Tri-ing 2009

This is my tri group 2009. There are a few people missing but the rest of us are here!

The Bunnies!

Here are our bunnies, Blacker Beaner and Scratchy, who are sisters. All three girls love the bunnies and want to get them out to play everyday all day! We are teaching them how to care for the animals and how to handle them, like not stuffing them into small spaces, putting them on the slide, etc.!!!



Scratchy

Madison with her bunny Blacker Beaner

Emma took most of these pictures. She and I worked a little on photography in homeschooling this spring and she has done an excellent job with her picture taking ability!

Dresses!

The girls were in need of some new dresses and I was not liking what I found (aka it was too expensive :) ), so I went to the fabric store and got this material and made them these! They have been wearing them none stop since. I was able to make 5 dresses, 2 for Emma, 2 for Madison, and 1 for Heidi, in less than a day. That is my kind of sewing! :)

The Three Musketeers!

The three 2 year olds all follow each other around the yard, and as a 2 year old into mischief around every corner!! (although not so much Tomi as Heidi and Danny :)) Today like them, many of the kids were picking dandilions. These three were just throwing them at each other and down the hill instead of giving them away!

Look it's a plane!!!

This is a boquette that Alison and Madison picked for me. They are a very cheery weed....even though it really is just that, a weed!! Oh how the kids love them, and all of them pick them for their mommies to put into vases on the table for us to enjoy. Oh what joy we can find in simple things and luckily for us they are given with love overflowing from our beautiful children, because they know how much we (Crystal and I) love flowers :).

Cleaning the Carpet

So I decided that after 9 months of walking on the carpet that it was time for a cleaning. This is what it looked like before the cleaning. Did I mention the carpets are supposed to be white!!!
We were even able to get all of the upstairs bedrooms and hallways done.

This is where all our stuff had to go since it was raining outside! :)

See how clean!!!!

Then we had to rearange the furniture because it can't go in the same way it went out! :)

My models...

I even decluttered!!! Now I am so happy it is clean.

One Time of Many at the Beach

The Swing Set

This is our new swing set. Chad and I and our neighbors had decided last summer that the swing sets that the kids played on were becoming more and more unsafe. Since our neighbors have 6 kids and we have 4 we also decided that we wanted something big enough that all the kids could play on at the same time and not have to break up fights over swings! Anyway, this year we were able to purchase the wood so that our little vision could become reality, however, because Chad had his eye surgery this spring he was not able to do any of the building so our wonderful neighbor said that he would build it. He has done an amazing job so far (we are not quite finished) and the kids spend most of their day playing in the sand box or swinging on the swings. We are still going to add two slides and a pole for them to slide down, along with a roof and possibly a loft in the fort area! We are all looking forward to seeing the completed product and the kids really are so thankful for the new things to play on!

Warmth and Sun!

Since the end of April we have had sunny 60+ weather and the snow melted fast, so the kids have been able to play outside....and even get tans! Not just the dirt tans that wash off in the shower, the real deal. Here are a few pictures of our kids and the neighbor kids all playing together and soaking up this glorious sun.

Getting Busy

The days are getting brighter and longer and we are spending lots of time outside! I have been working on my garden and planters and my yard and playing with the kids as well. We have made a few trips to the beach, and last night the girls came with me to work out with my triathlon group on the beach. They both had a lot of fun seeing and doing what mommy does! My first tri is on Sunday the 17th of May so it is approaching fast. I have lots of pictures to post so I will try and get them on here in the next day or two. We are so happy to have the 60-70 degree weather that it is hard to do stuff inside, which is a good thing most of the time! :) We just hope that it sticks around and does not turn into another summer like last year.

Target Practice

Chad bought the girls a gun called the cricket. He liked it because it was pink, the girls like it because it is pink, and they are now learning how to shoot it. Both Emma and Madison are interested in hunting...I think Madison more than Emma, but both have really enjoyed what they are learning and I think Chad is having fun taking his girls out and teaching them. I expect in a couple of years they will be going on short hunting trips with their daddy!

Chad is getting ready for surgery!

Mason is waiting for daddy to get out of surgery. He was a wiggly noisy little boy who did not enjoy the hours spent in the hospital but was very cute for all who passed bye!! :)

Chad and Mason right before he was discharged. Chad was still on some really good drugs and that is why he looks so calm!

Chad with his granny glasses on because the light is still too strong for his eyes, but as he would say "I make these look good!"

Finally an update!

Well I was going to update you about chad right after he came out of surgery but something in our computer would not let us get back onto the internet....so I had to wait. Then we were sick and busy and this is really the first moment to get back into the blogging world. I have so many little stories to blog about so maybe you will get a lot all at once!

For now...Chad is doing really well. He can see better than he did before the surgery so we are very thankful for that. The doctor also said he is looking great! Our next appointment is on May 5th just to make sure that his eye is still heeling the way it is supposed to. We will have to go back at least once a month for a year for checkups on Chad's eye and he has lots of eye drops that he has to put in his eye that he will also take for a year.
We want to thank you again for all of your prayers.

Still waiting

Well it has been two hours since Chad went into the surgery room and still no word. His surgery was schedualed for 12pm but he did not go in until 1pm so hopefully we will hear soon. Mason has been an impatient waiter so I need to attend to him now. I will update as soon as I hear something.

One of those days

Every mom has gone through life with one or two or three of those days that you just seem to get nothing done, even though you are trying really hard to get things cleaned up, but you have little helpers who go behind you and make it all messy again! Well we have been having weeks of it. To give you an example of what a day with my little Heidi is like here is how it goes.....

Wake up in the morning and start breakfast, Heidi comes down and tries to get her own yogurt, I help her and have her sit at the table. Emma comes down and lets me know that a piece of glass out of a picture frame has broken so I go up and help her clean and vacuum the mess up. Meanwhile Heidi is bringing up her yogert...Emma is taking away the yogurt but not paying attention dumps it all out on the floor. Get that mess cleaned up and go downstairs to make lunch and clean up dishes, I hear Heidi and Mason laughing and was thinking to myself that it is so fun to hear little kids laugh and play together. Then I hear Mason cry (he is in the swing mind you) so I go and look to see what is wrong and Heidi has taken another yogurt, opened it and smeared it all over herself and all over Mason! I punish little Heidi and then decide to take a picture for the record, because it really is funny, in hindsight, not while I am cleaning up the mess that is everywhere and warrents a bath for two kiddo's and a washing of the swing seat and floor beneath it. Right after lunch I am trying to fold clothes and Chad gets home from working the meal over at camp and Heidi comes into the living room to tell me that he is home....only for me to find out that she has smeared butter all over her face and freshly washed hair!!!!! I told Chad that he had to put her down for a nap because I was ready to explode at that point. So I was able to get about a two hour reprieve before she woke up only to put something else all over her body (I am still trying to figure out what she got into) and dumped Mason's bottle out all over her clean and now folded clothes. After dinner she dummed icecream on her face and on the floor because it slipped and she fell into it, kind of, and spilled her milk all over the floor. That does not count the mud the older kids tracked in from playing out side and Madison taking the towels and wash cloths to the bathroom and letting some of them, clean of course, slip into the toilet only to need washing again. At this point they are all getting ready for bed as I can not handle another mess for the day!

Here is a picture of one of Heidi's escapades!

Mason is crying because he is really miserable and Heidi is still crying from getting her punishment. She was having so much fun though! :)