April Birthdays and Easter weekend

We know 2 very special kids whose birthdays both happen to be in April (1 day apart) and we were blessed to be invited to celebrate their birthdays with them.  Grace turned 6 this month and Tyler was 4.  It's so wonderful to be a part of their lives and watch them grow and develop.

Grace in her new jeep taking Greyson for a ride.

Tyler trying out his new 4 wheeler.

We also had an egg hunt at their house.  The kids had a blast hunting the eggs and then finding out there was candy inside!

 We also dyed eggs with the kids for the first time.  We told them the eggs would get a bath and turn neat colors.  It was hard for them to wait for the eggs to be done.  Em wanted to touch the eggs and Landon wanted to use the handy egg dipper to move the eggs around.

They're proud of their eggs!

 We got to celebrate Easter with my parents on Saturday.  They had us over for dinner, an egg hunt (surprisingly it wasn't raining), and the kids got an Easter basket.

Egg hunt at Mema and Papa B.'s house

 Then it was Easter morning.  We decided to forgo the Sunrise Service this year and head to church a little early for pictures and the egg hunt.  Matt and Todd did a wonderful job with the kids during service while Cathy and I sang in the choir's Easter cantada.

You'll have to forgive the trash in the background!  Sometimes you just have to take pictures of moments like these.  When we walked into the fellowhip hall, Landon took Emmy's hand! :)

Our best family picture.  Landon wasn't too thrilled with the idea of getting his picture taken over and over!

 After church, we saw that the Easter Bunny left baskets at our house, so we opened those before heading over to Matt's parents for lunch, naps, the egg hunt, and more Easter baskets.

Happy Easter, everyone!  He is risen!  He is risen, indeed!!

Little Miss Ornery

And so as most of you know, Miss Em is very....for lack of a better word...curious!  She loves to have her hands in things, touching things, making a mess, etc.  Over the past few weeks, these are a few photos of her ornery self!

This is tootpaste she got out of Daddy's backpack, opened, and spread all over her face.

And this....well...yes it is what you think it is.  Besides being all over her face, legs, and hands, it was all over the crib rails, blankets, and stuffed animals.  Let's just say, she had a shower before trying to go back down for a nap!

We do love her dearly and I'm sure will look back and laugh, but for now, I'm pretty sure God is working with us on patience and perserverance! ;)

Spring Break Week

The weather was quite spring break like (cold, cloudy, and rainy), but despite the cool temperatures, we had a lot of fun.  We went swimming, to "Old" McDonald's :), made homemade pizza, went to visit the Berger's in Lafayette, went to a bounce house, and spent time outside when we could.  Matt even took both kids and his Grandpa Vantine to Lunker's for an afternoon and I went shopping! :)  We had a nice relaxing time home, but I think the grandparents missed seeing the kids! 
Landon wasn't too sure about the pool at first.  He kept saying, "I DON'T WANT TO!"  But he got used to it pretty quickly.  Emerson immediately loved it.  She even jumped off the side and got her head underwater.  She's quite the water baby.

Swimming at the Goshen College pool

Homemade Pizza

"CHEESE!"

When we went to visit the Bergers, they suggested a bounce house.  I wasn't too sure how the kids would react, but they LOVED it!  They ran around, climbed, slid, and jumped everywhere.  It wasn't that busy, which was nice.  Adults were able to help kids under 4, and let me tell you, I was sweating pretty quickly.  It's hard work carrying little ones up those slides!  They both napped well, I guess we wore them out.  We had a really nice time visiting. 

Jump It! with Mikel, Jessica, and Gunnar

The kids LOVED the slides

Emerson flew down quickly, but she didn't mind.

Gunnar loved sliding too

They even went down the BIG slides by themselves

Meeting Baby Kenna

After almost 2 weeks of coughs, flu, runny noses, etc. we were all well enough to go visit our newest friend, Kenna Davis this weekend.  She was absolutely wonderful and a very good baby, according to mom and dad!  Emerson LOVED her.  Her eyes lit up when we asked if she wanted to hold her.  She kept touching her and kissing her forehead.  I think Landon liked her too.  He thanked God for Baby Kenna in his prayer. :)  We are so happy that labor and delivery went smoothly and that we have a new friend to play with.  Emerson (who can still wear 12 mo. pants) looked huge compared to the little 8 pound Kenna!

Congratulations to the Davis Family of 4!!

