Gymnastics

Amelia started gymnastics this month. She's very shy and I wasn't sure if she would like it or not. After I reassured her that nobody would be watching her, she agreed to give it a try. Her class started with 11 kids but, after a scheduling mix up it turned out that she only had one other girl in her class. Yay, one on one coaching! Amelia is really enjoying gymnastics and does very well. She's strong and not afraid to try what her coach asks of her. It should be a great spring!

Spring Break in Bunceton, MO

For the first time we decided to go on a spring break trip! We headed south to Bunceton, MO and found a little warmer weather than Iowa! :) We hadn't visited my sister and brother-in-law since their wedding in November and thought it would be a good time to visit. We had a great time and look forward to going back soon!

Three boys looking at a farming book. There was LOTS of farming going on the the basement that weekend!

We had to stop several "demo derby's" at the shop. :)

I have been looking for a new lawn mower for oh, about 3-4 years now so Mark took one of Dan's mowers for a spin. :) He loves this mower, so maybe this year will be the year for a new one!

We went to Fingerlakes State Park for a motocross practice one day. The kids enjoyed playing on the playground while Mark finished his last practice. (This is Elijah peeking through a piece of playground equipment.)

The kids also went fishing for a short time. In fact from what Ang tells me it probably took longer to get the fishing licence than they spent fishing. Oh well we'll use it this summer!

Mark during his practice time.

Ethan also got in a couple rounds of practice.

Ethan's bike wasn't running the greatest and sputtered up the hills. So he had to call it quits early, he wasn't pleased with this. :(

Anton and Elijah taking a much needed nap!

Early March Happenings

Things have been pretty busy around here and I'm getting way behind in posting pictures! So here are a few from the the first half of the month.

We celebrated Ethan's 8th birthday! It was a special day because he didn't have school that day and Aunt Ang and Uncle Dan came up for the weekend! We went out to eat too! Since the weather wasn't very nice I asked him to wait to have friends over. We had great weather over spring break and enjoyed having friends over a little late!

Ameila and Rachel did a drill team clinic and Pella Christian. Ameila was pretty shy and didn't care to go out and perform in front of the crowd. :)

They had a great turn out! These are just the 4-6 year olds!

Anton finally took off walking! Our slowest child to walk. :)

He is loving his new accomplishment and walks everywhere!

Anton's 1 Year Pictures

Anton actually turned 13 months old over the weekend but I'm just now posting some of his one year pictures. Even though he wasn't happy about taking pictures we still managed to get a few cute ones.

Six Busy Kids

Last weekend Mark and I babysat two of his sisters boys while she and her husband went on a trip. We kept very busy with 6 kids under 7 years of age but all went well! Here are a few pictures of our weekend.

Anton's new thing is to open the fireplace and climb inside or at least try. Seriously, why would anyone find this fun? It's dirty, it stinks and it's creepy in there! What a NUT! We had to wash lots of clothes!

Hey there, that's not a sand box! :) We like to sprinkle jello over our applesauce for dessert sometimes, Elliot must have remembered that from the night before. :)

Mark took four of the kids for a track hoe ride so Anton could rest and I could clean up the house.

Oh bummer! I was lazy and thought I would see how far I could drive down the motocross track to get the kids from Mark. I easily made it over the first little jump and along the pond. I made it past a second little jump with a big rut hidden under the snow. You would think I'd be smart enough to stop while I'm ahead, but I'm not. :) Surely I can make it over this last jump and into the clear so I can turn around and drive out instead of backing out all the way. The front makes it over and bump, I'm stuck. (sigh) Well let's try and back up before Mark sees me. Nope, that didn't work, lets go forward again, nope that didn't work. Let's try rocking back and forth really fast in the drivers seat while going in reverse. Nope that didn't work either. By this time Mark has noticed me and I'm all out of idea's for getting out on my own. He didn't laugh at me, just smiled and asked if I thought I was part of the jeep club that goes offroading on our property. :) Thankfully with a little push from the track hoe I was out, sort of. I made it off the hill only to get stuck at the bottom of the next one. Seeing were this was going, or NOT going I should say, I got out and asked Mark to back me all the way out. Thanks Mark you're my hero! :)

Mark to my rescue with the track-hoe.

A close up of him just before he gave us a little push. Most people who drive Lincoln Navigators would cringe at the sight of track hoe pushing the front of their vehicle. Not me, this thing has been through countless fields and waterways. Believe me, this is not the worst it's seen! :)

What is he doing?

Kids always like to go outside, so we made a few trips out with all of them. Yes it did take forever to bundle everyone up! :)

We bought Amelia a little doll bed at the school Auction. Elijah thought it was a nice spot to rest.

The breakfast crew enjoying pancakes!

We also made play dough one afternoon. The kids did a great job making little creations and having fun with the play dough toys. Until Elijah got up from his nap and got a hold of it. We now have one colorful mass of play dough. :)