Life lately

Recapping a few random pictures from the beginning of the month.

Look at this sweet ballet dancer.  Five more Friday lessons, then it's recital practice and the recital.  We are so excited to see our girl dance her heart out on stage.

She has the heart of a dancer.  Her passion is on point!

Sterling and I had a little "mommy and me" breakfast date while Bubba was at preschool.  She loved it and I soaked in every minute.  We talked about school.  Toys.  Muffins.  Friends.  Bubba.  

We had some well checks that afternoon.  Both are healthy and growing.

Xander stats:

Weight:  39 pounds (35%)

Height:  42 inch (50%)

Wears: 5T clothing, 12 in shoes

Sterling stats:

Weight:  45 pounds (96%)

Height: 41.75 inches (96%)

Wears:  5/6 clothing, 12 in shoes

Poor Sterling had her 4 year shots.  She was not a happy camper.  She cried all day afterward.  Needed walking sticks the day after.  And says the needle is still in her.  She sure knows how to be a drama queen!

I took Xander up to Great Clips for his haircut.  I told him that's where big boys go because where we normally go, his stylist wasn't available.  And he needed a cut bad!  He says he likes this haircut better than Ms. Claudia's.

Fridays after we get home from ballet, Xander pulls the garbage can up.  Such a big boy!

I was going through some pictures and came across this one from 2005 when Nick and I were watching our niece, Alicia.  She was so small and such a joy.  Now she's a teenager and such a trouble maker, ha!

Anytime there are doctor visits, it's guaranteed I will find them playing doctor one each other for the next three months.

Taking a homework break to work on sight words with Xander.  He's very fond of the superhero stomp!  We play it three ways.  First, I call out each word, have him stomp it.  Second, I set all the cards back up and have him tell me each word as he chooses which one he's going to stomp.  As he stomps them, he pulls them aside.  Third, I hold all the cards and have him tell me what the words are.  After this third one, once he gets all the cards/words correct, the tickle monster comes out.  Which he loves and is a motivator for him to say them correctly.  For school, he has 10 lists of 5 words, and he's on the 5th list, working on the 6th.

Sterling's sense of style.  On this day, she was a Christmas child.

Poor Sterling!  She's terrified of going above the shoulders.  Nick persists that she needs to get over her fear and repeatly puts her up high.  

 I found this fun outfit at Walmart a few months back for the cutest Deputy ever.  She never wanted to wear it because she said they were pajamas.  They aren't.  I finally got her to wear them and even had her favorite donuts on the side.  #donutlover 

Nick and I both have 3 weeks of classes left for this term.  So ready to be done!  These last three weeks are torture because we both have big projects due, plus our regular weekly assignments (which are not small either!).  Mine is actually enjoyable to do, it's just very time consuming. Which is something I don't have a lot of.  Nick's is a lot tougher, but he's already submitted a draft to his professor to make sure he's going in the right direction with it.  His class is a lot harder this term.  Once done with this term, I'll be done until August, but Nick is taking summer classes.

Have a great day!

Spring break...part 2

On the 26th we headed to lunch and then Cabela's.  My kids love cabela's. 

My BIL was in all his glory checking everything out, so we had the kids take a break.  Ha!

We then headed to the store to pick up Easter dinner stuff.  Our store just got these kid carts, so we of course had to use one, or two.  We won't be using them anytime in the near future.  They are a hazard!

After getting home, I captured this picture and it shows how Sterling was with her uncle.  She was a bit timid around him.  He's a pretty fun guy, but Sterling's unsure how to take him sometimes.  She frequently gave him the stink face.

The kids played outside some more.  It was chilly out!

After dinner, we colored the Easter eggs.  Surprisingly they didn't make a mess!

Sterling have her nightly performance.  This girl loves to dance!

27th:  Happy Easter!  First up on our agenda was to get everyone out the door by 10 am so we could have our second annual egg hunt.  This year was better than last year because we had the cousins with us!!  This year, since we had the cousins, we had two tasks for them.  I put their name on 5 eggs.  Then I wrote E on one egg, A on one, S on one...to spell out Easter.  The older kids had to unscramble the eggs to make the word.  Pretty fun.  Then we had a bunch of blank eggs that were up for grabs.  Nick had to work from 2-10, so him and Cory headed out to hide the eggs, then the rest of us loaded up in the van when they were almost done.  Timing worked out perfectly!

My little bunny...

So much fun!

