Getting so big!

Why do they grow up so fast?!?!

What are we allergic to??

This has happened with spinach dip and with potato salad. And it's just her cheeks, she's perfectly fine eating the stuff...but YOU try to keep food off of a 21 month-old's face!

Princess Piggy-Tails

Can she get any cuter?

Marching in March!

We celebrated March with a Marching band! (the girl on the left is one of my daycare girls)

Lucas got his first shiner!

The neighbor boy "accidentally" hit him in the face with his CAST...nice.

Great big brother!

Lucas is giving Abby a wagon ride in our backyard.

Isaac is a monkey!

You would think he'd be scared after his friend broke an arm, but I can't keep him out of the trees!

Lucas @ the dairy farm!

Lucas went to the Ropp Dairy Farm with his preschool. We toured the animals...a pair of Alpacas, Tom the Turkey, and lots of cows. The kids got to milk a heiffer, play with a 3-day old baby, and bottle feed some of the other little ones. They also took us on a hay ride and showed us how they make cheese from the fresh milk!

Hunting for Easter Eggs at Grandma Cindy's farm!

It was frigid cold and windy...but Abby was so excited that she found eggs!!!

baby smiles!

I think Maddy was about 2mos old here...















Such a good big Sissy, holding the baby!!

And we've had enough!!

It's been a while!

I've been slightly busy and kinda forgot to post on here...sorry! So, to catch you up to speed...well, I had a baby! If anything else important has happened, I'm too sleep deprived to remember! Madelyn Alice was born on Feb.2nd. She was 8lb 13oz and 20.5" long. She was (and still is!) supremely healthy, she's growing like a weed and tipped the scales at 14lb 3oz at her 2mo checkup! I won't bore you any further...all you wanted was a picture anyways, so here ya go, in no particular order...because the baby is screaming and I don't have the patience for this formatting:

Field trip to the Apple orchard!!

Here's Lucas searching for the best apples!

Lucas and the daycare girls feeding the goats.

Lucas checking out the turkeys!

New curtains!!

Here's the "before"...our lovely lace curtains hanging on the cheapest of cheap white pocket rods. I'm sure they would have lasted just fine in a house without kids and dogs, but my crew managed to shred the lace and pull the pocket rods out of the wall! It was definately time for an upgrade! And considering these lace ones came with the house, I was very happy the day they all went in the trash!

And here's the new curtains! I know they look a little strange b/c they are so short, but with kids and dogs, they need to be short!! As much as I love the long, floor-length curtains, they just aren't practical in my house.

The 20 week ultrasound!

In case you didn't know yet...SURPRISE!! Yup, we're expecting number 4 due Feb. 3rd! February is coming faster than you might expect, I'm currently 33 weeks pregnant, so this ultrasound photo is from 13 weeks ago!

If you really want to try and guess what the baby is, the top-left ultrasound picture is a gender shot, but unless you're trained at these kinds of things, I doubt you'll see much more than baby's femur bones!

I included a baby-bump picture from around 20 weeks. I'll get a more current one in the next couple of days....you will be surprised how much the bump has grown in the last 13 weeks!!

Lucas started preschool!

He goes 3 days per week for about 2 hours per day. The little girl he is standing with is one of my daycare girls, they go to "school" together.

Flag Football!!

Isaac played football last fall...I have a bunch of pictures, but my camera doesn't do *zooming* very well, so they're all from really far away! I can't even make out which kid is Isaac, so here's a fun picture...I think Isaac is the 2nd from the left. His team is wearing the black shirts. And yes, that's Jason coaching (white t-shirt & jean shorts)

Lucas liked to dress up in Isaac's uniform from last year....he claimed that he was going to cheer Isaac on, but much of his time was spent sitting in a chair, being lazy!

Abby was a great cheerleader too...when she wasn't trying to run on the field!!

And no day would be complete...

without trying to start a fire with an acetylene torch!! No, it didn't work...you can't burn green wood! I tried telling them that, but you know men and fires....they tried their darndest!!

The final resting place....

of the Springy Dingy Thingy!! At long last, the Springy Dingy Thingy has a home...and it's not in my driveway!! It sat very lonely for over a year in my driveway and it's finally in the ground...without further ado, here's the Springy Dingy Thingy....

You wouldn't think so, but the hole actually ended up being about waist-deep on Isaac...it took a couple of hours, then again it would have taken much longer if it weren't for Papa John loosening up all the dirt for the boys! Lucas & Isaac were such hard workers!

And here it is, in it's final resting place! I think we've all agreed that it will forever stay right here....our grandkids will be playing on it!!

Punk Rocker Baby!

It was bath-time...what could I say??

It's official...I'm lazy!

So my camera has been broken...and that's been my excuse for not blogging...but I just went and looked in my computer files and I have pictures from August thru November, so there's really no excuse. I'm just lazy. I'm going to be super busy the next few days, preparing for Christmas (because again, I'm lazy and I've waited until the last minute) but I will try to post more on here so you'all can see the kids!! :) (and I apologize in advance for the formatting...I have been working on this one post for the better part of an hour and it still looks crappy, sorry!!)

Here's a few from our August trip down to Georgia...This first one is the boys in the back of our new minivan (an '08 Honda Odyssey that I absolutely LOVE!)...we were just taking off from Illinois and they were armed and ready with their binoculars!

These next few were taken at Rock City in Lookout Mt., GA...it's a small tourist attraction built by a couple back during the great depression...they arranged stone paths winding in and out of some natural rock formations. It was a long walk, but we all had a great time!

This was a very scary ledge to be standing on...very high up, with nothing underneath!

Daddy & the kids at the top of a long, steep rock stairway.

Mom & the kids walking thru "Fat man's squeeze"

This was a scenic overlook area, there was a sign nearby showing how you could see 7 different states from this one vantage point!

We were able to see North & South Carolina, Tenessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Virginia, and of course we were in Georgia.



The mountain was about to collapse...thank goodness the boys are so strong!!