April 30, 2014

When Tracie comes to Play

This past week my amazing sister Tracie and her little girl Paige came to stay with us and to say hello to Nora. We had so much fun with them!
We took the kids to Apollo Park one day and had a wonderful time -- until Peter fell off one of the playground toys and got a huge wood chip stuck in his leg about an inch deep. Poor kid. He really was convinced he was going to need a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
This time of year is also when the California poppies are in bloom and Travis decided we needed to do a little off-roading to go see them.
Mainly we went on a long drive so the kids would take a nap. It worked.
Then Tracie and I took the big kids to the Poppy Festival - and despite the 30-40 mph winds, we had a great time.
They especially loved the petting zoo.

 And then Peter and Paige both got to ride a camel which they thought was the best ever. Benji was very much against the idea however and stayed safely on the ground by mommy.
Of course we had to stop at the Boeing tent for the boys to try on these fighter pilot helmets (For your own enjoyment, you should really click on this picture and zoom in to see Benji's face under the visor... we may be raising a crazy person!)
Then, as we were leaving, we caught Paige and Peter walking together like this. For some reason, this picture looks to me like they are a cute little celebrity couple. Ridiculously adorable.

Peter and Paige played so well together while they were here; the morning they had to leave he actually broke down crying saying "I wish this day had never come!"
It was so much fun to have my sister visit - it was hard for me to say goodbye too!
 This little lady was so happy to have her here, she even started smiling. 
I sure wish my family didn't live quite so far away.

And because no post is complete without gratuitous pictures of Nora, here's one of the sleeping beauty. I laid her down for some tummy time and she sacked right out - despite her two crazy brothers running all around her.

April 25, 2014

Easter

We celebrated a lovely Easter last weekend. 
Some friends invited us over for an egg hunt on Saturday and the boys had a great time finding candy.
 Then we had a few friends over for lunch and another egg hunt. I think Travis hid over 100 eggs.
 Can you spot the hidden egg?
 The kids after the hunt.

 On Easter morning, we got the kids all dressed up for church and took some pictures by the rose bushes -- which are currently gorgeous.
Look at my grown-up guy.


Happy Easter!!

April 4, 2014

Table for 5

Hard to believe that we are now a family of FIVE. 
Our sweet lady already has all the boys wrapped around her little finger -- this is now a fairly common scene at our house. All my boys wanting to entertain Nora. Peter even has this little song he sings to Nora "hello little baby, you're so cute!" It's adorable.
At her two week appointment, Nora was already 6lbs 15oz and 19.5" long. By far our fastest growing baby yet! I mean, look at those cheeks. Don't you just want to eat them up?

We've had lots of visitors since Nora's arrival. While Grandma Deb was here the boys enjoyed roasting marshmallows one windy night.

Travis' brother Jon was even able to come down for a quick visit while Deb was still in town.  

After that, my dad came out for a visit -- who saved us during Peter's spring break by taking the boys camping.

And then from my mom -- who took the boys on all sorts of adventures and enjoyed lots of baby snuggles.

After taking almost 3 weeks off to be home with us, Travis is now back at work and the real fun begins. The boys really want to help so I'm trying to get them more involved -- we even had a talk about how baby Nora belongs to all of us and that we all need to help Mommy take care of her. Apparently that translated into Peter telling his teacher today: "It might be a bit crazy at our house now because my daddy went back to work." True enough, kid. Then again, when is it not crazy at our house?