playin'

My parents drove out here from Utah and spent the past week playing with us!  We had so much fun, but I didn't get near enough pictures of us all playing together.  But, here are some of the fun things we did:

We spent a day in Madison, touring the capital building again, playing at the children's museum, eating burgers at Dotty's, and seeing the town.  

 He was having a fun day, I promise.  It just doesn't really look like it from this picture!

 We spent another day at the wildlife sanctuary and at Bay Beach Amusement park.  Krew got to go on the kiddie rides for the first time!

 He had the same expression on his face on every ride, the entire time.  I wasn't sure if he was enjoying himself or not.  But, when the ride would end and I would ask if he liked it, he always said, "More!"

 Two of my crazies about to ride the bumper cars!

 I love this picture that Bart captured of Krew and I.  I was so excited for him to ride the carousel, and he loved the one at Disneyland back in February, but he wasn't so sure about it this time.  I was talking to him and trying to help him feel safe and excited, and Bart took this awesome picture.  This is what it means to be a mama!

baseballers!

 Ky and Kade just finished their first season of baseball!  They played coach-pitch and were on the Tigers team.  They both did such a great job and were noticeably better at the end of the season than the beginning.  It was fun for me to watch them play and cheer them on!

 Kade

 Ky

 It was surprisingly hard for me to tell them apart when they were on the field, all in uniform.  But if I could see their cleats or their numbers I knew for sure who was who.  One fun thing that happened purely by coincident, was that Kade was #4 and has
four letters in his name, and Ky was #2!  It made it easy for all the other parents to tell them apart as well!

This is a fun picture of both of them in action.  Ky is playing first base and Kade is playing second.  They are both ready for the ball to come to them!

just one more!

 My little Krew recently discovered the joy of throwing rocks into the water.  From the first "bloop!"  he was hooked!  Now, whenever he sees rocks, he looks for water to throw them into, and whenever he sees water, he begins searching for rocks.
On Saturday, we went for a little hike, and came across a small stream perfect for throwing rocks into.  After some time, we decided it was time to go home, but this little boy had not had enough.  When we were almost back to our car, he decided he needed to pick up some more rocks and head back to the water.

He scooped up and handful, and then with his other hand, he began picking up more.  "More" he would say as he would pick up one more and put it into his already full little hand.  Each time he picked up one more and placed it into his hand, another rock (or two!) would spill out of his hand and onto the ground.  This went on for probably ten minutes, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't hold on to "one more."  We finally had to stop him and put him in the car, but knowing this boy's determination, he probably would have kept trying the same thing for hours!

It was entertaining, and makes for a cute story, but it made me think about how I live my life.  Do I sometimes try to get just "one more" of something, only to lose something I already have?  Maybe I'm too busy already, but I try to do just one more thing, only to drop the ball on something I've already committed to doing.  Or maybe I get greedy and want more things, and in so doing, I am unable to enjoy the things I already have.  I only have a certain capacity to do things, or enjoy things, or appreciate things, or take care of things, and if I try to get/do "one more" something is going to fall out and land on the ground!  I'm going to try to learn to simply enjoy the rocks that are already in my hand!

I sure love this little boy, with his Mickey Mouse and Goofy tattoos, and for all the things he teaches me every day!

i can never get a good picture of all three of them!

Last Saturday, after a walk, I decided to get a cute photo of all my offspring at the same time, because they are cute, and because this building and steps make a great backdrop.  

This is what I got:

Attempt #1: Krew is sporting the windblown look, and Kade is smiling waaaaay too hard.  Try again.

Attempt #2:  Kade is smiling much less, much too much less.  Ky is eating his own hand-no idea why, and Krew is also trying to figure our why Ky has his whole hand shoved in his mouth.  At least Kade is looking at the camera.  Try again.

Attempt #3:  Ky and Kade both have "picture faces."  Krew is smiling, just not looking the right way.  Kade is trying to help Krew look the right way, but it just looks like Krew is going to get his head pulled off!  Try again.

Attempt #4: Not sure what to even say, except, "I give up!"

happy father's day!

 These three boys have the best daddy in the whole world, it's no wonder they want to be just like him!

I took these pictures a few days before Father's Day and added a few of my favorites to the card I gave Bart.

I love how these photos turned out!

And below you will find the original (well original in this family at least) Father's Day-dress-in-daddy's-clothes photo shoot.  These are from Father's Day 2007.  Enjoy!

slacklining and biking

If you come by our house on a warm day, you might find us doing one of our two favorite new activities: slacklining and riding two-wheelers (with no training wheels)!  Several weeks ago, I mentioned to Bart that I thought it would be fun to get a slackline and learn as a family.  To my surprise, he immediately loved the idea, and we began the task of figuring out a way to set one up in our backyard without any trees to hook it to.  Well, Bart is a genius and the plan he came up with is great!  So, for the past couple of weeks, we've been setting it up whenever we have a free, warm evening and learning!  I've been surprised by a couple of things: first, how dang hard it is, and second, how we've all been able to slowly improve.  It's so much fun, and I love learning it together as a family.  

 These pictures are from the boys' first time on the line, and shows our crude set-up.  The buckets have since been replaced by awesome A-frames that Bart built that work tons better!

 Even Krew loves it.  He frequently looks out the window and points to where the slackline gets set up, and says, "Slack!"  He loves bouncing on it!  And just think how good he'll be when he's older, seeing that he started slacklining at 18 months!

 The other new thing that the boys have been doing is riding their bikes with no training wheels!  We took them off on Tuesday and they did so good for their first time!  They were both definitely quite nervous at first, but by the end of the evening were so happy, so excited, and so proud of themselves!  Of course the past few days have been rainy and quite chilly, so they haven't been back out there, but they'll have all summer to ride around!

 (Okay, I have no idea why the shadow/camera did that, but doesn't it look like Ky's leg is gray, or purple?  I promise it's really just normal color in real life!)

 Go Ky! Go!

 Go Kade! Go!

random photo catch-up

Sometimes I look back at my photos and I see some that are super cute, but that don't merit an entire post on their own.  So, here are some of those cute pictures all mushed together for your enjoyment!

 Each year, the grocery store puts on a little Easter activity for the kids.  One of the stations includes pictures with the Easter bunny.  Krew lasted exactly as long as it took for me to take this picture before he started crying.

 He does look cute with his bunny ears, don't ya think?

 Since the twins have lots of character toys, Krew has learned the names of lots of super heros, cartoon characters, Pixar characters, etc. really early.  And he loves Spiderman!  This costume is a tad too big, and he liked wearing it for about 90 seconds, but he loves to look at this picture of himself!