Kids will be kids

Sometimes as a mother you want you kids to behave in a certain way and do things your way, but something I try and remind myself constantly is let kids be kids. Yes there might be more of a mess and definitely more laundry but with happy faces like this is all worth it. playing the cups that he found when he broke into our pantry, played with them for more than an hour!
found a sharpie and luckily the sharpie only found his face

playing planes with daddy. I love the look of joy on Austin's face

licking the bowl, a household favorite

splashing in the mud with his gal pal Shelby. All the kids were soaked after this but they had so much fun.

kids will be kids

kids are only kids once

so let them be

The sun was out!

so what better thing to do then head out with my crew and go for a walk. Along our walk we stopped by 3 parks! Austin was in heaven, Andrew well he was asleep the whole time!

Park #1 - slide time fun Park #2 - more slide time fun Park #3 - loves the swings! He loves the out doors, especially when everything is dry! No more time for blogging, we must go soak up this sun!

Our Beta Mmmmmdat

R.I.P Mmmmmmdat

April 23, 2011 - April 30, 2011

Yes, you did the math correctly, our Beta lasted a week. I was cleaning out the bowl and was getting Mmmmmdat out of the bowl when he jumped into the sink and down the drain!!! We will miss you Mmmmmdat you were a good Beta fish.

On a lighter note we picked up another one (it was on sale too). His name "Oh Wow!" We are happy to welcome Oh Wow into our family.

Oma and Opa are here

It was spring break in California so my mom hopped on the plane and flew to Washington. My dad flew a couple of days later because he was on a business trip (golfing...hard at work I am sure).

It also happened to be my birthday week so it made it extra special to have them here. We celebrated by going to the Iron Chef (sort of like Bennihana's). It was super yummy!

Austin also got to spend lots of time with Oma and doing only Oma and him activities. He was in heaven.
Oma also enjoyed getting to know her newest grand baby Andrew.

Love at first sight!

Austin got spoiled of course with a truck from Cabala's

Watching cartoons

here is my crew (my parents were good sports even though they sat in the "poop shoot"

We were also hard at work making our garden look nice. And no trip would be complete without making my parents work some :-)

My 4 best guys

Feeding the ducks at the pond near our house

Opa enjoying his grandsons

It was so nice having my parent's here, the kids and us had a lot of fun with them!

Come back soon Opa and Oma!

Andrew's Baby Blessing

This past weekend our little Andrew was blessed, what a special day for our family.

Proud Opa and Oma
We were so blessed to have some of our close friends and my family there to witness this special occasion.
For those unfamiliar with what a baby blessing is, in our church a man holding the priesthood (in this case Paul) gives the baby (Andrew) a blessing. Which is basically a special prayer to our Heavenly Father to bless Andrew throughout his life with faith, health among other things that will help him become a faithful servant of God throughout his life.

For more information about our church you can visit http://mormon.org/

Newborn Pictures

We found a great photography Ann in our area and has actually become a good friend of our family. We had her take our maternity, hospital and newborn pictures, enjoy! Little Andrew is finally here First time in my arms oh the contractions before we began

Oma and her 2 grandsons

I love his expression in this picture

little smiles

little yawns

I love how Ann captured all of these moments for us to treasure forever.

Need a photographer and live in western Washington check out here website at

www.LourdesAnnPhotography.com

Silliness

Austin's 2nd Birthday Party

We threw Austin a party a couple weeks after his birthday (March 18) but hey I just had a baby.

My sister and her boyfriend Matt flew in Thursday to help me decorate and play with the babies. I have been cutting and creating for weeks and I think that it turned out pretty good. Our birthday theme was cars! In each gift bag was a derby car that the kids could decorate and then race down our derby ramp

yummp treats

some of our first guests - Dean and Dawson and of course their lovely mom Caprice

Matt and my sister helping Austin decorate his car

time to race!

Austin also got lots of cool presents

Happy Birthday Buddy!