Projects for Opa and Oma!

It seems everytime Oma & Opa come to visit we put them t o work! Ali and Lizzie were especially excited to see them this time because they brought with them a HUGE, BEAUTIFUL doll house! Our old neighbors from Denver knew the girls loved their doll house and when their kids outgrew it, they gave it to us!! THANK YOU Chloe, Raina, Amani, Tara & Mark!! And THANK YOU to Oma & Opa for bringing it to us and putting it together! The girls are loving it! (And so are our new neighbors!)

We also made Opa help Chris with the final stage of the swing set construction! They worked so hard at putting this great tube slide together to finish our backyard playground! Good job guys!!

Happy Easter!!

Hippity Hoppity Easter's on it's Way!

Thanks Nana and Poppa for the Easter gifts...We decorated the play room with the Dora Room Stickers and Ali's Room with the princess stickers. They are pretty cute!

We also got to make a BUNNY HOUSE! (Nana you are so clever to use a Christmas gingerbread kit and add Easter candy and decorations to it!! Thank you!) The girls loved it because this time our house actually stayed up! (Over Christmas time, our gingerbread house fell down...we used different frosting this time!)

We are LOVING the warm weather too!

The Bachelor

Chris got to go to Arizona for my brother, Pete's, bachelor party. I was impressed that Chris wanted to take the camera to capture all of the fun moments as Pete celebrates his last few months of bachelorhood with all of his friends. (This left me with no camera at home and I even missed being able to take pictures of the girls with the Easter Bunny but I willingly let him take the camera because I thought the event was so worthwhile!) So, when Chris got home I asked to see all of the pictures and hear all of the stories...and THIS is what I got!! :) This ONE picture of Pete in front of some car. Hmm...Chris is not so much of a photo-person I guess!! But he did say that they had a lot of fun!

March Madness

While millions of other men were sitting on the couch all weekend watching basketball, my wonderful husband and amazing father-to-my-children spent the whole weekend putting the girls' swing set together! Of course, the weather during the week was in the gorgeous high 60's and the weekEND was rainy and cold! But that didn't stop him! He started in the garage and then finished in the rain outside. He said that he dreads starting home projects but once he's started he wants to just finish!! So, I SWEAR I did NOT make him miss all that basketball!! He really wanted to see the girls play on it!

The first time swinging! Hooray!! :) We love you Daddy and we are SO proud of you!!

I also wanted to thank Chris for spending all day Saturday the previous weekend with the girls while I got to go to a conference called "Hearts at Home". This was where I got to attend workshops focusing on mothering and being a wife! Now, you might think that sounds odd from someone who minored in women's studies...but honestly I LOVE being a mother and a wife, I love to be inspired and to be better at my job!! So...a few things I learned...
1. What is in your heart comes out of your mouth...try to let go of resentment, bitterness, etc. so that you can speak gently. Words are so powerful in creating your world. I love this...I've really been trying to be more patient and loving in ALL of my words.
2. Ways to LOVE your husband! Respect him (again...what is in your heart shows through your words), affirm him, pursue him...When these things happen then he is able to show lots of love for you. Sometimes I need reminders to show my love by doing these things...that's why I loved going to this conference!
3. Ways to create thankful children...be thankful yourself and model appreciating all we have. Overindulged children grow up with a sense of entitlement whereas children who grow up with a bit less (and learning how to deal with "NO") learn to be grateful. This is so hard in this culture of materialism but I would really like to focus on this. Our girls have SOO much (see pictures above!) and I want them to really appreciate it.

A leprechaun caming visiting!

We usually don't really do anything for St. Patrick's Day because our families don't have any ties to Ireland or those traditions...but I always had my kindergarten classes do fun things about leprechauns in March. So, I thought it would be fun to make leprechaun catchers and try to catch those sneaky little guys! The day before, we painted boxes green and decorated them with rainbows and gold coins to try to entice the leprechauns inside the box to catch them! Then they would have to give us their gold!! So, we put them out the night before and in the morning we saw that we hadn't caught a leprechaun BUT he left us some green candy, leprechaun books, poems, and coloring pages!! (I love putting my old kindergarten supplies to good use for my own family!) The girls were very excited and liked reading the books and poems!

Spring Rains

It's been SO nice having Ali home all week for spring break...even though she only goes to school 3 mornings a week...it's just been nice to have lazy mornings and a break from the routine. The best part has been that the weather is warming up and we've been able to play outside a lot. This day we went for a walk around the neighborhood when it was sprinkling. Actually, I don't even think it was sprinkling by the time we made it outside but they loved carrying their umbrellas! :)

We also had several play dates, we went to Rainbow Recreation to play on the inside playgrounds, we went to Purina Farms and saw lots of animals, and we've played on the trampoline a lot. AND SOON...we will have a new swing set in our own backyard!! Chris is building it as I write this! Yay!!

Family Time

We loved having Nana, Uncle Pete and (Soon-to-be-Aunt) Sheila here a few weeks ago. We had a lovely day on Saturday and went to the zoo...(pictures on Nana's camera!) Nana got to visit Ali's preschool class and we got lots of hanging out time with Pete and Sheila. They are so excited for the upcoming wedding...and so are we!

We are so excited to have Sheila become a part of our family...she is the greatest and I couldn't ask for a better sister-in-law!! The girls love playing with her and best of all---she makes Pete one happy, happy guy!! :)