Our Week

Dad and Pete staining the gate."Hello?"

My sweet little girly-girl with her play earrings on.
Pete with his play earrings on too. ;)
My MOPS meeting this week. MOPS is a group where moms go to spend time together chatting, crafting, listening to speakers, eating, etc. It's supposed to be without your kids. They have childcare classrooms where the kids play, do artsy stuff, have snacks, watch cartoons. But Pete has for some reason decided he WILL NOT go into the childcare there. So, this is me and my boy at my MOPS meeting. How can you get mad at him right?
My nephew sent us his Flat Stanley to photograph somewhere in AZ and send back to his classroom. With the busyness of guests and then a lovely stomach bug that just about killed me this week I was only able to photograph Stanley in our "world" of AZ. So, here is Stanley by our blow up pool. I added sunglasses to Stanley because the AZ sun is soooo bright! :)
By our big pool.
And a hat to Stanley because we never go out without hats on. Stanley is stuck, literally, to a cactus. We printed these pics out and sent them back to Cory.
Katie coming on Monday and Erin and Jeremy on Thursday! Can't wait to see all of them!

Visit from Steve and Julie

Right after Tina and Lauren left Steve, Julie, Holly and Cory came. In the same day. Almost in the same hour. Or maybe it was in the same hour. Anyway, it was a busy, but wonderful day.

We had a great visit with my bro and family. The kids had built in best friends and it was fun sharing our lives, city and new home with our family. The kids literally played all day every day. It was so fun to watch. Here are some pictures of our time together.

Thought this was so cute, Jamie laying out with Holly.The boys sidewalk chalking together.
Birthday party.
Me and my big brother.
Cousins.
Pete's first Build-A-Bear. A gift from his Aunt and Uncle.
In the hot tub.
Wildlife Zoo.
Zoo Train.
The whole gang at the zoo.
Girls shopping.
Hiking in the preserve near our house.

Time with Friends

We had some friends visit from MI. They were on spring break and stayed with us for a couple of days. We all enjoyed their visit and their company and were so sad to see them go. I love that we live in a place where people want to come visit and that we finally have a house that can accommodate guests.

The kids playing with Miss Tina and Lauren.Pete mixing up his birthday cake.Hanging by the pool with Miss Tina.When Tina and Lauren were packing their car to leave Abby jumped in the trunk. It was so funny. I don't blame her. Peace and quiet around here is hard to find.

Our Pool

We ventured into our big pool on April 1st. The first time the kids used it with dad I wasn't around to take pics so we don't have that event documented. It still pains me that I don't have pictures of the first time but I will get over it. I hope. Anyway, on April 2nd I got a few pics of Jamie in the pool with dad after her nap. That is why she is in her sleeping shirt instead of a bathing suit.
The pool is cold. The pool guy said by the end of April it should be perfect. Someday we hope to get some solar heating which would heat our pool all year around.

Abby likes the fountain but won't go into the pool itself.