Kelly’s Birthday Party

On Saint Patrick’s Day, in addition to wearing green and eating green pancakes, we had Kelly over to celebrate his birthday.  His birthday is actually March 20, but we thought it would be more fun to celebrate on the weekend. 

We had a delicious dinner of steak, potatoes, asparagus, and Kelly’s favorite birthday cake – white cake topped with a cream cheese frosting and covered with a strawberry glaze.  Christie gave me the recipe last year, and I was a little better at making it this year than last year. 

The boys had fun picking out presents for him.  I gave them each $1 to take to the dollar store.  They picked out some funny teeth and a toy for Kelly’s dog Emma.  Shane and I got him a lamp from Ikea.  We rented a Wii game to play together, and then Shane and Kelly also watched a movie after the kids went to bed while I worked. 

     

James and Davis wanted to try out the teeth too, of course.  James had a little harder time figuring out where to put them.  :)

   

Kelly is a great uncle, brother, and brother-in-law.  It is always the highlight of our day when he comes to visit!  He is so great with the boys and always so willing to help us out.  We feel so lucky he lives close!

Teeter Totter and Lunch with Dad

This morning, while the sun was still out, we met a friend and walked along the Fanno Creek trail, stopping at some of the playgrounds along the way.  One had a teeter totter, and the boys all had fun on it together.

     

After the park, we met Shane at his work for lunch.  We all had some left overs heated up in the work microwave, then the boys had fun playing a little ping pong before we headed home for naps.  You can’t beat working in an office where this is the view out your window!

Bedtime Stories

Shane was reading the boys bedtime stories last night, and although I know these pictures look very similar to the Family Home Evening pictures Monday night, I just had to post them.

 

Of course the calm, peaceful moment quickly ended when Davis decided to give his little brother a little too much love (a common occurrence around here), but I guess I’d rather have him doing that than trying to beat him up. 

Blue Skies

The last two days, we’ve had blue skies and spring-like weather.  We’ve tried to take advantage and get outside as much as possible.  Yesterday, we brought all of our bikes and riding toys, plus some sidewalk chalk, out into the cul-de-sac to play with our neighbor friend Caleb.  It is so nice living by the cul-de-sac where the boys can run and play and few cars come while we’re there.

 

Davis got a balance bike for his birthday.  He had fun riding it around.

  

A classic Davis grin

 

Davis and Landon drew a huge “track” with the sidewalk chalk.  We then had to run along the track, following Davis as he showed us the way to go.

   

James also loved the balance bike, and even though he couldn’t quite sit on the seat, he was just big enough to straddle it and walk around.  He seems to be concentrating pretty hard in the middle photo, tongue out and all!

Today, we enjoyed another gorgeous day, even warmer than yesterday, so we made sure to go to the park.  Several of our friends were there too, so it was fun to visit and let the kids run and play.  James had more fun “riding” on the balance bike, and I had to snap a few photos of our little friend Leela.  She’s about six months younger than James, and he thinks she’s pretty cute.  :)

       

The last shot of Landon was too bright for him to open his eyes, but I put it in anyway to show off his toothless smile.  He lost his second top tooth last week, so he has both front teeth now missing. 

Family Home Evening

Monday nights are a favorite night for the boys.  They are always excited to have Family Home Evening.  This Monday, Landon was in charge of the lesson, and he chose a story from The Friend magazine.  He read it to all of us, and I just had to snap a picture of the boys all sitting there listening.  (James had of course got his way and taken his shirt off a few minutes before we started)

 

You can see that by the third pictures, James was gone and running around, but it is always nice to have those few minutes when you feel like everyone is actually sitting and listening!  They seem few and far between sometimes, but hopefully at least some of it gets through.  We had fun playing a game and eating some ice cream after Landon’s lesson.

Sledding

For President’s Day weekend, we headed down to Ashland for the weekend.  We left Thursday afternoon, and Shane and I spent some time celebrating our 10 year anniversary at Callahan’s up by Mount Ashland while my parent’s watched the kids.  When we got back Saturday, we drove up Greensprings to Hyatt Lake to go sledding.  The spot we went was really nice, and there was even a nice cabin that had a fireplace where we could warm up and eat lunch.  The kids had a lot of fun. Landon was a little nervous his first time down the little hill, but after that, he was unstoppable.  He would go down the hill, hike back up to the top, and go down again.  He even eventually wanted to go down the big hill, and hiked clear up it and went down that a few times too.  James was equally as excited, and he even went down the big hill with Shane once, and he loved going down the little hills and being pulled in the sled.  Davis was the only one not as interested in sledding.  He went down once, and we couldn’t convince him to do it again.  He still had a ton of fun playing in the snow and pulling around a sled behind him.

     

Jake in his sweet get-up pumping up the tube, and James and Ethan eating their lunch

 

    

Shane and James at the top of the big hill, then at the bottom

   

Landon and Davis on the little hill

   

Davis pulling his sled around, and James having fun throwing snowballs.  He thought this was pretty fun, and would yell “Yay!” with his hands in the air each time he threw one.

   

Here are a few pictures Stacey took (so you can see proof that I was there too!)

     

It started snowing pretty good towards the end, but we still had a lot of fun.  We’ll have to go again when we can stay a little longer!