When we got home, we prepped up our dinner.  Stuck the ham in the crockpot, diced potatoes, made potato salad, laid everything else out that we'd need later.  After prepping, we took the kids to the park.

On our way back from the park, the kids started rolling down the hill.  Brought back some childhood memories of mine.  So cute watching your own kids do the same things you did as a child!

Did some more playing outside.  Xander and Bode buddied up on the four wheeler.

Easter dinner was delicious!  

28th:  Sad day as the cousins left!  I loved having my sister and her family here.  It was such a fun time.  A time that the kids will talk about for a long time.  A time that I will cherish because we don't get a whole lot of visitors.  Thank you so much for coming to stay with us!

As they were loading up the vehicle, we contained Maisyn with food :)  She ended up getting sick while she was here.  After getting home, her mom took her to the doctor, and she had pneumonia.  Poor girl!

Sterling had such an exhausting week that she took a nap.  Never happens.  Unless we're in the car.

Our last day of spring break we worked on laundry and resting.  We had such a full/fun week and took our last day to rest.

Spring break...part 1

Spring break started the day after Sterling's birthday, the 18th.  Xander had preschool that morning and then we headed out to Sterling's ballet.  After ballet, we were completely commitment free until the 29th!  It was a NICE break.  

Going to bed that night, Sterlng performed a happy dance.  Spring break style.

20th:  Sterling enjoys dressing in a unique way.  Fuzzy boots. Dress.  Christmas shirt.  Backpack.  Halloween headband.  check, check, check!

21st:  Xander has a pretty special way too.  He dresses a bit fancier with a bit comfy.  Ha!

Xander's creation.  Play-doh was brought out so I could cook without distractions.  This and having them draw something is my usual tactics to keep them out of the kitchen.

22nd:  Sterling had a slight obsession with wearing her Frozen hat, everywhere!  Almost 80 degrees and she was still wearing it.

I made paper airplanes for the kids.  Man did these keep them entertained for days!

Playing outside on this warm day and Xander gave Sterling her first weed flower of the season.  He says he wants to marry her.  Not okay. We had a long talk about who he could marry.  His takeaway?  He can marry his friend from school.   

Side note:  Sterling loves purple!

During the week, I made three new meals from emeals.  

Lamb Burgers with Mint-Caper Mayonnaise (very good!)

Orzo and Grilled Vegetables with Parmesan (the grilled veggies were delicious...before adding them into the orzo.  I won't make this one again, but I do plan to cook the veggie mix)

Stovetop Turkey Lasagna (not pictured, but very good!)

23rd: Cousins came!  Best day ever!  They got up early to beat the snow storm that was in the Midwest, but ended up still driving about an hour in the mess.  Good thing they arrived safely!  We went out to dinner then the kids played until way past their bedtime.  They had so much fun while their cousins were here.  We had a 9, 6, 4, 4, 4, and 15 month old.  We had our hands full, but our hearts were fuller!

24th:  We headed to the outlet mall.  It was on the chilly side.  My kids were crazy naughty.  I spent way too much.  But I got to shop with my sister, and that was worth the crazy kids beckoning at our feet.

While we were shopping, my sisters husband was trying to get our brother and his family to meet us for dinner somewhere.  They were trying hard to come up with excuses not to make it, but in the end, we were able to see them.  We met up at Red Robin.  And had a nice time.  My niece, Cecilia, was so cute, she kept coming over to me excited and telling me everything.  So cute.

25th:  The morning didn't start out so well.  We had plans that we all were going to the zoo after our water heater was replaced (we had a slow steady leak for about a week).  Nick woke up GRUMPY, so I asked him if he could babysit the plumber so we could head to the zoo early.  There was no way that he was, his attitude was ridiculous, and I was furious with him.  He's pretty lazy, but man, it was an easy task.  If he would've done it.  The plumber finally left around 1230, we headed out (minus Nick) for lunch, then the zoo.  We only had 3.5 hours for the zoo because they close at 6.  We didn't get to see everything we wanted and I felt like my sister and her family wasted their money because we didn't have a lot of time. Thanks, Nick for being selfish!

We finally arrived at the zoo and had the best time that we could.  Given the amount of time we had.

Look at the sweet baby monkey.  So cute!

These three were excited to see the tigers.

The first half of spring break was so fun.  The best part of it was when the cousins arrived.  The kids played and played.  They were sweet.  They were mean.  They were kids!

Part two is next...