Saturday...

Saturday was a big day in our house.
Katie had two birthday parties to attend--one at 1pm and the other at 3pm. I had planned on being her chauffeur, but my friend called Friday to see if Mark and I wanted to join her and her husband at the Charlotte/Orlando playoff game-- box seats. Of course we found a babysitter for Marcus and Addy and found Katie a ride from one party to the other.

The game was great and so much fun. It was weird to be out in the middle of the day without the kids.
I picked Katie up from her second party when we got home. I had sent her to the fairy and princess parties in her Halloween tutu and found her in this.

Katie and the birthday girl, Ally, had exchanged clothes. Silly little girls. Katie was so excited, and so happy about her day. She had the hardest time falling asleep that night.

Moving again...

Yes, you read it right...

We are moving again...
with 3 little kids!

Our landlord told us last month that he had friends that wanted to move in (and pay more rent), our choices were; 1. we could wait until our lease was up in May to move out , 2. move a month early or 3. buy that house at a ridiculous price.

So, we found a new place and signed a lease (we don't want to buy until Mark actually starts at Dechert--and when we do we want to snag one of these fabulous short-sells going around).
We move on Thursday.

The real kicker...
The people that were moving in bailed and this house is going to be empty when we leave.

Oh well, at least we are excited about our new house--there is a fenced back yard!

We should be packing--we are little overwhelmed

Addy was pretty upset that she didn't know about these before

Katie wanted to try on all the things we found in the closet that we haven't seen in a while

Why we moved here...

Last winter in Pittsburgh I used to dream about this...I was getting a little worried when it snowed for the 3rd time, but Spring has kicked in. We have spent the last month or so outside enjoying the amazing weather--my kids are addicted and have the hardest time being inside.

Ok, he isn't outside but this is cute, and he has a football so it has to go on the blog.

Yesterday and today it hit the mid 80s and we were hot; so we pulled out the bathing suits and the baby pool and got wet.

In the midst of all this warm weather we did have one crazy night. It had been raining and then something started pounding on our roof; we looked out and found hail coming down--HARD!!! And lots of it.

They are huge right?

The next morning I saw blankets and towels on cars that were parked outside.

Happy Easter

We started Easter weekend with an Easter egg hunt on Friday. Some of Katie's friends from school were there; she was so excited to be with them outside of school.Katie and Ally

Nicolas, Ally and Katie

Katie and Ally with all their loot
This egg hunt was a little different then we have done before--there wasn't candy in the eggs--there was a number in each egg and to determine a winner they added all the numbers together and the highest number won. It was so funny when it started because Katie started running when all the other kids did--right past all the eggs. With a little encouragement (me pointing) she figured it out and started getting some eggs. As the last of the eggs where picked up a little girl came up with her empty basket looking pretty sad. She had missed the hunt. I asked Katie if she would give the little girl some of her eggs , Katie kindly handed over two of her eggs. I was so proud of her.

To top it off, even with giving away some of her eggs, Katie won the 3 yr old prize for most points! (She tells everyone that she won because she gave a little girl some of her eggs.)


We decided that this year we would have the Easter Bunny come on Sat morning vs Sun morning. I'm not sure if we will keep doing this but we will wanted to separate the celebration of Christ's resurrection from the Easter Bunny.

Saturday morning the kids woke up and started looking for their baskets and the eggs. All the eggs had a jelly bean in them, Addy got so distracted that she couldn't focus on anything but finding her next jelly bean.

Gift highlights: bug books--Thanks Grammy and Grandpa S

Wagon--Thanks Grandma and Grandpa D

After finding everything and eating muffins for breakfast, we headed to the park.

our little climber

Then after nap time, we had another egg hunt outside, this time we didn't put jelly beans in the eggs, but we did put a little surprise in 3 of the eggs.

looking for a jelly bean

Addy didn't want the little surprise (marshmallow chicks) she only wanted more jelly beans. She kept trying to take Marcus' eggs to see if there were any jelly beans in his eggs (she didn't have any eggs bc she got stuck on the first egg she picked up trying to find her candy). Marcus was having none of that.

Sunday morning we woke and had a specail breakfast. And Sarah, Adam, Talia and Will came over for a yummy Easter dinner.

The weekend was even more special because our church had their Semi Annual General Conference which we watched online Sat and Sun; we are so very grateful for Christ and His living prophet.

And Katie too...

