Skylar the Chick

My eldest child is so imaginative and creative that she decided to name her first pet Skylar! Wow! I was really hoping for something a little more interesting. I don't consider myself to be a pushover parent or anything (of course, I'm sure no one does), so I'm not sure how my six year old convinced me to let her bring this chick home as a pet after their class hatched eggs this spring. But I did, so for a week, we have a chick named Skylar. It is being shipped to Missouri this weekend to stay with the grandparents, but for now it is nice and cozy and thankfully still alive in our laundry room.

A Walk in the Park

I don't know about you, but for some reason it seems as though spring sneaks up on me and then passes me by before I have a chance to enjoy it. I have been aching to get to the park for a while, but it seemed like every weekend, there was something going on. I totally missed the tulips, so I was excited to have a day to admire the other beautiful flowers that were blooming at Woodward Park. As stated in the previous post, my children were not thrilled with the idea of posing for me, so they look a little goofy in most of the pictures, just try to look past that. Oh, and I am not neglecting my third child, he was quite fussy and ended up napping while we were there.

Day of Rest

Sunday, our church had our first ever day of rest. There were no bible classes, but an extended worship, and there were to be no scheduled activities for the remainder of the day. No baby or wedding showers, no meetings, no evening services, etc. I have to say, I was very much looking forward to this day. It is a rare occasion, especially on Sunday afternoons that we aren't busy doing something. Anyway, we decided to spend our day of rest picnicing at the park and enjoying the beautiful day together as a family. Actually, I convinced my family that is what they wanted to do, but I was actually in hopes of getting some good pictures of the kids with all of the beautiful blooms at the park. However, they had other things in mind. They preferred chasing squirrels,

feeding the squirrels,

taking the day of rest very seriously,

admiring the roses,

observing the goldfish, and just horsing around.

They were not at all interested in getting their pictures taken, so this is the best I got of all three. Nice, huh? I'm thinking Sunday afternoon is not our prime picture taking time. Although you can't tell from this picture, we did enjoy our afternoon at the park. I do have a few pictures of the girls that were ok, so I'll have to post those sometime soon.

Marty the Magician

Saturday night our church hosted Marty the Magician as a community outreach. The girls loved the show, especially the live bunny. We always like to take advantage of opportunities for free entertainment, and it was great to see several families from the community there as well!

Built-In Babysitters

There's nothing like a natural disaster to bring the family closer together, even when it's a fake one! Kevin had a breakfast to attend this morning, so the kids and I were hanging out at the house enjoying a Saturday morning. I decided to try to get a few chores done, and the girls thoroughly enjoyed keeping Lincoln occupied. I checked on them a couple of times, and they informed me they were playing "tornado". They entertained themselves for quite some time, and Lincoln couldn't have been happier. He was thinking he was pretty cool hanging with the big kids.

For a change of scenery and Lincoln's need to eat, they moved the party downstairs while Lincoln enjoyed a bottle and the girls played a few games of slap jack all while never leaving his side. These girls take their responsibility as big sisters quite seriously, and I have to say, that it works out quite nicely for me.

Seven Months

Lincoln is seven months old today. I conveniently remembered last night and tried to snap a few pics of him in his pajamas before bed. He is as sweet as ever, and is definitely keeping us busy. He's reading, writing, and practicing his multiplication tables... Ok, maybe he's just sitting around drooling on everything in sight, but we're proud parents nonetheless. The little guy still loves his sisters and likes to be entertained when he is awake. He's finally getting the hang of eating food and has decided he kind of likes it. He likes to sit up and play with his toys occasionally, but is a little more of a people person. He's been drooling for months, but I think a couple of teeth are finally starting to break through. Time is flying, but we're enjoying every minute along the way!

I'm learning a few things about boys, or at least learning what I don't know. I don't know what to do with his hair. When you have girls, you just plop a big ol' bow on their head and go, but with a boy, I have no idea. He has a big patch on the top that looks a bit like a comb over, but I don't know if you cut it, spike it, or what. Therefore, I do nothing with it, and it remains looking a bit dorky. I'm also feeling a bit of remorse for showing no empathy in the past to my friends with boys. I've always heard how small of a selection there is when it comes to clothes for boys, but never really gave it much thought because I was busy buying all the adorable girl clothes I could get could get my hands on. Now, I'm struggling to find boy clothes. They all end up looking the same, and I find myself getting frustrated trying to sift through the girl clothes to find the miniscule section of boy clothes.

