Busy Bees!

I feel like I've been running on a hamster wheel the last several weeks! It seems like I can't even stop to breathe, much less update this blog. Work is going great. I am still loving it. I am being challenged daily and constantly having to think and plan and do- all things that I LOVE! I am planning our summer vacation to California! I'm really looking forward to it. This is going to be our first trip with both kids out of state- aside from family visits. We're going to fly and visit Disneyland, Sea World, Legoland, and the San Diego Zoo...oh yeah, and the beach and Emily! Andrew is right in the middle of the terrible two's. If there was another word that means something worse than terrible, I would use it, because this stage of his life is about to do me in! I said a prayer the other night that I would have the strength to discipline him appropriately without breaking his spirit and making sure that he knows how much I love him, but I'm not even going to lie- it's tough! Yesterday in Wal-Mart (why do I take him there???) he threw a picture frame and broke it- on purpose, started eating a stick of butter, was grabbing things off shelves and throwing them. I almost broke down, especially when Madelyn started screaming at the top of her lungs. Thankfully, Jason came and got them both and took them home. How many people have had to call their husbands to come and get their kids from Wal-Mart? Madelyn is now 5 months old and just as sweet and precious as she can be! (Andrew is sweet and precious too, just right now he's not showing that all the time) She is sleeping through the night- most nights- and is talking a lot. She has a friend in her class who is 10 days older and they coo and goo and babble to each other! When her mom picks her up she will cry because she doesn't want her to leave! I love that I am getting to see all of these things!

Here are some pictures from our busyness! For some reason I posted all the pictures from current to least current and I ment to do it the other way around, oh well! I don't know why these are smaller either, probably because they're from J's phone.

Today I had to get my infant/child CPR and Health and Safety certification- I passed, yay! Jason decided to take Andrew and Madelyn to the Touch a Truck at the Hammon's center. Andrew had a great time!

Jason dressed them up to go. I'm proud of that!
Andrew riding a John Deere- he actually prefers Kubota, but they didn't have one!

Getting his Home Depot gear. He is so proud of his apron. He showed me as soon as I got home and said "they colored Andrew's name" and pointed to where they had written his name on it!

In the fire engine

Riding in the Caterpiller dump truck

Madelyn is starting to hold her own bottle- probably because she's so used to just having it propped up most of the time! What a big girl!

She loves to play and is aware of everything around her!

Andrew loves to be outside! He doesn't care about anything else...even his allergies!

We played some t-ball the other day. This sequence of pics is backwards, but you get the idea! He really wants to play soccer and almost got a new soccer set at Wal-Mart the other day, but he lost that privledge when he threw the picture frame.

Here are some pictures of Andrew from the other day at school. He loves his class, especially his teacher. He has a lot of sweet little friends! It's so much fun to watch him interact with other kids in this setting. He is such a little boy! He knows everything he is supposed to do and follows his teachers directions (notice, I said his teacher's directions. For me it's still tantrums!)

Madelyn is loving her class too! She especially loves the exersaucer!

We had a fundraiser for the preschool at Chuck E Cheese last Tuesday. It was a good time. We had around 40 families come! I don't know the exact number of funds that were raised, but we had a great time! Although, this is what Miss Madelyn thought of it all!

Another fun two and a half year old thing. Andrew has been getting my markers and coloring himself to match his shirt. He at least chooses a marker that matches, which is really funny, but a pain to scrub off!

Miss Madelyn enjoying the spring weather!

Her nose is always running from allergies and teething.

Last Saturday we went to the AHA Heart Walk. We had a great time. We met the Hinds there and Andrew played with Blake in the bouncy house- thank goodness, because I was not going in the bouncy house!

Enjoying things as usual!

These next few pictures are just from different things. Nothing particular! Enjoy!

Jason and I went to the Washington Regional Foundation Gala with the Hinds. We actually have a picture of ourselves!

Egg-stravaganza!

