The Big Hunt!

This was the result of our best attempts to get all the kids together for a group shot... Jack must still be hunting for hidden treasures
Here's Matt in the "holding pin" making everyone wait until upstairs was ready. we let them run up one at a time, youngest to oldest.
Brianna's trying to lick the sticky nerds from between her fingers. I missed the shot of her trying to lick the one stuck to her elbow!!

Every year we get together friends and family for the anticipated easter egg hunt. This year it was windy, cold and muddy so we opted to have this years indoors. Everyone had so much fun in all the chaos and no one lacked candy when it was all through.

Oh, to be little and loving candy! This is why we love bleach, right?
Dividing their spoils...

Baby Jonathan says "so I'm supposed to eat it like this... right?"

Easter Morning

Easter Morning was lots of fun! Jack even almost caught the Easter bunny finishing up some last minute hiding of the real easter eggs. Don't they look cute all dressed up in their fancy new clothes! The kids indulged in some candy for breakfast and then we all tried to be on our best behavior at church. I personally thought that they did pretty good in comparison to some of the other, older children who were also coming off a sugar high. We had no luck getting them to take naps before the big birthday party and the family easter egg hunt began, but oh how we love the jelly beans!

Egg Decorating

Here we are decorating our Easter eggs. Later we made a yummy dessert. Marshmallow=Jesus, Cresent Rolls=cloth to wrap Christ's body in, melted butter= oils, Cinnemon & Sugar= spices, Oven=tomb, 16 min @ 350 = 3 days. It leaves a surprising hole where the marshmallow was and tastes quite yummy all while teaching the story to the kids! TASTY!

Jump! Jump!

Jumpin' Grandpa J. (such a good sport)

Last summer we had so much fun with the old trampoline that was left with the house when we moved in. The kids were so sad when we finally decided that it just wasn't safe anymore (no enlcosure, springs ripping away from bed and so on) Well, we thought that getting a new one as kind of a family gift for Brianna's birthday would work well. Matt and I spent literally all day in the muddy grass and somehow managed to get sun burned, all while answering the question "Can we jump on it yet?" every 2 minutes. Finally at about 5pm it was done. We were all so tired that we played on it for about 10 minutes then went in and napped for a good couple of hours. We are excited about the fun times we get to look forward to this spring and summer playing on our new toy!

Brianna's Three

Here are the pictures of Brianna we had taken for her 3rd birthday. At first she wasn't sure about it all, but once she saw the first picture taken on the monitor, she thought it was pretty neat and out came the poses. Zoolander anyone? I have a bunch of hard copies I want to get to all of you, but I need to go get Jack's pictures done also and I might as well mail them all out at the same time.

Mud Monster

Cleaning up is half the fun!!
yeah, I don't think these socks will ever be the same


Brianna Watching from a safe distance. (she was tired of being splashed)

Wow, what fun can be found in a soggy back yard with a pair of boots. What started as" look a puddle !" quickly became "mommy, I'm all wet" When Brianna decided she was done with the puddle because it was cold and wet, Jack stated enthusiastically "but thats what makes it fun, Nana!" The mom in me wanted to put it to a halt, but I figured, what the heck, It'll probably wash out. So I went and got the camera and I was transformed into the "mommarazzi" Dad's reaction was also mixed. First laughter and cheers, then comments having to drive the lawn mower over the big rut dug out by Jack's multiple trips across the same, increasingly larger and larger puddle.

more fun at the "kazoo"

Too much zoo Fun

A day at the Zoo!

Daddy has been working so hard lately, that we decided that since he got a day off, we were going to spend the day as a family at the zoo. St. Louis has such a neat zoo and the kids were so excited. Brianna spent the whole day calling it the "kazoo". Before we went, we all said what we were most excited to go visit. Brianna couldn't stop talking about the giraffes. Since it was one of the first warm day's of almost spring all the animals were out and excited to start the new season. We saw several animals that were unusually active. There was a kangaroo that was "running laps" a malayan sun bear that was content to pace back and forth continually, some monkey's that were playing a game of "tag, I got your tail" and a Hippo that swam round and round and round and round... well you get the idea. Brianna and Jack also had fun dancing along with a elephant that must have had some headphones with music the rest of us couldn't hear. What a great day!

Duck Pond.. Quack Quack!

One of our favorite things to do is go to the duck pond. The other day was so warm and sunny we couldn't resist this fun adventure with our friends Sara and Michael. These kids have so much fun together, and when you add throwing rocks in the pond, it makes life that much more exciting. At first the rule was if it takes two hands to pick it up, it's too big, but these kids are clever. So we had to amend the rule to, if it was bigger than your fist...it's too big. I also had to have a little talk with Brianna about how ducks poop in the pond, and so no, we don't lick the water off of our fingers... Yuck! What a beautiful day

An army of ...Two!

Yea! Uncle Clint, who has been serving in Iraq with the 101st Airborne, is home visiting for a few weeks. Jack was so excited when I told him Uncle Clint was coming over and he'd be in his army camoflage. Jack is so proud of his uncle who is a "soldier in Iraq protecting us from the bad guys" Clint is actually one of the pilots who fly around those cool new un-manned air drone vehicle things. He sits safely on base and flies his plane around by remote control and takes pictures of what's going on. If he sees any "bad guys" he reports it and they send in the big guns! Yea for Uncle Clint and yea for all his comrades who sacrifice so much to protect freedom.