School Concerts

The night of school concerts is kind of the worst thing ever, in my opinion. They shove a billion people in a hot gym that has no air conditioning to watch a *cough* first rate performance of everyone's child. We all survived, though. And both kids did great. We even got some decent pictures of them. Andres was in a goofy mood and Addie was just having a great time because she loves to sing and perform.

Recent Shenanigans

Just a little peek into our world for the last little while.

 We went to visit Dad at work and the kids wanted to be wrapped in the papooses. I don't think you're supposed to be so happy when you're in those things.

Jason has been studying a lot lately, which is not the funnest for anybody. But the great part is that this will be the last time he will be studying for a big test like this! Ever! Woohoo! The end is in sight.

18 months!

Eliana turned 18 months old on Easter Sunday and I've been feeling a little neglectful on writing down her milestones. With the other kids, I was in the habit of posting on here frequently and there was a lot more of the day-to-day details of them as little kids. I am sorry Eliana, but that did not happen for you. I did post things on Facebook and Instagram, but there is nothing here. So, I thought I'd post about all the fabulousness that you are right now. Because right now, you are pretty darn adorable.

You love to climb and actually get yourself in a lot of trouble doing so. I have to make sure there no stools or chairs in the kitchen or you will find a drawer that contains dangerous things and try to throw them on the floor. You also love hanging out at the Lego table with your brothers. You like to stand there and even though you can't put them together, you will take them all apart and act as if you know what you are doing as you move the Legos around like your brothers do.

Oddly enough you really like to clean out your toes. When we take your socks off, you very meticulously pick in between each of your toes to get all the fluff out. It's adorable but also kinda weird.

You are starting to be very expressive. Your vocabulary seems to increase daily. You are also very vocal in letting us know when you are happy and when you are not.

You are getting pretty good at being grumpy. One of the words you say the most right now is "Stop!" and it is usually to one of your siblings when they are smothering you because you're just so cute.

You really love your dad a lot. You get excited when he comes home, and sometimes when he's really busy you get excited if you get to see him in the morning.

You also really love slides...

...and hugs (you give really good ones)...

...and snuggles (which I hope you don't outgrow anytime soon).

Easter 2017

Our Annual Easter pictures. Much to Jason's chagrin, I decided to do all florals. The tie he is wearing is the most floral I could get (insert eyeroll). I personally think the boys ties are awesome and thought it was fun to have to the whole family in something similar. Oh well.

Easter Egg Hunt

This year, I got to go to the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. Addie was sick and was quite upset that she didn't get to go. They had different age groups, so I was trying to run around to each one to get pictures of everyone. The 0-2 age group had about 10 kids Eliana's age and then 1 giant 2 year old, who picked up all the eggs before the parents could help the little ones figure out what they were doing. Luckily, her brothers got A LOT of eggs and put some out just so she could pick some up.

There were prizes and lunch for everybody. It was a lot of fun, and we're definitely going to miss this next year.

Park Day with Aunt Kim

Aunt Kim flew into Detroit to do some business nearby and we were lucky enough to get to spend a bit of time with her! It was unusually warm so we went to the park where we played in the sand, Andres got to play some soccer and we learned that Eliana loves the slide.

Wax Museum at School

Addie has been excited about this Wax Museum project since the 3rd graders did it last year. She decided to study and portray Jane Goodall. It's been fun for all of us, and surprisingly hard to find interesting women from history. She did a great job and had a lot of fun.

Dex goes under

Dexter has been having some difficulty breathing and we discovered that he has really, really huge adenoids. So, we had them removed. It really is nice to have a good children's hospital so close - they did a great job with everything and Dex did really well. He of course, did not like the waking up part. But, by the afternoon I had to remind him that he needed to rest and not run around like he was trying to do. And he sure did like the popsicles.

Tree Day

This day, March 8th, will forever be know as Tree Day, or the day the tree fell on our house. This rather large pine tree that stood right next to our house made our day pretty exciting. There were massive winds that whole day, upwards of 80mph. I remembered driving around that afternoon seeing trees and wondering how they didn't just blow away. Later that afternoon, Dexter Eliana and I were all in the front room. About 3:45, I got a text from Jason saying that he was headed home. I was standing right between the front door and the front window when I heard a huge whoosh from outside. I looked out the window and all I could see was tree. I went outside and this is what I found:

We were actually very lucky that there wasn't more damage. None of the windows were broken, and there was only minimal damage to the roof. Because of the winds, all of the tree removal companies were booked solid so we had to wait several days and eventually our landlord did it all himself.

