Day 123

Today I:
didn't take a photo of Kaitlyn packing her lunch for her field trip to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. Didn't take a photo of Tyler playing oh so nicely (and quietly! all day!) while his sister was gone. Didn't take a photo of the cute little "chart" Kaitlyn created to "keep track" of when she waters her flower seeds (from the birthday party). Didn't take a photo of me goofing off most of the day (yeah, I was in one of those moods). In fact, didn't take a photo of much of anything. So as a last resort I snapped a shot of the daffodil Katy picked for me.

Day 122

Today we went to Isabelle's birthday party. Happy 5th birthday Isabelle! Tinkerbelle and pizza - what a great party! :) Kaitlyn had a lot of fun with the other girls. Ty divided his time between the sandbox with baby Michael and running around with the girls (and as you can see, the party involved lots of running). And I was on camera duty, as well as assisting as needed. Lots of fun, lots of action, LOTS of kids, lots of sugar...and we were all exhausted when we got home. That sounds like a good day to me!
Photo: Kaityn is the one in blue, Isabelle is the one in pink and brown

Day 121

Date night! Sam is doing his 2 weeks at the base right now. So the kids had a slumber party

with grandma and grandpa and I went down there to see Sam for our own slumber party. We went out to dinner (Olive Garden) and did a little bit of shopping.

Day 120

Typical Monday for us. Laundry. Misc stuff around the house. At least the snow has backed off again (crazy spring weather!) so we could spend a bit of time outside, even if it was chilly. This is Kaitlyn's new favorite thing - the baby doll sling that she can use to carry Kitty around on her bike, and everywhere else.

Day 119

Today was a long day full of nothing but the 4 of us stuck in the house watching it storm. I didn't take any photos. So here is another cute shot from Friday.

Day 118

We wore the kids out today. Some time spent at the pool and you can count on tired kids afterward. Tyler didn't even survive the car ride home before he was asleep. And Kaitlyn conked out on top of Sam while they were watching "Jr." (the NASCAR race)

Day 117

Day 116

Typical Thursday for most of the day. Then we went down to the base to see Sam. The kids hadn't seen him since Sunday night so it was craziness. They were overdue for some Daddy Time - which pretty much means wrestling. We went out to dinner, then back to Sam's hotel

for more wrestling and some cuddle time watching TV before the 3 of us headed back home.

Day 115

Day 114

Ty's first case of road rash. His Dad is so proud :)
Tyler is actually getting very good at riding his bike. And he's a little daredevil and likes going fast on the hills. This, however, happened when he was trying to be careful. I've been teaching Ty to move to the side of the road and stop when he sees a car coming and that was what he was trying to do. Unfortunately he cut in front of Kaitlyn. She was trying to stop too so she didn't hit him very hard, but it was enough to knock him over. But our tough guy got over it and happily completed his bike ride home.

Day 113

Guess I should have said no to the Goldfish in the treat jar (it's in Katy's room).

Day 112

What a great day! We've been busy, but most of it was fun. Shopping in the morning (groceries, WalMart, and new summer pjs for the kids - Katy was so excited about the pjs). Ty fell asleep on the way home so we did yard work while he napped. Sam even got the Christmas lights down! Katy got to spend most of the afternoon playing with a neighbor friend. They went back and forth between the houses playing, riding bikes, flying kites. Then we finished up the day with Kaitlyn's Plan - building a fire and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. It was so gratifying to hear Kaitlyn say, over and over, "this is the best day ever!"

Day 111

This photo sums up my day. It was my monthly Saturday with The Girls. I met Cheri, Alisha, and Alisha's Mom in the city for a quick lunch. Then we went to see the play Phantom. It was great, though not even close to the Andrew Lloyd Weber version that we all love. Sam's mom had given me a couple tickets to the What a Woman Wants Expo, and Cheri loves that one so the two of us spent an hour at the Expo. I picked up a few things in the city, including tulle so I can start working on the tutus for Katy's dance recital. Then it was home for dinner. And Twinkies. I don't know how we got on the subject but this morning we were talking about Twinkies to Katy and she said she didn't know what they were. So Sam picked some of them up while he and the kids were out today. They had their own brand of fun with a trip to the park and lunch at the train restaurant. All in all - a great Saturday for everyone!

Day 110

Gotta love her fashion sense, huh? :) She didn't want to change her tights after dance class. And there is Kitty - Kaitlyn's almost constant companion.

Day 109

Yep we made cookies today - Kaitlyn and I, while Ty took a nap. She thought she was the biggest helper because I let her turn the mixer on and off and had her keep track of how many cups/spoons we were adding of everything. It's great to spend a little one on one time with my girl, even though I give up my small bit of peace (during naptime) to do it.
The cookies were for card night. It was my turn to host (I chose to do so at Mom's house) and we had a lot of fun. I think we are all getting to know each other better. The only prob - I think my dad was the only one to eat the cookies! Not that Katy was sad about that. She was happy to see me bring a lot of them back home.

Day 108

My little model. I find it funny that some days she tries to hide from the camera and other days she can't get enough photos of herself. The pose, the expression...everything is All Kate. My cutie!
Oh and Ty in the background? He was having a hard time waking up from his nap and not in the best of moods.

Day 107

We are slowly (or maybe not so slowly) plowing our way through all the Easter candy. Gotta love the giant chocolate bunny, right?