We've had a very happy Easter at our house this year! Andrew did a lot of egg hunting, although he is a very pokey egg hunter. My hope is that Madelyn will be the competitive one! This year we went to the Tri-Delt alumni Easter egg hunt at the Tri-Delt house. This was Andrew's first egg hunt. I made the mistake of not having "egg hunt boot camp" prior to all the egg hunts, because Andrew didn't understand that he couldn't just take his time, because the eggs were being gathered by many other kids. Oh well, he still enjoyed himself and didn't need that much candy anyway! On the way to the egg hunt I asked him what he thought would be in his eggs and his reply was "sausage and biscuits."

Putting the first egg in his basket

Getting eggs from the flowers
I think it's impossible to get a picture where both kids are looking at the camera!

On the way home I heard him say "Uh-oh Mommy, Andrew make mess." I didn't think much about it and couldn't really look back. I discovered this chocolate covered boy when we got home!

This is the Easter Dolphin from the Tri-Delt house. Andrew is absolutely TERRIFIED of this dolphin! He saw it from far away and started screaming, "no bunny get Andrew." He thought it was the Easter bunny. I explained to him that it was a dolphin with bunny ears, thinking this might change his mind. He then repeated over and over "no dolphin bunny get Andrew." The only good that came out of this is now when Andrew won't mind, we'll tell him that we will call the dolphin and he immediately changes his behavior.

On Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt at our church. Andrew was excited about getting to hunt eggs again. There were many things to do there, the bouncy house, face painting, drawing with chalk. We saw a lot of our friends from church, school, and MOPS there. It was a great time! There was also an Easter bunny there, but once he realized that it was just our music pastor in there he wasn't so scared. He still wouldn't touch the bunny and stayed about 10 feet away, but he did wave at him!

Getting his face painted

Madelyn was enjoying the festivities

He had to check and see what was inside every egg before putting them in his basket

Picking up an egg- very slowly. I really don't think I've ever seen the boy move so slow!

He loved his bunny basket!

Putting eggs in the basket

Jason and Madelyn relaxed in the sun while Andrew and I played

Blowing bubbles with Ms. Carol. Andrew can't really blow the bubbles. He kind of sucks them into his mouth and there is a whole lot of spit!

An artist at work!

Saturday night we geared up to dye Easter eggs. I sat Madelyn on the table so she could participate, but she was a little fussy. We put her to bed!

Andrew dropped all the tablets into the cups and watched them fizz. This year we remembered the vinegar, because last year we forgot and all the eggs turned out pink!

Patiently waiting to drop in his egg. He did not drop them in gently! Almost all our eggs were cracked because he used such force!

It only looks like he is being careful!

While he was waiting, he realized that he could peel the shell of the hard boiled egg. He worked diligently to peel the shell off of his egg.

Hard at work.

Then he gobbled up the egg!

Here are our beautiful colored eggs! Minus the one that Andrew ate!

The Easter bunny came to see Andrew and Madelyn! He brought them some treats in their Easter basket.

This is what we woke up to Sunday morning. A certain golden retriever got hungry in the middle of the night and ate all of our Easter eggs!

This is what was left. Two of those eggs were but back in the carton that I found in her bed!

Andrew checking out his Easter goodies. On the way home from chuch he said "Santa brought Andrew bubbles." I had to tell him that it was the Easter Bunny!

Enjoying the treats from the Easter Bunny.

Miss Madelyn was all dressed up for church!

A family picture before leaving for church. We had a wonderful service today. Our choir put on a musical with excellent songs! Our pastor gave an uplifting message. I taught Sunday School and did a lesson with the resurrection eggs- which are awesome for kids! Then, we decorated cookies, because that's just lots of fun to do!

Our church has a baby parade every Easter

Andrew and Madelyn were all dressed up for egg hunting after lunch, but they both passed out before we got to do it again!

We had a really great time this year for Easter!

*On a side note: If you noticed that I looked much tanner from the picture at the tri-delt egg hunt to Sunday it is because I did the Mystic Tan (if you didn't notice, that's ok!). Anyway, the very young girl who was showing me how it worked-as I had never done it before-had never heard of the episode of Friends where Ross got the Mystic tan and didn't turn correctly and ended up very brown! Who hasn't seen that? Apparently, high school girls. It made me feel old. That's the first time I have ever felt old!