Happy Easter!

Saturday Chris and I took the kids to get their Easter Pictures done. They were really quite good and fairly cooperative. Raleigh is getting so much better at posing and not running all over the place. I'm not sad to see that phase end - it was a real battle to get good pictures! Here are the ones we chose:

Easter was a big hit this year! Last year Raleigh didn't really "get it"...I mean, getting stuff is always fun, but she didn't understand the whole Easter Bunny thing. This year, she gets it!

The Easter Bunny was quite generous to Raleigh - he brought her a new talking Rocket with all the Little Einsteins in it, two new princesses (Snow White and Belle), plus a lot of candy , and some stickers! He left a trail of eggs for Raleigh to follow to find her basket.

The Easter Bunny also left little man a basket, mostly just so Raleigh didn't think baby brother got left out!

Raleigh got super excited and very sidetracked, and had an accident in her big girl panties. So we put on some play clothes and headed outside even though it was kind of overcast! Raleigh ran around (lots of energy from all the candy!) and around, and around...and did bubbles and sidewalk chalk.
We wrapped up the evening with dinner at grammy's house. Grammy and Grandpa hid eggs for Raleigh to find, which was FUN!! And she got a big easter basket from them and one from Great Mimi and Great Papa. It was like Christmas all over, lots of toys! Aiden also got goodies...but he was far less enthusiastic about the whole thing!

Raleigh first off refused to eat anything but applesauce. We are having a REALLY hard time getting her to try things! She basically hates meat for some reason, and refuses to try anything new. Well, eventually she wanted the candy in her easter eggs SO bad she said " Fine, I'll eat some ham" HA! And, she LOVED IT! Today she even tried a little bit of Roast Beef! Anyhow, it was a nice way to end our Easter!

Halloween Party "Slaughter's Circus"

This is our third (or fourth, I can't even remember) annual Halloween Party. This year's theme was "Slaughter's Circus" and it was a haunted carnival type theme. We make all the decorations and props ourselves starting at the end of August and working right up until the party. Darrell and Sandy usually come down and help us out, which is SO nice!

This year Chris and I were "McSame and Failin" - (no offense to any one who loved the real dynamic duo). I won an award for my excellent impersonation "Dontcha Know!" amd I am pretty sure I still have a lot of people I was supposed to "get back to" with answers on political questions. I wouldn't count on a response at this point.

4 Random Facts about my kids

1. Raleigh loves to sing, and she has her own version of every little kid worthy tune. Old McDonald was for quite some time a bit of a rap....complete with the "ya ya ya OH!" portion replacing the previous "E I E I O" refrain. Here she is singing Twinkle Twinkle....please note she is indeed saying "UP UP UP the world so high." Apparently, that is what we all sound like when we sing it.

2. Raleigh JUST started wearing big girl panties yesterday! Hooray! So far, no accidents. She even woke up from her nap with dry pull ups. Back into the regular panties after nap! I am desperately knocking on wood! As you can see by the over abundance of big girl panties in her dresser, I'm a little desperate for her to stop with the diapers and pull ups already!

3. Aiden's second toe sticks up above the rest of his toes a bit. At first I thought I broke it trying to cram his feet into a sleeper. Turns out they are like that on both feet, and have been since he was born! Phew! This picture dosen't show it that well, but as you can see by the pictures that follow -he was asleep and I had to disturb him to get his foot out of the sleeper - so I did the best I could!

4. Raleigh sleeps with no less than 5 of her closest "friends" at all times. I have actually been sneaky and taken some of the stuffed animals out of the bed and put them back in the toy bin - otherwise there probably wouldn't be room for her in the bed by now... Here is her current assortment: Juney June June, Rocket, Daddy Nemo, Baby Nemo, Shamu, and Mini DOra.

And incase anyone was curious, here is her "princess bed" that grandpa made for her...she LOVES it!

And in other news...Aiden is "using" the exersaucer. By "using" I do mean headbutting everything, although he is surprising well controlled in this particular picture. Raleigh has endearingly labeled the exersaucer "the machine" and frequently tells me to "put little man in the machine!" Kids are just hilarious!

now to tag 4 other people...

