We got our family pictures back, YAY!! They turned out great and can't wait to get some printed and update my walls! Thanks Tony, great work!!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Monday, May 14, 2012
May...So Far
Our favorite part of spring has to be May Day. It has been so fun working together to figure out what kind of basket, what kind of flower and what goodies to include. And then making a list of all our family and friends that we want to give one to. The kids helped me make those pony bead and wire heart flowers. Madi liked picking out the colors and patterns for her beads and then trying to decide which friend would like it the most. Evan just did his randomly of course but he was so excited to give his best friends Mari and Ella their own flower. And of course the most fun is the ding and dash. Our dash was a little more relaxed this year since we did our deliveries during the day and most were at work. But we still had a lot of fun. I overheard Madi at one point talking to herself saying "This is the best day ever!" I love that the kids enjoy giving to others and sharing kindness.
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| April showers bring May flowers and what do these May flowers bring? Happy thoughts and sunshine smiles And wishes for a wonderful spring! |
Since Madi's birthday is after school is out, she was able to celebrate early with her classmates on May 2nd. We had a Cardinal cupcake and treat bags for everyone. She had fun but still a little confused. "Is my birthday tomorrow? No, just your birthday party." Getting a little excited for that birthday!
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| Evan enjoying his cupcake, I mean frosting! |
Our big fun so far this month was the Flywheels annual tractor drive. We had 43 tractors travel about 41 miles. Almost the whole route this year was on dirt roads traveling south of Salina. The trip was a lot longer this year since we had two extra stops but they were great stops. We had our regular, stop on the side of the road stops and then we also stopped at a farm where he had a shop full of old hand tools, a car, a couple of tractors, it was pretty amazing all the things he had in this shed. And then we stopped at a car museum that one of our club members owns in Mentor. They put out a wonderful spread of food and drinks for us. It was above and beyond generous.
We had six tractors in the drive this year. Chris worked his tail off getting all those tractors up and running. We also had two new drivers and two new passengers this year. Chris' brother Jon drove and my mom Sandy drove this year. And then we put some old seats in our little wagon so the kids could ride with us. They had so much fun. They had drinks and snacks and plenty to look at. We left Lane Diesel at 9:00 am. We had a pretty uneventful trip until the ball on Chris' tractor fell off which let the trailer the kids were riding in come undone. Chris said he felt a bump but didn't think anything of it, just the road. But Madi said the trailer fell and they skidded for a ways and Daddy just kept going so she had to yell at him to stop. Thankfully we also installed seat belts so the kids were unharmed. Between the trailer falling off and Mom's tractor being slower than all the others, they were pretty far behind us. They met back up at the tool shed stop. From there we travelled about 20 minutes to Lake Wasey where we all parked for lunch. The organizers for the drive arranged for food to be cooked and available for us. Chris' mom drove out at lunch time to pick up the kids. They were covered head to toe with dirt. They got a lot more dirt kicked up at them than we thought they would. Madi was ready to be done but Evan threw a royal fit when we tried to load him in the car. So he stayed and finished out the drive. He just absolutely loved it! The next leg of the trip, Evan even managed to get a nap in! Our last stop was at the home of Rex Russell, one of the Flywheels members. He collects old cars and has a museum in Mentor, a small town just south of Salina. They provided drinks and barbecue sandwiches with all the sides to go with. It was unexpected and so very nice. Evan enjoyed looking at the old fire trucks. The best comment from him was "I'm going to drive allll these tractors!" He just loved seeing all 43 of those tractors parked in rows and he wanted to sit and drive on all of them. Other than the fire trucks he didn't really care about anything else but the tractors that day! After our stop in Mentor we had just a couple miles to drive back to Lane Diesel. We pulled in there about 5:00. We loaded the two slower tractors on trailers which Chris, my mom, and Evan pulled home while Dan, Jon, my dad and I drove an extra 15 miles back to our house with the other four tractors. We pulled in at our house at about 6:30. It was a great day but it was long, hot, and dirty.
