Elly's first pigtails

I was finally able to put Elly's hair into pigtails, but not without having to have to tops in a ponytail too.  She looked so cute with them in, she looked like a girl that day.  I was surprised that she let me do them because I had to hold them so tight to get them to stay in. 
I think that she is just so stinking cute.  I just can't get enough of this little girl.  I am excited that her hair is starting to grow.  I want to braid her hair so bad but there just isn't enough, someday.
(April 18, 2010- first pigtails)

Mason's 4th birthday

On the 17th Mason had is fourth birthday.  He was pretty excited when Dad walked in the door that morning with four balloons for him.  Mason loves balloons, especially helium balloons. 
We had such a busy day running from place to place, but we did find a little time to let Mason open his birthday present.
He was so excite because all he has talked about getting for his birthday since Christmas was Mario cart.  When he pulled it out of the bag he was so excited.  I wish I would have gotten his face.
The kids were going swimming for there cousins birthday so that is why they are dressed so interesting, but they just had to take the time to play a couple of races.  They really wanted to stay and play it longer but they had to go.   I love to watch them play because they get so serious.
When I asked Mason what kind of a cake he wanted he told me, "Just plain dark cake with plain dark frosting."  I told him he could have whatever kind he wanted, but he was set on that so it made it easy for me.  I asked him that morning what he wanted for his birthday breakfast and he chose cereal and for dinner he wanted maccaroni and cheese.  Out of all the things you could chose to eat those would not have been my choices.  Needless to say Jay and I had real food for both of those meals.  He didn't care as long as he had what he wanted.
We sure do love this little guy and are so happy to have him in our home.  He is so funny and very energetic.  He really has been just a fun kid most of the time.  We love you Mason and hope that you had a great birthday.

Unexpected Surprises!

A couple of weeks ago on a saturday afternoon I was getting so excited because Jay was going to take me on a date to see a movie that I had been wanting to see.  He had got a babysitter all line up too.  About an hour or two before it was time to go Mason and Elly had fallen asleep and Tyler was playing.  Jay decided that he was going to take a nap so after a while of wondering what I should do I decided that I would go down and email my brother and sister on there missions, so much for good intentions.  When I stepped off that last step into the basement I was in for an unexpected surprise and not a good one.  The carpet was all wet!  I couldn't believe it.  I opened the bathroom door trying to find what was causing the floor to be wet and found that the bathroom floor and water all over on it.  So I looked in the other two rooms down there and found that they both had water in them, but I couldn't find where the water was coming from.  In my head I was debating whether or not to tell Jay then or wait until we got back from the movie, as you can tell I really wanted to go on that date.  At this point I was madder about missing my date then the water all over the basement.  I knew I was going to have to stay home and clean up the mess so I ran up stairs to tell Jay that we had a problem.  All I said was, "Jay we have a problem" and he moved faster than I have ever seen him move.  I don't know what he thought the problem was to be moving so fast, but he was up pretty quick.  At first he couldn't find it but then he ran outside and told me to go down to the bathroom and listen for the water.  He turned on the water and I could hear it running all over in the walls.  Jay came in a cut open the wall and this was what we found... 
you guessed it...we had a pipe freeze in the winter and ofcourse had no way of knowing it.  So we spend the next couple of hours sucking the water out of the carpet, rounding up fans, pulling the carpet back to try and get the floor underneath dry and we had to rip up the bathroom floor. 
I wish the pictures show how bad it really was, but they don't.
On two walls we had to cut the sheet rock off because it got so wet.  This all happened saturday night so there was nothing really we could do until monday besides try and get things to air out.  The basement had that sick wet basement smell to it for a few days, but now that there is nothing left down there it is fine. 
Monday Jay spent the whole day pulling out carpet and getting the floor in the bathroom ready to put a knew floor down.  Plus he was dealing with the insurance company too.  They were really good and so things are starting to look better down there.  The bathroom is all put back together with a new floor in it, which had to be done first since it is also the laundry room.  Last weekend we finally decided we were ready to take on the other room since the first room is ready to be mudded and textured and Jay wants to do the whole bathroom at the same time.  When we started taking out the carpet and trim in the second room we found another unexpected surprise, termites.  They were only in the closet that I had decided we were going to move and put in a different cornor.  So then we had to wait for the guy to come and take care to that problem before we could finish that room.  He came today and so Jay was able to finish hanging the sheet rock and hopefully we can get all the seams taped tonight. 
There were some good and bad things that came out of this.
The bad...I didn't get my date that night, but he did take me out the next weekend.  
We had to start fixing up the basement before we were ready to and
we can't really take our time doing it like we wanted to.
The good...we can fix it the way we want to now.
we found the termites before they got every where.
When we finish this we are all done fixing the house. 
When we get it all done I will post the pictures so you can see the finished product.

