Cousin Fun in the Sun

Andrew always has so much fun with his cousin Ben. This past week Ben came and spent a few days at our home and these two little boys just played and played all day..

One day was so nice they played outside for over 6 hours! I could not get them to come in. I quit fighting it and just threw some food outside for them to eat :) They played at this water table for most of the time...


I did get them to stop playing long enough to eat a little food...


and by 7:30 that night they crashed!! My favorite kind of day!


Sunshine and cousins are two of our favorite things!

Happy Easter

In years past, we have always had Easter Egg hunts at home or at the Buttons house. On Saturday before Easter, I took the kids to 2 Easter Egg hunts in the community. (Same fun for them, less work for me!) We had a great time, depsite the crazy chaos and all of the already over-sugared children. The kids were actually better behaved than many parents who I saw! The first picture is when they started the hunt and asked that ALL adults stay outside the boundaries and let the kids go in alone. See all the adults?? I even heard one parent telling his child to push kids and do whatever it took for him to get the golden egg so he could win a basket. Nice lesson to teach a child! I very loudly said to my children, after I heard him coaching his son, that this was just for fun and to help little kids and make sure that everyone had some eggs. :)


Here is Andrew, proudly holding up his basket of eggs.


Kelsi with her basket.


The kids Easter morning before church...we were rushing so we didn't have time to get Kayli to smile. She really does smile, but so far NEVER when a camera is present.


This is a cute outfit from Kayli's Great-Grandparents, the Tolmans. The onesie is from a friend, who thought it was perfect for Kayli. I agree, isn't she a doll??

Spring Break Fun

Dave had to be on call for work the week of Spring Break, so it was either we stay home (boring!) or we head over to see family with just me and the three kiddos. I was a little nervous for the long drive with Kayli, but she slept the entire way over! We started by going to my brother's new house is Gig Harbor. We hadn't seen it yet, so it was lots of fun. They live right by the beach and the kids had lots of fun with their cousins.


Kelsi and Madi were looking for crabs to catch and torture...


Andrew and Gavin just wanted to throw rocks in the water.


On Monday we headed south to Olympia so that my grandparents could meet Kayli. She loved her Grandpa Tolman so much! (We all do!) We had such a great visit with them. My Aunt Ann from Alaska and her daughter Keren and her 2 kids were there also. It was fun to catch up with everyone. We also got to visit my Grandma Willis and spend some time with my parents.


Tuesday found us at the Pt. Defiance Zoo and before we could even park this Peacock wanted to play with us.


The kids all rode the free carousel until they were dizzy...


This was the highlight of the day if you ask Andrew. See the post below!!


As we were leaving the zoo a rather scary looking clown offered to make free balloon animals for the kids. Siting next to him was a rather large looking bucket for donations :) When he asked Andrew what he wanted, Andrew of course said "A Whale!" Well, Scary Clown said he couldn't make a whale and what was Andrew's second favorie animal? "A whale!" Finally after going back and forth for a few minutes they settled on a tiger. But seriously, how hard can it be to make a whale?? This is all the kids with their balloons.


We hardly have all the grandkids together at the same time so we thought it would be fun to get pictures taken. At the Beach. Ha ha. It was pouring down rain and freezing cold. But we got some cute pictures. This one was almost good, till I realized that I cut my dad's head off. Sorry dad. After the few minutes of freezing the kiddos, we took them all to McDonalds and let them take over the playland for awhile. Good times!


Friday meant it was time to head home. My drive over the pass had been great going over, just a little windy. Then I kept hearing all week how it had been snowing so much. Yuck! This is what we saw as we drove back home. But the sun was shining and no snow was falling...yay!


I was relieved to get over the pass with no weather issues but before I knew it we were sitting still and not moving. Ugh! There was an accident that caused my normally 2 1/2 drive home to take more than 4. Really not nice to do to a mother driving with 3 young children. Despite the craziness of the week we had a splendid time and hope to invade, I mean visit with, our family again soon!!

Baby Beluga, Oh Baby Beluga

Andrew has a new favorite song- Baby Beluga! He sings it ALL the time and loves to listen to it and watch videos that people have made and put on YouTube. We recently went to the zoo and what was the only thing he wanted to see??? Baby Beluga of course! He would have stayed there all day if we would have let him. Here is a video of him singing to the whale. It's the cutest thing ever, if I do say so myself. More to come on our fun Spring Break adventures...stayed tuned!

Going Private!!

I really hate to do this! However, I feel at this time that I need to go private with the blog. (Really it's my paranoid husband...but don't tell him I told you that.)

If you would like to continue reading the chronicles of this crazy family, please leave me your email. Have a fantastic day, my faithful readers!

My Sweet Andrew Bug

Today while we were driving, Andrew and I were talking about the people that we love. I want my children to know, without a doubt, that they are loved. We always say "I love you" to them when they go somewhere, like school, or if we are leaving them for a bit for some other reason. Andrew has caught on and now says it also- to everyone that he meets. If you say good bye to him, more than likely he will say "Good Bye, I love you!" :)

We started talking about extended family members who we love and Andrew told me he loves Grandma Button. "I love her the very most," he says. "Even more than me?" I asked. "Yes," he tells me. Then I asked him why, thinking the answer would surely have something to do with the fact that she always has ice cream cones or lets him watch Diego on her TV. Nope- this was his answer- "She always does her hair pretty every day, and you don't."

Well, there you go. I guess I should spend a little more time on my hair- I never realized it was so important to my 4 year old son!!

St. Patricks Day Fun

We had a very exciting St. Patricks Day in our home. It started out Monday night. During Family Home Evening our doorbell rang. When we went to answer it there was a treat from some Leprechauns!! It was Magic Leprechaun Powder that was white and when you added cold milk it turned GREEN! :)

After that, Kelsi was convinced that this was the year we would catch a Leprechaun. She made this wonderful trap with the help of her father. We put Lucky Charms leading up to it because we heard that they love those!

Inside the trap were some Lucky Charms marshmallows...how could they resist?

When the kids woke up in the morning, these little green stones were all over the house. It seems that wherever a Leprechaun went he would drop a few, as if he was leaving a trail. We didn't catch one in our trap. Somehow he got the marshmallows and ran...very sneaky! We will try again next year. He did however turn our milk and toilet water green! He also left this for us...

Delicious treats! Legend tells us that if you decorate a box and leave it out on the eve of St. Patricks Day, the Leprechauns can't resist leaving you treats. We tried it and sure enough it is true!

Happy St. Patricks Day from our family to yours!!

And a big Happy Birthday to Grandpa Urvina! We love you!