Birthday Gift Ideas

Braden has watched way too much TV during the cold weather season. He keeps seeing infomercials for toys he wants. For three days he's asked me to go to spray.com. So finally tonight we went, and it had nothing to do with cool toys. But after an extensive search for markers for sale on TV he recognized this picture. He would love to have a set of these blendy markers for his upcoming birthday. In case he does NOT get them, he is saving his money, starting with the $5 The Griffins sent him for Easter. (thank you)

Fight!

Mason's favorite word while Tyer Tyer was here this past weekend, was "Fight"

I think he'd been here about 5 minutes when these pictures were taken!

Since we didn't get to meet with Ann, Becki and Blake thanks to our March snow, Ann sent her Easter package in the mail. Braden was thrilled to tear into it on Friday. He loves the new shirt, and wore it on Saturday.

Mason's Quest for Eggs

Mason and Dylan have a lot in common. They both have older brothers, they both go to The Center, sometimes in the same room, and they both spend a lot of time out and about in these strollers!


Mason's age group, 0 - 2, was held on one of the ball fields. Not only did it keep them from getting trampled by the bigger kids, it helped keep them confined.

After pointing to the eggs (Mason called them balls at first) and talking about all the colors we could see, I explained how he was going to get all the eggs and put them in his turtle (basket). After talking about this for a few minutes he was ready to go! So the challenge then was explaining "not yet" we had to listen for Daddy (the MC) to tell us when we could "go" So instead he decided to run all over the ball filed. I was ok with this, my only fear was that he would fall and cover this adorable yellow vest in mud. Didn't happen!


Mason got the hang of it very quickly, and unlike Braden's first egg hunt, there were plenty of eggs for him to stop and think about before deciding if he wanted them in his "turtle" Not a big sense of urgency.

The candy was mesmerizing. A few of the eggs came open and all egg hunting came to a halt while he investigated the candy.







Mason LOVED the Easter Bunny. He said "bun-ny" in the sweetest voice and even at home would say "cute"

Braden: The Egg Hunter

Saturday morning, Uncle Tyler came to town! It was perfect timing for us because we had an Easter Egg hunt at 11, which Blake was the MC, so I took Mason to his designated area while Braden went with Uncle Ty, or Ty Ty as Mason calls him.

How about this outfit. The ground was muddy so I insisted on the rain boots; this is his new Tshirt that arrived in the mail from Ann; he picked out the blue pants; Baseball basket from last year; Uncle Ty's sunglasses; and still gets the chicks...priceless!


It was so sweet, because even after finding one prize egg, Tyler said he wouldn't stop until he found one for Mason. He also asked about nuts in some of the candy, and that Mason couldn't have that kind. Braden is such an amazing big brother!




Tyler shared some of his "product" on Sunday morning. Nice faux hawk!

So you think you can dance. . . .

Braden danced to Michael Jackson's "Bad" at the Lakeside Elementary Talent Show. He wouldn't perform at rehearsal, so I had no idea if he would really go on stage! He could never do the same routine twice, because it all comes from the heart! Sorry for the shaky camera, I wasn't watching through the camera as I was taping, and I was laughing and crying at the same time!

Here is the link on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xB9SR37_UfE

Everyday Life

A few random pics of every day life in our home. This is after bath, in pj's and Braden's Cardinal cap.


Braden's lego masterpiece on Sunday morning. We do not own the tiny Leggo's and he is still happy to build with the big ones. This is actually still intact, although we have it up high out of Mason's reach.

This pic was too cute not to snap. Mason wasn't really asleep but was very relaxed chillin in "his chair" watching a little Thomas the Train.

Day Trippin'

While some traveled to far away places during Spring Break, Braden and I made a day trip to Rogers to play with "the cousins" It's been since Labor Day that we were all together, and even then we were missing Emmery and Baby Albert. On this trip we were missing Mason.

This is the first time we've seen Emmery in a long time and it was nice to spend some time with her. She is a very serious little girl, and the smile below was the first and only all day. We only got to see it here because her big sister, Hannah was tickling her.


Even after not seeing me for many months, she warmed up immediately and was very enamored with Braden and even wanted to ride home with us!


Chloe was not on Spring Break, but we got was home from school with an ear infection. This was following her doctor appointment and she was in tears soon after this picture was taken. The big comparison between these three was missing teeth; how many, which ones, and did the tooth fairy come and how much did she bring.


Here is "the boy" he is the only boy between Chelsea and Sarah. These are Sarah's "angels" Hannah (5 in April), Baby Albert (1 in May), Emmery (4 next week)

This is the spit fire, Brooke. As you can see she got a recent hair cut from big sis, Chloe.




Emmery crashed in the car on our way out to Chelsea's house and we were happy to let her sleep while we played outside.



Cousins Hannah and Brooke are best buds, especially since they are very close in age, Brooke will turn 5 in November.



We tried several times throughout the day to get a good group shot, as you can imagine there were always tears, or closed eyes, or someone looking away from the camera, or someone wandering off. . .here is one of our attempts. Hannah (Sarah), Brooke (Chelsea), Emmery (Sarah), Amiee (Chelsea) not sure where Braden and Chloe were.

Because it had been so long, I tried to get a lot of pics of Emmery. This was after dinner and right before we left for home.



There was a field right beside Chelsea's house that we were able to play a little baseball in. Apparently there are sometimes horses in this field so we had to watch our step. Braden was the batter, Granny was the catcher, I was the pitcher and the little girls loved being in the outfield and trying to tag Braden out.