Just a little more...

Just wanted to post some more cuteness going on around here...

don't you want him looking at you like this

Marcus cooking pancakes for dinner.

Heather left us the beginning of the month to go back to school.  The kids are missing her.

Jaxon just wanted to antennas

The weather is still cold here, but it has warmed up enough to go outside.  We have hit the beach here a couple times.

Eva, Addy, Zoe, Eli and Marcus; Katie is off gathering shells or snails or something, she is such a beach bum.

Hitting the aquarium...Marcus is petting the sharks.

Spending some time at the Nature Center...if only we could actually lock them up sometimes.

Hanging out at the park with their twin friends.  Neither set of twins is in preschool, so my friend Katie and I have started doing twin swaps; I take Eli and Eva once a week and Katie takes Marcus and Addy once a week.

Easter Festivities

 Easter is my favorite holiday.   Of course because we are celebrating the resurrection of our Savior, but also, because I feel like it is a little easier to focus on the real purpose.  The Easter Bunny doesn't seem to be trying to trump Christ like Santa Claus.

The Thurs before Easter we had some friends over for an Easter Egg hunt in our yard.

they just want to get out there and find some eggs

Marcus proceeded to eat all the candy in his 15 eggs and then an hour later had the most massive fit.

 Sat morning our church had an Easter egg hunt.  Katie invited her friend Lily and her family to join us.

 

 

Audrey, Addy, Lily, Katie, Marcus and Jaxon

 Easter morning we headed to church.

 After church the kids were able to look for their Easter baskets and eggs that the Easter Bunny left.

best thing in the basket-soda!

The kids all got hulu-hoops, something they have been wanting for a while.  We had a few hulu-hoop competitions- none of us were as good as we thought we were.

New York City

 Mark's parents came to visit a few weeks ago.  The kids were so excited for the visit; mostly because they wanted to see them, but also because we were finally going to visit NEW YORK CITY!  Sadly, the day was a lot colder then we were hoping.  We left Jaxon home with Heather.  We parked and took the subway to Times Square first.  It was scary even with 4 adults and 3 kids--too many people. 

Grammy and Katie on the subway

The characters were a little scary.  They took a picture and then 10 of them harassed us for money.  Later Marcus saw some super heroes and Mickey Mouse and was so excited to go say hi, they weren't interested when I told them I was out of cash.  Marcus was pretty disappointed until we walked into Toys R' Us and Batman, Ironman and Spiderman all greeted him and gave him hi-five.

 

 

 We hung out in Toys R' Us for a while and then ate lunch (pizza of course).  After lunch we slowly walked to Central Park.  Along the way we stopped at Crumbs to grab some cupcakes to eat when we got to the park.

The park was a nice break from all the noise and commotion.  After cupcakes, we climbed rocks and played at the playground and then walked until we were freezing.

Some random dog the kids stopped to pet.

When we were numb we headed to the car and drove home to our little Jaxon.

Katie

Poor Miss Katie has been to way too many schools in her short life (someday we will stop moving around) but it doesn't keep her down.  She has adjusted to her new school like a pro.  She has good friends, sweet girls who are kind to one another.  She loves her teacher (probably because  her first name is Katie as well). 

Katie won a citizenship award for being kind and caring and being an example to others. 

 

Last month Katie and her class went to see a play at the local theater.  I was able to go along as a chaperone.  The play was about the Ugly Duckling.  I don't remember the original story very well, but in this version the mother and siblings were SOOO mean to the 'ugly duckling' because he was different.  Partway through this I looked down and saw Katie crying.  She was so upset that the mom was not stopping the siblings from being mean and that she herself didn't seem to love the 'ugly duckling'.  My sweet little girl, with only adopted siblings, didn't seem to understand why this would happen.  I myself was livid by the time the play was over as the 'ugly duckling' after proving himself worthy was rewarded by finding his "real" mom and not staying with the duckling family.  Katie was so excited to see the play but walked out with tears streaming down her face.  As sad as she was, I was so proud of her for recognizing this behavior as wrong. 

Katie and Lily at the theater

On a more positive note, Katie's school does a word of the day everyday.  Each kid writes a sentence using the word, the winners get to read their sentence over the intercom.  Katie won her first week at school with Mark helping her with her sentence.  A couple of weeks ago she decided she was going to try it by herself, so after me helping her understand the definition she made up her own sentence--steering far away from any hints of help I offered.  She won!  Her sentence was; "I am garrulous, I don't know why, I just like to talk".  To top it off, she tricked both Mark and I by sadly telling us she did not win and then laughing at us when we tried to comfort her.

Katie also won a principal's award for her grades this last quarter.

Katie and her friend Lily

Katie and her teacher