preschool (!!)

 My baby went to her first day of preschool yesterday...

I am so proud of her!

She had a blast and is ready to go back on Wednesday. :)

really, Mom? enough with the pictures.

Walking in, she was beyond excited....she kept tripping over her feet because it was like they wouldn't move fast enough ;)

at this point, she was ready to go play...I was definitely on her nerves :)

Nick took Mason with him to the field to ride in some tractors :), so I had the morning to myself. I got all of my cleaning and some laundry done. Go me :)

I was sick to my stomach thinking about my baby girl being in school. Where did the last 3 1/2 years go?!

I know Mason and I are going to have some great one on one time MWF form 8ish to 3ish (thankfully, she doesn't have to be there right at 8am and I can pick her up sooner if I need!) when she is at school...but she has been my constant companion for the last 3+ years! It's so wierd when she is gone for the day...

We are so proud of you, baby girl! We love you so much! :)

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arizona, may 2012

 We went to Phoenix in May to see Alan, Steph and the girls. Nick had to be there for work, so we all went out the weekend before for Elsie's, Alan's and Nick's birthdays...

We had a great time spending time with the AZ Flies' and Steph's parents, who were also in town!

The Saturday that we were there was Elsie's birthday party. I was so excited that we were able to be there for that! :)

We got plenty of pool time in too :)

Mason wore girl-y jammies :)

this was the best picture I could get of the 4 of them ;)

and just to show that Mason can get an attitude....check out the following sequence of pictures::

Adelyn had something Mason wanted....and he let her know it :)

We had so much fun in AZ and the time went by way too fast.

Thank you, Alan and Steph, for everything.

We love you and miss you!

xoxo

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disneyland part 2::better late than never ;)

I was looking through pictures on the computer and realized I never shared the second half of our Disneyland venture.

Day 2 was spent partly in Disneyland and mostly at California Adventure.

Mason got to meet Pluto :) Adelyn wanted nothing to do with him ;)

We waited 45 minutes for the Toy Story ride. Meltdowns did ensue :) But the ride was a lot of fun :)

 Adelyn picked Buzz Lightyear for her souvenir

 Okay, so there is a parade and fireworks every night. It was so much fun! It was late, but the kids loved it.

 Our last night, we went to Color in Wonder at California Adventure. It was so cool! I didn't get any pictures, but Adelyn and Mason were transfixed.

Last ride before heading out for good....

 Before we headed home the next day, we did some shopping in Downtown Disney...

Okay, we had so much fun with Alan and Steph and the girls. Disneyland is awesome :) We are going back again, but this time it will be at Halloween probably next year....I'm so excited! :)

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19 months

Little man in 19 months this week! We had his 18 month check up last week :)

weight: 23.2 lbs

height: 34 inches

He is our little peanut.

He is pretty much awesome.

Likes:

cars, trucks, tractors...anything with wheels.

basketballs, footballs, soccerballs...

playing in the sprinkler/pool

running around like a mad man

playing with sis

riding bikes outside

reading books...the same ones...over and over and over....and over again...

green John Deere blanky....goes with him EVERYWHERE

Elmo

he LOVES CARS the movie...freaks out everytime we turn it on, or if he sees some CARS merchandise...

he also likes Toy Story :)

haircuts at the local barber with Dad (as long as Dad holds him while getting said haircut)

the kid can also shake-a-tail-feather

Dislikes:

sis when she takes it one too far (she plays a little too rough...)

having anything taken away from him

not getting his way (what a bummer when that happens)
flying...especially flights longer than an hour...

time-outs...he HATES them

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ocean love

Mason's first ocean experience was a little more than a year ago...

He looked like this...

This time around was alot different :)

The kid was all over it.

He was running around, hollering and flipping out in general...

The fact that the water was ice-cold was no problem...

He was T.I.C.K.E.D. when I had to drag him away to go get cleaned up to head home.

I wish I had gotten a picture of it.

He was head to toe soaking wet....sand EVERYWHERE....and screaming furiously at me and yelling "no no!".....in his little 17 month old voice.

hehe...

I'm so glad my kids love the ocean. On the other hand...they have NO FEAR and it was a little stressful because had I not yelled "STOP!" a gazillion times and ran to grab little hands/arms...they would have kept running until their little heads were under the water. Not cool.

The coast rocks. The kids had a ball. We are definitely going back soon. :)

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solo trip to iowa

a million years ago
  in a dream I had
what feels like forever ago
The last weekend-ish of March, Nick sent me home to Iowa for a few {child free!} days. :) I LOVE my kids, but sometimes you need a break. If you're a mama, you know. :)
I spent 3 full blissful days with dear dear friends and family :)
Friday, I got to see Bekah and the girls, Amber and Miles, and Ashley, Katie and their kiddos. It was wonderful (forgot my camera, so no pictures...boo)!!
Saturday, Mom and I spent the entire day at the East Village downtown and then over to Valley Junction. Then I saw my dad for a bit before heading for margaritas at On the Border with Mom :)

Top left to right: cool spice shop in the village. My favorite sculpure, Nomade, at the Pappajohn Sculpture Park. One of the old chandeliers from the old Younkers Tea Room (such a cool place!)

Left to right: mom and I in the Nomade :) and at On the Border {margaritas!}

Sunday I slept in :), went for a {child free} run, then over to see my dad, stepmom, and 2 younger brothers (Josh is still in Hawaii). We ate yummy food and just hung out. It was wonderful :)

Russell Brand Caleb teaching Jake to make guac. Dad, Pam, and me.

That evening, my sister-in-love ;) Yvonne and her hubs, D'Angelo, came over with the boys (Ahman and my nephew, Noah) for some Casey's taco pizza. If you've had it...you will understand how amazing it was :) My stepdad was back from the cabin and my stepbrother, Jesup, is in DSM, so I got to see him too. I cannot tell you how refreshing and great it was to see everyone!

Mom, Rob, and Noah.  Yvonne, Noah and me.

Ahman and Noah :)

Yvonne and D'Angelo (2 of my favorite persons ever)

Jake, Russell Brand Caleb, Mom and me

The long weekend FLEW by...and honestly feels like a dream!
I miss you all so much!! :)
xoxo

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easter festivites

In a time where Easter has become all about bunnies, baskets, eggs...and yes, candy....Nick and I want to make sure we are teaching our children what it's really all about. Jesus Christ. His sacrifice--dying on the cross. The awesome miracle of his resurrection. The fact he did it willingly...for you and for me....so that we can have the opportunity--in our sinfulness--to live forever with him.
How cool.
We didn't do easter baskets growing up. We did the occasional easter egg hunt...but we never felt deprived :) Nick had them and said it was fun waking up to a fun-filled basket :) I totally get that!
Friday before easter, I was reading one of the too many blogs I follow, and she was talking about a tradition they started last year where they tie in Jesus' story with the easter baskets. SO COOL.
I decided it was perfect...so that's what we did. Saturday night, we went through the Resurrection Eggs with Adelyn {hopefully next year, she'll pay more attention to the story...this year she just wanted to open all the eggs!}

Then we wrote down sins on rocks and put them in her and Mason's easter baskets. We covered them with a red towel to represent Jesus' blood, his dying on the cross for our sins and explained we had to wait until morning to see what would happen.

The next morning, she took off the towel, and we had put  "Jesus" basket between theirs and it had all of their "sins" in it and we talked {briefly} about the last Resurrection Egg.

They had a few toys in their baskets (no candy....she got PLENTY at the church candy grab easter egg hunt on Saturday morning!
Anyway...it was fun and I think it's a tradition we will keep up. Thank you for the idea, Christy! :)
We went for lunch on Sunday to Steve and Cindy's. It was a blast. My kids ADORE them. I forgot my camera. Boo.
Thank you, for having us over! We love you guys! :)
Okay, so the church egg hunt was Saturday morning.
It's huge.

her face says it all :)

Hundreds of people...but the kids had so much fun! Our neighbor brought her younger 3...so we had fun with them.

Top: Zander, Trinity, Adelyn and Uriah

 We sang songs and did door prizes first in the auditorium, then they split up the age groups.

singing "Father Abraham"

 Nick took Mason, Alex took her youngest and her 5 year old.  I took Trinity and Adelyn with me. They were hilarious. Lazer focus. They subconsciously were working together. They would block off a section and just clear it. I was cracking up!

Waiting for the "GO!"

LAZER FOCUS. Seriously.

Adelyn with Trinity and her friend, Haley....

displaying their spoils ;)

We had a fun Easter and are so thankful for the friendships we have been blessed with!

Happy Easter!

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