Isaiah's drawing.

Isaiah has just recently started "drawing" rather than "scribbling." We were making St Patrick's Day cards a few weeks ago and I left Isaiah to color his card and came back to find this picture:

I was surprised! This was the first time I had seen him draw a picture that was so clear like that! I had seen him draw other things but it really just looked like scribbles...I asked him what this was a picture of and he said, "it's Levi." :) Didn't he do a great job? He's since drawn several other people that look very similar to this and several other drawings! I'll share some more pictures again soon!

change.

Several months ago Laura, my job-share partner, decided it was time to quit working and be a full-time stay at home mom. She has baby #3 due in July and they are building a new home this spring so having work mixed with this was just too much. So she was done working January 28th which meant big changes at our house (and hers!)! Congratuations Laura!

I was able to quickly find a new job-share partner at work--really, you couldn't ask for a better part-time job if you are looking to only work 20 hours per week--what other part time job offers, vacation time (5 weeks for me!!), 401k, health insurance, life insurance, flexible hours, etc...so finding a partner wasn't hard!! :) My new partner, Cassy, is a full-time student and has class every morning so she needs to work afternoons/evenings...which means I get to work mornings!!

Starting February 1 I have been working 4 mornings a week from 8-1. This has been a good change for me. It's been nice getting out of the house just about every day, just long enough for me to be ready to go back home and play!

Mark also started his internship this semester (which means he graduates in May!!) and so he no longer has classes to attend, but a job to go to. He is interning at our church and has a flexible schedule!

So what about the boys? With Mark's flexible schedule, he is able to stay home 2 mornings a week to watch the boys while I work. The other two mornings that I work Laura watches the boys. (Thank you Laura!) The boys love it at her house and have so much fun with Jayda and Jonah. I am so thankful that I have no worries about the boys while I work.

So everything about the change has been just fine...except... I never get to see Jayda and Jonah!! It's been really hard for me, Isaiah and Levi not to have them at our house 2 or 3 days a week! Isaiah so often asks, "When is Jayda coming over?" or "I want to play with Jayda."

They have been over to play a few times since this big change...Hopefully they will get to come play at our house more often when Laura has more things to do with building her new home!

Yesterday was one of those days they came over...and it was great!

Watching a morning "show" while we waited for Isaiah to wake up! This pose lasted about 3 minutes and then they were all off to something more exciting than "Super Why."
Twins! Isaiah and Jayda thought it would be fun to both wear overalls!

And then vests when we went outside.

It was a GEORGOUS day! We spent most of the day outside and the kids played and played...

So the change is good...and hopefully we'll experience much more change in May when Mark graduates and gets a new job!! We can't wait to see what God has in store for us!

plants.

I love tomatoes. They are my absolute favorite food. One of the moments I look forward to each year, all year long, is the first bite of homegrown tomato every July. There are days in the summer that I eat two (or three) large tomatoes (just like an apple) and handfuls of cherry tomatoes all throughout the day. I just can't get enough. Strange, I know.

So clearly I need to have a garden to keep up with my summer habits!

This year my dad inspired me to grow my own plants from seeds -- thank you dad! This was a fun activity for Isaiah and I to do together!

First we filled the planter with soil.

Levi had to come check out what we were doing...

Then we put the seeds in--we planted tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, green peppers and jalapeno peppers (can you picture us using all of these to make SALSA!!)--and watered them. Shaking a water bottle was the only thing I could think of that would just lightly sprinkle the water on the planter. :)

Here it is...

hopefully in a few weeks we'll see little plants, I'll keep you posted!

Go Panthers!

more spring break fun!

We were lucky enough to spend Thursday with Caiden too! The weather was perfect again so we walked to another park! This time it was just me and the three boys so we filled the wagon and off we went!The kids loved being out at the park again. They smiled and laughed the entire time we were there!and raced each other back and forth, back and forth on the bridge.
Then the dinosaur and the ninja showed up!
After lunch we were ready to go back outside...and spend the rest of the day (until dark) outside! The boys slept good that night!We woke up Friday to snow flurries ... that lasted all day long. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the park, the boys were so ready for another day outside... Thankfully it's warm again today and we've spent most of the late morning and early afternoon outside! Hooray for spring!!

to the park and the jeep.

What a beautiful spring break week!! I was lucky enough to have Wednesday-Friday off work (because I got to work this Saturday) and enjoy the 60 degrees with my boys, Caiden, and my mom! Caiden's daycare was closed and my mom was off work so we had a fun sunny afternoon on Wednesday!

We walked to the brand new park by our house! One of the schools near us tore down their playground late fall and built a new one over the winter! It is very nice and perfect for my kids.Time to walk home...

After all the running and playing, we were ready for snack time!
And then daddy got home and decided it was time to bring out the Jeep! This was the first time Isaiah had driven the Jeep outside. He LOVED having the space to drive it FAST! We are going to have lots of fun with it this spring and summer!

time for the sandbox again!

Let me just say that this warm weather has been so WONDERFUL! Finally the kids can get their energy out doing what they love. Between the outside bikes, slides, sandbox, and simply discovering bugs, leaves, sticks, and the park with daddy, we've spent HOURS outside and we have happy (and tired) boys and happy (and tired) parents! Hooray for Spring!

I was so distracted by the great outdoors that I totally forgot to take any pictures (can you believe that???) except Sunday night when the kids had fun playing with Anna. Thanks for coming over Shannon, Dan and Anna! I am so excited for the many more days of playing outside that are to come!