Spider

Eloise figured out how to climb up the slide and monopolizes it.  She climbs up, let's go and...

Slides down, then starts right back up, she reminds me a lot of the itsie bitsie spider, or maybe "The Little Engine that could."

Mother's Day

Today was such a wonderful day, I am blessed with the most amazing family.  I woke up to breakfast in bed with flowers and a crown to wear.  Teagan came in our room several times to see if they could start making my "stuff."  He was just glowing with excitement to watch me notice the heart shaped French toast, and his adorable writing on my card, and the big blue necklace he picked out for me because he knows blue is my favorite color, and the red roses he insisted on.  He has the biggest heart and I have Zac to thank for that.  He is teaching Teagan to be so thoughtful and to be excited about giving.  The snuggling and tickling afterward felt like a scene from a feel good movie.

I love roses so much, watching them bloom is my favorite and they smell wonderful!

And we were so close to being on time to church!  Zac spoiled me and made me one of my favorites, pizza, for dinner.

I got to share Mother's Day with one of the wonderful mothers in my life, Shelly my mother in law.  She brought these gorgeous flowers for me to plant in my yard, I'm so excited about them!  She is so thoughtful and sweet.  I'm lucky to be part of her family.  She helped my hubby become the man he is today and my kids adore her as their grandma.

To top it off I got to surprise my mom (not too surprising) with a little trip the kids and I will take to see her.  I can't believe it's been 2.5 years since we've been to California.  It's just as much a gift for me as for her, but I am so excited for some serious mother daughter party time!

This might go down in history as the best Mother's Day ever.  I'll go to sleep with a smile on my face tonight.

Protector

We watched my friend's children for a little while the other day.  Her little boy is just a bit younger than Eloise and was a little rough with Eloise.  Teagan was "guarding" her the whole time.  

Baby Adam wanted to grab her headband, shirt, face, nose, you name it.  He was probably just amazed at her beauty.  

Teagan had to intervene several times when I wasn't in the room.  

It got to the point where Adam would crawl over and Eloise would start to whimper and turn to find Teagan.  I love that he protects her by choice.  Teagan kept giving Eloise hugs and kisses and telling her that he would preetect (protect) her. He is an amazing brother.

Spring Yard Work

We worked in the yard ALL day Saturday.  It was actually really fun.

Eloise was very helpful at loading up the rocks.  Put one in the wheel barrel, put one in her mouth.

Teagan was in the happiest, sweetest mood all day.  He was so happy to help.

Our peach tree is budding!

Zac tilled the garden and we built a raised bed for our strawberries, so excited to plan out what we'll plant!

Like I said, he was super happy all day!

I love spring when my excitement about the yard is at a height and when Zac is coming up with big ideas for beautifying the yard.  It is a great time of year.

Sunday Best

I want to start taking more pictures of the kids in their Sunday clothes.  This dress was one of cousin Kate's and is adorable.

 We took Ellie's binkie away and she threw a big tantrum.  She does it often; throws herself on the floor, screams and pouts...it's almost cute, almost.

 Teagan is trying to learn to tie his shoes.  He is growing up too fast.  He also did his own hair last Sunday.  We're trying to let go of control...it's difficult.

 So handsome, makes me swell with pride to stare at that sweet face.  You can't be handsome without an allstar personality.  This kid has it all, I can say that because I had nothing to do with it.  

 He was so funny, "wait mom, I want to do one with a different smile."

And my favorite, "Mom, I have an idea for a picture, take one more."  Then he popped his knee out and pointed his toe.  I think he has a modeling future for sure.  I really had to hold back the laughter on that one!

 Yes, I matched Teagan's tie to Eloise's dress, how am I supposed to help myself?

Preschool

We went and visited preschool last week.  I loved seeing Teagan in action at school.  Jax was super excited to go to school, despite his expression.

This is their class on the front row is Ethan, Evan, Brooklyn, Aynslee, Daisy, Christiana, in the middle is Ruby and Colby is in the back wishing to be included.  

 This is their "Bell Horses" song.  They dance around with puppet horses and bells, it is adorable.

 Jax sat in the middle for quite some time trying to figure out how to get the bells to fit in the horses mouth.

 Then they did the chicken/duck dance wearing funny hats.  

 Teagan got really into the moves.  It was so appropriate that he was wearing a Donald Duck shirt.

Teagan's preschool is wonderful, Jeanne does a fabulous job and Teagan is learning and having fun making new friends.  So grateful to live close to her!

Reflections of a Disney Cruise

We had the best time on our Disney Cruise.  We were able to go with a lot of our family which was so amazing.

 I really feel like we enjoyed it to the fullest.  If you know me well, than you'll know that I am rigid about schedules; naptimes, bedtimes, meals, food, junk food.  I don't usually make exceptions and after this trip I realized that I need to more often.  Before we went, we decided that we weren't going to worry about fighting food battles (which means letting the kids order whatever they want and pretty much eat ice cream at will) or making the kids nap and sleep all the time.  I didn't stress about naps and bedtime and just let Eloise sleep in the stroller a lot.  We did take her to the nursery for naps a couple times when things were getting rough.  I let them stay up later and sleep in and they were fine.  Eloise was definitely more emotional and fussy at dinner, but it was nothing too awful and we were able to enjoy our time a lot more.  Kids are more flexible than I thought.

I loved having so much time with family.  We were able to go do our own thing all day, meet up with everyone for dinner and then hang out with the adults in the evening while the kids were asleep in our room.  Zac hasn't had that much time off in a row since he was in school so it was such a nice break!

I loved that we weren't stressed about doing every single thing on the boat.  We definitely tried to get in a lot of fun, but we weren't obsessive about it and that kept it fun.  There were so many things that we missed, but it was okay.

I really would love to go again, it was like a week in a dream.  Coming home to snow was a little depressing, but we've adjusted back to real life...almost.