catching UP

I'm doing a little blog catch up today.

It has been a CRAZY month!!!!!!

The first week Scott and I went on a no-kid vacation. The day we got home we watched our nieces for a week while their parents went on a no-kid vacation. Then the day after they left we flew to CA for a week and just got back last night. So I have a lot of fun pictures to catch up on.

Now it's on with the rest of our crazy summer...... I don't think things are going to calm down for us until August!

I'm just glad it's summer!!

cALiFoRNiA

California was SOOO much fun!!!! As always!! It was a busy week with everyone in town. We had a wedding, a missionary homecoming, and my cousin's baby blessing. The kids loved all the attention from aunts, uncles, cousins, Grandma, and most of all Grandpa. They get so spoiled whenever we visit but it's so worth it.

The beach was wonderful. Ethan played in the water all day and Molly played in/ate the sand.

Ethan and Jocelyn were inseparable all weekend. Molly and Bella loved to give each other hugs & kisses.

welcome HOME

We also got to see my brother Brad that just got home from his mission in Spain. He was my personal babysitter all week, which was great for everyone involved. He had never even met Molly before and it didn't take long to became Ethan's favorite, well one of them at least :) (everyone is his favorite)

Mr. & Mrs.

Mr. & Mrs. Bryan Sorensen

last weekend my brother got married. It was a very beautiful wedding and it was even better to have the whole family together (minus one costa rican)

E really enjoyed himself at the party. We learned that he is quite the ladies man, and has some pretty sweet dance moves. Out on the dance floor he was surrounded by all the ladies and he loved every minuet of it. He particularly like this one girl, (much older girl) and he danced with her for most of the night. The next morning when I asked him if he had fun dancing with all the girls he said,

"Yes!!! I liked dancing with the one that had flowers on her dress. I LOVE her!!!"

(This video doesn't show the womanizing that happened, but it does showcase his dancing the best. enjoy!!!!)

cousin week

We had some of our cousins stay with us for a week. It was like one big party. We even got to have Grandma B stay with us for a few days. We went to the zoo, played at the park, went swimming, ate lots of ice cream, and pretty much had a blast.

ReLaXiNg

Our cruise was very relaxing and much needed. We stopped in Grand Cayman and went swimming with stingrays. We were supposed to stop on Isla Roatan, but due to labor riots, road closures, and fires, it was deemed unsafe and so we had to have an extra "fun day at sea" instead. Then Belize where we snorkeled the 2nd largest barrier reef, which was amazing. And finished off in Key West, which was added after Cozumel got cancelled, but turned out to be really fun. On the boat we enjoyed soaking up the sun, playing mini golf, going on the water slide, and my favorite part was eating my weight in soft-serve ice cream....yum.

Oh and just in case anyone is wondering what the trophy's are from? Scott and I won the corn hole game championship. It was the highlight of the trip. All in all, a very good trip that went way too fast.

The BIRDS....

I have a wreath that has been hanging on my front door for about 3 years now. This wreath is made from twigs and sticks and could quite easily be mistaken for a nest. To tell you the truth I'm surprised it took so long for the birds to notice what a cozy habitat it could be. Well finally a little family of birds decided to move in.
For the last week or so I've heard them on my front door pecking and tweeting. One day when I opened my front door they flapped in my face and flew away. I just thought they were perching on the outside of the wreath, but upon further investigation I noticed that they had fully claimed my wreath as their new home.

Yesterday morning E ran outside to play with his friends and left the door wide open. Well what do you think happened next?.... Yep that's right the birds flew in my house!!!!!! It was actually pretty funny, and we had quite a time getting them back outside. E thought it was so funny to chase them around the house as they were flying to every window and crashing into it desperately looking for passage back to the outside world. We finally guided them to the back door and freedom. (I'm sure it was quite a frightening experience for them) Anyways the wreath is no longer on my front door, and E had a funny story to tell all his friends.

Lovin' these

My good friend Leesa took these beautiful pics my munchkins! I LOVE the way all of them turned out and now I have the task of deciding which ones to print....maybe all of them!
Thanks Leesa

re - bound

I've been trying to do a little packing everyday. Unfortunately for the kids I've already packed up half the toys and more than half the books. (let me just say it has been so nice to have 1/2 as much junk to clean-up everyday, and they haven't missed any of it. I think we might even keep the toys packed after the move too.) So since I was packing books I finally got around to "fixing" all the broken ones. Duct tape has so many wonderful functions, I love it!

The picture above doesn't even show all the books I had to "fix." Some were broken beyond repair so into the trash they went. Many others are missing a few pages (M likes to eat books!) I think every book we own has at least one piece of tape on it!

My kids LOVE to read!!!

HaPpY eAsTeR!!!!!!

We had a really FUN/CRAZY weekend! And now that it's all over I just want to leave all the dishes in the sink and plastic eggs on the floor and go straight to bed. Unfortunately dad was working ALL weekend, so he missed all the excitement. Yesterday we went to the city egg hunt, which was crazy as always, but this year seemed worse. Luckily no one got run over by a stroller and we made it out alive with 2 eggs ea. The kids were happy to find that the Easter Bunny left them some presents! And I really enjoyed cleaning up the plastic "grass" that was ALL over the house!!!! Literally, it was everywhere!

Tonight we had some dear friends over for our traditional Easter dinner. It was so fun to get together, especially since there might not be too many more chances before everyone moves :(

(I've hosted Easter every year we've been in OH except last year and that was only cause Molly was born 3 days later. Anyways we had a much smaller group this year then in the past and to our friends that have already moved on, you were missed tonight.)

We did another egg hunt for the kids (since yesterday was such a bust) and they all loved it. Especially the candy part!!!!!!!

E had WAY too much candy today. i kept telling him "No more candy, you've had enough!" Once when I heard him opening more candy I reminded him that I said no more and he told me "Mom, I'm just going to LOOK at it!!!" haha yeah right! nice try buddy.