Easter at Goatopia!

So this is my attempt at a group picture, and believe it or not, this is the best one! I knew I had to get a picture of Olivia as soon as I got her dress on, but I waited about five minutes (seriously) and she was already dripping with some gooey candy slobber! Oh well.....



So, I bet you can't guess what Josh and Lauren's favorite colors are!



We were so happy to have Grandma Claudia here with us! Lauren had an especially nice time with her. They spent much of their time outside collecting rocks for their "rock band". They would clink them together making different sounds depending on how big the rocks were. Cute! The Easter Bunny gave some fun things including Webkinz, sparkly flip-flops, rain boots, a watering can, garden tools, a DS game and cute sunglasses for all the kids. They also, of course, got lots of goodies and had a blast searching for easter eggs. We made nice Easter brunch and with Auntie Tracy and Jack also here, we had a nice little group!

I also have another "Josh's amazing memory" story. The day before Easter, Josh and I were talking about the Easter Bunny. He asked me if he is a boy or a girl (boy?) and then said "I wonder if he will hide the eggs in the same place as last year- like the purple one next to the time out chair and the pink one behind my buzz lightyear chest...." Wow!! I know he didn't get this amazing memory from Paul or I, so I am thinking that it is a recessive gene that has been passed down from my Dad. Thanks Dad!

Spring Tidbits

Happy spring and Easter everyone! I thought it would be fun to begin this post with Lauren's cute Easter egg that she made at preschool today. (Notice the cute scene inside- thus the odd angle). I understand that they had to practically rip the frosting out of her hand- she had a blast!



Josh was star of the week recently and here he is displaying his poster. I asked him if he wanted it cute or plain (heaven knows with all of my stamping and scrapbooking stuff I could have made a real masterpiece!) But, not surprisingly, he asked that I keep it plain- so I did, but I am hoping my girls will want theirs nice and sparkly!! :-) He was a tad uncomfortable answering the star that asks what he likes about himself. He finally settled on his blue eyes and the fact that he is tall. He was fine reading the tall one to his class but he was so embarrased to say that he liked his blue eyes! Interesting.....
He is also very much into the Nintendo DS that he got for Christmas and the Pokemon game that we gave him. It is the first thing he asks to do in the morning and after school. We limit it to an hour a day, but that is hard. One good thing is that he stands while he is playing it! My Dad bought a DS for himself while he was here a couple of weeks ago and he and Josh had a blast playing eachother in Pac-Man. The 2 machines are wirelessly connected and one is the ghost while the other is Pac-Man. Amazing toys these days!



Lauren had so much fun with my Dad while he was here- she likes to say that she is his girlfriend :-) It is such a joy to watch him with all of my kids, they are sure lucky! Lauren did make me a little upset recently- she cut Olivia's hair!! Yes, the same girl who got into so much trouble for doing it to herself a year ago, cut the precious few curls around Olivia's right ear while Paul was "watching" them. Ahhhhh! People tell me you can't really tell- I hope not :-)



Olivia has really been testing our love lately... The other day, she literally brought me to tears! I was in the bathroom and she grabbed the lotion and started rubbing it in her hair. So I put the lotion up, washed her off, and went into the kitchen. There I found that she had taken the lid off of her sippy cup of milk and poured it all over the floor around the sandwich she had ripped apart and scattered around. So, when I get done cleaning that up, I went back into the bathroom (which I now lock) where she had gotten some liquid soap and rubbed it in her hair. After I cleaned that up, I went into the family room where she had taken an apple, eaten 1/4 of it, dropped it, and spit out everything she had chewed. It was all over. Just one thing to the next. Then, we had to leave her little preschool early because she was pushing all of the kids. Seriously, ALL of the kids! But, she is also such a sweet little girl. She is smiling all the time and loves to say "Hi" to every adult we pass by. And even though she only says a handful of words, her clearest and most consistant phrase is "Thank You". She thanks me for getting her dressed, for changing her diaper, doing her hair, giving her milk, turning music on in the car....everything. It is so sweet. She also yells "night!" with a big smile on her face while waving to the family when I take her to bed. So, no matter what happened throughout the day, she always ends it in such a joyful, happy way, and all is forgotten. Almost. :-)



I love this. I just had to show you what amazing wrestling skill my husband has. One of the kids joys in this life (and Paul's) is "wrestling" together. They all just laugh and laugh and it is so fun to watch. Paul's skills have been put to the test, though, as our brood has grown in number. One was very easy to wrestle with. Two gets a little more difficult because you have to interact with both of them while making sure that they don't get bonked. Well, now we have three kids and there is NO WAY that Livi is going to be left out of that party. So, Paul has taken to holding her up with one hand while he uses his other hand and rest of his body to play with the other two. I have resisted Paul's hope that Josh will love wrestling as much as he does, but I have now decided that wrestling should be a manditory sport for all future fathers! :-)

Happy Valentines Day!

We had a nice Valentines Day this year! The kids had been begging me (not exactly sure why) for cupcakes lately and for one reason or another they hadn't had one for awhile. I knew that they would be getting plenty of candy at school so I got little heart plates and put a cupcake on each one for them to wake up to. I think they were more excited about these than all of their Christmas presents! It was so fun to see them so excited. I have such fond memories of my Mom leaving little treats out on Valentines morning and I really want my kids to have that too- I hope I can do as good a job as she did!! I gave Paul a mug filled with a big bag of all green M&M's that I thought was so funny and a gift card. Paul made each of us the funnest most creative cards I have ever seen. And for all of you who know Paul, out-doing himself is quite a feat! He made them at the office with post-its, red file folders and heart shaped velcro- among other things. I am realizing that I should have pictures of them on this blog- you will all get such a kick out of them. Thank you for making us all feel so special Sweetie- I Love You!


