Its Great to be 8......

Yesterday was Evan's birthday. Yes, April is a busy month for us. Evan turned the ripe old age of 8. It is hard to believe that I now have 2 children that are 8 or older. Time really does fly by. Evan is our middle child and in the past was extremely sensitive and moody. As he has grown, however, he has become a pretty happy go lucky kid. He still has moments of sensitivity but overall he enjoys life and doesnt really care too much what other people think. Im going to enjoy it as long as I can because as we have seen with his older brother, this stage doesnt last much longer.... Here are some fun facts about Evan Denver:

1. He is still a HUGE animal lover. If you dont know what to get Evan, a stuffed animal always works
2. He treasures everything ever given to him...and I mean everything including blank envelopes, rocks, used sucker sticks etc.... He is definitely a pack rat but everything he keeps has personal meaning to him.
3. He is a great friend. His teachers are always commenting on how sweet he is to everyone. He treats everyone as though they are his best friend.
4. He loves music and wants to take drum lessons
5. Even though he is 8, he still has a little boy-ness to him that is sweet.....
6. He loves his family
7. He is good with little kids. The moms in our apartment with little toddlers always tell me how sweet he is with their kids. There are a couple of little boys who think Evan is King...they seriously worship him. Its so funny....

Evan requested a Dinosaur cake this year. He loves Dinosaurs and Sharks right now.....he is a great kid and I couldnt ask for anything better in a son.

Love you Ev Ev!!

Happy Birthday Prissy Pants....

April 12th was Addison Jayne's 4th birthday. She has been anticipating this day for months now. It's always fun when the kids first really become aware of what it means to have a birthday. Every time we go to the store she makes sure to let me know what she wants for her 'party'....and its different every time. Barbie one day, Strawberry "tuptake" the next....today its a princess party. I dont need to say just how much this little girl has brought to our family....we just love her to pieces even when she is a bit precocious. Here is a little bit about Miss Addie:

1. She is 110% girl. There is no 'tom boy' in her at all....I dont think there ever will be.
2. She got her ears pierced and thinks it aged her by 5 years.
3. She loves pink, pink, pink....we passed a display at a store that had stuff for breast cancer awareness (all pink stuff) and she was convinced that everything on the table was for her simply because it was pink.
4. I think her favorite things are, in order: Disney Princesses, Hello Kitty, Strawberry Shortcake, and Barbie.
5. She loves her brothers and waits rather impatiently for them each day to return from school.
6. She calls me her mommy prince and Denver is her daddy prince and she is the 'big girl princess'....
7. She refuses to stay dressed once we get in the house. Everything but her underwear come off immediately. We are working on this with little progress
8. She makes me cry when she tells me "I love you straight to my heart mommy"...

Happy Birthday to my Big Girl Princess!!!

Build-a-Bear Fun....

Meet Kitty....Addison's adopted rabbit. She has brown eyes and colorful flowers and is dressed to impress in her pink skirt and Hello Kitty Shirt. Oh! and lets not forget about her Hello Kitty underwear too..... we just love this new addition to our family.




Now meet the Karate Kid. This is Evan's adopted Bear. He has a black belt in Karate and Evan loves him dearly. They are great buddies already....

Thanks to "aunt" Mandy for the wonderful gift cards she sent the kids for the their birthdays. It was a dream come true for Evan especially to finally get to go to Build a Bear Workshop. I have a feeling that we will end up there many more times!! Addie thought she had died and gone to heaven. She took it completely seriously with the whole kissing the heart before they put it in....washing the bunny...picking out her clothes. My goodness it was fun!! The kids love you so much!

And We Have a Winner.....

I posted about my hair experience a couple of weeks ago and offered the free hair services to the first person who made a comment and requested it.... Well, the winner is my aunt Debra!! Sorry it took me so long to figure out that you had left the comment...usually comments are posted into my email whenever someone leaves one but for some reason yours never showed up!! I just happened to look on there tonight while posting new pictures. I'll call you and arrange to bring it by! Love you!

Spring Fun....

So today was such an incredible day for weather we just couldnt resist getting out in it! I was supposed to be organizing closets but Spring Fever hit and out the door we went. We decided to celebrate Addies birthday a little bit and take the kids to the movies.

She got to pick the movie of course and so we went to see "Alice in Wonderland". Im not sure it was exactly what Addie had hoped for but she did pretty good sitting through it. We saw it at the Gateway Mall which is an outdoor shopping mall. We got there early and decided to walk around a bit before going inside the theater.

Addie has been bugging me for earrings for some time now and although I had decided we would wait until she was 8 to do it, I couldnt resist it today.

We stopped at Claires Boutique and the nice girls there pierced Addison's ears with cute little crystal flower earrings! After Addie stopped crying, she was so excited about it. She looks in the mirror every chance she gets....although that is nothing new.

I just loved it....I am so happy that I had a girl. Denver got a kick out of it and I told him pedicures are next! I dont have sisters so I guess as Addison gets older, she and I are just going to have to have a lot of fun together.

The boys felt a little left out so we bought them some sunglasses and snapped some pictures.

So then it was back for the movie. It was a lot of fun to get out and just spend some time together. We have all been under so much stress lately..... it felt really good. Im so happy that Spring is finally here.

Easter.....

Well, Easter came and went uneventfully this year. Not that I'm complaining....last year we ended up watching my dad nearly die of a heart attack on Easter Sunday. I'd LOVE not to have to repeat that again! The Easter bunny came....of course....in spite of my 9 year old throwing the "is he real" questions at me this year. I dread that time when they stop believing....its like the end of an era. Childhood on its way out. But, it looks as though I have postponed that for at least a little longer.... I have no doubt that this was Ian's last official Easter with an Easter Bunny.

We colored eggs....of course. Ian is missing however because one of his friends who does not celebrate Easter invited him to go swimming and I didn't see a reason not to let him go. He was fine to miss the coloring.

We did however hide the eggs outside later on and he participated in finding them! All in all it was a nice relaxing holiday with Pork Chops for dinner and no Easter pictures! I really had planned on it but....oops! Hope you all enjoyed your Easter.