It has been busy

It's been awhile since I last posted, because, well because we have been very busy. The summer flew by and was way too short. We had a great time and I wish it had been a little longer. In July we had a great mini reunion with everyone at our house, it was great seeing everyone, but I wish it could have been longer.

The kids are all back in school now, Noah started 1st grade and loves it, his teacher is fantastic and we are so proud of how much he is learning and how well he is doing. Seth started kindergarden this year, and he loves it also. Riley is in her final year of preschool and she is so happy to finally be in the Kangaroo class, although, she will gladly tell you she would rather be in kindergarden and getting on the school bus with her boys. She recently learned how to ride her bike without training wheels and there is nothing stopping her now.

Our fall is also packed full and I will try and get some of that posted soon.

Our busy spring

It has been a busy spring at our house and I thought I would share a few of our activities with everyone. The boys finished their first season of baseball, we were lucky enough to get both boys on the same team this year. They loved playing for Dr. Daxx on the Angels baseball team and they havve officially decided they like baseball a lot more than soccer.

Seth graduated from Preschool and he is now officially in Kindergarten, a fact that makes him very happy and his sister not happy. (Mostly because she thinks she should be going to kindergarten too)

Riley completed her first year of dance with a recital on May 15. It was chaotic, busy, and wonderful. She was adorable in her ballet tutu (see purple costume) and her tap costume (red). They danced their ballet song to Jesus Loves the Little Children, and did a fantastic job. Their tap song was "I enjoy Being a Girl" by Doris Day. The girls all did a great job and Riley is looking forward to dancing again in the fall.

Boys' Room

This is what the boys' room looked like when we bought the house. The only difference after we moved in was the bunk beds. What you can't see is that the room was painted light blue with a silver faux finish over it.

Here are a couple of pictures of the boys' room now. We still need to hang up the shelves for their trophies and a couple of other decorative touches, but the painting is finished and the window treatments are hung.

Riley's room

Riley's room before...

Riley's room after we agreed to paint it pink and purple for her. It turned out much better than I thought it would and most definitely fits her personality.

Boys and baseball

Tulips

We moved into our house in early August last year and so we missed all of the spring flowers planted around the house. This year we have been excited to see what flowers are in the flower beds and planted around the house. I love tulips and we have quite a few. Here are a couple of pictures of our yard and all of the wonderful colors we are getting to enjoy this spring.

Noah's bike

A few weeks ago Jared took Noah's training wheels off his bike. This was not the first time we had attempted this particular skill, in fact we have tried this several times with bad results. By bad results I mean full on temper tantrum, crying, and screaming; it was not fun. This time was completely different. Within 5 minutes of Jared removing the training wheels Noah was riding his bike like a pro. I took this video just 30 minutes after his first attempted (this time).

Karate

For the past two years Noah has been participating in karate at our YMCA, he recently moved up to the older kids class and was able to get his black gi.

Riley is also now participating in the younger kids class. She was so excited to finally be able to wear the gi's just like "her boys". She is by far the smallest kid in class, but don't tell her.

Here are a couple of pictures of my little karate peeps.

Snow

The kids were out of school for most of last week due to snow in our area. The kids were able to play in the snow during the first good snow of winter, but due to my surgery the day of the snow, this was my first sledding time with the kids this winter. Actually, it's the first real time we were able to do any sledding as the kids are just now old enough to really enjoy going sledding.

We made the most of the snow days and went sledding on Monday and twice on Tuesday. We were also able to make snow cream with the kids (their first). Here are a few pictures of our adventures last week.