Then we had to wait even more days till they came to get the huge pile of chopped up tree. The kids did find a fun way to use that, though.

Random Regularness

Here's just a few pictures of everyday occurrences around this bunch.

That one time that Andres had an eye appointment (the kind where they dilate the eyes and warn it may take 3 hours), but everyone else was sick, so we all had to go. They actually did really well. Can you tell where the TV was in the waiting room?

I'm not really sure why, but one evening Eliana really wanted to shove all our Tupperware lids down her onesie. So, Jason kept bringing her more until she started bursting at the seams.

Grandma came to visit and was lucky enough to get to go help out with Andres' class at school for a day. She had fun, he had fun. It was a great time for all.

Dexter turns 5!

I'm still a little bit shocked by this post - for some reason, when my kids turn 5 it is really hard for me to accept that they really are that old. Until then, they're still just little kids. But, look at this guy! He's so old. Like this first picture, with his little crossed legs. This boy has been my helper and my friend this year with just him and Eliana at home. He still has no real desire to learn anything that I have to teach him and is just barely learning his colors because he hasn't cared until we got a Star Wars Colors book. Hopefully, he'll have a desire to learn a bit more before he starts kindergarten in the fall.

Dexter loves Star Wars and all things Rescue Bots.

He was pretty excited about this cake that I made for him with all the Rescue Bots on it. Pretty colorful too.

We sure like this kid and can't wait to see all that he does this year. It's going to be a good one, just like this birthday!

New York!!

Jason and I decided that we needed a little break, so we went to New York and visited Jeff for a few days. It was wonderful and just what we both needed. It was so much fun to enjoy New York with a local to take us around and to have to walk up 3 flights every day when we came home. It made it such a fun experience!

From the airport, we rode the bus and then walked through Harlem to Jeff's apartment.

The day we arrived was actually a rather lovely day; quite warm for February. We went to China Town and had the best dumplings and noodles ever! Then we walked around a bit since it was pretty nice. Jeff took us to the Ghostbuster's building and the church that gets stomped on in the same movie.

That night New York had a blizzard and they got quite a bit of snow. I personally love snow in the city, but I also didn't have to be anywhere at a certain time. Jeff had some business to take care of, so we had planned to go to the temple in the morning. The trains were all running behind because of the storm and I was worried we would miss the session, but when we got there they were very excited to see us. There was only one other person to show up, so it was a very special and personal experience. The temple is beautiful. It's amazing how the church was able to get and hold on to that property for so long and turn it to such a beautiful building.

After the temple, we did a little more movie/tv kind of touristing and found the Seinfeld restaurant.

That night we also went to go see Jerry Seinfeld. It was very fun. We laughed until our cheeks hurt and definitely didn't let the weather get in our way at all.

Day 3 we wandered all over. We spent quite a bit of time at Rockefeller Plaza. We tried to get into see Jimmy Fallon, but the odds were not in our favor. Once again, Jeff pulled through. He happens to have a friend that works there and was able to get us in to see some of the sights anyway. We saw the set of SNL and accidentally walked onto the floor where they were taping Jimmy Fallon and might have seen some cool people walking in the halls.

We then went to Brooklyn to have some seriously delicious New York Pizza. Traveling on the subway was one of the most fun parts of our trip. It was it's own kind of entertainment.

Day 4 we went over to Central Park and wandered around a bit. There was an ice sculpture contest going on and it was basically fun to just people watch. Later that afternoon, we met some of our awesome friends from Iowa at the Met. It was super fun to see our good friends and the Gonzalez boys did pretty well having to be in a museum.

After the museum, we tried to squeeze everything else on our list in: we found black and white cookies, and we met cousin Jason for some amazing Indian food, and then we went to the Empire State Building. Our timing at that tourist trap could not have been any better; we basically just walked through the huge lines in which people are usually standing for hours.

By the end of the night, we were absolutely exhausted. It was one of the best trips we've ever had. And we will definitely be doing this again.