Humm....

Lindsay, Michelle, Rachel, and Jess - tag, you're it!

Nothing but Net...

In an ongoing effort to do more with Raleigh during the days we took her to a little park nearby our house today. Chris insisted on bringing our basketball (since we don't play, I am still wondering why we have this basketball?!). We packed up Aiden and all the baby stuff, then got Raleigh in the car and headed out.

Unfortunately, when we arrived we soon discovered that the overnight showers had gotten the park a little wet. The basketball courts were OK though, so we headed there first! Chris showed Raleigh how to dribble the ball and how to shoot some hoops. Daddy bounced her the ball and she tried to catch it.

If she winds up playing basketball, it won't be because Chris and I taught her so well. She definately would be taking after her Poppy! He was a pretty amazing basketball player in his day.... I guess he'll have to come be her personal coach!


Infact the playground was pretty much unusable. We had one small towel in the van which we used to dry off the swing and one of the slides. I must say, Raleigh is pretty funny. She was very irritated that her crocs got wet and the grass and sand were sticking to them. She kept saying "Oh no daddy, there's grass on my crockies. Take them off!" So cute!




While we were there the sky got very cloudy and kind of looked like it was going to rain again, so we promised Raleigh we'd come back another day when it was dry. She still was a little sad all the way to the car. She's been saying "IS the playground fun Mommy? Yes it is fun!"

Yesterday Raleigh and I 'baked cookies' - they were just the ones from the supermarket that come in a package. She punched out all the heart shapes and put them on the baking sheet. Then I baked them while she was eating lunch. Aiden watched from his bumbo seat!

Punching out the cookies:

Trying to sneak come cookie dough!

So yummy!

It's a beautiful morning....

It is a truly beautiful day here in FL. Our weather this time of year is perfect. Upper to mid 70's with virtually no humidity. Yesterday it was a little chilly for us - but tday is just georgeous! We had to take advantage.


Yesterday I went to Target and bought some new activity based things to do with Raleigh during the day. She isn't a great "self entertainer" and I don't like to have her watching too much TV during the day. She is apparently more like Chris - needs entertainment constantly. So I bought a new playdoh activity set (she now LOVES playdoh - more on this later) and some paints and colored pencils. I also got a bucket of sidewalk chalk.

This is a new adventure for me. I am NOT big on "messy messes" especially when it involves the mess getting on or near the clothing. Infact, I didn't even see any clothes of Raleigh's that I wouldn't be totally upset if something (i.e. chalk) got on them and stained them permanently. SO, I had to buy some cheepies from Target while I was there. Amazingly enough, the chalk washed out...but these will be her play clothes for now.

Raleigh had a GREAT time doing bubbles and drawing with the sidewalk chalk outside today! We drew her all kinds of sea creatures, some of her favorite cartoon characters, and a pretty garden with butterflies and dragonflies. She helped color some things in and loved scribbling with all the pretty colors! She also managed to decorate her bum!

Meanwhile just inside the office (we had the door open) aiden was sleeping and looking around at the new suroundings in his bouncy seat. When I came in to make lunch Aiden went into his new (well, new to us!) swing. He just LOVES this thing!

And some pictures from the weekend....

Awwwh!

My new favorite picture of Aiden...

Gold Medal Swimmer

Raleigh with Miss Krystal...


Raleigh finished up her first round of private swimming lessons last Monday! She received a GOLD MEDAL which she is ever so proud of! Not too long ago she would scream if you even poured water over her head in the bath tub. Now, she can swim 5 feet unassisted - find the wall - and climb out of the pool.

She has gone from screaming and crying before each lesson to being excited! We are thrilled.

Raleigh doing her "unassisted" swim for the wall!

Practicing kicks...

Smiley Guy...

Chris was wondering why there are no pictures of Aiden smiling....so here is proof:
He has become quite the smiley little guy! Raleigh often says "pick me up! I want to see the smiley guy!!" It's cute!