Forsythia

One of my favorite signs of spring is the bright yellow blooms of our forsythia bushes. They started blooming last week - and are slowing brightening up our yard. Today I cut a few sprigs and put them in a vase to brighten up our inside too. Aren't they beautiful? I'm so glad spring is here - FINALLY!!!

Chickin Feed

Thought I'd pass this on to all you moms out there. I saw this on Rachel Ray recently and loved the idea. I have been trying to be more conscious of the kids' nutrition lately, hoping to instill in them good eating habits early on. SO I just ordered my first tracking board - I will let you know how it works!
http://www.chickinfeed.com/

My Cutie Pies

How do you know when it's time to vacuum?? When your 2 year old lugs his pretend vacuum up from the playroom, says "This a mess!", and tries to clean it up himself. :) Yep - Chris did this last week - so I handed him our real dust buster and let him clean up "this mess!". And now he has a new job.

Yesterday Abby was begging me to paint her fingernails (just like her friend Grace at school) - so I found a nice light pink color to use. And of course Christopher wanted his done because everything Abby does he wants too (ME TOO MOMMY!). I told him no, that only girls paint their fingernails, not boys. He was a little upset by this. So Abby, trying to help him out, said, "maybe if you buy blue nailpolish you can paint his nails blue." It was very funny to see her trying to compromise - pink for girls, blue for boys. I gave her an A for effort, but the answer was still a resounding NO!

Yesterday Abby asked me if I had a baby in my belly...now I know I have a few pounds to loose but I don't think I look pregnant (DO I???) So I said, "NO! Why? Do I look like I do?" She said, "No (THANKFULLY!) I want a baby sister!" This is the first time I have ever heard this request from her!! And No - I'm not pregnant OR entertaining this idea any time soon. I just thought it was very funny to hear her say this.

Here's a couple pictures from last week of my adorable kiddos (if I do say so myself)...They know what a photo nut I am so they pose like this and say "TAKE A PICTURE MOMMY!".

New Tricks

Alex has been a busy boy this week - learning lots of new tricks. He started out last weekend by figuring out how to sit up by himself from laying down. This was a big milestone that I was waiting for - he would normally just lay there and scream waiting for me to sit him back up. So this makes him much happier (and me too)! Mid-week he learned to clap - something he is SO proud of and SO excited about. It's so funny to see the joy in his face when he figured out what he was doing! And just yesterday he learned to crawl! YIKES!!!! I'm in trouble now. Time to set up the gates and lock down the house. Who knows what next week will bring! He's already trying to pull himself to standing...