Farewell to Steve

Four years ago my brother came home for a visit. He asked me if it would be alright if he bought Rece a fish. I responded, "no problem". I didn't realize it would mean four years of cleaning a little fish aquarium. A job I rank right up there with cleaning toilets. After about three years, I decided this was no ordinary fish. This fish was unnaturally durable. He had been dropped on the floor, underfed, overfed, his water had reached alarmingly low levels, and the list goes on...and so did Steve. Until today.

We had to have a proper burial. Flushing him just wasn't an option.

Rece dug the hole.

At this point we said a few words. Here is a sampling:
Rece: "Goodbye Steve. You were a good, strong fish. I will miss you. I love you".
Zachary: "Goodbye Steve. You died."
There were a few tears.

After our goodbyes.

Easter Weekend

We had a very busy Easter weekend. We spent Saturday with Ryan's family and Sunday with my family. The kids went on three Easter egg hunts so we have way too much candy at our house!

I'm not sure why Zach looks so worried in this picture. Just smile buddy!

Rece is by far the easiest to take a picture of. He always has this great smile ready! He is such a good big brother. He was very concerned that Meg and Zach would need help finding eggs, so he was right there to help them.

Almost every picture I took of Zach was blurred. He wouldn't stop long enough to pose for the camera. He's excited about the candy though.

This was Megyn's first Easter that she got to hunt eggs. She would get so excited when she saw one. She carried her little Easter basket around on her arm all weekend.

I'm mean. I made all the kids pose for a picture before they could hunt eggs. Here's a picture with all the cousins. Ethan and Myles are in the back. One of them is holding Evelyn (sorry I can't tell which one - I'm gonna guess Ethan?). In the middle is Brittney, and on the bottom row is Rece, Megyn, Lauren, and Zach. I just noticed all the girls are wearing pink. You would think we had planned that.

Here we are with my family. Actually I'm not there, but someone's gotta take the picture. My grandma came over and had dinner with us. The weather was so nice we stayed outside for quite awhile. We didn't have a traditional Easter dinner. My dad barbecued instead and it was excellent!

Our happy little family. Please pardon the little one picking his nose.

Here is our annual Easter Sunday "before" church picture. The before was definitely better than the after on this day. I might have to start doing an "after" picture. That might be kind of funny to see. Ryan had no meetings before church so he was there to help get the kids ready. It was so great! I especially love going to church on Easter Sunday. Even sitting alone with three wild kids couldn't dampen the spirit that I felt there. It was wonderful.

You Did What!!??

I did the unthinkable (at least in Megyn's mind) last Thursday. Are you ready? I got rid of Meg's pacifier! It was so much easier than I expected it to be. Neither one of our boys ever really took a pacifier, but Meg was seriously hooked on hers. I tried only giving it to her at naptimes and bedtimes, so as soon as she got up in the morning I would put it up on her shelf. Apparently, she had a stash of all the "missing" paci's somewhere in the house because she would come walking out with one hanging out of her mouth. It was driving Ryan crazy (okay, me too!). So the other night I made the quick decision to cut off the very tip of it (I had been told that this was supposed to work really well) and I handed it to Megyn. She stuck it right in her mouth and then took it right back out. She looked so confused that it made me laugh. Anyway, I put her to bed right after that and gave her the paci but she had decided that it must be broken and just gave it a toss. She cried for only about ten minutes and then went to sleep! I couldn't believe it. But that is how it has been for the last week, and now she doesn't even act like she misses it at all. The paci made life so much more pleasant when she was tiny, but I love that she is done with it !

Fightin' Words

The other night, Ryan was on the computer, and brought up our blog. This is how the conversation that followed went:

Ryan: "Wow." You haven't posted anything for a long time."

Me: "Yeah, I know. I've been busy."

Ryan: "Really? Doing what?"

Fightin' words. Of course, he was just teasing, but I did start this blog as a way to document the fun things going on in our family. Really, I could probably post every day with some fun thing that was said or done by one of our kids. I will try to do better, just for you Ryan! Here's some recent random photos (and thoughts).

