Nick's 30th b-day and Mothers Day!

Nick and I celebrated his 30th b-day at the Casino in Waterloo. For his b-day gift we are going to Chicago for a long weekend. Nick is a big fan of the cubs, but has never been to a game, so I got him tickets for the last weekend in May! We are very excited to get away for a few days!


On Saturday night we celebrated with his family and combined his b-day with his sister's 15th b-day at Texas Roadhouse. This was quite a night! After the celebration, on the way home, I hit my first deer. Not a very fun experience, especially with three kids in the van! I will spare you the pictures of the dead deer and just show you the van. Nick was very "proud" of me, he said I killed a bigger buck than he shot this year! Lucky for us (not really), we killed a deer, but adopted a stray kitten. The sheriff told us "it was meant to be" when the kitten came running up to us on the side of the road, no houses within miles! He convinced us to take it home, so we now have another pet. An outdoor pet of course, those of you who know us know we are not cat lovers. We only agreed to try to keep the mice out of our house living out in the country!

On Sunday, we combined Nick's b-day and Mother's Day and blew out candles on our Strawberry shortcake!

Cane does love the kitten, although, the kitten doesn't really love Cane in return!

He always tries to cuddle with the kitten, but it doesn't last long!

Nick is loving life out here! Thanks to Greg, we got a great mower a couple of weeks ago. Nick loves it so much the first week he tried to tell me that he probably should mow twice a week (3 hrs to do the yard!). Right! Unfortunately, the kids love the mower as much as Nick. We have had for a couple weeks, and each time it comes out, the kids will ride with for as long as dad will let them! Especially Cane!

Bring on the warm nights!

The kids were begging me to fly a kite, and since we now have the room, why not! The cheap ones at Walmart work better than the more expensive ones I bought last year from Toys R Us!

Cane loves the trampoline! Cole and Claire don't slow down all that much, but he doesn't seem to mind!

There favorite games on the trampoline are tag and wrestling!

Can you see what I am thinking here?

I better close my eyes!

And after the shock of the water hitting my face wore off, this is what you get! I couldn't take and action shot in the water because I had to stop him from drowning when he about fell over!

My big sister just can't get enough of me, she doesn't understand why I don't want her to hold me anymore!

Cane's B-day

Cane's b-day was April 16, but we had to party this past weekend and our house. My parents and Marcie came and Nick's parents and his brother and sister, Tim and Tiffany. It was great, we ate lunch, did cake and ice cream, and then opened presents. Or I should say Cole and Claire opened presents. Cane was in a great mood all day and it was fun to all be together. The last time this group was all together the house looked a little different, outdated and full of moving boxes! It was a great party!

What, I don't know how this frosting got on my lip?

We had to light the candle several times to let everyone have a turn to blow out the candle! Cane just wants the cake!

Wow, good cake, Mom!

Ball is one of the two words in his vocab, other than mama and dada. He loves to say "ball" and "bye-bye."

Yeah for the birthday hat!

Tim and Marcie are the greatest godparents ever!

Easter!

Coloring Easter Eggs was a lot of fun for the kids, I was surprised at well they did waiting for the eggs! And then off course, we had to cover them in stickers!
Cane really liked the egg Claire colored for him!

The Egg hunt at Grandma McQuinn's was great. It was so nice outside!

You can't tell from this picture, but Cane didn't really think that playing in the grass was all that cool! He hasn't really had a chance to get used it, but I would guess that will change now that it is warming up!



The Loot!

Claire has a really hard time smiling on command! This is the loot from our house Easter morning!

Swining on the Rope swing at Great Grandma Eberts!

This is what we looked like no more than 10 minutes after we left Steve's house (the McCumber Easter celebration) after dinner. Go figure, no naps this afternoon!

My shy little girl!

So most of you know how shy Claire can be, but you put a dress on this child and she opens right up! She has been looking forward to shopping for dresses with Marcie for a long time, she loves to try on dresses! Marcie and my mom came this past weekend to shop and she was queen for the day. I am pretty sure Claire thinks Marcie's wedding day is all about HER! As soon as she would put a dress on she would say "this one is beautiful!" and then she would spin around and test the dress out! At the first place we went to, she came out of the dressing room in the first dress and began spinning around in front of a bunch of people she doesn't know! This is a breakthrough for Claire, she doesn't like attention from people she doesn't know. However, a "beatiful" dress transforms her into Cinderella!

The second place we went to gave her one of the bridal changing rooms with the big mirrors and lots of room to spin! She couldn't stop looking at herself! We found several dresses here that Marcie, and Claire, really liked. It will be hard for her to choose!

Here is princess Claire, she really liked the way the dresses would poof out when she sat down. She would sit and stand over and over, after she was done spinning of course!

It was a great day, Claire had such a good time, and we loved watching her. All four of us girls went out for lunch afterwards, and just to show you how attached she is to Cole, when we were leaving she decided she needed to bring home a chip for him. Just one, broken chip. He was very excited and appreciative when she gave it to him!


Cane has found his new favorite spot in our house. Now that he has realized he can pull himself up, (would you want to pull the weight of those cheeks up) he loves to watch outside! When the kids are in the house, he stands and looks out the front window. When the kids are playing out back, he pounds on the back sliding glass door and laughs, I think he thinks he is playing with them!