Spring Pics!

I had some major catching up to do on the blog today. Wanted to get it all done before the boys' joint birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese tomorrow, followed by....our Florida trip in four more days!!!! We are so excited to celebrate the births of our two favorite boys, and to head south for some fun in the sun and leave crazy Illinois weather behind us! :) Counting this one, there are five new posts below. So if you are one of the grandparents or have a lot of time on your hands, check them out. I just can't minimize the amount of pictures I take. Kind of like my packing style...oh dear...the suitcases and sub plans are calling my name!

We met up with the talented Lori Sutton Bettis again to get our spring family pictures taken. She has a friend in Decatur who graciously loaned us the use of her huge, beautiful home as the backdrop. Getting there was another whole story. It's about an hour and a half away, and thankfully we left early because not only was it raining, but our new Tom-Tom GPS system only took us as far as a certain road and stopped. The subdivision they live in is new, so it was not recognized. We got lost and had to call and have her direct us there. Needless to say, Jay is not the most patient person in the world with getting pictures to start with...not to mention driving out of town to get them taken...throw in getting lost...and a crying, hungry baby...it is no small miracle these pictures turned out as well as they did! Lori worked her magic. :)

I absolutely LOVE this one below! I want to frame it next to one from the fall when Holden was in the foreground looking out a truck window, and Jay, Hunter, and I were in the background peeking in.

It took awhile to get the previous shot. There were a lot of shenanigans involved, as you can get a hint of in the picture below. Notice my hand. There was a lady ready to catch him if he fell, but I was just afraid she wouldn't realize quite how quick he is! I was prepared to leap if I had to! Wild boy!

The home we were in was just beautiful. Huge, floor-to-ceiling windows with views of a creek, lake, and countryside. My entire house could have fit in the foyer. :)

My sweet little boys

This is another favorite of mine. Holden's smile is so genuine, and I love how she captured the adoring way that Hunter will look at him. He truly loves his big brother!

My sweet, smart, and sassy almost-four-year-old. Love him so much! I like how you can see a hint of his orneriness in this smile.

LOVE how she captured his eyes here!

Lori brought an old fire fighter's outfit for Holden to try on. He was thrilled! He looked so cute in the giant pants, suspenders, and hat.

Hunter refused to participate in the picture below. We tried and he threw a fit at being made to just lay still. He'd pop up and crawl away. I really like it of the three of us. We'll try another one with Hunter next year. :)

Holden and his Daddy. They look so much alike!

My favorite picture of my baby! Love those two pearly whites peeking out, gap and all.

This one is Jay's favorite. It is Hunter in all his essence.

Some more of our littlest man.

Holding Mommy and Daddy's hands.

My 3 favorite guys in all the world. :)

Barney Live!

Jay's mom is the queen of winning things. Especially the radio call-ins. Seriously, I cannot even begin to tell you how many times she has won things. Just since Holden has been born she won us Wiggles tickets, dinosaur show tickets, and this month....she won Barney Live tickets! As in, Barney the big purple dinosaur. (As I type this I have the theme song in my head.) Holden is not as obsessed with Barney as some of the other shows he likes, but he really enjoys him and loves music of any kind. Barney sings a lot the common kids' songs like "The Wheels on the Bus," "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," etc. that Holden knows. Memaw also invited our cousins, Morgan, Emma, and Kyle. Great Aunt Teresa came to help with Kyle, who is her grandson.

As you can see, my van was filled to capacity. It's a good thing Memaw is skinny! She was wedged in the back between Holden and Emma. Made me laugh.

Memaw and Teresa swinging Kyle. Isn't he looking like such a big boy?! Praise God for how far he has come from the sick little baby a little over a year ago.

Holden, Morgan, and Emma walking to the show. Three peas in a pod.

Waiting for the show to begin! (We got there early; while the place certainly didn't fill to capacity, there were people behind us eventually!) It's a good thing we got there ahead of time, too, because we had to take potty breaks and order food. I am very thankful that I do not have triplets. Enough said!

The kids enjoying the show.

We got to see Barney, Baby Bop, BJ, and Riff (he is the orange one and is newer; we didn't know who he was until we asked.)

Teresa bought the kids light wands. They were in heaven. The light wands took precedence over the show for awhile!

