Take me out to the ball game!

We went to the Tacoma Rainiers Baseball game with family from the Otto side last night!  It was so much fun.  I figured we would stay as late as the kids were happy - since the game started just before bedtime would normally be.  Surprisingly, they lasted till the game ended at 10:30 - we had our fussy moments with Emeree and a fat lip and skinned knee with Ethan running through the stands, but all in all, it was a wonderful night!

Ethan played musical chairs and moved between our row, to sitting with the girls, and sitting with Grandma and Grandpa Sanders.

Emeree had fun watching the game and got caught trying to sneak other people's water. 

And right after the game, they turned out the stadium lights and put on a professional firework show!  Emeree loved it, but Ethan looked worried the whole time and kept his ears covered and had his legs locked around my thigh tightly until they ended.  But he never took his eyes off of them.

Catching Up - Easter Egg Hunts

Ethan helped me dye Easter eggs... I thought I would regret having a 3 year old help, but he was actually really careful and we both had fun. 

We did 2 Easter Egg hunts on the Saturday before Easter...

One at Edgemont Park - that one is crazy.  They section off the areas of the park for different ages and then throw plastic eggs all over the ground.  It's a free for all and lasts a couple minutes since the kids swoop them up as fast as possible.  We didn't score too many since there were a lot of kids and mine are young and not really into the "race" concept yet.

Then we headed to my Grandma's house for the real egg hunt.  It was nice weather this year so we got to do it outside for a change.  This one is way more relaxing and fun than the crazy public one.

Wayyyy behind in posting!

I realized I never even posted our Santa pictures from Christmas... better late than never.  I love how Ethan is so uninterested and focused on his candy cane while Miss Emeree is having a hissy fit.

This smile of Ethan's is my favorite!!

And I tend to use Emeree's lap to hold things while I'm carrying her in the car seat and don't have enough hands to carry everything... like library books/movies, and even a big bowl of pasta.  I love how she's peeking out from behind the bowl.  It reminds me of that one cartoon comic strip guy.

Minute to Win it Activity

Michael and I are both leaders in YM and YW at church.  Our joint activity last night was a Minute to Win it competition.  One of the games is called "Junk in the Trunk" where you strap a kleenex box on your back and jump and wiggle around to get all the ping pong balls out. . . here's a link to the game on the tv show.

After all the youth made it through this game, we strapped it on Ethan and let him try it.  He kept it on and tried for about 30 minutes.  After the first few minutes of not getting any out, he settled for running around and picking up the ones from other games and collecting them in the box.

Trying to Exercise

Michael found this plan to be able to do 100 push-ups in a row and 200 sit-ups in a row.  It's supposed to be a 6 week plan, but of course since he's Michael, he condensed it into a 3 week plan.  And of course he printed out a spreadsheet for me too.  (but my numbers are a lot lower than his - yesterday he had to do 4 sets of 45-50 sit ups each - I only had to to 4 sets of about 15 each).

And of course that means that the kids crawl all over us while trying to exercise.  We mostly try to do these when it's nap time or bed time.  It's a little easier that way :)

We don't use the "ab roller" thing normally, but it's impossible to do a sit up with a 2 year old on your chest, so we got this out of the garage so Ethan could participate.

She's ONE!

Emeree turned one last week!  Here are the photos from her party. 

I woke up at 3:30 that morning with the realization that I hadn't made her a special birthday shirt yet!!!  I know, the horror!  So of course I had to whip one up instead of sleep.  Here's her special shirt.  Oh, and she started walking last week on her own!  Exciting!

Becky made her this adorable hat - Max also got one for his birthday in blue.  But she said this pom-pom yarn was horrible to work with.  So these were probably the last she'll make.

Here is Ethan helping her open her presents

She got a rocking horse, and she actually rocks back and forth on it.  I love that it's so close to the ground because she can get off it by herself safely!

This picture was literally seconds after sitting down the cupcake.  She didn't waste a second and dug right in.

I made a cupcake cake - the picture is hard to tell how big they are, but the center cake took 1 1/2 cake mixes and the 8 cupcakes took the other box and a half.  Even the small cupcakes were bigger than the standard ones - they are 2 piece (a top and a bottom). 

Cupcakes!

Michael took 186 pictures of Emeree's b-day party, so it will take me a while to sift through them to find a couple good ones to post.  But in the meantime, here is a sneaky cupcake eater.

Letter to my Children

Dear Ethan and Emeree,

I love being your mother and am lucky to be a stay at home mom.  But . . .

Must we poop just minutes after getting a diaper change?  Contrary to what you might think, I do not enjoy changing your diapers.  And is there some rotation game this week that I'm not aware of?  Is it a race to see who can do it fastest?  You two seem to take turns so that I end up changing 4 diapers in less than an hour.  Diapers don't grow on trees and the garbage man told us on Tuesday we have been over the garbage weight limit the last couple weeks - due to your many diapers. 

Ethan, your little sister is not a nail.  The toy hammers are not meant to hammer the baby's head.  And when the toy hammers go in toy time out, we don't use the funnel as a hammer either.

Emeree, the measuring cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons are not pacifiers.  And if you're going to empty out all the drawers in the kitchen, can you at least give me a timeline of when you'll be able to put them away too?

Despite the dirty diapers, time outs and days with no naps, I still love you.

P.S. you have my permission (and your dad's too) to scratch up, chew on, and destroy the Alvin and The Chipmunks DVD.

THE 'Stache

Halloween 2010

This year, Ethan was a Pirate and Emeree was Raggedy Ann

We had fun at the Trunk-or-Treat at the Ward Party and Ethan was fabulous at saying "Thank you" to everyone.  I had to prompt him for it the first set of cars, but he did it on his own after that.  And he really got into it this year.

And Mom made the costumes!  Thank you, Mom!

Neither of them were smiling or looking at the camera at the same time, so I don't have a great "group" shot of them.  And in this one, Ethan had just finished eating a blue sucker, so his teeth are blue :)

Here's a great shot of Emeree!

And a cheesy pirate!