Picture Frenzy

I am posting WAY too many pictures for one post, but oh well. I couldn't decide which photos I liked best I just kept adding and adding! These photos are from our last visit to Vancouver, WA. We went down to celebrate my niece, Lydia's birthday. She had a party early this year because the whole family will be moving to North Carolina soon. John (Lydia's dad) is now an official army chaplain and will be reporting for duty at Fort Bragg next month. We are very excited for John & Bree and this new chapter in their lives, but we still can't believe they are taking their three kids so far away! I told Ben that I've always wanted to visit the Carolina's so now I'll have an excuse. (I hear Disney World isn't too far away either!) I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves in this post because there are far too many to comment on. Enjoy those big blue eyes all my sister's kids have!!

There were 5 in the bed and the little one said...

Well, we had yet another sleepover at our house with the kids I nanny for and my niece and nephew. Yes, our house was packed that night with 5 kids! We had a great time having a small birthday celebration for Micah. (Andrew and William helped me make cupcakes earlier that afternoon.) We also had a repeat viewing of Bolt, the kids loved the movie some much last time they wanted to watch it again!

Unfortunately Andrew couldn't stay the entire night. (He had a T-ball game the next morning.) I'm bummed because I didn't end up getting a photo with all five kids. Oh well. Here they are watching Bolt before bed.

Here they are in the morning enjoying some Saturday morning cartoons. (Ben and I got kicked out of our bed!)

Hoppy Birthday!

We're behind on our blogging, I'm just getting around to Easter weekend! Sorry!

We had a fabulous Easter weekend, starting with a sleepover at our house with 5 kids (more about that later), along with birthday celebrations for 2 year old Micah, and a great dinner at my mom and dad's Sunday night.


Ben and Lydia had their usual dance competitions, I think Ben ended the evening serenading Miss Lyd's with "I Could Have Danced All Night."


Micah opened birthday gifts, have you ever seen a kid so excited to get a bike? We might have the next Lance Armstrong on our hands, look how proud!




This is my favorite picture of the night. Micah was literally surrounded by camera's, in addition to my dad, Bree, and me snapping away, Grandma Ruth was also behind Micah capturing the moment. Ben always teases my family because we probably over document every moment in life, in this one evening I took near 100 pictures. Crazy!


Look at the cute "Thomas the Train" cake my sister made for her son. He loved it!




After a rambunctious rendition of "Happy Birthday" ending with three part harmony Micah blew out his candles and we ended the night with a tasty piece (or two) of cake!

Hey Ben, how does it feel to be done with school?

The Red Ranger

You won't find many other kids out there that have as much personality and wit is Andrew. (I know I'm biased... but can you blame me?) Andrew's been on spring break this week, so I have been able to watch him while he's been out of school. I have enjoyed every second with him! Many things have changed about him since he's started kindergarten but a lot has stayed the same. He still makes me laugh with his quirky sense of humor and impeccable timing! Here are a few of the highlights or words of wisdom I've gained from Andrew this week:

• ANDREW: "The Red Power Ranger is the leader. You can only be the Pink or the Yellow Ranger because you're a girl... but you better make a good choice because the yellow ranger has pretty bad powers."
• Things can be "totally wicked!"
• "OMG!" is an expression Andrew uses over and over again to express his shock and/or awe to a situation. A few days ago (after using this expression a lot) he asked me, "What does OMG mean anyway?"
• ANDREW: "Mandy these noodles are great! You better give my mom the recipe!" Shannon here is my recipe:

1. Boil pasta, spaghetti noodles
2. Drain, mix about a tablespoon of butter into the noodles
3. Add parmesan cheese
4. Serve. :)

• ANDREW: "Pokemon is AWESOME!"
• ANDREW: "Transformers are not just called transformers, they have names like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. None of the transformers names are transformer. Just like I'm a human, my name is Andrew, not human."
• ANDREW: "If you come to my T-ball game, just know that we don't keep score. But you can keep score in your head and then tell me later who won!" (wink, wink)