March: Births and Birthdays

I am way too lazy to fix the spacing and design on this blog post. Deal with it. ;)

Our second niece, Evelyn, will be born this month! I cannot wait to meet her and kiss her soft, fluffy cheeks! For a little bit we thought she might be born on Mitch's birthday. Natalie joked that they'd have to name her Michelle after Mitch, but no such luck, his birthday came and went without her. That's okay; they can still share a birthday month!

Layla and our first niece, Tennesey.

Mitch had a great birthday! He was spoiled by both our families with a tactical pen (it has a rape whistle and a fire starter! Ha ha!), a bench grinder, and money and gift cards. The kids and I spoiled him too: Layla gave him new jammies, Marcus gave him two sets of matching father and son neck ties for church, I gave him a new jacket, and we all gave him a remote control airplane. He loved all of his gifts, but the airplane trumps all. He really won't stop playing with it. In the house. It makes the kids run around and scream out of excitement. But no regrets, I'm glad he loves it. I'll have to buy him a nicer one soon since this one is just a beginner one.

Family pic before church with the self timer = not the best pic ever.

Back to February: my grandma Ruth had us over for a Valentine's dinner and announced that she is taking us all on an Alaskan cruise next year! Wahoo! It will be a trip to remember! So nice of her to do that and we're really looking forward to it!

He must need a brother because he was more
than happy to wear this princess dress.

Marcus learned to ride the balance bike all by himself! He just walks with it for now, but man, it's crazy how little boys pick up on stuff like that faster than little girls (at least that's true for my kids). I'm glad he loves it. I took pics of him riding it, but I'm sad that they must have somehow been deleted. I will have to take some more.

These two get in a lot of trouble together...

Actually, he just gets in trouble in general.
But we love his guts!

Layla is doing great at preschool. Her teacher approached me recently and said, "Now I don't want you to be surprised when they ask you about having Layla skip to first grade." Made me so proud! She is a little smarty pants. We should find out if she got into Chinese Immersion this week or the beginning of next.

Layla made this play-doh bowl of fruit.
She was very proud of it.

We had our lawn aerated recently so there were those little bits of grass and dirt clods all over the lawn. The kids, the cat, and I were all outside and after about twenty minutes of being out there Layla said, "Man, Harvey! You pooped EVERYwhere!!!" Ha, ha, HA! I died laughing. In Layla's defense, they really do look like animal poop, but it was just the way she said it. I love her.





















Marcus learned a new word this week. He woke up from his nap one day saying, "Ernie" over and over again. It felt like a repeat of when Layla learned to say that word, only not quite as persistent. It amazes me how kids go to sleep and wake up doing a new skill. It's pretty cool if you think about it!

Crawling around, panting like a dog.

Chillaxin' at mammey and bopa's house.

Short update, but we are going to go play outside. I can't get enough of this fabulous spring weather we're having so early in the year! (Though it does make me nervous for this summer ... ) Also, have I mentioned how much I love that my kids are friends and (for the most part) get along with each other?!? I love them!!!

 

I often find them laying side by side, reading together. It melts my heart!!!

 

 The one true snow day we had this winter.