April 24

Lucy and cousin Pete playing.

 This was Ally's Sunday hair.  I think it turned out cute.  Next time though I am going to add a braid or 2 to her head to make it look more complete. 

 Pete and Lucy got to play with their Easter eggs while the older 2 ran around and found the hidden ones with candy in them.

 Ben had fun finding Easter eggs, mainly because we were outside.

As Ally gets older, we really try to reinforce to her why we celebrate certain holidays.  Sometimes she "gets" it and other times she's too caught up in the commercial side.  I think we're going to talk more about Christ's Resurrection and the role that plays in our lives. 

Oh I enrolled Miss Ally in Kindergarten today.  Sad day for mommy.  I can't believe she's old enough for school.  I am really going to miss her.  She's like my little sidekick during the day.  So she'll only be gone for like 2 1/2 hours or so, but still that's a long time.  My sister took her to the movies the other day and I tried to have Ben fill in as my helper (he's definitely not a first born) and it really made me miss her.  Ben and Lucy really like having her around as well.  I guess we'll take it one day at a time. 

This is for my Grandpa Smith

While we were up north, and Ben was going around announcing everytime he heard a train, we checked out a HUGE train collection.  This guy, with the help of his friend put together a very LARGE train community.  It was awesome to say the least.  The kids enjoyed it and it was neat to see.  My grandpa would have really enjoyed it.  So Grandpa if you ever come back out here, we will have to take you up to see this place. 

 This is the little kid Christmas/winter train.  It is the perfect height for the kids to see.

 The lights off..night scene.

 Christmas/winter

 Before you walk into the building, when you walk across the rocks, it sets off a train whistle and then it ticks like a train crossing.



Ben's last birthday hurrah!

We celebrated Friday night with cake and ice cream and of course, presents.

Thank you everyone for the fun gifts.  He's loving his giant ball, cars, train, cars pillowcase, and cute clothes.

Dr.

Mr. Ben had his 2 yr check up today and Lucy's had allergy like symptoms, so I made her an appointment at the same time.  Ben is 28 lbs and 3 ft tall.  Miss Lucy is 24.6 lbs and 31 inches tall.  I think Ben needs to eat more before Lucy passes him up in weight!  Ben is in the 50th percentile for weight and 90th for height.  Ben needs an 18 month for his waist and a 24 month for pant length/shirts.  Lucy needs a 24 month for her waist/shirt and an 18 month for pant length.  Too bad they aren't the same gender, then they could just share clothes!  Ben's in a 9 in shoes and Lucy's still in a 3. 

A first...of hopefully not many.

This is for Matt.

You and our gymnastic hopeful get to fix this.

Have you ever wondered...

why your kids are the size they are?

After looking at this picture, I stopped wondering.

She ate the ENTIRE corn dog.

Miss Lucy is only 10 months old.

And she had goldfish graham crackers and a bottle of formula.

Random pictures from the last week

In no order whatsoever...

Monday we went to a bounce house.

Ally loved it, Ben hated it.

Ally is the one in the black/white shirt climbing over Christian.

Lucy has a love for books like the rest of her siblings. And she can't read books without lots of books on the floor. Whenever the kids read books, they pull about 20 books off the shelves and then sit and start reading.
Ben and Matt at the bounce house.

Lucy sleeping while Ally played and I held Ben at the bounce house.

Our semi naked cowboy.

We celebrated B's birthday on Sunday with my side of the family.

He got a red ball, a large sprinkler ball, and a book from Tara.

Tiffney got him a perry the platypus t-shirt, bath paint and a kite.

Trent got him a Toy Story punching bag.

Grandma Julie got him the inflatable trampoline seen in the picture at the top, with Ally.

Fun do

Here's my vent for the day: if you have a girl or girls and you don't do their hair all cute once in a while, what's the point of having a girl?  Don't think I do Ally's hair all the time, well I use to, then we cut it, anyways...I still take the time and opportunity to do cute hair dos.  It makes me crazy when moms say, they don't know how to do their girls hair.  I taught myself how to do Ally's hair.  Ally and Cosette had different hair, you just have to get to know your own girls hair.  When they are watching tv, sit them in front of you and just start playing with it.  There are blogs that give detailed instructions on different hairstyles, so really there are no good excuses for your girl not having a cute hair style once in a while.  Ally really didn't start getting hair until she was close to 16 months old.  I started putting rubberbands in her hair as soon as it was long enough, so she would get use to it.  She has learned that the more she moves, the more her hair gets pulled.  Also if you put your girl in front of the mirror or give her a mirror so she can see what you are doing, that helps.  Put her in charge of holding the spray bottle and handing you rubberbands or bobby pins. 

This is the first time I did her hair.  I didn't get a picture of the second time.  I did Ally's hair at 8am and ended up just redoing it, fixing the spots that were too loose and we finished off with a green bow in the middle.  Super easy to do and she loved it.