Spring Time

Spring is finally here and we're enjoying the nice days outside.  Last year at this time Xavier was in the hospital recovering from surgery.  We were pretty limited last spring so we're really enjoying being able to get out this season and have fun.  It's beyond words wonderful to see X be so capable of physical activity this year.  He has no limitations and now that he has had time to heal, adjust to being healthy and having a different body, all with the added weight of 25lbs, he has very little fear now and is ready to dive into things like never before.

Spring is full of rainbows at our house.  Every night I come home from work and if the sun is out and rain dropping, the kids look for rainbows.  It's really cute because every time they run to the window and look, Clover - our dog, joins them and looks out the window with them.  What she's looking at who knows but it is so cute to see the four of them staring out the window waiting for a rainbow to magically appear.

 

The kids helped me plant a lot of bulbs in the Fall.  I remember the day well because they helped me dig all the holes and as we were placing the bulbs in each hole it started to hail.  We couldn't postpone because we were headed out of town and needed to get them in before the first freeze.  They did pretty well this year.  The kids were so happy watching them start to grow and then bloom.  They already want to plant more kinds and colors for next year.

 

Xavier saw me taking pictures of the flowers to show Grandma and he wanted one with him and the flowers to show her too.  Here you go Mom!

 

The boys are LOVING being in soccer this year.  I think they look adorable in their uniforms.  I'm not much of a soccer fan but I am certainly their fan and it's been fun to watch them in practice and games as their confidence grows.  They have learned the rules of the game and different techniques to use and what they are capable of doing.  If I'm not able to make a game they call me and tell me all about what happened.  So sweet!

We've made a couple trips to the skate park so the kids can ride their skate boards and scooters.  Last time we went Haven wanted to try roller blades.  She quickly switched to a scooter after seeing how much more they boys were doing.

 

Here we are getting ready for Easter.  A friend of mine sent me a dessert that was fun for the kids.  We just mixed chow mein noodles with melted butterscotch chips and the kids shaped them into nests and added jelly beans for bird eggs.  This was their favorite dessert.

 

 This is how Haven and Xavier helped me with my second round of baking for Easter.  As I made the cookies inside they sat outside slowly licking the cookie dough off the beaters.

 We had a scavenger hunt for the kids to find their Easter baskets.  Each clue lead to another clue.  We didn't know how well they would do and after they finished we realized we made it way too easy for them.  Next year will be harder

 

 The kids went berserk looking for eggs.  We have such a big yard that the many eggs I had in my bag quickly diminished and once in the yard it looked like I had hardly hidden anything.  That wasn't the case though, the kids had plenty of eggs.

  

 Haven was so excited counting her eggs and the money inside of each one.  It was touching to see all three of my kids counting their change and adding up how much money they got.  Just a few months ago they had trouble telling coins apart and now they are able to do so much more.  I'm a proud mom to see how far my kids have come in such a short time.

Fabulous Family Time

We had a fun trip to So Cal at the beginning of April.  We went for the kids spring break and stayed for 10 days thinking it would be long enough but we still left wishing we had more time with everyone.  Here are some snapshots of our fabulous time with family.

 

The kids got early Easter baskets from Grandma and Grandpa.  Here is Haven using her new stencils with Grandma.  She loves this kind of thing.

 One of the kids' favorite thing to do was have Grandma read stories to them everyday.        Thanks Mom!

 The kids loved meeting and holding their new baby cousin Rhys.

 

  The kids had loads of fun with their big cousin Ev and little A, who isn't so little anymore.  This is a video of them pushing each other as fast as they can on a toy car made for little kids 3 and under.  Instead, the big kids took it over and Ev got pushed by my crazy bunch.

 

   

Haven got some girl time with Yomo.  She was given a new doll, Olivia that she was able to take care of whenever she went over to Yomo's.  She loves this doll now and carried her home on the plane and buckled her up in a seat belt for the drive home.

Numo was able to get some missing pieces together for a very nice train set for the boys to play with.  The boys ABSOLUTELY loved this and found it to be to coolest thing.  They played with it for hours.

Yomo and Numo took the kids to Color Me Mine.  They each picked out an animal to paint.  Sage picked his soccer team colors to paint his piggy bank cat.  He wants to save quarters in it that will be from different US states and territories.

As always...BEACH TIME WITH FAMILY!!!!!!!!!

Fun with Grandpa

How did you do that Dad???  I can no longer pick up one of them alone.

Haven had some more girl time with Yomo and decorated cupcakes for the family.

Here they are miniture golfing with Yomo and Numo.  This course was much better than the one by our house so they had a really good time.  The video below is how Haven celebrated getting a hole in one.

Can you say DISNEYLAND??????????????????????  This was a HUGE TREAT from Grandparents.  Thanks mom and dad!!!!  It was a REALLY wonderful family day.  We felt so spoiled!

When we walked into Disneyland Paul and I looked at each other and said, "What do we do?  We hadn't taken them on anything other than a carousel or a Ferris wheel.  We started with the Rockets.  That was a piece of cake for the kids.

Then we moved on to other rides to see how they would do.  The Jungle Cruise, Tiki Room, Pirates of the Caribbean.  That's when I looked at Paul and said, they can handle the big rides no problem.  Our next ride was Big Thunder Mt.  I was SOOOOOOOO glad they loved roller coasters.  I prepared myself for a day of boring kid rides (Dumbo and anything else in that area).  NO WAY!!!  After one roller coaster they were hooked.  It ended up being so much more fun for Paul and I because of that.  They are ready for more!!!!

We saw so many Disney characters throughout the day.  Haven adored all the princesses, which is funny because she is no princess!!!!  The boys got shy around all of them because they thought they were pretty.  How cute is that?

ToonTown Fun

Just being goofy at Space Mountain because it was the longest line we had to wait in all day.  I sat by Xavier on this ride and he screamed the whole time.  I ended up laughing the whole time because he cracked me up.

We had an EXTRA special treat meet us at Disneyland.  Auntie Lolo and Uncle Jay joined us for part of the fun.  To make it even better, it was Uncle J's b-day and he had to wear a shirt all day that said so.  He got A LOT of Happy Birthday's from Disney workers and visitors.  Thanks for joining us!!!!  It meant a lot to the kids!!!

As we walked all over the place...from ride to ride, meal to meal, Paul and I realized the kids had never had cotton candy.  After one bite or melt of it in their mouth, they were hooked!!!!