Early Birthday from Grandma!

When my mom asked if there were any fun toys she could get the kids for their birthday that they could play with outside, I immediately told her "SAND BOX"! At this point, I'm not sure if it was courage or stupidity on my part (what a mess- sand everywhere!), but the kids sure do have a great time in it so that is all that matters! Thanks Mom!!

Surprisingly, Nate (AKA The Fun Ruiner) was the first to check it out.

After dancing around it for a while, Lilly decided to join in. But she wouldn't take her shoes off. That was driving me nuts! Sand in your shoes.. EEEWWW!!

Look who is finally enjoying the water table!! I guess the sand box gave him the courage to conquer all outside toys..

From Aunt Stephanie's camera

Here are some smiley pictures of the kids taken by Brian's sister Stephanie when she was visiting two weeks ago.

It is quite apparent that they had a pretty good time!

Cool dude

Lilly's hat is barely holding on in this one..

What you talkin' 'bout, Willis?

I didn't know Nate knew the Macarena!

Love this one!

Say CHEESE!

Thanks Stephanie, for the sweet pictures!

Summer is Here!

Summer, Summer, Summer Time!!!!!!! YAY!!

We ventured out to our little community pool on it's opening weekend!~ We thought it was lovely, but I'm not sure if the kids agreed.

Lilly checked things out, but she didn't want to get in the kiddie pool. She finally got in with me (on my lap) and we sat on the little step. It is 1.5 feet, so still a little deep to let them loose.

Not surprisingly, Nate wanted nothing to do with anything and clung to Brian like his life depended on it.

From this point on he will be known as "The Fun Ruiner"..
Lilly and Nate have both really taken to doing yard work since the weather has gotten warmer..
This is Lilly's fake whiny-face
Nate wears his hat everywhere now! The way they both say "hat" is the cutest thing ever!
I bought this water/sand table (which will only have water in it this year) as an early birthday present and Lilly really loved it! Sweet baby girl..

Nate never touched it, but occasionally he would come closer to see why Lilly was having so much fun..
I guess he was scared of the water.. who knows.. He loves taking a bath.. I just don't get this kid!
Ok, so he would rather play with his dump truck.. No biggie! That's fun too!
At least one of them enjoyed it!

Nate always wants to look at my camera, so I took the opportunity to smooch on him while Lilly was enjoying splashing around.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Grandparents and Aunt Stephie!!

I didn't mention in my post about all the chaos a couple weeks ago, we did manage to have a little fun between back surgery and throwing up and trips to the ER. We even got a few pictures to prove it!

We had a little early birthday so Grandma and Papa could give Nate and Lilly their presents while they are here! They got a new lawn mower and other outside sand box toys, which they LOVE..

and a really cool Doug and Melissa animal puzzle ..

and Elmo DVD player with cool Sesame Street songs to play in it!

Grandma and Grandpa did a lot of the kids' favorite thing.. READING!! We warned them..

Aunt Steph helping Lilly with the lawn mower..

Thanks so much for coming all the way from Colorado to help us all after Brian's surgery. We are very grateful!

We love you!

Just to update on Brian's situatuation, when he went back to the doctor last week the blood clot was still there but they said it was in a superficial vein which is supposed to be a good thing. We are waiting on more news from the ultrasound they did on his arm. He seems to be feeling a lot better (although still in some pain) and actually went back to work yesterday and did fairly well. He will have another visit with his back surgeon next week.