The kids' first slumber party!

On Friday, the Frye's volunteered to watch our kids and Greyson all night!  And notice, I did say "volunteered."  They are such an awesome family and I don't know anyone else who volunteers to watch 5 kids under 6 years old...but they love our kids so much so we jumped at the chance (feeling slightly guilty :)).  Matt and I then had an evening to ourselves.  We went to eat at Lucchese's (a yummy Italian restaurant).  There was a 30 min. wait...I can't remember the last time we actually waited at a restaurant for 30 min. :)  Then we came home, turned up the TV, and played a little Rock Band, taking turns on guitar and vocals.  My wonderful husband even DVR'd the Purdue basketball game so we could spend time doing some things together. ;)  I then fell asleep while Matt watched the game.  In the morning, I got up and made cinammon rolls!  Then we got caught up on a few tv shows we had DVR'd and went to pick up the kiddos.
It sounds like they had a great time too.  They played outside with bubbles, used play-doh, ate supper (well Landon sort of ate :)), watched some of a movie, and went to bed without much of a fuss.  We did accidentally, well I should say "I accidentally", didn't check the diaper bag too closely because we only sent 1 diaper a piece for the kiddos.  So poor Emmy had a pretty full diaper by the time we picked her up the next morning.  Oops! :)
Thank you so much to Amos and Jess who I'm sure had a crazy night and Grace and Tyler who shared their rooms with their friends!

Winter Ups and Downs

Alright, so I've been a little absent from the blogging world.  I realized I haven't been on in about 3 weeks to even check anyone else's blog, much less blog about what's going on with us.  So, I'll try to keep it short by sharing some pictures.

Landon and Emerson got their first experience with Play-Dough.  Emmy absolutely loved it because she's all about being messy.  Landon is enjoying Hi-Ho Cherrio and Candy Land more! :)

Matt and Mikel got season tickets to PU basketball.

We built our first snowman together. (It was melted by the next afternoon!)

Em LOVES to play in the snow and she even wants to bring snow inside to play with (and eat).

It took Landon awhile, but he warmed up to the snow, too.

This is Emmy at Danny and Kayla's wedding.  She's showing off her "scary" face.

All the kids dressed up at the wedding.  Notice Landon and Tyler with their matching ensembles!

Em's first black eye.  She ran into a table at church and was knocked flat on her back.

The black eye a few days later.

We also had a bow making party where we made bows for Emerson, Grace, and new little Kenna Davis.  Jessica taught us how to make bows for pretty cheap and they were pretty easy too.  Just waiting for Em to grow a little more hair so they'll stay in! :)
I'll try to update a little more often, so stay posted!

Celebrating Valentine's Day

This weekend Matt and I got to spend some quality time together.  It started with mom and dad watching the kids over night on Friday (YEAH!).  This was much needed since Matt had spent the past two nights in a sleeping bag on the floor of a hotel room at a conference and I had spent them fixing the heat at 4:30 am in the negative temps outside and getting up with Em twice the next night.  We easily slept in until 8 on Saturday morning!  Then we got up and ready to go to Warsaw.  I surprised Matt with an hour massage at the Massage College in downtown Warsaw.  I was listening one morning to Pulse FM and they had a super saving social for a massage.  I got 2 (I wasn't just gonna sit there and let him get 1 :)) for less than the regular price of 1.  And let me tell you, it was well worth it.  I felt sooo relaxed.  This was Matt's first massage and I think he enjoyed it, as well.  Then we went out for lunch at an authentic Mexican place and spent the afternoon together.  We picked the kids up after naps and then got to spend the evening playing and hanging out as a family.  The kids were in great moods (surprisingly, because we were told they got up at 6...so sorry mom and dad!)  Just thankful for the wonderful family that God has given me!

"Blizzard" Day

So according to the meterologists, a blizzard was supposed to come our way last evening.  I haven't been out driving, but looking out our window does not look like a blizzard to me! :)  Now granted, Matt spent a few hours snow blowing the driveway and isn't done yet.  But besides the snow, things are pretty calm.  I'm not complaining though :) because it gave me a day to spend with my beautiful family.  I got laundry done and bills paid, but also got to teach the kids a new game, "Hi-Ho CherryO." Do you remember that game?  Well the kids loved it and kept wanting to play again.  They both did really well and it kept their attention.  Landon kept trying to get the birdie (even though if you spin the bird you lose 2 cherries).  I don't think he quite got the concept.  Hope everyone is staying warm out there and enjoying the beautiful snowy day!

