Sunday, April 19, 2015

Happy Easter!

The weeks have just seemed to fly by lately. We certainly have kept really busy with our schedules. It's been really busy especially for Ben. This semester has been a killer. We haven't had much time as a family, but on the other side the kids have had tons of cousin time.
 
  Natalie has recently become a girlie girl. Everywhere she goes she must take her purse with her phone, her keys, her dollar, her doll, and whatever else she thinks she needs. She just carries it around with her everywhere. She gets around on her Giraffe which she named "Church". Natalie and Church go all over the house and sometimes even the backyard together.
 
 
 
 
During one of the cousin visits in March we had some beautiful weather and I made sure to take advantage and kick the kids outside to play and even eat lunch. They really enjoyed it. I think this is going to become a typical thing for the nice days. Although, since then they have been far and few in between.





Macie Jo has been such a fun and cute little doll. She is one busy lady. She has been getting around the house quite well. Before she could crawl she would roll from one end of the floor to the other end. She never did quite get the regular crawling down. She went from rolling all over to crawling on her hands and tip toes. The Bear Crawl, as we call it. It is stinking funny to watch. She's busy making messes and preventing mom and dad from cleaning them up.


 
 
March 28th Macie Jo finally learned how to pull herself up to her feet. By the time I got to the camera she wasn't as straight up as she had been earlier, but that's the best I could get. Since then she has bee pulling herself to her feet using furniture of any kind. She has been able to go hands free about twice since then and then other times that I give her some help.


 
 
On the next few photos this was a day where the sun was out, but so was the wind. It was so windy, but the kids still had fun. Travis is getting too big for his push car, but that still doesn't stop him from trying. In fact he tried to convince Natalie that she needed to give him a push and then didn't understand why she wasn't strong enough. Crazy kid!
 



 
 
  This month we have had a pretty good time. Easter kind of snuck up on us this year. We still were able to get our Easter egg painting on. The kids had a Easter Egg Hunt at Grandpa Hall's and another one in the back yard with Grandpa and Grandma Cook. We didn't get one with Grandma Sue because she was in Virginia visiting Kurt. Travis had fun finding all the eggs Easter morning. Natalie found some herself too, but she was mainly concerned about eating the heads off all her peeps. Macie Jo loved her little basket that she got from the Easter Bunny. It was her first Easter this year and I would say it was a success!
 




















 
 
 This next picture was taken Monday, the day after Easter. It is a picture of the kids and their cousins eating breakfast obviously, but it is also a picture of a miracle that happened in our family. The previous evening, about 30 minutes after Grandpa and Grandma Cook left we received a phone call from Ashley that she had been in an accident and we needed to meet her at the hospital. When Ben and I arrived we found Ashley, Haiden, and Ethan sitting on the hospital bed getting checked over by the doctor and nurse. Haiden got behind her ear super glued from a cut. Ethan also got a cut on his right hand super glued. Ashley got banged up with some impressive bruises, but other than that she was ok. We found out that it was a roll over accident and that in the roll over Ethan was ejected from his car seat from the left back passenger seat to the front passenger seat. He must have been playing with his seat belt straps or something. When Ashley opened her eyes she looked over and found Ethan laying on the broken window. It was truly a miracle that he survived. All the doctors and nurses were very surprised that he only received scratches. It was truly a miracle for our family!
 






Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Teddy Bear Clinic

A week or two ago I was able to take the kids to the annual Teddy Bear Clinic to get the kids' stuffed friends a check up. They had a lot of fun and they had some company this year.












 
 
The past couple of days we've been vegging out at the house. Ben's had a lot of study time and everyone has been interrupting his study time because we've all really missed our Daddy time. He's a good sport though and I think he really enjoys his little study breaks to spend time with the kids. On another note Macie Jo has finally started crawling on her hands and knees rather than just army crawling. Occasionally you'll see her try to stand as she crawls and it looks more like a bear crawl because she's using her hands and her butt is up in the air while she tip toes along. We have also all discovered Macie's love for spaghetti. Her new favorite meal if you couldn't tell from the pictures below! Natalie is all registered for preschool. She starts in the fall. She's pretty excited to go. Every time she sees Travis go off to school she gets a little jealous. Won't be long before she is going herself. I wish I had pictures from swimming lessons, but I don't. Travis has been doing so well. Michael Phelps doesn't have anything on this kid! He has passed every level every time. He is pretty hilarious to watch out in the water. He is definitely the craziest of all the kids and always the first to volunteer. I'm really excited to take him swimming this summer so he can show everyone what he's been working. on.