Our buddy, Kyle. He was all over the place but did really well and liked dancing to the music and playing with his light wand. He actually joined Holden and me for quite awhile because we had popcorn. ;) I love the picture of Holden and Morgan trying to contain him. Crack me up! He thought he was hot stuff sitting in the chair and letting it fold him up, then open again. He was trying to impress the cute little girl that you can see holding the Barney doll. He was tickling her and dancing for her. When he wasn't trying to steal Barney.

Emma danced so hard her braid was straight up in the air.

Whoa, that's a serious dance face! Holden was showing off his mad white-boy dance skills and shaking his light wand. He gets this from Daddy.

Play that funky music, white boy...

Play that funky music, white!

We had a great night despite a few umm....interesting experiences. Morgan was happy until close to intermission, when she started saying she wanted to go home, and proceeded to vomit all over the floor and the seat in front of her, which, thankfully at the time, was empty. I have learned how quickly the staff at the Colliseum respond to a clean up call. :) Her mom came and picked both girls up and we moved up several rows and prayed we wouldn't all come down with whatever she had. Turns out it was strep,which can make you get sick. Poor girl!

I think my van still smells like Lysol.

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Family Fun Night

The school that I teach at, Sugar Creek El, had a "Family Fun Night" recently. We took the boys and we all had a great time!

Holden loved the bounce houses set up in the gym.

He was also thrilled to see his old buddy, Corny, the Cornbelters'(local baseball team) mascot. We can't wait for opening season! I still shake my head and smile when I think of how TERRIFIED he was only a short time ago of characters of any kind. Now he runs up and hugs them.

Enjoying pizza with my buddy in the cafeteria. The same one I ate school lunches in as a kid!

Hunter loves pizza.

We had fun playing games! Holden was very proud of his tattoo, and Hunter was thrilled with a balloon. Love the picture of my three men walking down the hall.

Holden tried out his first cakewalk....and WON a big cake on his first try! He was sooo excited!

One of the commons was set up as a toddler area. This was wonderful for Hunter. He was a real trooper as usual and tolerated the stroller for over an hour before he was ready to get out and stretch. I am sure this was his favorite part of the night!

Holden had a great time in the toddler room, too. He enjoyed the elephant tent!

The mini roller coaster was also a big hit!

Little rock star

We couldn't leave until the guys had a chance to play on my Smartboard. It seriously is the coolest thing ever. I wish we had these in the classroom when I was a student! I can get my class to pay attention to ANYTHING when they know they are going to get to use it.

Miscellanious March Moments

Some cute pics from the past few weeks.

The boys and their Memaw. She watches them Fridays between the time Jay goes in to work and I get off. I thought these were cute moments with the boys climbing all over her.

My little buddy, Holden. He is so expressive ALL THE TIME! Gotta love his dramatic flair. (Most of the time! Ha!)

At the Discovery Museum with Grammy and Papa. I am still in awe of my friends that have 3+ kids and do these adventures on their own. 90% of the time I have at least one grandparent with me if Jay's not! I find the 2 to 1 ratio to be quite the challenge still. And then there's all the STUFF we have to cart around. I can't wait for warm weather when we don't need to bundle up like Eskimos. That will help a bit! The picture of my dad and the puppets cracks me up! He and Holden put on quite the show, but Holden had run off to something else at this point. The puppets below were named (by the two of them) "Broomhilda and Bobby Knight."

Hunter is a smart boy. Already realizes how good Dr. Pepper is. Even with the can closed. Holden was spraying water at me on opposite sides of the paint wall. I love his big brown eyes and his expression here.

We had hail the other night. Illinois is so weird! It was so LOUD! We were afraid there would be damage to Jay's squad car or to the skylight in the kitchen, but they really weren't that big. Just a lot all at once! It was the first time Holden was old enough to understand what it was, so Jay brought some in for him to see.

A new favorite game for Holden is Daddy the horsey. I remember Eric and I piling on my dad's back and doing the same thing. Sometimes I am a horsey, too, but Daddy gives a more fun and wild ride. He is also the ornery horsey and makes Holden giggle a lot. (I love him in his tight little Carter's jammies. They remind me of long underwear and make me smile.)