Day 106

We kept ourselves busy today, including a lot of time outside. We're supposed to get a storm tonight that will last through Thursday (today is Monday) so we wanted to take advantage of the sun, even if it was a bit chilly. The kids played (of course) and I put myself to work. I got the sandbox sanded (no more risk of splinters!) and restained and also got a good start on cleaning out the flower beds.

Day 105

Happy Easter!
First thing Katy checked was that the Easter Bunny had come this morning. Yep there were baskets! Then she ran to the front door to see if he ate the carrots. Yep, the carrots were mostly gone and so was her Thank You note to him. Ok then - time to check out the loot! The Bunny went overboard this year and the kids got all kinds of fun stuff for summer - sand toys, pool noodles and beach towels, sidewalk chalk and accessories, art stuff, new rain boots for Ty, a new outfit for Katy's Hello Kitty, bubbles... Oh and the funniest part was Kaitlyn's reaction to everything. At each new thing she discovered she would exclaim "well, what do 'ya know?!" or "surprise my eyes!" Tyler was more reserved in his excitement and went right for the dump trucks and his new boots.
We had breakfast and got dressed so we could head outside to find all the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden. After all the eggs had been opened everyone had a bout of The Crankies. (thus the reason for no cute group shot of the kids or even the whole family - they were too cranky for me to even think about it) So we were happy to be able to get out of the house and head down to Grandma Jackson's to join the gang for another egg hunt.
We finished up the day outside. First with Tyler out feeding the cows - where I got a call in the middle of it to go take some photos because he was being so darn cute hugging a calf. (of course he didn't repeat the hug when I made it, but I did get some great shots of him riding it and doing other cute things like closing the gate by himself). Then we all spent some time outside while Sam finished up dinner - ribs and grilled fries! mmmmm

Day 104

Day before Easter! Kaitlyn has been SO excited for everything - the Easter baskets, the egg hunts, and of course decorating the boiled eggs. She absolutely could not wait any longer for the decorating, so first thing this morning that is what we did. The kids had a lot of fun and did a great job.
The day also held an egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's. They had invited over another family and the 5 kids ran all over their big yard hunting eggs and other surprises. Then we all had a picnic lunch in the basement.
We also had a visit from Oma Rhonda and Dave this afternoon. They brought the kids treats and some fun hooded towels (that both kids are completely in love with).
Geesh! And this is just the day before the holiday!
So now we are all set for tomorrow. Kaitlyn plans to leave a carrot on the front porch for the Easter Bunny "to tell him thanks for the things today and our surprises tomorrow."

Day 103

Typical pre-weekend, pre-holiday cleaning today. Nothing really interesting from my day. The kids however, played unusually well together ON THEIR OWN for a lot of the day. It was great!

Day 102

Kaitlyn has been looking forward to seeing the baby chicks for weeks. In the spring, the local feed store gets in a big order of baby chicks and Grandma always makes sure she knows when they are coming in so the kids can go see them. The shipment arrived this morning and they were sold out in 15 minutes - that was 45 minutes before we got there. But that didn't keep us from seeing the chickies. We found out that one of our...neighbors (small town - isn't everyone a neighbor?) had purchased 15 of them and she let us go see them. Kaitlyn was in love. She was so gentle with the chicks, picking each up one by one to hold it for a minute. Tyler was fascinated and excited, but didn't dare do more than look at them. I think he touched one but mostly kept his hands to himself.

Day 101

Got some girl time today - first, this afternoon. Kaitlyn and I painted each other's fingernails while Ty napped. Then the kids went with Sam and Grandma to a movie and I got to go to Jacalyn's to watch Twilight (I know, I know - crazy that I'm just seeing it now) and girl talk. Stayed up WAY too late.

Day 100

Finally! We got a day nice enough to spend most of it outside. Once out there we had a picnic and before the picnic was over some of our favorite neighbors were starting to gather at our house with their bikes. I have a feeling this will happen a lot during the summer and I'm looking forward to it. Of course, I'll have to jump in and get my chores done first thing every morning because once outside no one wants to come in and nothing else gets done.

Ty is the one in the blue shirt on the red bike. I can't believe how well he rides it already. He usually just needs a little push to get the wheels going and then he's off.

Day 99

Another Monday, another day of laundry.

Day 98

Who do you think is winning today? Spring or Winter?

Day 97

Well at least someone is excited about the snow!
Today we are snowbound once again. Just me and Ty so far this morning (yes I'm posting EARLY for once) since Kaitlyn had a sleep-over at Grandma's last night. I had to postpone the shopping trip I had planned for the day. But Ty was happy to see all the new snow and got himself ready to go "play! snow!" - even put on his gloves by himself. I was trying to think of a way to talk him out of it, since the snow was (and is) still coming down and I didn't want to go out in it. But in the end I gave in and made myself go out and shovel the driveway (this makes 4 times Sam hasn't had to do it JUST since we got back from vacation. He's at drill this weekend but I still thinks he owes me - don't you?)

Day 96

Day 95

Ahhhhh bedtime. One of my favorite times of the day.

Day 94

Well, at least it doesn't stay long.
We woke up this morning to yet another snowstorm and at least 6" in the ground. Nature's little April Fool's joke I guess - haha! Fooled ya! No it's not spring!
So when the snow quit coming down the kids and I were, of course, out there shoveling the driveway. And when Kaitlyn figured out it was "good packing snow" then we had to build a snowman too.
The bad news - they are predicting at least 2 more storms in the next 7 days. Ugh. Where is my nice Spring weather??