Swimming lessons

After two years of saying that I was going to put the boys in swimming lessons I finally got it done.  Tyler and Mason both got to be in the same class so that was really nice to only have to go and sit during one.  I was very surprised at how much they learned in the nine lessons that they had.  Tyler was able to pass level one off, he had to swim acrossed the pool and back without any help and jump off the diving board.  Mason did pretty good to he just isn't strong enough to make it all the way acrossed the pool yet.  Mason has just started his second lesson and is loving that Tyler isn't in his class, I think it makes him feel like he is a big kid. 
Mason loves it and can finally make it the whole swimming lesson without having to get out and get warm.   He gets cold so easy and his little lips would be purple.  I was glad that I didn't have to get in that water.
These are of Tyler jumping off the edge, getting one of his breaths on his way to the other side...
and getting ready to swim back.
Tyler showing off his tricks on the diving board to his dad, who came to watch them one day.
Mason has no fear he went right up on the driving board and jumped off.  His teacher is there for them when they come up and then she has them swim back to the edge.  Today in class Mason jumped off with her being at the edge.  So he jumped off and then swam back over to the egde to her.  I am so surprised at how fast they can learn things.  He still has a lot to learn but he is doing pretty good.
Tyler is excited to get to move up to the next level and I am thinking that I should probably take the class with him or he is going to be a better swimmer than me.  I have love going and watching them learn to swim and seeing how excited they are when they do it right.

A day at the park

I took the kids down to play at the park one day with some friends and the kids just loved it.  Elly loved the slides and Mason was so good to help her go down them.  It was a perfect day to let them play outside.  Tyler was a school so he had to miss out.  This was Elly's first time going down slides and playing at the park.

I love the smiles on there faces as they are getting ready to go down the slide.
I love this picture because the hair on her head is standing straight up, it is kind of hard to see because there isn't much there but it is.

Bathing Beautys

I love these three.  They are so fun to have around.  They are fun to listen to when they are taking there baths.  The things they think of to play and the hours they spend in the tub are amazing to me.
I finally found towels like I have been looking for so they each got to pick out there own.
Tyler is my sea creature.
Mason is my Monkey.
Elly is my little monster.

Easter weekend

For Easter weekend we went with Jay's brothers family and rented a house.  We went from friday until monday.  The school kids had spring break during some these days.  The kids had a great time together.  In the basement of the house there was a big room that had a projector on one wall with couches and bean bags on that end of the room and then the rest of it was just a big open room and on one side there was a foozball table that the kids had a great time playing with.  We hardly saw the kids because they just played downstairs the whole time.
Saturday afternoon we dyed the Easter eggs.  All the kids had a good time.  The only bad thing is that it goes so fast.  Tyler, Mason, Autumn and Karleigh did most of them.
Jay and Elly were hanging out watching the basketball games.  We had to have her show us her crazy face and Jay even showed us his.
Tyler and Mason with the eggs they were dying.
Here are all the kids that we had with us except for Kason he had left us for a movie.
Elly with her cousin Porter.
"She can't hear you."
The finished product.
On Easter morning the kids didn't get up very early because they were up so late every night that we were gone.  They all slept downstairs in front of the TV.   The Easter bunny decided that this year he would bring the kids each their favorite cookies instead of a bunch of candy that mom and dad end up eating.  They each also got sunglasses and bubbles.
Elly didn't get cookies, she got M&M's because those are her favorite.  She went crazy when she saw them.
Elly looking cool in her new glasses.
Mason and his cool glasses.
Tyler looking cool in his glasses.
Some pictures of the kids finding the easter eggs.
These two listening to Conference.  What good kids.
The kids all playing Conference Bingo, it really does help them to listen better.
We had a great weekend just hanging out, watching basketball games, Conference and playing games.  We will have to do it again, maybe next time some more cousins will come.