April
For Christmas this year, all my mom wanted were pictures. She wants pictures of the kids and our families to hang on her walls. Since the last family picture was from Jason and Tabatha's wedding, we decided that a new family photo was long over due. So we gave mom a gift certificate to have family photos done. April 1, we were all able to get together and have Tony Guzman do our family photos. I am so anxious to get those pictures back! But since he is only doing this part time and just started a new job, I am really trying not to pester him. (I may have just found the source of Evan's lack of patience, hmmm!) We had such a fun photo session! Of course Jaxson and Madi were perfect and the uncooperative one would be my Evan. But we couldn't help but laugh it off. He was acting the part of the photographer to a tee!! He did and said everything Tony did. Directing everyone and using the tripod. It was just too funny!! We eventually had to trick him into getting some pictures done. We even had to take a few shots with the tripod right next to him. All the editing being done could be the reason it is taking awhile to get them back ;) I sure hope they turn out good!! We also had to bribe with ice cream :) Here's all three grands patiently waiting for their ice cream afterwards. Of course, now he sits and smiles, stinker!
April 3, the kids are giving us a concert. They play a mean barrel and cinder block drums! The featured songs were "Red Solo Cup" and "Shake It For Me Girl"! It was a great free concert.
April 8th was Easter. The kids are really enjoying our church and church family. I am so happy that we have made this commitment to raising them in the church and having them at a young age learn about God. We have been really active in our church community. We enjoy the Mid Week Manna sessions. Evan absolutely adores his Sunday School teachers and can't wait to go to "his classroom." The adult Sunday School classes are paired with a kids class during Lent. Both kids were able to visit their Lent Buddies and sing to them and they got gifts from their Buddies. I have had several older adults stop us and tell us how much they enjoyed the kids coming in and singing to them. Chris and I have also gotten involved with various groups and committee's. I enjoy helping in the classrooms and look forward to VBS this summer. We have met a lot of great families with wonderful qualities that we want our kids to be around. Love it!!
April showers bring May flowers! I love the rain but please don't send us any more severe weather. April 14th was a long day. The kids spent most of the afternoon and evening hanging out in the basement, totally oblivious to the tornado weather around us. I don't like tornadoes, have been deathly afraid of them since I was little. Kids even slept in the storm shelter for a couple of hours on the air mattress. My nerves were about shot by the time we were finally able to make it up out of the basement and to our beds well after 1 am. We had three very close calls and thank you Lord, he spared Salina two direct hits and one direct hit at our house. This picture is from the first storm that went through. These clouds kept lowering and lowering as they traveled through the middle of Salina and opened up again right after clearing Salina city limits. We were just waiting and hoping to not see a funnel dip out of these clouds.
After some very agonizing days of worry and tears over this loose tooth, she finally pulled it out herself!! April 20th Madi lost her first tooth. It was so loose but she had so much anxiety over it falling out. It got to where it was bleeding most of the day and she wouldn't let me look at it or try and pull it out. I finally convinced her to reach in and pull it. And surprisingly, she did. She was one happy girl!! All smiles and so proud of herself for pulling that tooth all by herself! But the tears quickly returned the next day :( She found that the tooth next to it was now loose. "Mom, I wanted the new one to grow in before I got another loose tooth. Why do I have to have loose tooths?" Oh, the pain of growing up.
More gymnastics this month! She is getting to do more and more things that the big girls have been doing. The big balance beam and even an introduction to the uneven bars! So exciting and so much chalk!
Towards the end of the month we had some unseasonably warm temperatures. We had a couple of days well into the 90s, YUCK!! But it gave the kids a chance to get in to their old bathing suits and play in the sprinkler. It's been such a long time since they got to play in the water. Even though the outside temp was warm, that water coming out of the ground was still mighty cold. But the cold water never seems to bother Madi. Evan on the other hand, well, he either doesn't like the cold water or just doesn't like the sprinkler. He is content just to play in a big bucket of water. He loves the water, bathtime, pool, just not a fan of the sprinkler!
