Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Crimson & Gray

The Cougs have a spring scrimmage every year... and we love it especially because we usually get a visit from my brother and his family. This year, this scrimmage weekend landed on Gabe's birthday (4/21) too, so we had a fun-packed weekend. Gabe & Seth went golfing, Nancy made cake, kids played, we watched some Cougar football (including getting our first look at Mike Leach), and had a seafood boil in the backyard. Whew! Such a fun, and exhausting, weekend! For all the time together and fun being had, I did a bad job at taking pictures....but did manage to get some of the kids at least.

Jameson will be a big brother in just a few months! Nancy's due at the beginning of August -with a baby girl this time! We are so excited for them!

Jameson Lee

cousins - and not babies anymore!

playtime outside

the boys

the Cougs looking good

yes, that would be Ella behind those shades.....

Gabe trying to keep the troops entertained

TONS of people at this scrimmage. What a difference a coach (and some good weather)
will make

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Easter Weekend

We had an action packed Easter Weekend.... kicked off on Friday with coloring eggs. It was really fun this year because Ella was able to really help and enjoy the process. Luke thought it was cool that there so many colorful eggs I think, but beyond that thought we were a little nuts I think.
nothing makes ella happier than coloring things every color of the rainbow

this is about as excited as I get over an egg

show me those eggs!

Our local Alberstons put on an Easter Egg Hunt at the school field across from the store. I knew about the hunt and Seth and I knew we wanted to take the kids to a hunt somewhere Saturday morning..... what we didn't know for sure was what time the hunt started. We slept in a little bit and it was 8:30 when we called Albertsons to check on the start time. 9:00 was the answer. So we had VERY little time to get out of our pj's, grab the easter baskets and go. It was a scene in our house (think Home Alone), but we made it to the field by 8:57 - which we thought would leave us in pretty good shape. Unfortunately, as we opened the car door, we heard: "are you kids all ready!?" Well we weren't and had a little ways to walk (or in our case, run) to get to the field. I grabbed Ella's hand and ran as quick as we could. Poor little  E though, she did not have this scene painted in her mind of what the Easter Egg Hunt would be like. Nothing like creating those wonderful childhood memories. :) She got upset and was even a little hesitant about grabbing up the eggs - there were some left. You'll see in the pics below she's wearing more of a sad face than a happy one. She perservered though and managed to find about 7 eggs, which I thought was pretty good with the head start the other kids had. That 3-6 year old age group can really grab up some eggs in a hurry! We then headed over to where Luke and Seth were...in the 0-2 year old area. Luke had picked up what he needed to do pretty quickly and Ella was happy to help of course. The day turned out to be pretty nice as far as the weather was concerned, but at 9 am it was a little chilly and the grass a little frosty. Luke's little fingers were cold! After the shaky start we had, it turned out to be a fun expedition.

at least there were a few eggs left!

Ella's sad face.... after her traumatic sprint through the parking lot

I know it looks like there's no eggs left, but really there were a ton! :)

Luke gathering as many eggs as he can

gotta love outdoor Easter hunts in E. Washington....crunchy frosty grass

my loves..... Seth, Ella and Luke

seeing what's inside all those eggs

It's hard not to get sentimental about your "babies" as you see them growing up little by little, but it helps that it's so much fun to share more and more with them as they do get older. Ella was SO excited about Easter this year....she was actually in a hurry to get to bed on Saturday night because she knew the Easter Bunny was coming. She actually was up early on Sunday morning and came into our bedroom...Seth and I were sure she was going to drag us out to the living room to check things out, but she snuggled in with us and we slept another hour or so. How do you make a heart symbol.... ? It was really nice. The kids enjoyed checking out their Easter baskets and really had fun hunting down the hidden Easter eggs.

Then we were off to church....after much work getting everyone cleaned up, dressed and ready. No struggle with Ella on this because she loves to dress up. She'd been excited about wearing her Easter dress and hat for days. We had a hat for Luke too - a black one. I had to hunt for a shirt that would match. It's tough finding black clothes for kids, so I wasn't in love with the shirt but the outfit was more about the hat anyway, really, so oh well.

E showing her brother a chirping chick from her baske

game face. it's on!

where are those eggs? Let me at 'em!

what Ella hunted down

taking it all in, bedhead and all.....

heading off to church

oh so thrilled

Ella in her Easter best
After church - and a short nap for Luke - we headed to Tom & Ruth's (Kristen's folks). They are so sweet to always include us in their get-togethers. Great food and a lot of fun to hang out with Tom, Ruth, Kellie, Abby, Brett, Kristen and others that are close to the Conklins. Grammy & Papa Storment were there too which is a huge plus, and we even saw Zac for about 2 minutes before he headed to work. There was even an Easter Egg hunt (#3!) for the kids in the backyard.

A Visit from the Jensens


Don, Jenn and Aayla came for a quick visit last week! Can't explain how much I love this family....and how much I wish we lived closer. But it's always so great when we do get together. With good friends it doesn't seem to matter how much time goes by between visits, you just kind of pick up where you left off. Love you Jensens! Thanks for taking the time on your trip to stop in and see us.

Aayla is 5 and Ella is 4 and they really got along great! Ella talks about her friend Aayla all the time and couldn't wait until she got to our house. They played together a majority of the time, but truly I think they really liked playing with each other's toys best. ;) 

dressing up

dressing up with silly faces

sharing some peanut butter toast

Monday, March 19, 2012

Ballerina Girl

Ella is taking ballet class on Saturdays.... and it's so much fun for all of us. For the past year or so, whenever there was mention of ballet or ballerinas she'd look at us and say that she'd be taking a ballet class soon. She was so trusting, knowing that eventually we'd get her signed up. I just wanted to wait to be sure she was going to be old enough to get something out of the class. It's a blast to watch her and she takes it on just like everything else. No fear.







Friday, March 16, 2012

A glimpse

Just a look at some of the stuff that goes on around here.......
PUZZLES!

E & L both LOVE this pop up tent - thanks Maia, Steve & Silas!

and most of the time they play in it together.... pretty nicely



color time - Luke loves to scribble something and show it to
whoever will look and give him some compliments

I think Luke may have picked up the above mentioned behavior
from this one.....:) Just one of many things.

princesses roughing it for a day on the farm

Luke looks so happy as he's being strangled

love this pic

Nothing like navigating the rough waters
of the living room in a laundry baket
with your brother

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Snow Fun

We haven't seen nearly as much snow this winter as we have in the past, making it tough to have many opportunities to get out and play. The first time we were able to get both kids out, the snow was really powdery and not good for snowballs or snowmen....much to Ella's dismay. You could say that Luke wasn't a huge fan of the snow. First thing he did was try a little taste, which brought a sour look to his face. Once he realized that he wasn't going to have any success moving around in the stuff, he was done! At least we were able to get out for a couple pictures. Then in February, we got hit with a good wet snowstorm and Ella and I put together a petite snow princess, so we could check that off our to-do list for the winter too!

you know she'd do it!

prepping
I can't believe you guys think this is fun!

snowflake snack

snowman royalty (you've gotta use your imagination a little)