Nate's first family portrait!

Big man drew his first picture of the whole family!  Didn't he do such a good job?! 

 By the way, those things on Lilly's and my head are NOT horns, they are "pony tails"! 

Bounce House!!

Last week was Spring Break for the kids, and also for my good friend, Lindsay, who is a teacher, so we took the opportunity to have a play date with her and her cutie pies, Logan and baby Laine.  Of course I had fun talking to my sweet friend, but I was so excited that the kids had so much fun jumping around in the bouncy houses.  In the past month or so, we have been to a couple of birthday parties with bounce houses and the kids really started opening up and having fun jumping around, so I knew they would have a great time and I was RIGHT!! (We've come a long way baby!)

Forgive the nasty quality of these pictures- it was taken with my little camera from about 7 years ago! I didn't want to lug my big ol' camera but I wanted a few photos.. I can't wait to get another IPhone so I have another way of taking pictures!!

 

Climbing up!

and sliding down!

 Best buddies

I took these in the front yard the same day (with my better camera!).  Lilly is putting some "bite-lip" on Nate.  I have no idea why they have always called chapstick that.. NO IDEA.

 Lilly was loving her new threads.  Especially her "sprakely" shoes!!

Play date at our house!

I've been trying to have at least a play date or two a week, I think it's good for the kids and it's GREAT for me too!  I'm bad about bringing my huge camera when we go to the park or over to someone else's house or something, but this one happened to be at my house and I actually remembered to snap a few of the kids. 

We've hung out with my friend Tiffany and her girls several times, but Nate and Lilly are just now starting to warm up and talk around them!  They love playing with the little girl that is closest to their age, I'lea.  She is such a sweetheart!!  The day they came over was actually her 3rd birthday!  The next day we got to go have some fun at her birthday party, but of course I don't have any pictures of that!

So let me explain what they are doing here- They are all lying in a circle in our living room floor, watching Dora and playing with educational apps on the new Kindle Fire that I'lea had just gotten for her birthday (it's on the floor in the middle).  Those are the coolest things ever, and I am TOTALLY sold on getting them for the kids so they can grow with them.  Now it's just deciding when exactly to get them, and then saving up the money for them! :)

 They LOVED it!  Absolutely entranced!  I could not believe all the educational kids games and movies, music, children's books..  so awesome.  Thanks for sharing you cool new Kindle Fire, I'lea!!

A few photos from Valentine's Day!

Ok, I only have a few more posts to update from February and then at least I'll be in the right month! 

 Valentine's Day fell on Tuesday this year, so the kids had school.  They had a little party, and I brought my cruddy old camera but I can't find those pics, of course!  They frosted heart-shaped cookies and ate them, and then exchanged candy and cards with their little classmates!  These pictures were taken after we got home that afternoon.  As you can see they are still munching on the candy they got.  They were riding on a pretty good sugar high..

 So I got this idea from Pinterest.  This lady in Australia prints these and sells them on ETSY.  I decided to download some free fonts that I like and try it myself!  They are all the most special dates in our little family.  The first is the day Brian and I met (which was also my 22nd bday!), then the day we got married, the day we found out we were pregnant, and of course the day the twins were born! Underneath the dates it says "The dates our lives were forever changed".  You can do whichever or however many dates you want, but these were the ones that stood out for me! I printed it on cardstock, framed it, and gave it to Brian for V-day.  It's on the wall in our bedroom now.  Hoping to find a place for it in the living room at some point!

Getting caught up from the last month!!

This is the first in a long line of catch up posts!!  I was going through all my pictures, and I'm glad I've taken them because they are the only thing reminding me what my posts need to be about!! 

A few weeks ago, I bought the kids this super cool easel.  It has a dry erase board and chalkboard, but the kids love using the markers on the dry erase board..

She's so serious!

And look who has almost learned to write her name!  She gets better every day, I'm just proud she's trying!

Nate loves drawing "malley faces" (smiley faces)

These are just random pics of them playing around the house.. Nate still loves his cars and trucks!  And look, he's got some farm animals mixed in this parade, too!

Wet head straight out of the bath.. She's taking care of baby as usual :)  I'll notice her standing with the baby, swaying back and forth or rocking it on her hip while patting it on the back, and she looks like such a natural!  It must be instinctive in little girls or something!!

And speaking of instinctive.. she also pushes baby around in the stroller while chatting on her phone.. I'm telling you, she carries on complete conversations about her day!

You can't really tell, but her other hand is on her hip in this picture.. sporting a little 'tude for the camera..

And here's my happy-go-lucky little boy.  Yes, he's whiny, and he has problems listening sometimes, but he really is such a sweet, smiley boy..

Pretty eyes on my pretty girl..