Easter

Toothless wonder!

It finally happened. Leila lost her first tooth on April 15th! She was so excited. It literally fell out of her mouth on the way to school. She has another wiggly one that should come out in a few days!

Leila's artwork

Leila's art was displayed at Youth Art Month!

Pretty

Arboretum

Happy!!

Friends-I'll have to find pictures from our past years and post them all together!!

Fun Pictures

Holden's staples

Fun Day!

The kids and I started our "day off" taking a StrollerFit class! We had a good time and I love that my 4 and 5 year old can still "ride" in the stroller, get along (for the most part), enjoy the class, AND most of all that I can still push them! :)

We picked up dad and headed out for lunch with friends and then to the zoo. It was a great day to be outside and the kids enjoyed the zoo!

Leila sitting in a nest.

Leila with the elephant

Holden in an egg.

Spiderman

We did see some animals...although we didn't take many pictures with them.

More about the staples

Holden had his staples removed on Friday. His head is healed, but he is still supposed to be careful with it. :) How do you tell a 4 year old BOY to be careful? On the way out of the dr.'s office he asked, "Where is my purple popsicle?"

5 Staples...

We had an exciting start to our weekend. Holden hit his head after trying to get a piggy bank off the top shelf in his closet. After running up the stairs to him, I couldn't figure out where all the blood was coming from and what had happened. He had a gash in the back of his head and blood was coming out of what looked like a hole. YIKES! Spiderman got 5 staples in his head at the after hours clinic. Once he got home, all he wanted to talk about was the purple popsicle that he got for being so brave. No tears at the dr.

Oh the wonder of it all...

There is nothing better for me than spending Christmas with my family. If I could bottle up the delight I see in the words and actions of my children I would. Oh, to see life through the eyes of a child; that is what I love most about Chrismas.

Our Christmas eve began with Leila wrapping some of her books and toys for family members and others who needed Christmas presents. She was really into it, cutting, taping and wrapping. When I asked her who she was planning to give the presents to, she said, "kids that need gifts." How will we know who needs gifts? "We'll go door to door and ask them." I love it. So simple yet, perfect. Of course we didn't go door to door, but she had some great games and gifts to hand out to her family members that she had wrapped. (a little paper here and there to cover the gift) She was so proud of herself

Leila and Holden were so excited about going to church for the Chrismas eve service. We attended the early service where the kids got to be a part of the program. It's been so fun to see their personal growth and confidence change year to year, as they both went up to the front of the church with excitment and confidence this year. Leila was an angel and Holden one of the wisemen. They got to sit up at the front of the church in their costumes with all the other children while the Christmas Story was told. They were so proud of themselves when they came back to their seats. Now I must digress...a couple of years ago, we explained to Leila about the nativity scene and baby Jesus. She was really "into" her stroller and "strollerfitting around the house" that she would put the "breakable" baby Jesus from the nativity scene in her stroller and run around the house doing StrollerFit with "Baby Jesus." Every Christmas I giggle when I think about that great story.

After church we went to my sister's for dinner and stockings from my parents. :0 Leila and Holden both sang Christmas songs for us and told us what they wanted Santa to bring them. Leila had a long list and Holden's list consisted of most of what big sister said + 50,000 cars.

Annual Christmas Dinner

Fun Tradition

Christmas Dinner with the Girls

Famous Quotes

from a 4 and a 5 year old.

We were out looking at Christmas lights tonight and Leila and Holden were having a conversation in the backseat. It's always fun to hear what they have to say to each other.

Leila and Holden were talking about how they believed in Santa...

Leila told Holden, "You must believe in God, Jesus and Santa. You just have to believe Holden."

Holden, "I wish Santa was part of our family."

Holden, "I wish our dad was Santa."

Leila, "I can't wait until Santa brings me those tennis shoes with rollers. I haven't asked for them yet...I better do it soon."
(Santa's in trouble...he had no idea about this present)

Leila the Tooth!

Leila had a book parade at her school on Friday. The kids choose a book and then had to dress like a character from the book. Her book was called, The Tooth Book. She was not too excited about wearing the tooth, but once she got to school, she thought it was cool!

Yummy!!

Wordless Wednesday

Tom the Turkey dressed up as Princess Peacock!

One Coach

Holden had a wonderful coach last season and then this season! I can't say enough about the impact one person, one friend, one teacher, one coach can have on your child. We were so lucky to have coach Bob guide Holden and make his first team sport such a positive one!

Holden posing for his picture

Game face on

15!

It was a great season for Holden. He absolutely loved playing soccer and we loved getting to watch him play.

The 15 is for the number of goals he scored this season (by his count).

We would never have known how many goals he had scored, but each time after he scored his first, he would run up to us and hold up his fingers and tell us that's four, five etc. We finally started to catch on. Once he got to double digits and ran out of fingers, he would yell 12 etc. Of course we were the only people at the game that knew what he was talking about.

Lightning team pictures

Coach Bob handing out trophies

Holden showing off his trophy!

Holden and his best bud Jake hanging out before pictures!

A kiss for the good dinosaur

Which way to the goal?