3 Weeks in a photo heavy nutshell!

Well its been a few weeks since I have updated the blog so here are the pics in no particular order!

JT torments loves our cats! Delia is very grumpy, growls, and will bite. For some reason Ty finds it hysterical to push her buttons.... so today he decided to hide cars underneath her in her fur. She was not happy about this but tolerated it anyway.

Then he climbed right up and snuggled in right next to her! Lucky for him, Delia wasn't too feisty!

Addy had her last swim class tonight and is able to jump in and swim a few a few feet by herself. Here's a pic of her with the noodle swimming after floating ducks!

This weekend was packed with fun activities in town so we stayed close to home and just did random spur of the moment playdates!
Delaney has moved back so they have had a good time playing. At the spring fest, the girls all got their faces painted! And then were super goofy!

Even JT got his face painted like spiderman and was So cute!

 Ji'Robert was a good helper today and helped daddy swiffer the floors!

We finally got our garden weeded (look at the bed behind addy, that was solid weeds!) and got it planted! The kids were SO excited this year to plant and be a big part of it. Addy helped plant. Ty helped pull the tomato cages apart.

Everyone helped paint rocks to be colorful so that I could paint on the names of what we had planted.

 They turned out super cute so we'll see if I put enough poly on it to make them last through the season!

There was a transportation fair in town and knowing how much JT LOVES diggers, tractors, and all things truck, I had to bring him by!

He was in heaven and got to sit in EVERYTHING! 

 It was really warm this weekend so a random post on facebook saying it felt like a sprinkler night ended up turning into a party!

JT and Kiki.... Seriously how cute are these two! I have no idea what they are doing bumping their bumpers!

And a sweet little hug!

This is classic... Delaney is hiding behind Addy who is spraying Nora with the sprinker, Nora is blocking her face and laughing hysterically!

Everyone needed ice cream!

And what's a party with out some funny faces!

 After getting dressed, Delaney and Addy found that they had the same dress in different colors and were super excited to match.

Just one cute boy.

 I love this kid.

 We had met up with friends at the park and Mr JT had a blast pushing his digger down the hill so that it would roll between his legs! The world looks awesome upside down!

 Miles dad, Grant, took the kids geocaching (I'm guessing he was sick of listening to us girls talk!) The kids went on a big adventure with him, a treasure hunt, and had so much fun!

 If you've seen the rest of the pics, you may have noticed JTs new hairdo! He had asked for a mohawk so I did twists up to a bunch of little puffs to form a mohawk!

Addy had her dance recital! 

Tap outfit:

 After the recital, mama and meena got Miss A flowers!

Ballet outfit!

 Hopefully I can get the videos uploaded later this week!

We went to our friend Aldens 5th birthday party and he had a camo-hunting theme so we all dressed up! The kids had a blast!

Addy has been in Awana all year and has done awesome! She memorized all of her verses every week, did her book and projects, and had a lot of fun. She has learned a lot about Jesus and God and is very excited about it. For their final night, they had a program with singing!

Miss A in her cubbies vest and with her completed book!

 Just on stage waiting to sing!

Prior to her dance recital they had their rehearsal night!

Addy and Stella had fun before hand getting ready together!

 Addy and Sophia heading off stage!

I'm sure I've missed other adventures that we have had over the past few weeks but at least I got some pics up! My sister (hi Robyn) has been hounding me to get more pics up! I know being half way across the country is hard for her so here you go! A boat load of pics!

Projects!

Over the past month we have done a few little projects and have had a lot of fun!

For those of you who have eaten with JT, you'll know that he is VERY picky when it comes to eating. He would rather have snacks and not eat a meal so I wanted to find something that may be a little more exciting, a little more novel. So I had found an idea on PINTREST and thought I'd give it a whirl.

He LOVED it! And so did Miss A! So I'll need to remember to do this once in a while to get some healthy food into JT!

I also wanted to redecorate our bathroom. I had done this before surgery but the pics have been living in my camera! The walls stayed the same taupe color but we switched out the brighter colored shower curtain for something more calming. Added in some accessories on the medicine cabinet above the toilet, and hung up a  super cute picture frame. It all was done pretty cheap via Michaels and HomeGoods! I Love our new bathroom. It is so much more homey, relaxing, and elegant (the pictures don't do it justice).

 I've been looking for some way to help the kids with their Helper Jobs. Both kids are super helpers! They want to help do things and so I wanted to give them a little more ability to decide what to do. I didn't want a chore list but wanted to keep their helping fun. So I made these (via pintrest again). Each kid has their own helper board. I took pics of things that they were able to do like pick up their room, set the table, separate laundry etc. Then we made magnet boards for each kid. I plan to put their helper jobs for the day on the left side and move them to the right side after they do it. Then at bedtime if all their helper jobs are done, they will get a punch in their punch card. 5 punches and they'll get to pick a fun thing like an extra bedtime story, a coffee/ice cream date, an extra trip to the park etc. We'll see how it goes! They are super excited about it so we tried it tonight with just one helper job each. My plan is to put the number of helper jobs per their age.

Addy had found a dollar around the house and put it in her purse and has been asking if she should buy something or save it for college. Since she has a whole piggy bank full of money for college, I told her I'd take her to the dollar store so she could spend it and that I'd pitch in the tax! She was ECSTATIC!!! We had to look at everything! Then she had a hard time deciding if she should use it to buy something for JT instead. What an amazing big sister. So after going back and forth, I told her I'd give her a second dollar so she could get them each something. So she picked out a truck for Ji'Robert and picked out this little wind chime for her room. Well actually she picked out a 6 pack of giant Shasta cans but I told her she might want to get something she would be able to keep forever. She was SO proud! We had to find the perfect spot to hang it!

 Addy decided she should draw a picture of me... I'm the one on the right!

We've done a few other projects but I don't have pictures of them. I've also got a big list of things I want to get done this summer. But I've also realized that realistically I'm not going to do everything myself. So project number one is painting the two story entryway, living room, stairwell, and landing. And guess what... I'm having someone else do it for me!!! I tend not to hire people to do things that I can do myself because it feels like a waste of money but I found a guy to do it for SUPER cheap and the extra time with my family is worth it! So sometime in the next few weeks it will all be done for me!

We've got a lot of creativity cooking over here and can't wait to do more fun projects this summer! I've got some good ideas from when I was an Arts and Crafts director!

Nature Center

We've been spending quite a bit of time at the local nature center. I grew up in the country and had lots of land to run and play and explore on. So I want to make sure that my kids have some of those same opportunities. It's always nice to be somewhere where the kids can be kids. They can run, yell, hop, explore, pick up sticks, enjoy nature, and be free to do whatever they want. I love playing where the risk of being naughty or getting in trouble is minimized, where we can be goofy and have fun, and we can enjoy each other and see their true colors.

These two little kids really do love each other. Addy will take JT by the hand and show him things and teach him about the geese, turtles, and ducks. JT will show Addy how to play with sticks and float them down the stream. They are just adorable together!

Seriously.... How cute are they!!!!