Far Away Friends Were Near...

So we had to go see them!! 

While Amy and her boys were in town, her parents were kind enough to share them and their home with us so we could catch up and the kids could play!! The weather had finally warmed up so the kids were brave enough to go in the pool!

Funny boy in the sun!

Amy holding Sammy

Chloe loved the slide!! This was one of the first few swims of the season so I wasn't sure if she could do it without wings, so I made her wear them for the slide and the diving board!

Weeeeee!

Swimming, swimming, swimming!

This picture of Jace cracks me up!

And here she goes off the diving board!! This took a little more contemplation... She would go to the end, look down, and then decide to go down the slide instead, until she finally worked up the nerve to jump!!

I love this picture!!!

Amy's parents had a raft which the kids loved playing in too and is such a great idea!!

Playing on the floatys!!

Jace coaching them to the wall!

What a fun guy!

Lunch by the pool is the best!

Trying to figure out how to row the boat!

This picture is so funny!! Looks like they are on a date!

All of the pictures are courtesy of Amy's Dad!! I stupidly forgot my camera at home, but as you can see there was a great photographer around, so I didn't really miss mine!  We had so much fun and sure wish they lived closer so we could see them more than once a year!! Until then we look forward to their annual visit to this side of the country!

Elijah Turns Three!!

I'm only a week late posting this one, so for me that's not too bad!! My sweet "Lijah" boy went from the wonderful two's to the terrible threes!! He was such a sweet little 2 year old, but man is he testing me now!! I think he must need to know that I mean what I say, because he is sure making sure I follow through these days!! And the other thing is that while he and Chloe still love to play together all the time, he has started liking the reaction he gets from his big sister when he hits, kicks, takes her toy, or any other number of things he can think of that he knows will annoy/cause distress... And the louder the scream-the better!

 The good side of three is that we have been potty trained for about a month or so now, and he was way easier than Chloe to train! His only problem is thinking that anyplace outside is his personal restroom, as noted earlier here!

When he's not being a terror, he really is still the sweet little "Lijah" we know and love!! He is very quick to say, "sorry, Mama" and he says the funniest stuff-none of which I can remember right now!! I thought he was going to be a little quieter than Chloe, but so far it doesn't look that way!  When he and Chloe are playing well together, it is so fun to hear him chime in with his own ideas now, since for so long he just went along with what she said! He loves to play outside and ride his bike and his tricycle.  He could play in the hose and dirt all day if I let him, and he loves his cars and trucks and recently has really liked playing with his little bulldozer, backhoe, and dump truck in that mud I was mentioning! He's so fun right now, (when I'm not pulling my hair out!) and I can hardly believe that he's three years old!! It seems like just yesterday he was Sammy's age! We love you little "Lijah" boy!!

Making faces!

Big Three Year Old!

I can't believe he's three!

What a big boy!!

We are combining His and Chloe's birthdays again this year... So the party will be later this month! 

Convention!

We had another wonderful convention and heard so many good things! I thought having three little ones at convention was going to make it nearly impossible to hear much, but Joe and I had a pretty good system worked out!  When Sammy wasn't content to sit in my lap (which is less and less!) Joe would usually take him and walk with him or give him a ride in the stroller close enough that he could hear. Joe is so good at bouncing Sammy and would get him to sleep quite often!! We had one problem when I took Sammy into the nursery to nurse... Joe had Chloe and Elijah and Eli had to go to the bathroom, of course!  Joe didn't want to leave Chloe, but he didn't want to bring her into the men's bathroom either, so he asked Chloe if she knew where the nursery was and she said yes, (she had never been in there!) so he sent her in while he took Eli to the bathroom.  I was sitting quite peacefully listening to the speaker in the nursery since Sammy had fallen asleep when another mother came in wondering if I was Chloe's Mom because there was a little girl named Chloe that was crying and lost.  Apparently what happened is that Chloe went into the dorms but couldn't find the nursery and then was wandering around outside (in the rain!) when someone found her, but didn't know who she belonged to and she was so distraught that he couldn't understand who she said her Mom was... It was just lucky that he went up to Joe and asked whose daughter she was!!  

The other "exciting" event was when Eli decided he had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the lawn in the middle of the afternoon while everyone looked on laughing!! Soooo embarrassing!! There was nothing I could do except go help him pull up his pants and smile at all the other parents with my cheeks flaming red!  I'm sure he's not the first, and won't be the last little boy to pee on the center lawn at convention... I'm just hoping it's not Sam in a few years!

Sweet Sammy

Chloe's almost ready...

What a handsome little boy!

She's going to hate this picture in a few years, but right now she thinks it's incredibly funny to do things like this when I'm trying to take her picture!

An unwanted hug from big sister!

So cute in their Sunday best!

Brothers!

Our personable little girl!

Too Many Photos!

Well, apparently I have too many pictures in Picasa and Blogger so I have to purchase storage... Not that it's much-$5.00 for 20MB or something like that! Looks like I need to do some deleting! :)

Messy Boy!

Sammy likes to smear his food a bit during dinner!

Sammy is not a fan of baby food (not that I blame him) and likes food he can pick up best!

Got it!

Yum! And that's how it's done!

Putting the Garden in...

...Always signals the start of summer for me!  If only I had known then that we would be in for a few more weeks of cold and rain!! Yuck! I'm so ready for summer!! I hope it's on its way!

We pulled the exersaucer outside so Sammy could enjoy the nice weather too!

If Eli could make mud and play in the water all day I don't think I'd ever see him!

Getting a drink

More drinks!

Sweet boy!

Joe getting things ready in the garden boxes for the plants!

Chloe picked some Jasmine and was smelling it!

Having fun!

Sammy loves watching the kids ride their bikes around him!

Here comes Chloe!

This little part of the yard makes me so happy!

Getting ready to water the plants!  Eli doesn't keep his clothes on much these days, so underwear is a step in the right direction!!

Their favorite part of planting a garden is when they get to water everything!

He looks so sweet!

This is where we planted the sunflowers and is their favorite place to water!! We planted a few different varieties this year and I'm excited to see what we get!

More watering!

Right as I snapped this picture he had smelled the flowers and said "They smell delicious, Mommy!"

This little guy was all tuckered out after a long day!

Can't wait for some warm weather, so our garden grows! I'm sure I'll be showing you more pictures as the summer progresses!