Aaron's Project

This year the 4th Graders have been studying Colorado. They have each chosen a location of significance in Colorado to do a report on and they have been working on it for the last month. His written report was done at school, but his visual project was to be completed at home. Aaron wanted to build a model of the fort, so here it is. I think it turned out pretty well. Good job, Aaron!

Mouse "Abuse"?

I'm not entirely sure, but I think that maybe this treatment of Levi's beloved Mickey Mouse qualifies as "Mouse Abuse". Maybe it's just an incredibly ingenious mouse trap. Either way, I think Levi's having a good time. (even is Mickey isn't!)

Trees

We have had such beautiful 80 degree weather today that we decided to spend the afternoon planting some trees for our yard. The green leafed one is a flowering pear (non fruit-bearing) and will have little white flowers on it in the Spring. The othere tree is a flowering Plum (non fruit-bearing) and has reddish purple leaves all year round with little pinkish flowers in the Spring.

Snuggling with Tractors

Yesterday my parents were out for a drive and dropped by for lunch and to see the kids (that weren't in school.) Grandpa gave Levi these John Deere toys he had picked up for him. Levi enjoyed them all day long and when it came time to go to bed he wasn't sure he wanted to put them down. Here he is in his evening snuggle with dad, hugging his new toys from Grandpa. Thank you Grandpa, Levi loves them!

Life with Levi

There are many reasons why I absolutely love being a mom and adore my kiddos. There are also many reasons why being Levi's mother is so very exhausting. Rest assured that this 10 second clip is very much what the rest of my day looks like. 

(In case you can't tell, he's chasing our poor dog around the house with that dump truck.)

The recent escapades I haven't filmed are:

standing on top of the stove

cleaning the bathroom walls using a toilet brush and water from the stool

standing on the kitchen table to swing the chandelier

removing all the door stops in the house and bringing them to me in a bucket

dumping buckets of sand over siblings heads

using a yo-yo as a lasso to swing over his head

hiding in the cupboard giggling while Mom searches desparately for him

taking a pretend nap in the dog crate

insisting that he is a chicken and "bawking" for hours on end

helping himself to the lunchmeat in the refrigerator

(and my personal favorite) 

 refusing to get his jammies on while insisting that "Me Cute Me Diaper" while strutting around doing a dance

I love my little Tazmanian Devil, but I really think I need a nap. :)

Matt is 35!

Matt turned 35 this week. I think overall he had a pretty good birthday, except maybe when the kids were amazed that there were "SO MANY candles on that cake" and when Aaron asked if we were trying to set the whole thing on fire. We love you Matt!

It's a GIRL!

Yesterday I went in for my 20 week ultrasound. Our little baby looks perfectly healthy, weighing in at just under a pound. We were excited to learn that Baby #5 is a GIRL! All of the kids are pretty excited; it is what they all wanted. Kellie is especially happy not to be the only girl anymore, too!

Easter 2012

Happy Easter!

Easter Mantle

The kids have been looking forward to Easter and were pretty excited to see the Easter decorations go up. Here's our mantle. Kellie wanted me to take a picture so everyone could see (to quote her) "how pretty and PINK everything is!" She's all about the pretty springtime colors.

Spring Break Wrap-Up

Being sick over Spring Break is not much fun, and so we had to find something fun for the kids to do in our own home. We decided to unpack the sandbox and get some new play sand. You can see Matt in the background, staining our fence. He was working hard while the rest of them played. :)

Levi liked to pretend he was Godzilla and stomp over everything the kids built.

By the end of the week everyone was well enough that we made it over to the ZOO to visit the animals.

(Unfortunately this is the last picture we got before the batteries in my camera died!)

We also spent some time on Saturday visiting with my brother John and his family who were visiting from Idaho. Again- I didn't get pictures, darn it. Oh well, I guess memories are more important than pictures anyway!