Morgan spent all morning outside with her little brother and sister. She made them lay down and she traced their entire body. Grace also traced Morgans.

Morgan then drew their outfits in amazing detail! I found it funny. Morgan wasn't around during the picture-taking process, but I guarantee, her outfit matched her drawing just perfectly.

Morgan's picture wearing her "cereal shirt"...
Grace's likeness of herself...

Morgan's picture of Grace...

The real thing...

Morgan's picture of Crede...

The real thing...

Spring Rain Bike Rides

Once again I will say how lucky I am to have a husband like mine. It was POURING rain out, Chance came home from work, the kids were in bed, and he asked, "Can the kids come out to play in the rain?" I protested at first, but then caved (as I usually do). The kids had SO MUCH FUN out there. Our gutter was completely overflowing so, of course, the kids started riding their bikes through it. They even had some gutter trash races to see whose piece of trash or stick or whatever won.

Such a fun memory.

Crede riding through the gutter...

Grace...







Morgan...






Yes, we're aware his bike is pink. He loves that thing.

Our Front Door Bendaroo's

I am SO not a fan of Bendaroo's. My kids got them from Santa this last year and since then I don't think they have been allowed to play with them much. They were a little fun at first, but every. single. time. they are played with, I spend about that same amount of time scraping sticky stuff off my countertop. Grr.

I think this happened on a Sunday, but I came home from Choir practice and saw some neat Bendaroo art on my front door! My kids were so excited that I had to leave it up. I just so happened to paint my front door the next day (coincidence? You be the judge.) - so - shoot. I had to take them down.

PS - the front door was that awesome cream/tan/gross color when we moved in. I've just procrastinated painting it for a good 7 years now. It was preeetty bad.

The before...(yikes)

A couple of close-ups of the neat Bendaroo artwork...





I was actually pretty impressed with this one...

And the after. Better, don't you think?

Springtime Swimming

Literally, this was the first day of the year that broke 70 degrees. We have had such a wet, cold spring that it felt WONDERFUL today. Therefore, we broke out the kiddie pool. Morgan and Grace were invited to swim in our neighbor's HOT TUB, so we filled our kiddie pool with water from our water heater. Sweet!!

Gage, obviously, had never seen the sun up close before, and Crede was soooo excited to get out and play in the water. They had a lot of fun.

Here's the debut of "albino baby".

Crede was trying to help Gage play with some fun pool-toys.

Check out those ab-rolls!



Gage looks like the Micheline Man here. Either that or the State Puff Marsh-mellow Man.







Gage cuddling with Dad on the swings.

Swimming Lessons

I finally broke down and signed Morgan and Grace up for swimming lessons. We go camping every year with some close friends of ours, and we always make it a point to camp by some type of water.

Last year we couldn't find Crede for about 10 minutes ~ and then he came walking through camp with wet socks and shoes. He had just decided to walk down by the water...ALONE...and wade his feet. I will tell you how freaked out that made me.

So.
Swimming lessons it is.

It was quite the ordeal taking all 4 kids to swimming lessons. Chance was only able to come twice, and let me just tell you how much I appreciated it when he came. What was hard was when Grace, or Crede, or Morgan would come up to me and say, "I need to go potty!!" I would then have to take Crede, Gage and whomever else in the bathroom with me. It's hard when you can't put your baby down for a minute to help wipe. Ya know? I would always finish out of breath. I made a nice friend who always sat by me ~ she gave me this cute magazine that she was looking at (after I sat and read over her shoulder the whole time) and I'm looking forward to hanging out with her again this summer (her daughter signed up for the same time as we did).

Anyway,

Here are some pictures of Grace. Morgan's year went a little worse. She was so freaked out of the water that each week she was in tears during her lesson. Her teacher kept telling her that he was a lifeguard and not to worry. I was so happy that she had a caring and patient teacher. She wouldn't have made it otherwise. She finally got used to it after about 5 lessons. This summer they will be taking more classes, and I'll get more pictures of Morgan then. In the meantime, here are pictures of Grace...and one of Morgan doing what she does best.


Oh Grace...



Yep, that's what she does best.


And Gage...





I like how she has a perma-grin on her face in all of these pictures. Goof-ball.

TIme is going waaaaay to fast.

It hit me today. Gage is 9 months old! This is his last milestone before he turns the big One Oh. Wow. I can't imagine our lives without this little man. He is so stinkin' cute and funny and chubby and yummy. I love to smell his head and nuzzle into his cheek. I love that when he wants you to pick him up he will "head butt" you in the leg. I love when he talks to me, saying, "Bah bah bah bah" or even just opening and closing his mouth over and over to make that popping sound. When I was taking his picture today I kept saying, "Boo!!" I swear to you, he said it. I know, my kids are GENIUSES.

(They get it from their Mom.)