Spring

I think spring has finally arrived here in Michigan! 

I was super excited for the flower above blossom...and then the boys trampled it... But there are other blossoms starting to appear and with a whole week of temperatures above 50 and rain coming down-- I know it won't be long before the beautiful colors of Michigan start to show their face.

And for some reason better temperatures equal mice (shouldn't they want to be outside in this beautiful weather?). We put some poison out where the mouse had struck before and it ate some and went off to die in some unknown location. Or so we hoped. Because later this week we found the above Fiber Bar so gracefully attacked in our pantry. SO either it is a super mouse that can survive poison or he has many friends. Neither option is appealing. I feel so violated. So more poison traps have been bought and are being laid.

This week I got brave and took the kids to the zoo again, on my own. But with Steven in school and no friends to keep up with, it went SO much better. We did our own thing and I had some good quality time with Ben & Lucy. Ben loved the frog exhibit so much that he made us go to it twice. Why did he love it so much you ask? Because he was able to find all the camouflaged frogs that his mommy couldn't find. It was cute how proud he was of himself. I didn't take any pictures, but here's a cute picture of Ben reading outside on our deck:

Also this week after taking a 35 minute drive to one of my favorite places, Hobby Lobby, I decided shopping with kids here is impossible. By the time we get to a place Lucy is all cranky from having to sit and is then completely uncooperative in the store- not to mention a complete screamer the whole drive home- it's no good. I think online shopping will become my new friend. 

And speaking of Lucy, she is so strong willed. This girl wants what she wants and tantrums will be thrown when she doesn't get what she wants. Lately she wants pretty much anything Benny has, she wants to constantly eat snacks from the cupboards and she wants to be left in the van when we get home so that she can destroy it. We've also decided she should be on a Snicker's commercial because she is "not herself when she's hungry." She is handful but she is saved by her adorableness. She is starting to copy more words and saying "hi" and "bye" with way more frequency. My favorite things she says is, "thank you." She basically just imitates in the intonations of the phrase but it's cute. Also, when ever I sing "Do you wanna build a snowman" (from Frozen) she likes to imitate the melody,  it's adorableness.  I do love this girl!

Lastly, Steven got a cavity filled this week (he's got my teeth genes). And they go about things interestingly at his new dentist's office. There are many untruths told. They tell him they are going to give his tooth sleepy juice and ask him to close his eyes so it doesn't splash on him...I don't know how I feel about this deceitfulness but I do know that it seemed to work. He didn't love the feeling of a sleepy tooth but he did really good. No freak outs or crying. Proud of my growing boy!

And we shall end with a pic of Tyler in his man cave (the second level in our garage). Now that the weather is better, he has been spending lots of time up there "building stuff". He is currently making a garage door opener since we only have one which stinks when you have an unconnected garage.

Easter Weekend

Here are some pics from a little hike we took in Kensington Park last Saturday. I am in love with Kensington Park, it's beautiful and HUGE and only a 10 minute drive away. We originally went on this hike with the purpose of seeing a Civil War Reenactment but apparently we had missed it and the sounds we were following that we thought might lead us to it were coming from a shooting range across the highway, still fun though:

And remember the Easter Egg Hunt we went on last Saturday? Well Steven had entered a raffle for an Easter Basket there and he won! When he entered he was so excited and sure he was going to win so I kept telling him that he probably wouldn't, there were lots of people entering and only 2 people could win. BUT he was right- he won a basket full of candy! Lucky kid! Only then he had to share his winnings with the family, he felt grumpy about that...  

Yesterday, as I was getting breakfast ready, I noticed crumbs on a shelf in our kitchen, when I went to investigate I found this:

It looks like we have a critter in our home that really likes Kit Kat bars. Ack! It was easier to pretend they didn't exist when we just found them DEAD in our basement. Less easy when they are eating things in our kitchen.

But on a happier note, the kids got to open their Easter gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Brady yesterday, and they loved everything. I am quite thrilled with the Pom-Poms Lucy got, so adorable:

They also got to dye Easter Eggs... Well, not Lucy, she got to eat crackers instead: 

Benny decided to do some eggs 2 different colors and when he got half of it dyed he exclaimed, "It has a swimsuit!"

After dying Easter Eggs we went across the street to Helena's birthday party. The people across the street have 3 girls: a 4 year old, a 2 year old and a 7 month old. They are from Germany and super nice. Our next door neighbors were there as well. They have a 5 year old girl and a 3 year old boy. Now that the weather is warming up (except for the freak snow storm on Tuesday that broke records) we're finally getting to know our neighbors better!

When we came home, we did our own little Easter Egg Hunt. Each kid was assigned a color so I let Steven hide Benny and Lucy's eggs. Then I went and hid his. We're discovering that Benny is much better at looking for things than Steven. Benny needed surprisingly little help while Steven couldn't find the eggs that were right in front of him.   

And last night was like Christmas Eve all over again! Steven was way to excited to sleep and kept shouting from his room, "Did the Easter Bunny come yet? I think I heard him!" But at last he went to sleep, only to wake up at 6:30 ready to find those baskets.

As per tradition they got a special note from the bunny with a clue on where to find their basket. Steven's basket was by his Lego's (where he goes to build houses):

Ben's was by the heater vent in the playroom (his favorite place to sit):

And Lucy's was under the TV:

Then we had pancakes and cinnamon rolls and rushed off to church. Lucy wore her pretty new Easter dress:

And for dinner, I made my very first ham:

This Easter has sure made me home sick. I miss having a special Easter dinner with all our extended family and the big Easter Egg Hunt with all the cousins at Grandma Hatch's home. It's nice to get to do our own thing I suppose, but it certainly isn't as fun. So though it is beautiful here and the weather is warming up and we're starting to make friends, I still can't see us here forever- AZ just houses too many people that I love and miss!