When Livi saw her cupcake, she opened her mouth and made a fun squeal- I made her do it again so I could get a picture :-)


Lauren had such a cute Valentines party at her preschool. They made these cute hats (the boys had Valentines top hats) and did a little performance for a bunch of teary, grinning parents lovingly looking on :-) It was the cutest little song about love related to all the letters of the alphabet and when it was over, each kid ran to their Mom with a tulip that they had been hiding behind their back- so cute!



Josh had a fun party with parents at his class too. It was so fun to see him interact with the little girl he has a crush on- her name is Baylee. But, unfortunately, she has eyes for the other little boy at their table- Raul. Josh is undeterred however and still tells us that he wants to sing the "song from High School Musical with her". It is the one at the end where they sing together holding hands and looking longingly in eachother's eyes. He makes me play it over and over again in the car- I know he is picturing the two of them every time! :-) By the way, Josh just lost his seventh tooth since school started- he is growing up too fast!



This is Josh's teacher Miss Jackson- she is a wonderful teacher. Josh is having a blast this year and has learned so much.


I just had to include this one. I bought some sponge curlers a while ago and hadn't gotten around to trying them out on Lauren yet when she BEGGED me to put them in her hair. I was pleasantly surprised how well they worked, Lauren's hair is as straight as a rod and previous heat attempts to curl had only made a slight wave. Anyway, she was so proud of her curls I just had to take a picture.

Group Picture From Whalewatch

Hawaii

What a wonderful trip! Emmy was so beautiful and her wedding was such a celebration. Even the whales showed up to watch her get married! The kids had a great time. Not only were we in paradise, but we were surrounded by EVERYONE in my family. My Dad played with the kids in the pool every single day and I couldn't believe his stamina! He was either playing "shark" or launching them into the pool or going down the water slide with them. What a blast! My Mom came and had fun floating on tubes with Lauren- they looked so cute out there!

We went on a dinner cruise and a whale watch cruise where we saw amazing shows. On the whale watch we saw a mother giving her calf a breeching lesson! We got to go to our favorite restauraunt in Lahaina (Kimo's), and spend a fun day at Flemming beach. Other than that, we pretty much hung out at the pools at the Marriott. and the kids loved it. They have a pirate ship in an area that is only about a foot deep and has "sand" all around it so the kids (even Olivia) could just play and play.

The only rough part was the ride home. Livi was in rare form! At 18 months she is at a tough age to be on a plane for 6 hours. She wants to move around, has no patience and LOVES to scream. With 40 minutes left in the flight the woman across the asile from me tapped me on the knee and said "Could you take her for a walk or something? It has been a REALLY long flight" I couldn't believe it! Obviously, Paul and I had been shuffling her back and forth, doing everything we could do to keep her quiet! Well, the good news is that we won't be on a plane with an 18 month old again any time soon! :-)

What a wonderful trip- Thanks for getting married in Maui Em and Mike! We Love you and are so happy for you!

Our 2007 Visit to Santa!

Well- as you can see we had quite eventful trip to Santa this year! I was worried about it this year because Livi has been getting so sad when we go to get group pictures taken. This was during her naptime to boot so it was the perfect storm- that poor Santa deserves a medal! People keep telling me that this will be funny to look at in years to come- I hope so!

Livi is sure growing up though. She is really trying to communicate. She says "Wheeee!" for "please pick me up", "EEEEEE UHHHHH" for "Clean Up!" (we sing a song to clean up and she is saying that to the first to notes of the song), "uh oh" means "Mom, trust me, you don't want to look at what I just did", "EWWWWWW" means ;I have a stinky diaper" or "I am about to have a stinky diaper". She also likes to raise her hand and say "Me!" when Josh asks people "raise your hand if....." And she loves to wave and say "Hi!" to EVERYONE we see when we go shopping. It is so fun to see total strangers grin from ear to ear because of her :-)

Josh and Lauren are SO excited for Christmas. We are going to Hawaii for my sisters wedding on January 6th and I keep asking them if they are excited for that and they say "No, I'm excited for Christmas!" Like they have to choose one or the other. I am very excited though. We just found out that Heidi and her husband and her brand new baby are going to be there so that makes EVERYONE in my family. How fun is that going to be?!?! My sister Tracy is moving to Seattle and I am so excited for that too. It hasn't really hit me yet though, I have been wanting to have family live here for so long- I can't believe it is finally going to happen!

So, I have so many pics that I would like to post from birthday parties and things but my computer is having the download issue again. I have to get it figured out before Christmas and Hawaii, though. I need the memory space!!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

"I hope I hear her wings...."

Josh lost his tooth yesterday. While Paul was tucking Josh and Lauren into bed last night (they are sharing a room right now) they were getting Josh's tooth ready for the tooth fairy. They put it under Josh's pillow, and it was at that moment that Lauren said to Paul and Josh "I hope I hear her wings!" How cute is that! I thought that was a such a sweet way to anticipate the tooth fairy. What a sweetheart!