Happy Birthday Luke!

Here's a few pictures from a very grand party for Luke. He's now a big 0-4! Luke loved seeing his friends, racing like the real cars, the water balloons and oh, the cupcakes and Treat Fleet Cars were a hit. Happy Birthday Luke!

We're following the pace car before the big race.

Ellie is racing right along with them.

Grandpa gives her a little help!

Ready, Set, Throw!

The kids loved the swiss cake roll cars!

This was a few days before at our local HD store. They had a real race car in front and the two men found out Luke was having a birthday party with race cars as its theme so they showed him the cars and even started the engine just for him. When we left he said, "Mommy, I want to race one of those cars." Then thinking about it longer he said, "A RED one!" Here's to my little racer, Dream Big!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day! This was actually the day before Mother's Day but I wanted to share one of my best presents ever for Mother's Day. I love getting to sleep in and that would be getting to sleep past 7:30, combined with breakfast, it's the perfect combo. So, on Saturday Eric made breakfast with the kids and brought me breakfast in bed! It was complete with my favorite eggs, hash browns, toast and jam and fresh picked strawberries from our garden.

Everyone helped out with Ellie picking the strawberries and getting bread for toast.

Luke directed Ellie in toasting and also cracked (or I hear poked and smashed my be a better description) the eggs.

Then Daniel helped Daddy cut Mommy some flowers and arrange them into a bouquet! When all was done I was sweetly awaken by three cheery voices and Eric's handsome face!

I loved, loved, loved every bit and Eric even took pictures for me to see the "process." What a gem of a family I have and I feel so blessed! I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Ring Bearer

Daniel was recently in a wedding for one of Eric's cousins. The affair was black tie so even though Eric wasn't in the wedding both of them looked alike. Daniel did a wonderful job and looked as handsome as ever. He took his job very seriously, literally except when Grandma whispered to him as he passed by to "smile." Then he lit up the aisle with a smile.



If you didn't say "smile" or he didn't know you were taking a picture this was how he looked.
Smile! :-)

This is Eric's favorite since we're sitting through the wedding here. :-)

It was great fun to get dressed up and be escorted by this handsome fellow!

Baseball

This was Daniel's first day of practice so I had to dress him in our favorite team! It's exciting to see how much he's improved! At the beginning of the season he had a hard time catching a ball and throwing was very erratic. Now in just a few months he can play catch with you easily and throws a ball that I can catch. Batting before was done by tossing to him and he did pretty well at that, but hitting off the tee took some getting used to. Now he's hitting from one end of the front yard to the other, not just hitting the ball that dribbles off the tee. Wow!

Our first game and Daniel is just waiting to bat.

Coach Eric places the ball to hit. (This was our most recent game.) What a joy that Daddy is able to coach his team. We have a wonderful head coach and he and Eric make a great coaching team.

Coach Eric is usually at first base instructing the boys on base-running.

Daniel awaits his turn in the field.

Good job boys!

High five couz!

From the first practice to his most recent game Daniel has loved, and I mean LOVED baseball! Almost everyday Eric will bat or throw with him and I sometimes get a chance to chime in a few pointers and throws. I love it and so does Daniel. I'm so proud of him because he really initiates practice and loves it! He's determined and works hard to do his best. I love to see these qualities in him and it's great to share a love of the game. Take me out to the ball-game!

Memorial Weekend

Can you guess what we did for Memorial Weekend???? We played in the snow!!!!

We couldn't believe it was snowing in the mountains and since the kids haven't seen it snow before we thought, why not?! They've played in the snow, but to see snowflakes was something completely different! I can't say I showed the kids how to catch snowflakes on their tongue because as soon as we got out of car their mouths were open with faces to the sky. It must be something God has pre-programed into all of us.

It was pretty wet snow and coming down fast.

This little blanket of snow was happening before our eyes!

Here's my big-hearted snowflake girl!

We had a snowball fight and with Daniel in baseball now his arm and aim is getting good!

We even had our resident photographer with us to take our picture. (After the third picture he said, "This will be the last one." He really wanted to play!)

After our snow adventure we decided to stop for the most expensive hot chocolate I've ever had and as you can see it was worth every penny for the smiles that it brought. We didn't want to end our fairytale day and so added a picnic pizza lunch on a log in the "forest" as Daniel called it. Eric was even able to fish close by and although he didn't catch anything, it was a perfect ending to a Winter Wonderland Journey.

Ellie Girl

Most of you have probably been wondering where I have been. No place but here! :-) The kids are growing so fast. I wanted to post some pictures from around the house of Ellie. She's getting so big!