Sun, Fun, and...Bubbles??

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent a lot of Spring Break week playing at the park. We spent one day "park hopping", one day we packed a picnic and met Donovan at the park for lunch, and on another day we had lunch with Nanny Stahl and my good friend Marrissa and her baby Ray. It was so nice to have Marrissa and Ray join us for a 2 days of fun. We took a nature walk and spent the rest of the time playing. I REALLY enjoyed this as I don't get many chances to spend time with my friends these days. We were lucky again and had nothing but beautiful days to spend time outdoors. Trevor was really happy to be at the park and spent most of his time on the slides, Ian ran around with my camera and took some pictures, and Nicholas and Ray had a blast on the swings. Us big girls also had fun playing on the swings and we used almost a whole bottle of stuff while blowing bubbles! You're never too old to enjoy swings, slides, sunshine, and bubbles!!


Marrissa and Ray came to play with us!

Nicholas and Ray liked to spend their time swingingTrevor is finally over his fear of the big slides and loved climbing all over everything
Ian had to take a break and cool off for a bit
What a cutie Ray is!
Nicholas got a little help on the swings from his big brother
Marrissa and Ray even took some time to swing
Nicholas was pretty sure he wanted to chew on the bubble wand
Blowing bubbles in the park....what fun!

A Park a Day

Last week was Spring Break for us and the kids and I decided that we should spend our time outdoors for the week. We were so lucky to have such beautiful, warm weather too! We decided that the park was definitely the easiest, cheapest, and funnest way for us to spend our time outdoors.....so, we went park-hopping! We're lucky here in Carthage to have several different parks to choose from and we tried to go spend some time at each one of them too. We actually did miss one or two of those in town, but we still had a great time. Luckily, there were lots of other kiddos to play with at the parks and the boys had a blast! We came home each day tired, hungry, and definitely dirty but we had a great time. Here are some pictures from our first day of "parking". Hope everyone has a great week!

Trevor is definitely a little scared of heights and doesn't much like his feet to leave the ground....he was debating really hard whether or not to attempt climbing this wall.

This marked the first day that Trev would actually go down the big curly slides!! He was too afraid before to tackle them...
Seems to be the only expression I can get out of Ian these days :-P

Finally decided it was worth climbing...once he did it he loved it!
Sliding with your brother is so much fun! The static from the slides had their hair standing on end for most of the day.
One silly kid for sure!
Nicholas's new favorite thing to do.....swing!
Two parks in one day and Trev's courage is building! Not too scared of getting off the ground now!
I give up trying to catch a smile....*sigh*

Just a Quick One!

Nicholas has discovered two new things this week that he just really LOVES!! First new discovery by him was how delicious biter biscuits are! Yes, they are really messy and tend to get orange colored goo on everything, but boy does he like them! Since we are on Spring Break this week, we have been looking for things to do away from home (This Momma really gets tired of being homebound ALL the time) so we headed to the park to take advantage of the gorgeous weather we've been having. While Ian and Trevor ran some energy off, Nicholas decided that the way to enjoy the park was definitely done best by swinging. He LOVED the swings! In fact, he loved it so much that we're headed to the park today for a picnic lunch with Daddy, getting some play time in, and then headed to the nature trails for a nice little scenic nature walk with my good friend Marrissa and her little boy Ray. It should be a good time and I will definitely have more pictures to post tomorrow! Hope everyone enjoys this beautiful weather while it lasts!


Not quite sure what this cookie thing is but boy do I like it!!
Nothing but smiles for my Mom since she gave me this neat snack
Don't even try to take my biscuit or I'll chomp your finger! haha

This swinging stuff sure is fun, Mom!!
So happy to be at the park!

Swinging sure is fun, but does it have to be so bright out?? :-P

A Whole Lot of Nothin'

Today is just going to be one of those "anything" blogs. Not much has been going on around here but at the same time...a lot has gone on around here! Each of the boys has taken turns being sick...Ian with Strep and sinus infectin, Trevor with the flu and a sinus infection, Donovan with the flu, and now Nicholas has a cold. I have luckily dodged the bullet so far...knock on wood! Nicholas has sprouted 2 teeth since last Friday! We just went to the doctor today for his 6 month checkup and he is doing great! He weighed in at 20lbs! Wow!! He's grown alot in the last few months! He is trying to sit up by himself now and is babbling alot. Trevor also has had some big changes too. He started Preschool!! He is doing well with it, no problems when I drop him off. I actually have to make him give me a hug before he runs off to play! He's been at home with me since he was born so it's a big change to go and have to follow all those rules...so far, so good. It will be good for him to be around all those kids and it give him a chance to learn the structure of school since he'll be starting Kindergarten in a year. Plus it give me a chance for a nap! LOL I did actually get to take one with Nicholas the other day and it was wonderful!! I haven't taken many pictures lately but here are a few of the boys that I snapped the other day. I'm hoping that one day I will be able to get them all to cooperate at one time!


