Disney on Ice...

We usually can't afford to do these type of "family" activities, because they cost an arm and a leg for you to actually take your family, but, I got our tickets for $6 each! So I took the 4 boys out on a date! We had a great time.

All of the characters were so amazing! And the fireworks...They sure know how to put on a great show!

Mulan

M-I-C--K-E-Y MOUSE!!

This was the highlight of the night for me, the look on Easton's face! He was scared half to death~I know... something is wrong with me!~But, it was so incredibly funny!! The lights were flashing on and off and he was looking all around and asking, "why them doing that?" He didn't cry or anything...that would have made me feel bad, he was just a little freaked out! After that scene (when Gaston attacked the Beast) was done, he kept asking if it was over, he was ready to go home! Poor kid, I offered to hold him, but he was fine just holding my hand.

Beauty and the Beast

Aladdin~this was so cool! How they skate with the big costumes on is beyond me!

AWANA Grand Prix!!

Dylan with his cool car which won 2nd place for 5th grade design, and 4th in speed! Thanks Grampa T. for your help!

Spencer is in the red on the right, and his look-a-like friend Josh is on the left!

Jayden watching his car come down the track!

Even Easton got to race a car!

Some of the cool cars the kids made. Dylan's car is the one upside down on the back of the table! He just had some more weight soldered into the bottom of it and it was still hot!

fun with cousins....

We finally got together for Tryna and Dylan's birthday party with the Vander Zwaags. Tryna's birthday was way back on Feb. 8, Dylan's was on Valentines and Ryan's brother Robb's was the day after that, so we have a big party for everyone in Feb. We have our's and Johny and Sarah's anniversaries thrown in that month too! Then in May we have another big month with my niece Taylor, Anaya and my mother-in-law's birthdays on the 4th, 5th, and 6th! Amazing how that happens sometimes!

Aunt Lisa organized a scavenger hunt for the kids, she had them running all around outside looking for clues. They were told to wait up for the little kids and do it TOGETHER, which they did! They had so much fun! Thanks Lisa!

Ryans brothers have all the girls *with the exception of Anaya of course* and we have all the boys, and they all get along so well. We are so thankful we still live close enough to get together with our families.

These two (Easton and Taylor) have been best buds this weekend~so cute!

Tax deduction?

Can we claim these birds?

How about this squirrel....Or maybe these two?
We love to watch the birds and boy do we get a lot of them, however, they (and the squirrels) eat a ton of food! This large feeder can be gone in as little as 2 days, sometimes they take a little longer, but certainly each week we fill the thing back up again!

Happy Birthday Dylan!!

We went to Buffalo Wild Wings to celebrate, it is my new favorite restaurant and I don't even like chicken wings!! I love it because you can take 6 boys and one girl in there and barley get any stares. They have balloons, coloring books, crayons and suckers for the kids and a bunch of big T.V's. It's a little noisy too so no one even notices the kids, it is GREAT!!

11 years ago today my dreams of becoming a mother came true!! Oh what a surprise it was to have him come over a month early, but he was healthy and well and we praised God for our firstborn son. We praise God today for the fine young man he is growing to be. We love you Dylan!!

Anaya gave me this nice little grin today so I had to put her in this post to wish you a Happy Valentines Day!

Sometimes you do, sometimes you don't......

What are these things?

Anaya loves music and she starts dancing the second she hears it. She loves the boys MP3 players. Last night we went to a band concert and she loved it! After she got over the shock of the music starting~it scared her half to death, then she was bouncing up and down enjoying the music and she was really into clapping for them when they were done~So cute!

Easton's latest funny saying is ..."Sometimes I do like *fill in the blank*, sometimes I don't! For example last week he told his Cubbies class teacher "Sometimes I do like Cubbies class, sometimes I don't, but tonight...I do!" Or he will say to me "Sometimes you do let me ____sometimes you don't. If I tell him he can't play the Nintendo DS he will say "Sometimes you do let me play it, sometimes you don't!" I put him on the counter to put his shoes on and he says "Sometimes you do let me sit on the counter, sometimes you don't. That kid cracks me up!

back to Chicago....

A girl could get used to this!!

Anaya in her p.j.'s sipping a shake and watching a video on the way home!!

At the shower with Grama

All the girl cousins, we are starting to even out the score: 4 girl cousins to 6 boy cousins!

Sipping lemonade at the Cheesecake Factory!! Good stuff!

Crashed! Too much fun with the girls!

We had a shower for my sister Jen and baby Olivia, so it was back to Chicago again! This is the 3rd time in about 5 weeks~I love it! We had a great time with my sisters and all of the girl cousins and my mom! Fun girl stuff! Except Eric was there too~Sorry Eric, you were terribly outnumbered, but you are an awesome brother(in-law) and handled it like a trooper!!

¿dónde está mi pequeña flor?

Where is my little flower?
Sure she *looks* sweet, but you should have seen what she did today!! Oh my, I will spare the grotesque details, but lets just say that she was playing with her "stinkies" today during nap time! This was no accident folks, it was smeared from stem to stern, flung from here to there. In all my life I have NEVER seen such a gross mess! None of the boys ever did this, in fact they were totally freaked out, but she didn't seem to mind! Go figure!!
Ryan just asked why I didn't take pictures~It was too gross, I just couldn't bring myself to do that. In fact I had all I could do to yank all the bedding,bumper, blankets and bear off the bed and throw it into the wash. Thank goodness it was contained to the crib, which is not near a wall!! I cleaned the majority of it, after I got her cleaned up, but Ryan finished the job for me ~ I was totally grossed out! (What kind of mother am I anyway?!?!)

our anniversary weekend...

We had a king sized bed and a big flat screen H.D.T.V. Wow! What a huge difference H.D. makes! I don't watch enough T.V. to make that worthwhile, but it was really cool!

One of the restaurants we ate at was this one at the top of our hotel. Very cool!

We had a great weekend~although it went way too fast! We left Thursday afternoon and enjoyed just lazing around, shopping(Ryan read his new book while I shopped), and eating out *without the kids.* On Friday we were at 4 different restaurants in one day! That constitutes a GREAT day for me!! Thanks to my parents for taking the kids, they had so much fun! Dylan had a basket ball game on Sat. which they lost again, but he is learning and having a great time, his coaches are great and I actually enjoy going to his games(I do get nervous when he plays though, I prefer him to sit on the bench!!Just kidding!!) Tonight, we had a big super bowl party at our house with the youth group! And so here we are already back to Monday!!! Too bad time flies when you're having fun!!