Cousins and Memories

It's not often that we have the chance to play with our cousins Gracie and Abby. In May, Jolene went to a wedding and we got to spend some time with the cousins. We went to Grammy and Grandpa's house and had lots of fun. At first Gracie wasn't so sure it was a good idea. By the end, everyone was comfortable and cuddling up to a good movie. We played hide-and-go-seek for a long time in the house. Gracie, Avery, Nolan and I went for a walk and fed the horses (Gracie's favorite part.) and we ate spaghetti and watched a movie. Nolan and Abby got along great, as did Avery and Gracie. It is so fun playing with cousins. One of  my favorite things to do growing up. I remember the sleep overs, the steamrollers, the tape recorders, the bike rides, skating (on 4 wheel skates), nights at Great Grandmas with frozen chocolate chip cookies and lemon drops, hikes with uncle Randy, and on and on. I hope my kids can make lots of fun memories with their cousins.

More Baseball

 Garrett always says he doesn't want to coach his kids, but he is so good at it. He gets lots of quality time with Austin and Austin gets attention to his hearts desire.

Austin had a great baseball season. His team was great. All the families were awesome. We were sad to see the season end. The kids had a great end of the year party and coach Dave's and we made new friends.

Three Piggy Opera

The kids did a THREE PIGGY OPERA for back to school night. I video taped the whole thing, but didn't get any pictures. Here are the ones I took before we left for the occasion. The kids did a great job singing. Avery was a mommy pig. Austin was one of the three little pigs. Avery is our performer. She is the one you can hear the most whenever the class sings together. Austin is the one that looks like he is having fun because he is not always singing, but always smiling.

 Nolan had to do a Karate Kid picture. (the original of course.)

 I asked Nolan to do a serious picture and this is the best he could do because he just couldn't help himself.

Easter 2011

O.k. this is really sad that I am finally getting around to blogging about Easter. Better late than never. Plus I am on summer vacation, so I can catch up on all my blogging, cleaning, resting, and (the best) family fun!

Easter-
Easter was way kicked back for us this year. We didn't go anywhere and I didn't make anything. Just resting and enjoying our little family and celebrating the sacrifices that were made for us. The kids did enjoy the tradition egg hunt, in and outside, and their Easter baskets.

We had a great time coloring eggs with our friends this year.

Happenings.

Austin.
Austin is playing his first ever baseball season this year in farm and loving it. He can hit, play catch, and drink and lot of slurpies. His coach promised slurpies to the team whenever they caught a fly ball in a game. So they have been drinking a lot of slurpies. Garrett takes Austin to the batting cages and out back to practice. It is so great to see Austin learn the game. His first live at bat, he didn't quite know that he had to run to first base after he hit the ball. In his first game, the coach told him to play first base, he went to third.

Student of the Week!
Austin was student of the week in his class. He got to bring Curious George home. We had a camp out in the living room the first night George was home with us. Avery and Nolan enjoyed it too.

Notice the iCarly shirt. Avery loves her shows. She has moved on from Full House to iCarly and others. She loves the High School Musical Movies and is definately my drama queen. On the other hand, she is my worrier and helper.

We love our camp outs!

Nolan's New Clothes!
So my friend gave me bags and bags of her sons old clothes and Nolan just loves them. He changes his clothes 10 times a day anyway, but now he has so many clothes it is like he is in heaven. He was so excited. He still thanks me for getting him new clothes and it has been at least two weeks:)

He calls his new black pants his "cowboy" pants.

His favorite outfit from Karen is the black pants and rock and roll shirt. Rock out Nolan!

Fun with the Cousins

A couple of weekends ago I took the kids to Oroville to see their new cousin Eli, Briley, and Dasen. We went to Leia's for a little bit and then we went to the park to play with Briley and Dennis, then ended the day at Dennis' house to visit. Grandpa and Grammy joined us at the park for a lttle bit. The kids rode the bikes and climbed on the jungle gym. Dennis introduced me to the rip stick, which I can legitimately ride now :).  All in all, a fun day. Cousins are fun. I'm glad my kids can have as much fun as I did with my cousins!

Nolan's 4!

I can not believe my Nolan is 4. Crazy. Nolan has had a big year already. In the last month, he has learned how to ride his bike and pump himself on the swing. Way to go Nolan! Growing up on me.  Nolan is getting more and more independent. He is his own little person.  He loves his brother and sister. He loves anything Star Wars.  He loves to ride his bike and to swing. Today he flew off the swing and scared me to death. He has a big bruise and scratches on his back, and he wanted to go back out and swing. I couldn't believe it. I let him. Not a problem for him, but I was nervous the whole time. When I tucked him in tonight, I told him he scared me and he said that I scared him.  I guess it looks worse than it feels. Other things about Nolan these days: he sucks his thumb still, wants to grow his hair long like Cesareo's, almost got ran over by a car more than once, (not allowed to sniff the road), changes his clothes at least eight times a day, likes gymnastics (had his birthday there two years in a row), is loved by Loralai, is a great helper at home, hates being told no, hates the corner, likes movies in the car, likes going to grammy's, likes to stick his butt out, races me to the door every morning at day care, races me to the car when I pick him up, likes the Tim Mcgraw "bird song" (can't remember the real name), likes Toy Story movies and all his Toy Story toys (thank you Nana! and grammy!), likes to make his brother and sister mad, is almost over the random hitting (I hope), can spell his name, does't break as many things, would have peanut butter and jelly every day, Top Ramen otherwise, sneaks candy.....Happy Birthday my baby!