A Messy House

Spring Break

We didn't fly to a far away location or sink our feet into a sandy beach. 

We did have fun, right at home. 

For three days, we had fun in Ohio with the cousins and grandparents. 

Then we came home and tried to have something fun and exciting everyday. 

Exciting is relative.  

One day "special' was the movie Frozen on our doorstep and grasshoppers to drink.  Non-alcoholic of course.  

We tried to go swimming on Wednesday, but of course 20 minutes after being there a baby's diaper had leaked in the pool and we were kicked out of the pool for cleaning.  We have really bad timing.  

Happiness is all about expectation.  When mommy acts all excited about picnic lunches in the living room, going to the park, and slumber parties in Mom and Dad's room, then everyone is excited.  Well, maybe not Dad, but the kids are excited.  

If a messy house is a sign of having a good time (and not that mommy is a bad housekeeper) then we had loads of fun over spring break.  

Getting Ready for Baby

Here's the baby bump pictures I promised. 

Seriously Ann Rea is a poster mommy for pregnancy. 

Beautiful and full of pregnancy glow at 8 months.  

Can I also say that this woman just started her own optometry practice a month ago.  

Yes, starts her own practice and has a baby within months time.  

Amazing!   

At this point in my pregnancy with Lil Miss I was 

wearing stretch pants and Nate's baggy sweatshirts.  

Seriously Adorable!  

So happy to take pictures of these two amazing people and their soon to be addition.  

This little boy or girl is going to be blessed in the parent department.  

I'm crossing my fingers for a girl.

Happy Life

It's Spring Break!
What is more fun than that?
The kid's are doing the happy dance.
We haven't done anything too exciting,
but sleeping in and staying up late can make a fantastic week.
We did get daddy to take one day off and head east to Ohio with us this weekend.
The days were filled with lots of cousin time,
food and laughter.

 Puzzles with Grandma Judy in the morning.

 Morning cartoons with our favorite little boys.

 Cousin Love

Going to Ohio, is going home again.  

The homecoming is so sweet. 

The house fills up with lots of voices and friends 

come by for reunions. 

If I can't be on a beach sipping a drink with an umbrella in it, then Ohio 

isn't a bad second choice for vacation.  

Of course, I got my baby Reed time in.
I had to elbow another aunt and grandma, but I
managed to cuddle my little buddy.

I can't believe how BIG he has gotten.  

Lil Miss kept distracting him from Aunt Lynn antics to get him to smile.  

It was too darn cute to get upset.  

What's a little boy without his tractors?

  

Oh and if that isn't enough baby for the weekend, I had the 

fun task of taking maternity pictures of our best friends AnnRea and Keith.

Cute belly pictures to follow... 

Spring is Coming!!

Yesterday was a breath of fresh air.  

I eagerly turned down the thermostat in the house, opened the front door to let the sunshine in, and 

truly enjoyed the first signs that spring is coming!  

 Lil Miss and I skipped the gym this morning and headed to the river.  

I wanted to go bald eagle watching all winter, but with it so cold we never had the chance. 

So we headed to the Mississippi River edge yesterday, knowing we would see very few eagles.. 

but hoped to birds of any kind.

We weren't picky.  

We were not disappointed. 

We saw

ducks

pelicans

and 

one bald eagle. 

The fast melting snow had made the ground soggy and muddy. 

The best thing to stomp in if you are a three year old.  

Her rubber rain boots don't look clean anymore, they look like someone had fun getting 

muddy.  Her purple pants were mud soaked to her knees before we got back in the van. 

 The highlight of our morning is when we heard a choo choo train in the distance.  

Girl loves her choo choos.  

A few minutes later a cool sleeper train passed by. 

The shortest little train ever.  

We enjoyed our first spring like day. 

Living here in the Quad Cities for almost 3 years, I still love discovering new places to explore.  

To learn more about the city in which I live, I sometimes just drive around and get lost.  

Driving home from Davenport yesterday, I turned onto a couple side streets and got to explore a new area.  I don't mind the drive, especially with the windows down and Mary Poppins singing 

perky songs on the radio.  

That is how we spent our day.  How did you spend yours?  

Weekend Recap

So its been a little bit since I last posted. 

Nothing too exciting has been happening here.  

We've been getting our teeth cleaned.... 

going to school... 

 and busy with homework after school.

Routine keeps us busy.  

We did have an exciting weekend though.  

The kids participated in the school's talent show.  

The planning started for this awhile ago, and the kids had decided to sing.  

That decision wasn't easy to come up with.  

Bubba originally wanted to show off his dance moves, but the girls really wanted to do something with him and didn't feel confident in doing something by themselves.  

Then they started going through all the music on my phone and 

debating back and forth which song they should do.  

Rosie wanted to sing Katy Perry or Taylor Swift. 

Gigi wanted to sing a song from Frozen. 

Bubba didn't want to sing a song that was sung by a girl. 

So after much deliberation, they chose a song I have on my phone from the former TV show SMASH. 

It's not a secret I love musicals and show tunes and Broadway Here I Come, is a song from a musical. It's obscure though, and I was worried that no one would know the song but they finally agreed on something, so we went with it.  

They practiced and practiced.  

We sang it before school, on the way to school, after school, and annoyed daddy by singing it a lot.  

By the time they sang it on Saturday, Daddy even knew most of the words from hearing it many times in the last two weeks. 

I was a proud momma. 

They weren't nervous, and had so much fun up on stage.  

I was more nervous than them.  They sang the song acapella (without background music) and 

sung it beautifully.  

link to perfomance:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkS61RG-to0

It was amazing to see how much talent they have at their school.  

A fun evening! 

And that wasn't the only thing we did all weekend.

We attended Gigi's Booker Bear presentation. 

She earned a little stuffed bear for reading 10 books.  

That's our weekend wrap-up.