Happy Easter From......

Lacey

Tanner

Riley

The Girls

The Boys

And the whole Gang! We had a very nice Easter. Eggs and baskets in the morning followed by homemade cinnamon roles (thanks to my hubby!). Church in the afternoon where Lacey sang with the Primary for the first time and did a fabulous job and then dinner at Aunt Heidi's. Happy Easter! Spring is finally here!

Animals, Lightning, Animals

Animals, Lightning and Animals. That is the order of events for our Spring Break. On Tuesday, I took the kids to a local event to see Farm Animals. Tanner fell in love with the Cow!

Can you tell? He was hugging him the whole time and has been sleeping with a stuffed animal cow ever since. The next event, lightning, is not pictured because, well, our house got hit by lightning and that is a pretty difficult thing to take a picture of! I was at work Tuesday evening when Dave called me and told me what happened. He was sitting in the Family Room when he said it sounded like a bomb hit the house and the house shook. He ran outside where some neighbors joined him because they had seen/heard the event. Everyone looked around and couldn't visibly see where it hit. So, Dave walked back inside thinking it must not have hit even though it really sounded/felt like it did. He goes to open the garage door. Nothing. He goes to turn on the TV. Nothing. He went to use the internet. Nothing. Everything was fried. The Verizon guy has been here all day long and just barely left. No internet for 3 days. How did I function for the first nearly 20 years of my life without you? So glad to have you back! The garage door guy should be out next week and then we're back in business! Although the week has been filled with inconvenience in having to be home to let all the repair guys in/out and not being able to use the computer, TV, garage, etc., we feel so blessed that it didn't start a fire or damage our home.

Wednesday was a gorgeous day! My sister-in-law and I decided to pack up the kids and head to the National Zoo.

We loved seeing the Pandas.

There are two pandas that live here. We caught one sleeping in his cave.

And the other really cool thing was seeing this mom and dad Lion with their 7 cubs romping around. The last time I was at the National Zoo was two years ago when Lacey was two and Tanner was a baby, so it was fun to go back with them being a bit older and really into all the animals. So, that about sums up Spring Break for us!

Who says 35 year olds can't hunt for eggs?

So, a couple weeks ago, as I was perusing Lacey's preschool magazine advertising all the Easter-egg hunts in town for the 3-7 year old kids, I came across an "Adults only" Easter egg hunt. I started laughing hysterically, making fun of it. I mean, can you imagine a bunch of adults running around like 10-year old kids looking for plastic eggs? Ridiculous! Who would do that? Well.... we did! Dave, apparently didn't think it was quite so funny. He thought it sounded awesome especially when he read that inside the eggs were things like gift certificates for overnight stays at the Marriott, free Panera Bread for a year, gift cards to various restaurants, etc. So, we signed up and showed up at the designated spot in the woods with our Easter baskets and flash lights.

Once we got there, I really started laughing. Apparently, this happens every year and people take it very seriously! We saw people tail-gating before the big event and saw that we were rookies with our flashlights. The real competitors had headlamps!

Dave insisted on bringing a brown bag since "I'm a guy. I'm not going to run around with a pink Easter Basket." So, I had to laugh when I got there and saw this guy with a very large pink Easter basket.

The sun is set, flashlights are on and we're off! Unfortunately, of the 600 eggs that were hidden, I only found one. Dave had better luck; he found nine. But, we discovered once we were there that only 101 of the eggs had prizes. The rest just had candy. We also discovered that not all of the prizes were Marriott stays and restaurant gift cards. Some were things like water bottles and tape measures. Well, my lonely egg wasn't a prize winner. Luckily, two of Dave's were. So, we walked away with an athletic towel (very exciting) and a gift card for two 30-minute personal training sessions at a club 20 minutes away that we will probably never use. However, I have to say.... it was a blast!

Cherry Blossoms

DC in the Spring is beautiful! Every year, DC hosts the "Cherry Blossom Festival" when all the cherry blossom trees that line the Tidal Basin are in full bloom. The cherry blossom trees were a gift to the United States from Japan 99 years ago. We skipped the last couple of years, but we had a good excuse to go this year because one of our good friends, Mari, was in town and wanted to see the Blossoms. Dave met Mari his freshman year of college. Another of their freshman year college buddies lives in the DC area (JD, on the left), so he and his wife met us at the Tidal Basin. Here's a pic of the 3 college buddies 15 year after they met!

The Tidal Basin is a beautiful 1.8 mile loop, with scenic stops and monuments along the way. Our first stop was at the Jefferson Memorial.

The Washington Monument in the background.

