April days...

Brian had his 35th birthday earlier this month - the day was kindof a bust (there were some majorly crabby kids at our house...), but we made him a wonderful breakfast and went out for dinner.  At least his tummy was happy! :)

The best pic I could get while at dinner

Maggie started a little pee-wee soccer team for kids under 5.

She was super excited about it, until we got there, and she realized that everyone was trying to take the ball away from her.  There were some tears, but we'll try again next week!

The weather has been beautiful so Eli got to try out the swing...and he loved it, of course!

Grammie and Granddad had us all over for dinner to celebrate Brian, Johnny, and Caitlin's birthdays.

I caught this super cute (and a little blurry) pic of Eli and Brian...

One of my bestest friends, Erin, drove thru KC from Minneapolis on her way to a family funeral. I literally haven't seen her in 9 years and it was so great to reconnect and meet the new family additions.  The kids loved to play with each other and their visit just flew by.

Maggie, Colin, and Amelia

Silly pic...

Maggie, Colin, Ben, and Amelia

I got suckered into buying the kids a red nose at the store the other day.

Eli didn't really care for it much...

We are going to Gulf Shores in June and the kids are preparing themselves for some beach time...

Cheers to having lots of fun in April!

Easter 2016

I realize Easter was a while back, but I have kept forgetting to add more pictures to this post and I figure I should just go with what I have so far.

Easter weekend was great - I had to work on Saturday morning for a bit, but then the rest of the afternoon was nice and lazy.

The kids got up super early on Sunday and hunted some eggs at our house.  The Easter bunny had been there and left the kids the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie and a Ninjago Wii game.  After that, we went to early morning mass and then made our way down to Belton to spend time with Tiff, Chad, Gordy, and Meemaw.  We had a great brunch and did some Easter egg hunting.

The kids were in sweets heaven!

Hopefully I will get some more pictures posted soon, but until then...

Baby giggles

While Colin was at soccer the other night, Maggie had Eli just CRACKIN' up about something.  I think she was saying the word "dip" and he thought that was really funny.

So, of course, she continued to say dip for about 20 minutes, and he laughed that entire time.

Baby giggles are the best.

Love you, Eli!

ordinary days

Cousin Daniel had his 2nd birthday party last weekend.

I still can't believe how quickly time flies - oh, and how quick Daniel is, because I couldn't even get a good picture of him sitting still.

But...I did get a good one of Granddad, GG Rita, and Eli (they were all sitting still) :)

Eli has such a good sense of humor - and he thinks his siblings are just about the funniest things EVER!  I'm not sure what Colin was saying, but obviously it was HILARIOUS!

Those are Colin's glasses - that I bought off Amazon.  

Colin really badly needs some reading glasses of +1 (but finding reading glasses in kids size at that prescription is nearly impossible).  They are a little too big for his face, but he still likes them.  I'm hoping they will get us through the rest of the school year until we can get some good glasses for him over the summer.

I found some Batman pajamas for Eli (yes, he's not quite 5 months and wearing 12 month clothes!) and Colin decided he wanted to wear his Spiderman pajamas.

Then my sweet little Maggie decided she wanted a picture of Batman and Butterfly Girl.

Yes, I'm sure there's a superhero somewhere that's called Butterfly Girl.

Oh, and we started Eli on some oatmeal cereal the other night.

Brian and I actually didn't feed him at all, our little helpers did all the work.

Not sure how much food actually made it in his mouth - but he really enjoyed it and the kids just loved helping out.

I love this picture of him...

He's growing up so fast.  I'm just trying to soak up all the last "firsts" as much as I can.

Some days are so hard getting stuck in a rut and just getting all of the chores done - it's easy to forget what is important.  

These ordinary days are important...

Lately...

So I'm horribly behind on putting pictures on and updating this blog.

Time just seems to slip away from me lately, and if I do have a free moment, I'd like to sit on the couch with Brian and relax and not be behind the computer screen.

Anyway,

I think I've got some pictures coming your way...

Maggie went to yet ANOTHER swimming party a few weeks back.

These are all her really good friends from school - unfortunately, Maggie is the only one going to St. Therese next year, so she will have to make some new really good friends from school!

Colin is back up and running with spring soccer.

His first game was scheduled for this past weekend, but it was a rainy mess, so it got canceled.

Our weather lately has been crazy - literally snowing one minute, 80 degrees the next day, rain and thunderstorms, back to sunny.  It's terrible on allergies, but spring will settle in soon, I hope!

Colin got his pictures back from school.

He looks so handsome and grown up.  It's a really great picture, too!

My employer, Children's Mercy, partnered with our local professional soccer team.  The Sporting KC stadium is now called Children's Mercy Park!  A couple weekends ago we had the opportunity to go visit the stadium, go in the locker rooms, out on the field level, tour all the special clubs, see a bunch of characters, etc.  The kids had a blast, even though it was a super cold day!

Maggie and her princesses...

Colin got to hold a gun, he thought that was awesome!

Sitting in the chairs that the teams sit in while on the field...

Eli was asleep, but I"m sure he thought it was cool, too!

The locker rooms were pretty neat...

More Star Wars peeps, this time, Colin got to hold a light saber...

And of course, Anna and Elsa.

It was a great afternoon.

So glad I work for such a family-friendly organization!

Branson

We went on a quick little trip to Branson, MO the other weekend - Brian bought a Groupon a while back.  It was a ton of fun, and the kids really enjoyed themselves.  

The hotel we stayed at had a waterpark with it, but not IN it.  So we had to walk outside, in our cold, wet swimsuits back to the room.  The kids were pretty good about it all and didn't complain much.  We were just glad that the weekend in February that we picked had temperatures in the 50s and 60s. 

We ate some pizza, had a good buffet, swam a lot, went to church, did some mini-golfing, and hardly slept at all (thanks to Eli!)

Can you believe how big Eli is getting?!

Poor Maggie will probably never be big enough to carry him!

The boys watching Colin and Maggie do some golfing

Colin and I waiting on Maggie using the restroom

Eli got ahold of my phone and took some selfies! :)

I rode in the backseat with Eli, trying to provide some entertainment for him on the 3.5 hour drive.

Luckily he slept some...

I put Colin's headphones on him...

And I found a bow that I thought he needed to wear!

Thanks for a great weekend, Branson!