Spring Break

I started off Spring Break trying to be a super fun mom! We painted, we hiked, we went to the library and the playground but by Wednesday, I was SO over being a super fun mom. 

The paintings turned out cute but only because my OCD self couldn't handle their swirly painting in of shapes and had to take over at times. It literally pained me to not be in control, I have issues... 

The hike was super awesome because we saw wild turkeys and heard them gobble and Steven was convinced they were responding to his gobbles...But it wasn't awesome because Benny whined the whole walk back and Lucy insisted on being carried back and Steven, of course, was not happy about leaving.

The playground wasn't even a little fun because Lucy decided to throw a tantrum over the fact there were no swings for her and the tantrum lasted the ENTIRE time.

SO on Wednesday, I said to myself, "Self, let's go nowhere and plan nothing and see how that goes." And my self agreed.

And this is how it went. My kids blew bubbles in the back yard and played with side walk chalk and made up games in which Steven bought gas from me and then took Benny and Lucy on wagon tours of our backyard and garage...

And they even decided on their own to make some paper bag puppets in which all I had to do was print something off and then they did the rest...

And I was also able to finish a book in two whole days because they pretty much entertained themselves. So Wednesday and Thursday were lovely days.

Then Friday came. On Friday we were invited by some church friends to go to the Detroit Zoo and since I want to make friends and I want my kids to make friends, we went. And I really did enjoy socializing with super nice adults BUT I did not enjoy the drama my children put me through. There was a reason I had decided to stop going places on previous days- I think I am just not as adept as I used to be with taking all three kids out in public by myself.

Benny and Lucy could never decide on whether they wanted to be in or out of the wagon. When Lucy was out it was so hard to keep track of her while keeping track of Steven who kept running off ahead with his friends. And then near the end Lucy just lost it, but in her defense it was past bedtime. SO I ended up pulling all 3 kids in the wagon, as quickly as possible from one side of the very long zoo to the other. There were definite moments where I thought I was going to collapse and even in this beautiful 60 degree weather, I was sweating up a storm. They were quite the load. 

But the kids had fun making new friends- so though it felt deathly awful at the end- it was worth it I suppose....

And today we ventured out again, not because I was feeling braver, but because it's Saturday and Tyler's home and everything is much easier when you have your husband. So we went to an Easter egg hunt at a park. The lines were crazy to do anything (like face paint or sit with the creepy Easter bunny) but the actual Easter egg hunt was perfect. They had the kids line up around the edges of the field and then let them loose. It was so fun to watch Steven dashing around in attempt to get as many eggs as possible. Tyler went with Benny and Lucy and apparently Lucy had absolutely no interest in picking up the eggs and Benny was very thoughtful and careful with each egg he got. 

Also this week I got my secondary ultrasound (since Penny was not cooperating the first time) and got some more fun picture of her. She is quite the poser, with her hand on cheeks and then later covering her face. Everything is still checking out well for her so at this point my 2 vessel umbilical cord doesn't seem to be affecting her:

Blessed

Do you ever feel like you are just too blessed? Does that sound silly? Lately I have been feeling extremely blessed. It is not always easy to care for one very emotional boy, one very strong willed boy and one crazy little monkey/toddler but I still feel so blessed that I get to be there for them. That I am the one raising them day in and day out. That this is my sole job. I have the privilege of molding these little ones. I finally have time to not only work on their behavior but I get to educate them too. I get to spend time daily teaching Benny his ABC's and he's progressing- at last he can recognize 4 letters! Baby steps, but progress none the less.

Every night I have Steven choose a book to read to me and it is amazing to see his growth as a reader:

I'm getting to teach Lucy her body parts and animal sounds. She does well with head, eyes and nose. Animal sounds, pretty much every animal roars but every once in awhile she will say "baaa" for a sheep.So though her progress is slow, the beautiful thing is I have all the time in the world to teach her:

In addition to the blessing of being home with kids, I also have the blessing of having a husband in the evenings. After 8 years of hardly every seeing him, I get him all the time now and it makes my job so much easier. The other night I got to sit on the porch and watch him chase the kids around with a Nerf sword.  In the evenings it used to be me having to reluctantly chase them around or I wouldn't and then they would be grumpy. But now I have a husband who is home, now I get to sit back and watch them giggle. It's really a rather a beautiful thing. 

And then there is the blessing of living in this beautiful place. Do I miss my family? Absolutely. But at the same time I am loving the beauty of here. I know the trees are still leafless and the ground is still muddy and brown but coming from a place that lacks water and trees, I can see the beauty that will come and I am so excited for the weather to improve so that we can enjoy this beauty more frequently. Literally just down the street here's a river:

Then there's the park just an extremely short drive away (that of course I didn't take pictures of) that is surrounded by trees, has a river with a bridge behind it and to the side of it a huge lake with lots of ducks. AND in addition to all that nearby greatness, about 10 minutes away we have a farm that we can visit anytime for free:

And as though those aren't enough blessings, I am having a girl! I will have a perfectly even family just like I wanted. Here is my baby girl at 19 weeks (I took this a week ago):     

So yes, I am blessed. I think, even a little bit too much so right now. And I am feeling so grateful. I think when you experience the bad, it truly does help you appreciate the good SO much more. I have experienced being a working mom, I have experienced hardly seeing my husband and maybe not bad, but I have experienced living in a desert. And with those experiences, I feel like I appreciate so much more my life that I have now.

And to end things on a non reflective, totally light hearted note, Steven lost another tooth this week. It was getting really wobbly and would you believe that he actually asked his daddy to pull it out!? Yes he still cried but there was a lot less emotionalness this time: