A Week of Milestones

Caroline has had a pretty busy week.  She's hit two major milestones in her life so you can bet I shed a few extra tears this week as well.  Caroline has had a loose tooth since we went to Houston and it finally came out this week!  She actually pulled it out herself which was probably best seeing as Shawn was about to pull it out if she didn't have the guts to do it.  The next morning Caroline was very excited to see a nice dollar sitting under her pillow.  She kept on saying, "I didn't know the tooth fairy was going to bring me a dollar!"  I still don't know what she thought she was going to get.

Its kind of hard to see but she's missing the bottom middle one on the right.

Showing off her little tooth, I was a little surprised to see how small it was.

And secondly Caroline finally finished her reading book, so technically she knows how to read.  She's reading the great works of Dr. Suess all by herself now (well some of them) and loves reading to people.  I was kind of hoping that the work was done but now instead of lesson time every day we'll have reading time. I really liked the book we used it was extremely easy to follow even though it was a bit boring at times.  It worked so that's all I care about, and it was only $15 not $100 like some reading programs.  The title says it all.  I'll definitely be using this book in years to come!

It's really fun to see her achieve this goal and hopefully school will be less of a shock, but I doubt it.

Man vs. Nature

Spring is my favorite season by far.  I love the weather, the flowers, and various other things about it.  There is one thing that I absolutely HATE about spring; bugs, specifically wasps. Last week I was exercising and the kids were playing nicely on the floor in the playroom.  Then out of nowhere a huge wasp flew right by my head and totally freaked me out, I just about fell off the elliptical.  I was able to stop it from flying around by closing the blinds and keeping it confined to the window area.  The kids later found another wasp on the floor so I mustered up the courage to suck it up with the vacuum.  After that the playroom was off limits.  Shawn came home and sprayed for the nasty little things and we found a total of five up there, which doesn't sound like a lot but for one room in a house one is too many.  So the playroom is now wasp free but once we step outside there are usually about 5 flying around.

    Shawn has decided its his duty to protect us from the wasps and went around our yard spraying every wasp he could find with a can of wasp poison.  At one point he missed one and I believe it started flying at him so instead of trying to spay it again he just whacked it with the can itself and killed it.  It was quite a sight and I couldn't stop laughing at seeing him take out a wasp with a can.  My hero.

Now here is why spring is so great.  Our tree is blooming and its beautiful!  I love dogwoods!

A view from the street.  I love this tree!

Happy Birthday To Me

I had a great birthday celebration yesterday.  Shawn took me and the kids out to breakfast at the pancake pantry which was divine.  I never thought pancakes were anything to shout about but wow, best breakfast ever!  I'm totally taking anyone who comes to visit there.  Devin loved everything so much he even tried to eat the butter by itself.  Then we made it over to Caroline's soccer game and they actually won!  It was a birthday miracle.  Shawn also made me a fabulous cake, and delicious pizza.  We had our friends over to play games, eat, and talk and I was the champion of the night winning the game 2 out of the 4 times.  It was a great day and I"m even more excited to work my bday cake off on my new elliptical!  My hubby is so nice to me.  Thanks to everyone who called and wished me a happy birthday it was a great day!

I know I didn't turn 4 but it was the only candle we could find.  But I did feel like I was about 4 when Shawn and my friends sang to me, it was awesome.

Spring Soccer

Its that time again, soccer.  Which means a game every Saturday and practice every week as well.  While I was dreading all the driving around and time it takes up I forgot how much fun the games are.  Caroline missed the first practice b/c of vacation but did really well.  She could really work on her footwork but whatever she's five and she did a great job a defense.  We are still with a few of the same girls as last season which makes it even more fun.  I'm really looking forward to the season and the warm weather it brings! 

Playing some defense.

Ready, set...

Go!  

More fun and pics

I completely left out out trip to pump it up while we were in Houston.  So here are a few pictures of the adventure.  And just some other awesome pictures my sister took.

I love this picture of the kids, man they're cute.

Devin beaming at being able to literally bounce off the walls.

Caroline and Mabel playing a little air hockey.

Taking the plunge head first down the slide.

I love these little girls, they're such good buddies.

My cute little baby.

You have to double click on this one to really see Grahams face, its hilarious.  He doesn't like to share.

I think he's trying to be a monkey here, but who knows.

I don't know why I love this picture so much but I do.  Its like we never moved and these girls play with each other everyday.

H Town

I guess I'll finally get around to posting about our trip to Houston.  I'll start off with the trip down.  It went as well as any 12 hour trip in the car with three kids can be.  Really our kids couldn't have been better.  We loved hanging out with family, eating a TON of food (seriously my jaw hurt by the end of the trip) and doing all the fun stuff Houston has to offer.

I love going to the rodeo and was so glad we made it there even though it costs 3 bucks per kid to ride the carousel.  Seriously a total rip off, we're a one ride only kind of family for that reason.

We made it to the best zoo EVER!  I love the Houston Zoo and got to see the new expansion I'd been waiting to see for the last 4 years.  Totally worth the wait.

Boys being boys.

I think Graham liked the animals just as much as Violet which says a lot.  At one point he tried to climb in with the meerkats.

We saw Caroline's great friends that she misses everyday.  

Had some quality father-son bonding time.

And of course gave my dad his birthday present, a family picture.

We had so much fun with our family and friends.  I really wish we could've done more but alas there is never enough time to do everything.  I didn't think I missed Houston so much until I went back.  I miss our family, great friends, the zoo, rodeo, and the sun!  Oh man it was so nice to take in some rays after lots of cold weather.  March is really the best month of the year there.  Thanks to everyone for all the fun.  We'll be heading down again, not soon but soon enough.  I may just have to make another post because it was just that good.