Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Texas Traditions

In Texas it's tradition to take pictures in the beautiful bluebonnets!! We found a huge field this year and got some cute pictures of the kids.







On April 2nd Kiley was in the car talking to Sarah and Sarah LAUGHED for the first time!!  It was so sweet and Kiley couldn't have been happier!!!
Kaitlin, Kiley and Ben are all signed up for baseball.  Kaitlin hit a homerun at her first practice!!  She also did so good catching and throwing.  She's the only girl on her team too!  Kiley did really good at her practice too!  She hit the ball off the T and fielded ground balls like a pro.  :)  Ben has his first practice tomorrow.
Our beautiful girls.
Ben loves to pose with all the treats I make.  He is my biggest helper in the kitchen!  :)




Kaitlin drew a picture of our family!!
We had an Easter egg hunt at our church.  Kaitlin and Ben were so happy that they each found a prize egg!  I love our church!!

We also went to an egg hunt at another nearby church.  They had the coolest petting zoo ever!  It had a camel, huge turtles, baby chicks and so many other animals!  They also got their faces painted, rode a carousel and rode ponies!
We went to my mom's on Easter for lunch and an egg hunt. Neil and Tiffany came too. It was so cute watching them all run around trying to get all of the eggs.  




Then, we went to Kevin's cousins house for dinner and another egg hunt.  Every year we do a silly string fight.  The kids LOVE it!!  This was Noah's first year to squirt people and he had such a fun time!  Here's the big kids before their hunt.

That next Friday, Tera, Makynli, the boys,Sarah and I went to the zoo. It was fun and I can't wait to go back again with the girls!


I made my first fondant bow!  And, I finally started my own cake pops/cake/cookies business.  It is going fantastic and I love it!!


We were having a ridiculous amount of caterpillars for a few weeks.  Noah kept picking them up!  GROSS!!  But, now we have beautiful butterflies everywhere!

Ben loves to pick flowers (actually, they all do)!!!
And blow bubbles!

Everyone's growing up so quickly and it's making me so sad!! 
Sarah started rolling over from belly to back 3 weeks ago, and now she is doing it all the time.  I love the look of "whoa" on her face everytime she does it!  She smiles so BIG everytime anyone talks to her.  She sleeps between 12-15 hours every night.  She is such a great "go with the flow baby"!!  She loves to suck on her hand.  She'll spit her binky out and put her fist right in.  :)
Noah is really starting to talk!  Within the last month he just suddenly has so much to say...sentences even!!  He can tell me when he's hungry, wants a drink, wants to go potty and so much more!!  When he wants juice he says "apple boof".  LOVE IT!!!  He loves to dance.  He really likes to dance with Kaitlin to all the Disney channel songs.  Ernie, Elmo, Mickey Mouse and Cars are his favorite right now.  When he sees planes flying he points and says "Mommy,Mommy,Mommy..." until I acknowledge that he sees a plane (or whatever is in the sky that he sees)!  He's noticing tractors on the side of the road now too.  His favorite color to spot is purple and he says it so well!  I get so excited every time he talks to me or anyone else!!  He (well, all of us!!) is just so much happier now that he's talking!  And, since he just feels like being super awesome all at once, he is finally potty trained...at home.  He won't tell me he needs to go when we're out.  Probably because I put him in a pull-up.  But, with 5 kids I just can't convince myself to take him out in underwear.  In time, I'll be brave and just get over it!  He also loves to be outside.  Everytime I make him come in, he crys.
Benjamin is so smart!  He can add, knows his letters, he's learning the sounds they make, he listens so well at church and answers the questions about the stories!  His favorite thing to do is play outside.  He's such a sweet boy and loves his Mommy so very much!!!  When he's not being good he likes to say he learned it from boys in his class at preschool so it's not his fault...haha!  Crazy boy!  As silly as he is, he's also very shy.  :)  When people he doesn't know too well talk to him, he acts like he can't hear them!!
Kiley is still the sweetest thing ever!!!  She loves her baby sister with all her heart.  Even after 3 months she still wants to hold her everyday.  :)  She's a girly girl, but loves to get outside and play.  She'll sometimes change outfits a couple of times a day.  She can read so well!!  And she loves to read me the books she brings home from school.  I remember how frustrated she was when she was learning to read, so it's so great to see her proud of herself!  She's my little bundle of joy!!
Kaitlin is still very in to reading.  At her school they have a program called AR.  She is in the top 10 of the entire school for AR points!  After kids read a book they take a test on the computer and receive AR points.  We are so proud of her!!!  She's such a big help with all of her brothers and sisters.  Without her help I would go crazy some days.  Kaitlin has such a kind heart.  All of our kids do.  They genuinely care for other people.  She loves to draw too.  She always has loved drawing!  Time is flying by and she is growing up quicker than I ever imagined!  :(  Here's a picture Kaitlin drew of Daddy, hahaha!!

Kevin and I are so blessed!!  Can it get any cuter than this?!

I am so thankful for each and every day I have with my kids and Kevin.
I can't wait to see my 3 munchkins play their first baseball games this weekend!  We are all super excited!
I'll leave you with a thought from pastor Andy Stanley.  "Love is a verb, not just a noun."  What are 2-3 ways you can show your spouse you love (verb) them?!