Ice cream anyone?

I decided to grab an ice cream for the boys from McD's one afternoon on our way home. Big mistake. Not only did they not give me kid sized ones, but they dipped it in chocolate...AND we got stuck in traffic on our short drive home. Bad combination, all of it. So as soon as we got home the kids sat on the cold wet yard to finish up their sloppy ice creams. It was yummy though, so thats what counts the most right? Thats what being a kid is all about, ice cream sticky hands!

Ok so maybe thats not fair, maybe I should have pointed out that Eli did pretty good at not making a mess...Zach was the sticky one. :)

Zoo time

We love our zoo membership. We've had it for years, and I dont know how anyone lives life without one. So go out and get a zoo membership. hehe

Spring break for us was a little boring. My car was in the shop for a few days of it, and the weather was too gloomy to attempt walking to anything around here. But luckily I got my car back by wednesday, and thursday we met up with some good friends at the zoo. It was cold in the morning when we arrived but by lunch we were warm and cozy.

Every time we've gone to the zoo with the boys we've taken their picture on this goat. One of these days Im going to have to make a flip book out of them and watch them grow on the goat.

I love this picture. Hayden Evan Hannah Eli and Zach all checking out the fish.

Diane went to get her stroller after the train ride and I got these pictures of the kids to keep them all occupied. Here they are all nice and serious..

and this is wha happened when I told them to be monkeys...can you tell this is Eli's forte?

All the boys on the train

Hannah and Eli on the train.

We got them all in the nest and told them to be birds..this is what we got. Silly kids.

Ive never been to the zoo and seen these up so close! They flew right up to the viewing box to this tree, we thought at many moments that they were going to fly right at us. Beautiufl.

Once again, a great zoo trip with great friends. Were so excited for spring and summer so we can start going more often again. We love animals.

Picture time!

We've been going to the same photography place for the boys photos since Eli was 8 days old. I still cant get over that. Has it really been that long, and are the boys really getting this old so fast!? As a parent, I dont think I will ever get over that..they grow up so stinking fast. So anyways, we headed out last week for picture time. The boys did very well, Eli only turned into his monkey personality towards the end of the sitting so that was nice. :) All of the poses turned out so great, it was hard to narrow down to just some of them. The photographer was great, she knew that since we'd come in so often over the years that we'd really exhausted every typical pose they do there for the boys ages. So this time she got creative and drug lots of props from the Senior pictures room over to use with the boys. I once again, am very pleased with the pictures and love their new place on my living room walls.

This was an easter one, but not too "baby'ish"...just a couple simple eggs.

I loved this pose idea, yet this is when Eli turned into "monkey" so most of his faces in this particular pose were not worth printing. He also occasionally pretended to spray himself in the face with the hose just as the flash went off, so you can imagine how those tuned out. For all the struggles he had durring this pose, I think this one turned out ok though.

Comparing these pictures to the ones I took off the wall from last time, I was amazed at just how much they've grown in the few months. Especially my little Zachy, he's totally losing that baby look. Such handsome boys.

Dont blink...or they'll grow up.

When Eli was approximatley a year and a half old I caught him in our back bathroom, eye liner in hand...bathroom covered in eye liner. Normally in this type of situation I would have not been a very happy Mommy...a mess to clean up and an eye liner headed for the trash! Instead, I was very proud of my little boy. I decided to take in the situation as a whole. He had used my eyeliner to learn. He had nicely traced the toilet seat, and then proceeded to draw his newly found love of circles all over the counter, cabinets and floor. Thats all it took, to trace the toilet one time. I cleaned most of it up after I told him we only color on paper, but realized at the very last one that I needed a picture of Eli's first circle. And to this day, approximatley 5 years later, the one lonesome uncleaned circle is still in my bathroom to remind me just how fast that kids grow up.

And then fast foward to present, and I wonder how on earth did he go from that eye liner circle boy to this amazing big boy who colors so well and stays in the lines!? We blink, and they grow up on us.



This is my favorite painting he's ever made. Me and him surrounded by a garden, blue sky and sunshine. It cant get any better than that. I cant believe he's turning 6 years old soon. Time goes too fast.

Please check out my friends business blog page and help me win a contest!

Some dear friends of mine are local realitors in Sherwood. They have recently started a blog page and are doing some amazing things in their business. Please check out their site and watch some of their great videos, and then sign up for their blog so you can follow their fun adventures and deals ...and tell them I sent you so I can win their contest. :) The blog site address is http://toddandlesliemccabe.blogspot.com/

Pie Day with the Waibels

Every year the entire extended family gets together in January at Great Grandma Waibels house for some good ol' yummy pie. Poems and books get read. Jokes get told. Lots of pies get eaten. And this year, hats were worn! I have to say that its quickly becoming one of my most favorite gatherings with the entire family. Its so much fun to see what everyone has come up with for their pies each year. Savory or sweet and anything in between, as long as it fits the "pie guidelines" its game. Some of us begin our search for next years recipes as soon as the current year is celebrated and eaten! And some go as far as baking garlic pies that scare even the most strong stomachs away. Although Neil is probably right when he claims that we all would have eaten it if he hadnt told us just how much garlic goes into the melting pile of garlicy goo he baked. Mmmmm. I still think one of these years we should start a voting process for some of the best/craziest/nastiest/etc pies at each pie day. Then again, with the competative Waibel trait maybe the pies shouldnt be judged but instead just eaten and enjoyed.

This is the second year that Ben and Alisa were not able to physically join us for pie day, being all the way over in Hong Kong. But they still participated in pie day and sent over pictures of their pies they made. So here is their yummy entries for the year....and they dont have to share their pies with any of us, so not fair. :)

The table is set and ready for us to dig in! All of the pies this year were very yummy and typing this blog now makes me want to make some of them for dinner. Yum! I made two pies this year, and Jake made one. I made a cheesey noodle pie for my mac and cheese loving children, and an artichoke tomato zuchinni pie...mmmmm. Jake being the funny guy he is, made a kitty litter suprise pie (a pie crust filled with almond rocha and crushed up walnuts).

Pie hats! How cool are these, what creative thinking.

Mary and Eli wearing the hats proud.

Zach finally, on his own terms, decided he was ready to wear a pie hat for a picture too.

What a fun and yummy day we had. Ive already began my pie search for next year, but any suggestions out there will be gladly taken.

Blog slacker

I promise that tomarrow, our blog will be updated...nap time, thats my goal! In all reality, not much picture excitement has happened for us since Mexico. A few things here and there, but the camera has been on a slight break since our big vacation. The few things we have done, and taken pictures of, will be posted tomarrow. :)