Choo Choo....

Here is yet another painting that I have finished!

Easter!

Well at least one of us in the picture doesn't have a goofy face!

My family!
Sunday morning the kids got up and saw their easter baskets filled with goodies. I had hid most of the eggs all around the living room and kitchen so they were able to find them with help from Dan. We woke up a little later than I intended so we didn't get much leisure hang out time since we had to be at the church by 9:00. I quickly got in the shower and got the kids dressed and as we were heading out the door I said that I wanted to take some quick pictures of all of us. I guess I was the only one that was really wanting pictures because the kids didn't cooperate at all and Dan wasn't too thrilled with the idea. BUT since I had just had family pictures done by Allison on Saturday, I didn't complain too much. She was trying really hard to get this egg open!
I had easter grass all over my living room! I to just let my guard down and just let them play. It was so hard to not just pick up all the grass and put it away!
Dan and I had signed up to work in childcare during second hour at church so we went to first service. It was good to go to a service together. The past few weeks we have been doing Financial Peace University at our church so we have been rotating each week with one of us going to service during first hour and the other staying home with the kids. Then we would take the kids during second hour to church and then Dan and I would go to the class together. So it has been a few Sundays since we have an enjoyed a service together.

After church we went to Sonic for lunch...I know...not very eastery (and also something I haven't had since I have been doing Fit for a Lifetime)! But I had a meal planned for that evening and I did not feel like cooking. We ate lunch and then Dan and the kids took a nap. Ariel only slept for 45 minutes...she has been battling another ear infection so her sleep pattern is off a little. After everyone got up from their naps, I started dinner. I cooked fresh green beans and new potatoes, I made some biscuits, and I thawed a cured ham from the farm. It was all so delicious. Caleb even ate the potatoes which he never eats! We read the easter story to the kids after dinner and then put them to bed. It was a really relaxed day, something we really needed!

Preparing for Easter

Yesteday (Saturday) morning, we had the wonderful privilage of getting our family pictures made with my favorite photographer and dear friend of mine Allison Rupp (http://www.photoalli.com/). She is so amazing! I just love her work! You can definintly see her artistic side when she gets behind that camera and she is so good with the kids and getting shots of them being natural! Thanks Allison for making this such a wonderful experience!

Then after we took photos, we came home and put Ariel down for a much needed early nap and I cleaned the house while Caleb and Dan went outside to work on the fence. Ariel took such a great nap! She slept for nearly 3 hours (unlike today where she only napped for 45!) After both kids took their naps, we dyed easter eggs. Instead of the traditional vinegar easter egg dye, I got this speckled egg set that you actually paint on the eggs. Caleb had fun painting the eggs but little to my knowlege, the egg dye actually dyes our fingers as well. Caleb and I both had colorful hands after we were done.

Ariel sat in her high chair and watched while she played with her hair (such a girl!) and the plastic easter eggs that I gave her. Ariel loved carrying around all of her eggs. She would sit and take all of them out and then put them all back in...she did this for nearly 30 minutes!

Last night my mom came over and brought these two huge bunnies for them for easter. They are SO soft and cuddly! They both had to sleep with them last night! Thanks Grandma for the wonderful huggable bunnies!

Jump Zone

On Friday, the kids and I went to a new place called Jump Zone here in Bentobville. It is comparable to Pump It Up but they have way more things to do there. They have, I think, 7 inflatables, one that was toddler friendly for Ariel and all the others where for kids around Caleb's age.

This is Caleb (and Ariel in the background) playing in the toddler jump area. I wasn't supposed to be in there because there was 75 pound weight limit and yes, I did get in trouble by one of the workers...ooops!
There was a wall that was taller than me all around the toddler area so I had to stand on this bench and look over it to keep an eye on Ariel. She didn't go in there much since I wasn't in there with her, I don't think she knew quite what to do.Outside the toddler jump area there was a place set up with little rocking horses and some toys on the wall to play with. This is where Ariel and I hung out most of the time. She and I did go on a few slides but it was so much work getting through those obstacles to get to the slide that I we only did it a few times. The picture below is of the area where the rocking horses were.