New Year...New Goal

Happy 2011, everyone.  I know I'm a few days overdue! :)  But with the kids sleeping and the snow blowing, I figured it would be a good time to blog!  We started the new year with the annual Frye New Year's Eve party.  It was a great time as always.  We played a Euchre tournament, Quarters/Fire card game, and the Wii.  We also ate lots of yummy food and had a few yummy drinks as well.  The kids did pretty well too.  Most of them were asleep by 8:30.  Greyson was a little later and Gunnar decided to ring in the New Year with everybody!  Below are the ONLY pictures I took all night.  Jessica was patiently trying to get Greyson to fall asleep so she's not in the pictures.

Jenn, Kristina, and Jess

                                     

Mikel, Jessica, Gunnar, and Matt

Steven, Amos, John, and Mikel watching the countdown on the projector

I am one that hates New Year's Resolutions....so I'm going to call mine a goal! :)  My new goal is to exercise 3 times a week.  My loving husband laughed when I told him my goal, since he thought it was a joke! :)  But I don't blame him.  I'm not really the stick to it exercise person.  I'll get going in something and then a few weeks later, I stop doing it.  But this year...I'm trying to stick to it.  I've got some dance workouts DVR'd that I've been doing and they're pretty fun, so maybe I'll keep at it.  The kids like them to.  They've got some wicked dance moves! :)  So here's to a New Year and a New Goal!

Christmas 2010

"Happy Birfday to Jesus.  He be 10." 
This was one of Landon's favorite Christmas songs (that and "Jingle Bells.") and it just made me smile because with all the busyness of the season, a 2 year old reminded me what the season is all about.  Yes, he did actually make up the song.  That's one of his favorite things to do...make up songs about random things.  I wonder who he learned that from.... :)  With 4 Christmas parties in 4 days (and 1 a week earlier), we were definitely blessed by a lot of family time and a lot of gifts.  We had the Hahn Christmas on the 22nd.  We enjoyed beef stroganoff and watching the kids open their gifts.  Landon is really enjoying his Lightning McQueen Dominoes and Em is loving her padded Princess chair and nursery.  The kids had kind of a difficult time sharing the cool chair, so Uncle Nate bought Landon a Cars chair too so they each have one!


Landon as Santa's helper



Emmy loving her new chair



The kids performing their rendition of "Jingle Bells" (with Gma singing, them ringing the bells and shouting, "Hey!")

Then the next night, we had our annual Friend Christmas with the Frye's, Davis's, and Jenn.  We had some fun times playing in the snow, eating yummy pizza, decorating cookies for Santa, and playing card games.

John pulling "the kids" on the sled behind the 4-wheeler

Emmy smiling saying, "No" (which means snow) and Landon crying saying, "I wanna go in the house.  I chan't run fast."

The kids going for a "horsie ride" on a tired horsie!

Everybody helping to decorate, or eat, cookies.

Landon and Emmy's creation

 The next night was Christmas Eve and we had the Bergers and Clarks over for haystacks and more gifts to open!  The kids did a GREAT job with gifts this year.  I think Landon is starting to understand that he can leave his new toy to open another gift and his toy will still be there when he gets back.  Landon enjoyed his "big truck, semi trucks" that he got and Em really enjoyed her new baby.

New Christmas p.j.s

Aunt Tina and Uncle Steven gave the kids a book with their voices recorded to read each page

 Then the next morning, the kids woke up and Emerson immediately found the crumbs from the cookies that Santa left and started to eat them.  So we decided to open stockings at 7:30.  They loved pulling out the presents and Landon got his new car that he asked Santa for so he was pretty excited!  After stockings, we ate breakfast and opened our family's gifts.  Landon got a car ramp/garage and Emmy got a dog with puppies in the belly.

Christmas morning...opening their stockings from Santa

 After naps, we headed over to the Vantine Christmas at Todd and Cathy's house.  It was great catching up with everybody.  The kids did well with all of the excitement (except they had no interest in eating supper, so we had a few meltdowns before bedtime).

Our Family Christmas picture

The extended family (this picture was taken WAY TOO CLOSE to bedtime...as you can tell by Landon's "smile" :))

Landon and great Papa.  Everybody feels happier with a cup of milk! :)

 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.  And may 2011 bring you many more happy memories!