Where Does the Time Go?

On February 23rd we were Skyping with my mom and Emily had found some Valentine's candy and started to eat it.  It was in the wrapper but she gummed it enough that the candy actually came out.  She was so happy!

This is what she looked like when I took it away from her.

Later that night I had the boys clean their room and put all their laundry in the laundry basket.  Nathanial thought that it looked like an ice cream cone.  It is amazing how much laundry these two boys can have in their room.

On February 27th Nathanial was playing with Emily in her crib.  She likes to pull his hair and he thinks it is funny!

The boys have been working filling a jar with pom-pom balls to earn the movie Gnomeo and Juliet.  They finally earned it after 4-5 months of working on it.  Christopher was trying to grab the poky balls, as he calls them, out and got his hand stuck.  It was pretty funny on March 2nd.

Sunday, March 4th, Christopher was playing on our bed after church and got stuck between our foot-board and mattress.  This kid is going to give me a head full of grey hairs!

That smile melts my heart!

Emily got her first tooth on March 5th! 

Ryan and I went on a wonderful date on Wednesday March 7th.  We went to see "Memphis".  It is a play off of Broadway at Playhouse Square in Downtown Cleveland.  It won the Tony Award for Best Musical, along with three other Tony Awards, at the 2010 Tony Awards. Ryan happened to be working on one of the cast members teeth and he offered us FREE tickets to see the show!  I was so excited to go, it didn't disappoint.  I wasn't expecting too much for the seats since they were free, but we were pleasantly surprised to get seats front and center! 

Nathanial lost his 3rd tooth on March 8th!  It was tooth Q.  It fell out because there was not enough room for his permanent tooth to come in so it pushed out this tooth.  Here is what the tooth fairy left him.

During the winter months our school district has swimming lessons taught by the high school swim team.  I signed Nathanial up for the first set and looked at the end date and thought that it was the start date.  Oops!  Anyway, the second set of lessons started on Saturday, March 10th.  Nathanial is in Level 2 and Christopher started in Level 1.  Christopher cried and cried when it was time for him to start his lesson, he did NOT want to have his lesson.  I slowly talked him into it and he had a blast!

Getting ready for lessons to start.

Christopher was starting to get nervous when it was time to start.  He asked Nathanial to hold his hand.

Nathanial in his class

Tummy float

face in water

Emily was such a trooper she wanted to get in the water.  I was taking pictures of her and I love her blue eyes in these pictures.

I was holding Emily while I was taking these pictures and I didn't adjust my exposure so the coloring and lighting are off.

Christopher in his class, jumping to his teacher.

We have had a very mild winter and a very warm spring. We actually broke Ohio's record for most consecutive days of 70+ in March.  There were numerous days when we were in the 80's!  Who would have thought 80 degree weather in March!  We took full advantage of it...

Christopher riding bikes 3/11

Emily outside 3/11

We have had green grass all year.  We also have several flowers that are in bloom.

3/11

3/11

Nathanial and McKayla 3/11

McKayla is our neighbor and they play together all the time

We have been trying to find ways to help Emily gain weight.  I add a scoop of powder formula and a teaspoon or two of oil to her baby food.  Emily usually goes to bed around 7:30 and sleeps for 12 hours.  I have been waking her up when I go to bed at 11-12 to feed her again.  One night Ryan and I were having cheese quesadillas and we fed them to Emily.  Tortillas smothered in butter and fried, filled with cheese, and topped with sour cream, I hope that helps her gain weight!

3/11

Another thing I have been doing to give Emily more calories is feed her Oreo's...

3/16

To kick off spring break we had a BBQ on March 17th with our friends the Brannan's and the Graves.

Eliza, Ryan, Emily 3/17

Eliza and Emily

Christopher, Clara, Nathanial, Evelyn, and Conner

Jesse at the grill

Baby Eliza

The Boys, Christopher, Conner, Dylan and Nathanial

All the kids: Anela, Evelyn, Wyatt, Christopher, Nathanial, and Dylan

Evelyn, Christopher, Wyatt, Anela, and Nathanial

Clara and Eliza-She is getting baby hungry!

Conner eating a cupcake

We have been wanting to switch Emily to a more comfortable car seat but I have been wanting to reupholster it.  After it went through Nathanial and Christopher I thought it needed a new cover.  I picked out this fabric and set to work.  It took me a few hours but I think that it turned out GREAT!  I love it!

3/22

Emily is the perfect model!

Since I didn't get very good pictures of Christopher at his first swim lesson here he is again...

3/24

I found this "go fishing" game at WalMart for $1 so I bought it.  Ryan wanted to use it as a teaching tool so in order to play the game the kids had to listen to a fishing story about Jesus.  Our neighbor McKayla even joined in the fun!  The stories that we told were: Matthew 22:15-22, Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 8:14-21 

On March 28th Nathanial and Emily were playing together in the boys' room.  Nathanial was bringing Emily stuffed animals and Emily was laughing at each one so Nathanial kept bringing them to her until she was buried in them.  She was all smiles for her big brother.

Emily and Nathanial

Can you tell where Emily is?

We were able to get 4 FREE tickets to a Cleveland Cavs game for Wednesday, March 28th.  We were excited to go as a family.

We put Emily's hair in pig-tails!  Aren't they cute?!?!

Eating at Red Robin

When we arrived at the game the first thing the boys did was get Cleveland Cavs tattoos...

The game...

Watching the game

They shot fire out of the center screen.  We could feel the heat come off of it.  This was the boys favorite part.

I think that Emily enjoyed the game most out of everyone.

They had some neat half-time, time-out entertainment...

"Batman jumping and doing a flip to make a basket.

Cavs vs Pistons

For preschool the kids get to take home various animals in a book bag with books and get to have an adventure with the animal and then they write about it and tell the class what they did.  Nathanial happened to have the bunny and brought him to the game.

Nathanial and Bunny

Shoot balls into a pile of tires

Christopher took off his shoes and when I asked him to put them back on he replied, "They're hot and they need air on them"

Lawn mower race

Break dancers

Emily stayed awake to entire game and had her first taste of cotton candy.

This was the first time that anyone in our family has been to a professional basketball game.  It was really fun to go as a family, too bad the Cavs lost.

On March 29th I took Emily in for a weight and ear check.  Her double ear infection was finally gone and she had gained 12 ounces in 3 weeks!  That puts her at 13 lbs. 15 oz.!  We will take her in for another weight check before we head to Idaho the first part of May.