Since I had to hang out with Ariel most of the time, I just let Caleb go. We were there with some other kids that he knew so that helped out a ton. He basically played with them on all the slides and jumpers the whole time. I did have my friend Ranae watch Ariel for me for a few minutes so that I could go on one obstacle with slides with Caleb. I took the camera along and got these three shots. The first one is of me at the top of the slide (with Caleb waiting for me at the bottom) after climbing the wall in second picture. It was so fast, that it took my stomach away and it wasn't even the highest slide! The third picture was Caleb going down it by himself, all you can see is a blur because he was going so fast.

These were the kids favorites:

Ariel's was the gumball moonwalk. It had balls inside that you could throw and she would jump to them and try to pick them up. She loved it as long as there wasn't bigger kids in it. They would usually knock her down, not by pushing, but by just jumping and making her lose her balance.

She felt so proud of herself when she would climb out of the gumball moonwalk all by herself!

This one was Caleb's favorite. It was called the "Kraken" and it was a huge octopus on top of a pirate ship trying to pull it under. The slide was SUPER fast and it was 23 feet up in the air. I couldn't get any shots of it because he went so fast!

We had a ton of fun, I would recommend this to anyone who wants to wear their kids out before a nap! http://jumpzoneparty.com/

Another Painting

I finished another painting! Click HERE to take a look at my other site to see more of my work.

Easter Egg Hunt

We had our once a month Toddler Toes Playdate today at Park Springs park in Bentonville. It was a beautiful day. The high was somewhere around 70 degrees today! We all got the kids together and let them run around and hunt for some easter eggs. I tell ya, it is hard to let two kids run after eggs! I couldn't keep up with both of them to take pictures and Ariel had never done this before so she needed my help so I decided to just keep close to Ariel and let Caleb just GO!! Well I was so wrapped up in helping Ariel that when I looked over at Caleb, he was sitting in the grass with three eggs looking inside them while all the other kids were running around getting all the eggs. I asked him why he was sitting and he said that he wanted candy....NOW! I told him that if he didn't get up and go find more eggs then that was all the candy he was getting. So he got up and found some more...silly boy!


I begged Caleb to come and get in this picture with Ariel and I and he just wouldn't do it. Good thing I will be getting some easter pictures of the whole family done in about a week!

She found an egg!
Caleb sitting while all the other kids were hunting!
The first picture I have of my kids holding hands. Caleb always has this face like this in the pictures when I ask him to say cheese. You can almost hear him saying it through the picture!
NOW I CAN SIT!

Just kicking back with Mommy! Sweet girl!
Caleb and his stick. He wanted to hunt eggs with it as his basket was hanging off the end. I thought he would have ended up hunting little kids instead of eggs if I let him run around with it.
Looks like she is trying to sneak it in her basket. She did really well, I think she ended up getting about 6 eggs and Caleb got 8 or so!

Yipee it's warm out!

So glad to get to the park and let the kids play. We have been so tired of doing indoor activities!!

Play-DUH!

I got the brilliant idea the other day to get the play-doh out and let Caleb play a while so that I could get dinner started. I decided to put Ariel in her high chair and let her color while she watched her brother play with something she couldn't have. SMART! She didn't like that idea AT ALL! She wanted to squish her hands all in it and make a mess and give me pretty colors in her diaper! Well, we ended up compromising with me letting her just play with the play-doh toys. That at least kept her contnent for about 15 minutes or so!

In Daddy's Shoes

My silly girl is obsessed with shoes! She even decided that Daddy's shoes went well with this outfit! Oh and don't mind the nap hair...this is what it normally looks like after she pulls her bows out!

Family Time

The other night we captured what we do on most nights with the camera. Its a tickle fest slash wrestling match most nights...oh the fun those kids have!

Can't deny the fact that he is my son here! We look SO much alike!

Caleb making a "fridge" (bridge) as he calls it to keep the "elevators" (alligators) away!
Daddy swinging Ariel

Ariel taking a break and reading Caleb's color pages

Nothing like getting a work out after you have worked out!

Look at that smile!
Daddy tickling his little girl.
My handsome boy!