Lots and lots of Cherry Blossoms!

A family pic (minus Lacey). Since we only have a 5-seater car and we had Mari with us, we arranged for a play-date for Lacey with her cousins. This was Riley's first trip to DC!

I feel like a good Mom.....

Because I just got home from waiting in a very long line for this.

And this.

I really didn't want to leave the house today because Dave is out of town and doing anything with all three kids by myself is just such an ordeal. But, a hospital near by was having a big event to showcase their new Pediatric ER. And the Guest of Honor was... you guessed it - Dora! How could I not take my kids to see Dora in all her backpack glory? They LOVE her! So, after taking Lacey to gymnastics, we drove across town and headed to the hospital, where we were greeted by a large, inflatable colon. The kids had great fun playing with the polyps :)

After our tour of the colon, the kids got their fingers casted.

And here they are showing off their casts. So, far this is the only time they've ever been to an ER or had casts (knock on wood). I really hope I didn't just jinx myself! Anyway, all was well... until we got to the Dora line. It was sooooooo long. Apparently, we weren't the only Dora fans in the neighborhood. I was so tempted to leave, but how do you leave after you've promised your two-year old and four-year old that they were going to meet Dora? Well, you don't. You wait in the stinkin' line! And now I'm home and have Kids #'s 2 and 3 down for a nap. Best part of the day......

5 Months

Oh, my little Riley J is getting bigger (and cuter :)) every day! I can't believe she is already 5 months. The doctor said at her 4 month appt. that she thought her teeth were going to come in soon because she was drooling so much. Well, still no sign of them (which is fine by me!) and still no new tricks like rolling over. I think she is my first baby to make it all the way to 5 months without rolling over. But, in her defense, Lacey and Tanner had a lot more practice time since I always had them on the blanket on the floor with all their toys and such. With Lacey and Tanner running around like crazy people all the time, I keep little miss RJ strapped to me in the Bjorn or in her swing or pappazan chair most of the time. Besides, rolling over is the start of mobility. And, I've learned from past experience, that mobility is nothing but trouble :) So, take your time little girl!

Last month, I could still fit her in to Size 1 Diapers and most of her 0-3 month clothes, but now, she is fully in Size 2 Diapers and 3-6 month clothes.

For her 5-month birthday, I decided to give her food for the first time (well, the second time. The first time was when she was 2 months old and Tanner fed her a Goldfish cracker). We sat her in the Bumbo at the dinner table with us and, while the rest of us enjoyed pasta with chicken and a side of broccoli, Riley enjoyed her first meal of rice cereal.

And this is what she thought of it! We'll try again another day :) I know I sound totally cheesy and mushy when I say this, but I'm writing this blog for my kids, so I'm going to say it anyway. I am so totally in love with this little girl. She is the sweetest, most content little baby. She sleeps well, she eats well, she loves to be held and she smiles all the time. And that keeps me smiling. I am so blessed that this precious little girl is mine and I love her to pieces!

Can you believe.....

that Dave has never been to Ikea? Neither can I! The man has been to Sweden, but he's never been to Ikea! I lived just a few minutes away from one when I lived in Huntington Beach for 2 1/2 years, so I have been many times, but come to think of it, in the 6 years we've been married, I haven't been to an Ikea either. We have one in Baltimore, about 45 minutes away, but it's just far enough away that we never venture out there. Well, our coffee table currently has 3 functioning legs, so we are in desperate need of a new coffee table and, once I realized Dave had never been to Ikea, we decided to have a family shopping adventure! Now, I know that Ikea is not known for it's top-of-the-line furniture, but given the fact that we have a 4 year old, 2 year old and baby, we're not exactly in the market for top of the line furniture any time soon. So, Ikea it is!

Now for those of you that know we don't own a mini-van and are wondering how in the world I go anywhere with my brood, well, here's a visual of my back seat!

I never noticed these things before (because "before" was pre-kid), but I have decided I LOVE Ikea! And this is why. Seriously? In all the bathrooms, you are going to put emergency diaper kits? What a brilliant idea! I didn't need it today (thankfully!), but next time I do, I hope I'm at an Ikea!

And a welcome sign letting us know our kids are welcome and they will accommodate them by providing a play area, a kids menu, strollers, etc.

And no trip to Ikea is complete without a meal. So, they have kids tables and kids chairs next to a play area in the restaurant. So, after eating our Swedish meatballs with lingonberry sauce (along with a salad bar and a beverage with unlimited refills for $5.99), we purchased our coffee table and headed home. Ikea, I have neglected you these past 6 years. But I am in love with you all over again!