Spring Break

We had a fairly uneventful spring break last week. I was sick a good part of it and dealt with allergies the second half, so I wasn't highly motivated to do a lot. We did have fun around the house and took the kids out to eat and to the park one night, we had such wonderful weather they spent lots of time outside.

The kids all geared up to go riding. Elijah was especially excited about wearing his jersey from Christmas! We've got several motocross items from families that like to ride at our place. When their kids out-grow something they pass it on to us, as a thank-you for letting them ride here! It works out great for us, and keeps the riding cost down.

Elijah so cute, nice boots! :) 

Ethan had a friend over one day, and a cousin too. The little boys played well with them and Amelia was able to spend the night at a friends house, which was very fun for her.

I found an easy experiment on Pinerest that Amelia wanted to do. It's just covering an egg with vinegar for a couple days and the shell will dissolve. In the video the guy was kind of "bouncing" the egg without a shell, so Amelia thought she would try and it broke. She was told to clean it up. So she tried getting the cats to eat it, but didn't have any takers so she ended up using the hose to wash the sidewalk. :)

Mark finally filled in the 10 foot deep hole in the front yard. Hopefully now our basement won't leak and someday we can finish it for kids to have more space!

Anton will play in any dirt he can find! Yes, this is a plant filled with equipment! :)

Allison cracks me up, when she's happy she sticks her tongue in and out like a snake. Not the most flattering picture, but it's funny to watch her!

You may have noticed Anton wearing his church clothes in an earlier picture while everyone else is in old stuff. That's because he only wants to wear his PJ's or this blue stripped sweater or a combo of church/PJ's as in the above picture. He's so funny and insists on wearing that sweater all the time! He is always talking about going to church and "reading" the Bible. He'll look at the Bible and say numbers, "verses" like 3,9,9,9... Maybe we'll have a future career in the ministry with this one. :)  

Happy 9th Birthday Ethan

Ethan turned 9 years old this week. Wow, he's growing up fast! Ethan's interests right now are farming, he'll help Mark any chance he gets. He loves to ride his dirtbike. He's looking forward to riding in the warm weather since the pond never frozen hard enough to ice race this winter. He also loves to play with legos, he does a nice job coming up with new creations!

Ethan got to pick out a cake with Grandma and Grandpa. He said they mostly had girl cakes or really big ones so he picked a Harley one. :)

Not sure this was the safest gift for him, but so far so good. :) Ethan is enjoying shooting targets and pop cans with his new BB gun.

Last night he was able to have a couple cousins and friends over to play. They were fun to watch and easy to entertain. I was thankful they included Anton and Elijah as well!

 A little tackle football without the football.

Iowa Barnstormers

Over the weekend the Iowa Barnstormers visited our school as part of a fundraiser. We enjoyed a meal and  meeting the team along with a few competitions!

Here is Ethan posing with one of the players.

My nephew Johnathon helped Anton and Elijah gather a few autographs.

Ethan and Cody excited about their autographs.

Anyone could try their hand at pull-ups. Mark did 20 if I remember correctly.

Elijah did 21 pull-ups with a little help from a friend.

They also had a football toss, you against a player. Ethan had to wait in line a LONG time for this one. :)

Misc.

It seems we've been keeping busy the last couple weeks but I haven't taken many pictures. Doctor visits, dentist visits, cleaning up muddy kids and floors, church groups.... the list goes on but nothing really worth taking a picture. Although the muddy kids have been pretty impressive. I'll try to get a few shots of them in the weeks ahead. :)

We had a nice Valentines Day the kids made Mark cards with their hand prints or foot prints and I made him a huge heart shaped triple peanut cookie. He got me 5 roses 3 like the one above to represent my 3 boys and 2 yellow ones for my girls, very sweet!

Allison got this little shirt as a gift, I think hot pink is a good color for her. :) 

I LOVE contests and Monsanto had one this fall where farmers could register to win $2500 for their favorite  non-profit . I ended up winning and gave the money to our school!

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Exercise has been another big activity at our house. I bought a exercise video from our chiropractor and it's been a hit. It's more strength training so Mark has enjoyed that with the kids, they even got a pull up bar. I on the other hand don't enjoy this at all and wait until nobody is around to see how bad I am! :)

Baptism

Last Sunday we had baptism for Allison, along with her cousin Natalie.

 I had a baptism dress bought for Allison before she was born because it was very cheap. But she grew so fast that it didn't fit well and I ended up buying he another one. I hope she'll be able to wear this one again for Easter!

Allison didn't even wake up when Pastor Visser sprinkled her head with water.

All TEN of our kids did very well, we were all thankful that no one misbehaved! :) 

Sometimes it's easy to skip pictures like this one with just Mark, me and Allison because we've been there, done that. But, I do try hard to take pictures of everyone so one day they will have something fun to look back at.  

My sister-in-law Becky took this one for us.

Anton turns 2

Last week we celebrated Anton's 2nd birthday. No huge party or frills but I did take him to Hy-Vee to pick out his own cake which he enjoyed. Maybe next year I'll have more time to use my cake decorating skills and bake him one. :) 

Anton proud of his Thomas the Train cake.

 Trying to blow out the candles, he needed a little help from his siblings or got a little help from them whether  he wanted it or not. :) 

Grandpa reading Tractor House with the boys for entertainment. In case you're wondering, Elijah was excited to get a new helmet that day. :) 

A picture my sister-in-law Becky took of Anton for his 2 year pictures.

The Last Month

I'm adding a few pictures of the kids from the last few weeks. We've kept busy but my picture taking is pretty random.

 This is Allison at one month yesterday all ready for church in a super cute outfit my friend made for her. Complete with shoes and a bow!

Grandpa came over this weekend to install my dishwasher. I can't believe how quiet it is, why did I wait so long to replace the old one! 

This is what happens when you have older sisters. :)

Elijah and Anton reading Allison a book. What nice big brothers they are!

Allison sound asleep.

Only 10 days old in this picture, they grow so fast!