Just one perk

 Just one of the many perks of being the oldest boys (corey and nate) in the family is that you can get the youngest boy(ezeekai) in the family to do something like this over and over again.

HaPpY 12th BiRtHdAy NaTe!!!

Today is Nate's big 1-2 birthday!!! 

Well, actually, Feb. 17th was the big day but it took me two days to post this post. Agh!
I love our kids birthdays.  I love being able to make a big deal about them throughout the day without feeling guilty about NOT making a big deal about someone else.  I've had to make these comments in the past, "Hey, it's (insert child's name) birthday today.  It is all about (insert child's name).  It's not about you.  When it's your birthday it can be all about YOU, but for today it is all about (insert child's name).  Everybody doesn't get a ribbon today people!"
So for today, we celebrate (NATE)!!!!!!!!  Our nature-lovin, outside-explorin, football and basketball playin kid just lookin for a great time!!!

Nothin like a little KFC to celebrate!

Obligatory kid picture

(pretty girl in top left corner is Corey's girlfriend)

yeppers...that's a whole other blog post :-)

something went very wrong w/this picture

Nate does such a great job when he opens the "regifted" gifts

from his sisters!

prime example of "regifted" gift

some awesome headphones!

the unveiling of the 30-06

one proud poppa!

Ralphie and the Red Rider b.b. gun come to mind

"You'll get yours Black Bart"~ralphie

nothing good can come from this!!!

Happy 12th Nate!  We love you!!!





What Nate Showed Me...

After church last night, Nate asked if he could show me a video they watched in their cluster group.  Of course, I thought it went something like this...

But it was really this...

Cool.



February 14th

Happy Valentine's Day!!!!! 

Yeppers, he did it again!!!  Doug surprised me with some totally awesome (yep, i grew up in the 80's) flowers today!  He went the extra mile to do it, too!  You see, I now work at the place where he "preordered" my flowers last year, so he had to be a little sneaky about it. 

I started working at Hoy's Greenhouse when the kids started school this year.  I absolutely loooooove it!!!  I get to work with my friend Lori and her daughter, Emma.  Lori took over the family business almost 2 years ago and Emma has been working with her ever since, well ever since, she was kneehigh to a grasshopper.  Like I said, it is a family run business so being around the greenhouse has just been part of their lives.  Lori and I have been friends since our boys were babies and I had told her long ago how much I would love to work there.  I had worked a little bit last spring and Lori asked if I wanted to come back once the school year started.  Heck ya I did!!!!  

Okay, back to Doug, flowers, and his sneakiness.   We were pretty busy yesterday and today and there was no way we were going to be taking a long break for lunch.  Around 11:30 Doug just happened to text me and ask if he could bring us some food and said he could run some deliveries for us if we needed him to.   How sweet! Little did I know that he had another agenda.  He had already ordered flowers for me, Emma had already arranged them, and Lori had already had them tagged, ready to go, and in the fridge.  He dropped off our lunches and Lori told him he wasn't needed to run the deliveries.  Since I was busy when he left, I didn't even notice that Lori walked out with him and got the flowers for him to take home.  

When I came home from a long day of work, this is what I found waiting for me....      

Absolutely beautiful!!!!The picture does not do this arrangement justice!

Thank you to my wonderful husband for going the extra mile for me in so many other ways than just on Valentine's Day.  I really don't deserve such a great guy! 

HaPpY 11th BiRtHdAy FaHnTa!!!

We got to celebrate Fahnta on February 6th.  I know, according to this blog, her 10th birthday was not really that long ago but we did have the obligatory 365 days since her last birthday.  Honestly, we did. 

She loved all of her gifts.  She is becoming quite the fashion queen so her birthday list consisted mostly of clothes and accessories.  :-)  Thankfully, Kohl's was having a major sale, I had Kohl's cash and an additional 20% off coupon.  Can anyone say, "Cha-ching?"  I am thinking she enjoyed all of her gifts and the day carved out just to celebrate her!!  We love you Fahnta!!!

Our 11 year old:-)



traditional kid picture taken on everyone's bday. 
something apparently went very wrong with Ezeekai.




a little bit better but still pretty scruffy lookin bunch




need i say more?



princess

another traditional picture.  yet again, something is
up with ezeekai.  i think i am seeing a pattern!

Waaaaay Worse Than I Thought!!!!

Well, well, well.  Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!  I believe I said I wouldn't stick w/this bloggin thing,(as stated here) and low and behold, I didn't.  I don't even remember the date of my last post, but i believe it was in 2011.  Very early in 2011.  We are now in 2012.  Very early in 2012.  I don't remember what it was about.  I look at the pictures of my kids along the side of the blog (oh, and at the huge ones at the top of the blog) and i swear it looks like they have all just graduated from wearing diapers compared to what they look like now!!!   SLACKER!!!
So, I am gonna try this again!  Not only am I gonna try it again...I am gonna succeed at it (notice the different self-fulfilling prophecy)!!!
I need to finish up this post because I need to take Jaida to piano lessons, but my goal is to have 2 posts per week.  Why?  Who the heck knows...just heard somewhere at somepoint in my life that it is good to set goals.  I am sure that was in reference to something more important that writing a stinkin blog but i am thinking i should apply it as much as possible....seeing that i have issues sticking w/things.  :-)

Well.....

Yeppers, totally a slacker!  I think this is my 2nd post for the month of April, i know, i know....slow down there Killer!  I didn't even add all the pictures for the last post which consisted of Jaida's bday and Ez's bday.  My goodness...i couldn't even give them their own post.  EPIC FAIL!

So, what can I squish all together in this post to cover the month of April?  Well, let's see....

Doug went a bit on the looney side and decided to get some chicks.  Seriously, we now have chickens living in our garage. (No, I will not post pictures of only chickens w/this post becuz, c'mon, how bad would that look that chickens have their own day, but I combined the celebration of Jaida and Ezeekai into one?  The truth would then come out...i am a totally lame mom!)

We celebrated Easter this past Sunday with a family photo shoot at Dickinson College after lunch.  It was a total success!  We got so-so pictures of incredibly

happy

miserable children who

thrive on

 dread this event.  Maggie's dress was too small and "itchy," Ezeekai attempted to throw a stick into the pond but instead threw it into Nate's face, and Doug offered no support whatsoever so we all walked away from this annual tradition  hand-in-hand and skipping through the tulips vowing never to do it again!

Our schedule has become incredibly full thanks to all these wonderful children and their sports schedules!  Actually, we enjoy this time of year.  I love seeing the kids learn new things, improve on the skills they already have, and just enjoy their time outside playing sports.  Corey is playing baseball, of course.  Fahnta is playing soccer.  Maggie and Jaida are playing softball.  Ezeekai was bat boy at Corey's last game...popular kid that boy is!  Nate is enjoying his time outside exploring and catching new life.  He just caught a painted turtle yesterday so he is all happy and skippy.  No more Debbie Downer for him!

The kids got to spend some time with the Denlinger's this past week during their visit for Easter.  A good time had by all!!!

Hopefully, I will post before the end of May.  I really need to learn to stick w/things!!!

beautiful

disaster