So Miss Katie has started reading...
She started reciting her books to us in the last 6 months (including her favorite 'Hello Baby'; which is the book we bought to introduce her to the concept of a sibling. She loves it and reads it every night. It has some big words and complicated ideas, but she knows it, almost word for word. We have had to tape it back together 3 times now--it is currently in the need of a fourth taping)

At pre-school they started introducing 'sight words'. Katie has taken off with them, every night when we read to her, she reads the words that she has learned. She currently knows 15 and is working on her next 5 this week.

Happy 18 months...

Sometimes I can't believe how fast times flies, and that my babies are already 18 mths ( and 2 weeks because I am so late posting this).

Addison:
Knows a handful of words.
Usually repeats a word if we tell Marcus to say it and he does, just to show us she knows it too.
Knows all the animal sounds.
Loves to read books--all day long.
Is a little climber-she can climb up on our big dining chair, and on and over the couch.
Can jump higher then Katie--I'm talking kangaroo style.
(Marcus can't even get his feet off the ground).
She likes to jump around the house
Refuses to give us kisses.
Loves to hug and cuddle.
Sits on strangers laps at story time and has them read to her.
She can take down both Marcus and Katie with a hug (more like a tackle).

Marcus:
Is learning words right and left.
He says "sorry" and it is so cute, so we make him say it all the time.
Can repeat a lot of words if you ask him to.
He knows all the animal sounds.
Loves books
Runs with his little arms out behind him so that everyone watching him thinks he is going to fall.
Trips a lot.
Gets scared at the "bad person" in Katie's princess movies--he cries.
Really only likes to watch "Little Einsteins".
Likes to have one of whatever snack he is eating in each hand.
Loves to eat and walk around.
Will give great kisses.
Loves to throw any type of ball, especially a football (like Mark says, first skin he ever touched was a pigskin).

Both kids are holy terrors and give us a run for our money. The other day my friend/neighbor was over with the 4 yr old she babysits. Katie and Laurel where upstairs playing. Addy and Marcus followed them up and Caroline and I sat downstairs talking. I didn't think much of it, our house is childproof and we keep all the doors to the bathrooms shut AND I had told the 3 yr old and 4 yr old to keep an eye on them. About 20 mins later I call Katie into the hallway to ask her what Addy and Marcus are doing, she says; "I don't know". I asked her where they were; "I don't know." I run upstairs and the bathroom door is shut, but I hear noises in there, I open it and find two drenched children--I'm talking it looked like they had been dipped in the pool (except for their heads/hair). The bathroom floor was wet, AND there was NO water in the toilet--NONE! Gross!

I would have grabbed my camera, but we discovered it was Laurel who left the door open (Katie knows the rule--more importantly the consequences for breaking said rules), and Laurel has a habit of not flushing the toilet. Even Grosser! She swears she did, but she is four, do I believe her?

Anyway, needless to say, no picture and straight into the bathtub. Moral of the story, don't ask a 3 yr old and 4 yr old to babysit, and if you do make sure they shut bathroom doors behind themselves, or at least flush a toilet.

Have I told you about my stroller?

Last year when we were packing to move to Charlotte, and we found a house to rent in a neighborhood with a pool, I decided that I needed a triple stroller for walking all the kids to the pool...so, I started looking.

I looked in the stores and online at new ones--the lowest price I found was $400 and at that price the quality might have been questionable. Mark wouldn't let me justify that kind of purchase since I had bought the double stroller I wanted. I looked on ebay and, of course, craigslist and couldn't find anything. I even expanded my search to Philly or Ohio, thinking that if I found a great deal then it would be worth driving for--I found a few but when I combined the $250-$400 used stroller price tag with gas and personal time, it just wasn't worth it.

I checked obsessively (I'm talking every hour or two), and one day I found one in Charlotte for $80 (yep $80)! Because I was checking every hour or so I saw it as soon as it posted I emailed the seller and told her I would send my sister over asap. She said she would hold it until we moved, but I had Sarah go get it that evening--which I think was a smart move because by the time Sarah got there to pick it up she had 3 other people who wanted it!

So, I feel like I scored because I got a great stroller (well, we don't even know what brand it is--but for $80 who cares right?) for even a better price!

We use it all the time, Katie's preschool is about a mile down the street, so we walk to drop her off and pick her up whenever it is warm enough, last summer we took it to the pool and we use it for family (or me and kids) walks regularly.

We haven't used it regularly for a couple months, but now that the weather is warming up we are out and about again in our stroller.

We also bought Katie a bike to enjoy while it isn't too hot, she is a pro, it took her about 10 mins to get the hang of it, and she has even taken it for a ride to the park and back a couple times.


Cousin Talia had a birthday at the end of February, Katie and the twins joined her for lunch and cupcakes. Then Talia and Katie spent the rest of the day at Monkey Joe's and eating Pizza.