The last couple of winters we had show tractors for The Flywheels to work on during the winter months. But not this year. So Chris was able to finally restore a tractor for himself. He pulled in his John Deere 720 on March 3rd and started tearing it down. He wanted to get it all done and ready for the Tractor Drive on May 5th. Two months of work, evenings and weekends. It makes it nice for all of us to get out of the house and hang out in the shed together. Even though the kids aren't quite old enough to actually be really good help, they at least were by our side, checking in and "helping" here and there. Evan got really good and stealing Daddy's tools. He found any and every bolt or hole to stick some kind of tool into. He loved it!! That boy had no option but to fall in love with tractors and tools, and he did!
Chris did an amazing job! April 21st he pulled it out of the shed and was able to drive it down the road. Very proud of his work! Looking forward to doing more work with him and the kids. Such a great activity that we can all enjoy and do together.
April 3, the kids are giving us a concert. They play a mean barrel and cinder block drums! The featured songs were "Red Solo Cup" and "Shake It For Me Girl"! It was a great free concert.
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| Favorite mode of transportation! |
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| Dressed in their Easter best! |
April showers bring May flowers! I love the rain but please don't send us any more severe weather. April 14th was a long day. The kids spent most of the afternoon and evening hanging out in the basement, totally oblivious to the tornado weather around us. I don't like tornadoes, have been deathly afraid of them since I was little. Kids even slept in the storm shelter for a couple of hours on the air mattress. My nerves were about shot by the time we were finally able to make it up out of the basement and to our beds well after 1 am. We had three very close calls and thank you Lord, he spared Salina two direct hits and one direct hit at our house. This picture is from the first storm that went through. These clouds kept lowering and lowering as they traveled through the middle of Salina and opened up again right after clearing Salina city limits. We were just waiting and hoping to not see a funnel dip out of these clouds.
After some very agonizing days of worry and tears over this loose tooth, she finally pulled it out herself!! April 20th Madi lost her first tooth. It was so loose but she had so much anxiety over it falling out. It got to where it was bleeding most of the day and she wouldn't let me look at it or try and pull it out. I finally convinced her to reach in and pull it. And surprisingly, she did. She was one happy girl!! All smiles and so proud of herself for pulling that tooth all by herself! But the tears quickly returned the next day :( She found that the tooth next to it was now loose. "Mom, I wanted the new one to grow in before I got another loose tooth. Why do I have to have loose tooths?" Oh, the pain of growing up.
The tooth fairy visited and left her a dollar! She was so excited! And even more exciting was the trip to Wal-Mart where Daddy bought her a new big girl bike. Tooth and tooth fairy, forgotten!
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| That's a pretty smile! |
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| Evan enjoying his bike too! |
More gymnastics this month! She is getting to do more and more things that the big girls have been doing. The big balance beam and even an introduction to the uneven bars! So exciting and so much chalk!
Towards the end of the month we had some unseasonably warm temperatures. We had a couple of days well into the 90s, YUCK!! But it gave the kids a chance to get in to their old bathing suits and play in the sprinkler. It's been such a long time since they got to play in the water. Even though the outside temp was warm, that water coming out of the ground was still mighty cold. But the cold water never seems to bother Madi. Evan on the other hand, well, he either doesn't like the cold water or just doesn't like the sprinkler. He is content just to play in a big bucket of water. He loves the water, bathtime, pool, just not a fan of the sprinkler!
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| Love that smile! |
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| Cheeeeeese! |
The last couple of winters we had show tractors for The Flywheels to work on during the winter months. But not this year. So Chris was able to finally restore a tractor for himself. He pulled in his John Deere 720 on March 3rd and started tearing it down. He wanted to get it all done and ready for the Tractor Drive on May 5th. Two months of work, evenings and weekends. It makes it nice for all of us to get out of the house and hang out in the shed together. Even though the kids aren't quite old enough to actually be really good help, they at least were by our side, checking in and "helping" here and there. Evan got really good and stealing Daddy's tools. He found any and every bolt or hole to stick some kind of tool into. He loved it!! That boy had no option but to fall in love with tractors and tools, and he did!