My little comedian. I think he has like three pairs of safety glasses on. His favorite phrase is "Oh yeah, baby!" You can't be around Zach and not be laughing. It just isn't possible.

Such a cute smile. If you look closely, you can see the nice size gap between his new top front teeth. He was looking at this in the mirror this morning and wanted to know if I thought he was going to need braces. He heard his dentist say something about braces at one of his checkups, and has not forgotten. But then Rece never forgets anything!

I can't believe this is my baby! Time flies! Her new favorite past-time is throwing the pillows off the couches. Now that her hair is long enough she wears these pigtails everyday.

Just because they are so dang cute!

"Hey Mom! Take a picture of us doing this!" Yes, we are just a little bit goofy. Life is sweet.

All Smiles!

I hardly ever get a picture where all three of my kids are looking towards the camera and smiling, so I just had to post this one. The only thing that would have made it better is if I had thought to take that darn pacifier out of Meg's mouth!

Preschool Gym With Attitude!

I finally remembered to take my camera to Zach's gym class. I took Rece to these gym classes when he was Zach's age and it is so interesting to see the difference in their personalities. Rece was the one who followed the coach's instructions exactly, waited his turn, and so on. Not my sweet little Zach. He refuses to do warm ups until they get to the point where they use the parachute, and the rest of the time he joins in but his coach is constantly having to remind him to wait his turn, move on to the next activity, or hauling him away from something else that has caught his attention. It is entertaining to watch, he is such a funny kid!

So much fun!!!

Basketball!

Rece is playing basketball this year. He is on a team with his friends from school and church; and our friend, Megan, is the coach. When we signed him up, he was a little worried because he had never played before, but he is making great progress and having a lot of fun! These kids are so cute, we even cheer for the other team!

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Happy Birthday Sweetie! I couldn't let the day go by without saying a few things about the great guy I married. You are a fantastic father and I love that you love to spend time with our children. You are a wonderful husband and friend to me. Thank you for your example and all that you do for our family!

We love you! The pictures are getting kind of dated, but I am resolving to be better at taking pictures this year. I hope you have a great day!

Friends

These are my high school buddies - Mindy and Michelle (a.k.a. Min & Shell). We have an annual tradition (usually the day after Christmas) when we meet for lunch, chat, and exchange gifts. I think there was only one year that we missed when Min's daughter became deathly ill and they had to go home early (correct me if I am wrong girls!). By the way, the clock works great even after sitting wrapped in a closet for two years Shell! I look forward to it every year and can't wait to see you both next December (if not sooner!).

Christmas 2008

Christmas this year was great! Ryan had almost two weeks off from work, and we all loved having him home. We spent time with family and with each other. Ryan and I even went out on a couple of dates (thanks Jill)! Christmas morning was so much fun. We were up extremely late and received the best Christmas gift of all when our kids slept until almost 9:00!

Rece's only request from Santa this year was a light saber kit. But Santa just couldn't help himself and he also received a clone trooper helmet, a scrabble junior game, and a new game for the Wii. He is the biggest Star Wars fan I have ever met. He lives and breathes it. He was so excited for Christmas this year and the only thing that dampened his mood was the stomach flu. The poor kid got it twice. He is such a trooper.

Zach never had much to say when we asked him what he wanted Santa to bring him, so Rece put in some requests in his behalf. He got Cars mega blocks, lincoln logs, and a Star Wars ship. He doesn't look very excited about these pajamas, but they are so cute. I guess clothes probably aren't that exciting when you're surrounded by toys. He kept getting presents from under the tree and opening them whether they had his name on them or not. I didn't realize this until I found something for me I didn't remember opening. Apparently, he was opening them and giving them a toss if what was inside was not interesting enough. What a funny boy!

Santa brought Megyn a baby and a stroller. She was so excited! She loves babies! It was so fun to see her get excited about the presents this year. What a difference a year makes! She was so good about leaving the tree, ornaments, and presents alone which really surprised me because she is always into something she shouldn't be!

The kids got extra spoiled by their grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles. Thanks everybody! Oh yeah -- Ryan and I were pretty spoiled too. I realized while trying to find pictures for this that I didn't do so good taking pictures. That is going to be a New Year's goal for me. Take more pictures!