Daddy and Me

Loving the beautiful weather and opportunity to enjoy being outside!

Heart Walk

Last Saturday, we spent the morning at the Tulsa Heart Walk in honor of our friends Gavin and Brody. It was the perfect day for such an event! The girls got a little tired and whiny by the end, but for the most part completed the four mile walk with ease. My friend Faith and I with Lincoln and Brody.

Our family taking a break from the massive crowd at the bridge entrance.

31 Reasons...

Today is Kevin's 31st Birthday! In honor of his birthday, I've decided to post 31 reasons I love and/or appreciate him, so here goes... (this is going to be long, sorry about that)

1. His first priority in life is to serve God, and his attitude and actions speak to this daily.

2. He is a great dad to our children.

3. He has become a good leader within our family, our church and his job.

4. He helps out around the house without being asked, without complaining, and has actually learned to complete household chores with quality.

5. He helps take care of the kids.

6. He has acquired a good sense of fashion.

7. He understands my need to shop and occasionally gives in.

8. He appreciates (or at least pretends to) the fact that I like to spend time and money decorating our house.

9. His laid back personality compliments my not so laid back personality.

10. He helps me bring in the groceries without being asked.

11. He makes me laugh.

12. He is patient.

13. He will eat anything I put in front of him and never says a negative word about it.

14. He lets me have all the "me" time I need, and never really asks for any of his own.

15. He doesn't call me when I'm out asking when I will be home.

16. He has good taste in music.

17. He's always striving to improve himself in all areas of life.

18. He willingly goes to visit my family whenever I want or need to go.

19. He plays with the kids like I never could.

20. He's always nice to other people.

21. When we watch a movie together, he always let's me watch a romantic comedy if I want to.

22. I think he's pretty cute. (Maybe he would prefer I say handsome, hot....whatever, you get the idea)

23. He's not picky about anything which makes him the easiest person to shop for on everyone's Christmas list.

24. He will go shopping with me.

25. He drives like a grandpa, so I always feel safe when we're on the road.

26. He puts our needs and wants ahead of his own.

27. He can't sleep through the sound of a crying baby, so most of the time, it's him who had to get up in the middle of the night.

28. When he's at home he is usually making good use of his time. He tries to avoid doing things that annoy me.

29. He is nice to me even when I'm fat and moody.

30. He rarely ever gets upset or angry with anyone.

31. I love that he's going to enjoy reading all these great things about himself so much that he won't even notice that I didn't get him a real present yet!

Happy 31st Birthday Kevin!

Easter Overload

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter weekend! This is the first Easter in a long time that the weather has cooperated and it actually felt like spring outside. We traveled to Missouri to spend the holiday with my family. The girls had a great time as usual. I apologize for the mass amount of photos. I was trying to make collages, but my computer wasn't cooperating, so I got frustrated and just posted them all as is. Oh, and pictures are all in a crazy order because I couldn't remember what I had and hadn't uploaded. Anyway..... We began the Easter festivities by dying eggs AGAIN!

Lincoln was super excited about his first Easter basket full of goodies.

Lincoln loving on his Great Grandma Del

And of course, the Easter egg hunt...

My niece Anastyn, could she be any cuter? She was pretty serious about the egg hunt.

The girls with their Grammy Tammy The girl cousins after hunting the eggs a few times.

The Easter Bunny came!

My handsome little guy all decked out for church. Playing a little ball before church

Londyn...

The best pic I could get of all the grandkids after church, most of them needing a nap. Hopefully that will get easier in the coming years.

Skylar taking her job of holding Malachi very seriously.

The attempt at a family picture, Lincoln wasn't too thrilled about it.

And last but not least, another trip to the farm to see the cows. They still can't get enough!

The End

(I'm impressed that you made it through all those pictures)