Odds and Ends

We had our last MOPS meeting for the year last week. They put on a carnival for the kids at the end, they sure had a good time. I was excited to see Lynn painting a John Deere tractor that matched his shirt. Man she's good.


Here is Abby napping with Stinky. Stinky is her favorite blankie. It was actually a regular sized receiving blanket, but now it's in about 4 little shreds. It is no longer to safe to put Stinky in the washer/dryer for fear of it dissolving completely.


Our niece Addison was over last weekend. It is so fun to watch her and Anna actually playing together now instead of fighting over all the toys. Anna is the one hiding in the picture. She's clever like that.


Here's my dear friend Jenny with her little Nater Tot. I wish I could say I came up with his nickname, but another friend beat me to it. Nate has the biggest dark eyes and cutest laugh ever. You know, come to think of it, all my friend have REALLY cute babies. I can't wait until mine comes out. It's getting hard to do... well... everything. It's going to be a long 12 weeks.


Tommy loves Nate and any other baby within mauling distance.


Rachel's latest love- pony tails!


This is Adam. I guess I should be happy that he's not afraid to get a little dirty, but sometimes his love of filth annoys me.

Adam's 7th Birthday (a week late)

My firstborn son turned 7 recently. He loves stones and bugs. I even found a piece of broken glass in his pocket the other day. Glad he didn't fall on that wrong.
Grandma Maude and Laurie each bought him a set with stones/minerals. He was thrilled to say the least.


Adam is pretty easy to please. I got him this plastic piggy bank- he's in love with it. Unfortunately when you take the money out of it 54 times a day the plug thingy on the bottom will most likely break. Which it did. Now the money won't stay in. I guess it was the thought that counts.


He specifically asked for chocolate cake with white frosting and his name written in blue. I can handle that.


We're all ready for cake!


Burning off the cake and ice cream


My parents came later in the afternoon and took Adam shopping. He bought a bubble gun and some artsy thing with markers.

Trying to Get a Pic of the Belly- 26 weeks

Tommy likes to take pics, and I really don't have any good belly shots, so I let him go to it. I should've known this would end up ugly...

Here we are- 26 weeks. I see by my ticker I have less than 100 days to go now. That's rather frightening. I feel like I have a month to go, so I hope I'm still mobile by August.


Rachel wants a picture WITHOUT Adam in it.


And we're still crying, even though Adam is long gone.


She still loves her mommy. :)

Flowers

How we love when it's nap time for Anna. That means that we can play out front on the sidewalk. Anna has an affinity for the street and I'm not moving very fast these days.




My neighbor covets my purple tulips. I give her the stuff from my garden that I'm not happy with and she gives it a happy home across the street. So nice. But she gets no purple tulips.


Amanda, isn't this a cute little daffodil??? I hope it multiplies rapidly, I'd love to share.


I love my bleeding heart! The white one is new, I got it last year on clearance from Bluestone Perennials out of Ohio. If Casey ever died after the kids are grown I would like to go work there. It's always nice to have a plan.


And here are the 2 goofballs with their new haircuts.

Mini Vacation

Last week we took a rather spur of the moment mini-vacation to Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City. The kids LOVED it. Day one was a much more joyous occasion than day 2, but that's how it goes when traveling with children. As Liz would say, we were building memories. Our kids had never stayed in a hotel before, so it was thrilling to say the least. I was afraid I'd lose my camera in the water area, so there are no awesome shots of the big bucket dumping on Rachel or of Adam trying to run laps in the "lazy river".


We believe that ice cream and vacations go hand in hand.


Abby started snooping through drawers but went right to work on her bible studies as soon as she found the Gideon bible.


The kids had their own little "cabin" in our room. They didn't fight as much as I thought they would over the top bunk (Adam ended up getting it for the night).


Adam thanked Casey about 100 times for planning this trip for them. It was so sweet. :)


Adam's was extremely excited when we told him we were going to find a beach somewhere so he could look for shells. We ventured up through Mission Point to see what we could find. We found a light house, some bear tracks, and cooooold wind. Abby was not happy about that OR the sand in her shoes.


I was hoping we could go in the lighthouse, but it was closed.


Well I guess Abby is ready to go. Grump.

Petting Farm

On Tuesday, our MOPS group met at a local petting farm. My kids loved it! They got to hold a baby bunny, kittens, chick, pet a lamb, and a few other critters. Tommy was in all his glory because his best friend Jackson was there. :)


Tommy and Abby love feeding the sheep and goats!


However, Anna prefers to have a fence between her and all galloping farm life.


Our field trip ended with a hayride! Tommy is still talking about the fat pig that he saw along the way.

Speaking of fat pigs...
My kids were playing "I Spy" tonight. Tommy said, "I spy something really huge." Adam says, "Mom!" Ahh, 24 weeks of pregnancy never looked better. Well, that's what I thought until tonight.

March

My Thomas turned 5 on March 9!


Grandma Maude got him a dust buster! How sweet is that?!?


My sweet Anna all grown up. Well, she thinks so anyway.


Still loving the swingset! Poor Abby girl sits there and yells until someone comes and pushes her. Adam is good to her. :)


Someday he is going to be a really big help!


We played outside pretty much all day yesterday. By suppertime this is what I found.


This could explain that "weighted down" feeling I've been having...


This pic is for Jenny L. I wanted her to see that I STILL put up with crying boys. And he's 5.