Attempt #1 for all 3 smiling at once....not quite what I was looking for

My little goofballs
Getting better....I see one smiling face :-P
My final try....much better! I'm really going to have to take them for a professional pic sometime soon.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the week!

Who needs Air guitar when you can eat it!

This past weekend, I was given the opportunity to expand my cake decorating "skills". We celebrated birthdays for our nephew Levi and his Daddy, Brian. Levi turned the big 21 this year, we'll just say that Brian is also still in his 20's...(I don't want to get on Uncle B's bad side by giving the true number here)lol Since Levi has recently started learning how to play guitar it was only fitting when Alice asked me to try making him a guitar cake for his birthday. Since I'm all about some cake decorating, I jumped on the chance to create him a guitar cake. Now, I HAVE to give some credit to my wonderful hubby. Without his artistic abilities (I am all thumbs when it comes to drawing something) I wouldn't have been able to pull this off. I put him to work with some paper and pencil and had him draw me a guitar body and headstock patterns. He also was nice enough to actually cut the design out of the two 13x9 cakes that I had baked for it. I was perfectly capable of cutting the cakes out but he really wanted to have a hand in helping since it was for Levi. I think we did pretty good for our first attempt too! We had a great time at Alice's on Sunday and enjoyed getting to spend the day with our family. I think Levi really liked his cake, and I sure hope so as it was alot of work, but it was well worth it! Here are some pictures of my latest creation and of our time at Alice's. Hope everyone has a great week!


Stage 1--Didn't Donovan do a good job cutting it all out?
Stage 2: Okay...now it was time for me to take over....looks kinda like a guitar...
Tadaaa!!! My finished project...not too bad for the first time!
I'm pretty proud of this cake...it was by far the biggest and most difficult that I've tackled to date.
Doesn't he look thrilled?? He really did like it but doesn't like to have his picture taken.
The race is on...who can light candles quicker....Nanny on Uncle Brian's cake...or Alice with Levi's?? Can you guess which one has more candles on it?? lol
wow! she's pretty quick at this!
Uh oh...looks like Alice was trailing...Nan had to come over and lend a hand as Levi patiently looks on.....
yay! All lit....now time to make a wish!
WEll, Uncle Brian might be older but he's still quicker at blowing out his candles than the young whippersnapper here! lol *notice the haze in the air from all those candles...lucky we didn't set off the smoke alarm!

***If anyone ever needs a cake for your special occasion, let me know! I love to create cakes and am always up for a new challenge!

6 Down...6 More to Go!!

It's hard for me to believe that 6 months has already flown past. Nicholas is offiically 6 months old now!!! yay!! He has grown so much in the last 6 months and is now wearing 12month clothing! A long way from his newborn stuff that was too big on him at one time. He's almost always happy, except for when he needs his britches changed or when he's hungry (which tends to be all the time it seems like) and he loves to sit and watch his big brothers and their crazy antics. The little stinker refuses to roll over ( I know, I should be concerned about that but I'm really not)...he likes to scoot around instead to reach the object of his attention. Don't get me wrong, he CAN roll...he just doesn't want to. He is loving solid foods now and hasn't turned down anything I've given him yet..not even spinach! wow! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he won't turn out to be as picky as Ian is when it comes to dinner time. Nicky is such a sweet, cuddly baby and I have treasured every minute with him over the last several months. I can't believe that in a few more short months I'll be making that 1st birthday cake for him. He is my last baby and it's hard to see how fast he's growing out of "babyhood". Here are some pics of my little sweetheart. Hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week!
I know, I know....but naked baby bottoms are the cutest aren't they!?
So excited to be getting in the bath
I like having bathtime...but I really am too big for this tub now..
My chunky lil' monkey
how you doin'?
nothing more fun than an almost deflated balloon....he loved the noise this balloon made and got mad everytime we took it from him!
such a happy baby
What a sweet little face...I love that smile of his, it really brightens my moods!