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| Beginning |
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| Middle |
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| Evan helping sand the paint on the tool box. Look at that joy! |
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| Almost end! |
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| TA DA!! Looking good! |
March
Blogging has taken a back seat lately. I love being able to look back and re read, look at the pictures and remember the things we have done and a reminder of the kids' milestones. Facebook is so much easier to just leave a quick note about something that was said or what we are doing or just sharing a picture or two. But I still want to keep up with the blog so one day I can put all of this in a book and have it forever. Since this is my journal/baby book for the kids, I need to do some catching up on some of the big (and little) things that have gone on the last couple months.
One of our favorite things to do in early, early spring, after being cooped up in the house all winter, is to drive out to Kanopolis Lake and have a picnic supper or roast hot dogs at a campfire and then drive around and look for deer. Count how many we see. It is early enough in the year that the deer haven't been spooked away by campers yet and are pretty much used to having free range of the whole park. On average we see around 100 deer and lots of turkey. Kids enjoy it for a change. We went out on March 4 and had our picnic supper and the kids were able to play on the new park equipment that was put up during the winter.
March 15, Madi had her spring music program at school. She did so great!! I am sure glad they do the younger kids' programs in the spring. If this had been earlier in the year, she would have never gotten in front of all those people and sang. Now, play Where's Madi? and see if you can find her among all those kids!
The third week of March we finally got to Spring Break!! We had big plans for the week but some of it got rained out. It rained almost every day of our spring break. We did manage to get out of the house for a little fun though. March 20 we went bowling with cousins and friends. Kids had a lot of fun but it sure was a test of patience for Evan. Six kids on one lane made a long wait in between bowling turns. Everybody did great except for Evan. We need to work on our patience skills! :)
Friday, March 23rd, we got a break from the clouds and rain and had a gorgeous spring day to enjoy the zoo. It is so nice having the zoo so close to make a trip out and spend a couple of hours. And great paved walk ways when everything else was such a muddy mess!
The month of March also brought back one of Madi's favorite activities, GYMNASTICS!! She loves gymnastics and they have such a great program and leaders through Parks and Rec.
So last time, I wrote (I had to go back and re read it has been so long ago) that I started potty training with Evan. Well, we didn't do so good. He was doing really good before we started with having dry diapers after naps and some in the mornings also. But he did a bit of a back slide once we started training. He was having a lot accidents and waking up with super wet diapers. He wasn't catching on with telling me he needed to go potty. And ended up using the pull ups like diapers. Which is way more expensive than just buying diapers. So three weeks of trying to potty train and he just wasn't ready. Back to diapers for a little longer.
One of our favorite things to do in early, early spring, after being cooped up in the house all winter, is to drive out to Kanopolis Lake and have a picnic supper or roast hot dogs at a campfire and then drive around and look for deer. Count how many we see. It is early enough in the year that the deer haven't been spooked away by campers yet and are pretty much used to having free range of the whole park. On average we see around 100 deer and lots of turkey. Kids enjoy it for a change. We went out on March 4 and had our picnic supper and the kids were able to play on the new park equipment that was put up during the winter.
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| Being silly! |
March 15, Madi had her spring music program at school. She did so great!! I am sure glad they do the younger kids' programs in the spring. If this had been earlier in the year, she would have never gotten in front of all those people and sang. Now, play Where's Madi? and see if you can find her among all those kids!
The third week of March we finally got to Spring Break!! We had big plans for the week but some of it got rained out. It rained almost every day of our spring break. We did manage to get out of the house for a little fun though. March 20 we went bowling with cousins and friends. Kids had a lot of fun but it sure was a test of patience for Evan. Six kids on one lane made a long wait in between bowling turns. Everybody did great except for Evan. We need to work on our patience skills! :)
Friday, March 23rd, we got a break from the clouds and rain and had a gorgeous spring day to enjoy the zoo. It is so nice having the zoo so close to make a trip out and spend a couple of hours. And great paved walk ways when everything else was such a muddy mess!
The month of March also brought back one of Madi's favorite activities, GYMNASTICS!! She loves gymnastics and they have such a great program and leaders through Parks and Rec.
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