Cheney lake

Lukey woke up and immediately noticed the ducks "buuh". His awesome big sisters and brother showed him the ropes. They taught him how to pick up rocks and throw them in to the water. Pretty cute if you ask me.

Look at that cheesey grin (and please don't ask why Kelz has a flash light in her hand- it's a long story :) )

See what a quick learner he is- and I got about 20 more pictures just like this one :)

Those are smiles in case you were wondering :) (they look mad or something :)

And this is the one I took myself- I'm sick of not having pictures of me with my kids- they're gonna start to think they didn't have a mom- so even if I have to be one-armed-- so be it.

Bike Ride to Cheney Lake

the kids and I walked (well, Cherry and Kelz rode) to Cheney Lake today; it was the first time the girls have been able to ride their bikes ALL THE WAY there AND BACK! We were so excited and proud of them :)
They both feel like real bike riders now! It was about a 3 hour event to go there, picnic, play, and come home, so it was a pretty big deal for them :) And I'm just happy that I know they can do it now- I spent many a walk last year carrying their bikes home--not my favorite! This just opens so many doors for us :)

we were SO EXCITED to see most of the lake had melted since a week ago when we were there. And of course the DUCKS were there! wahoo!

Lukey slept most of the way of course.

The kids fed most of their lunches to the ducks unfortunately, but hey- what's a trip to the lake without feeding the ducks :) they just ran back and forth from the picnic table to the ducks.

Finger-painting

I totally hate finger-painting so we don't do it very often, but Cherry talked me in to it, so here it is.

Walking home from Goose Lake

He was too scared to sit on the ball, but he wanted to sit on the rock :)

The kids all took turns riding in the stroller on the way home :)

runnin'!!

Kelz runs so cute!

here's a back of the kids picture for ya Julz

Having a ball

jumpin of the ball!

Walk to Goose Lake Park

Lukey in the "ship" at Goose Lake Park

Sitting on the "plank"

Lukey WALKING at the park- yay!

cute big sis

The Carnival

We went to this cute little carnival put on by a nearby Elementary School. The kids had a lot of fun playing games and winning prizes, but Cherry and Kelz favorite thing was getting their faces painted. This is supposed to be a butterfly.

Here's Kelz having them paint her rocketship.

More at the Park

Cherry is so cute!!

cherry helping lukey go down the slide

what a cutie pie!

he's getting so old!

And this is what Kelz did while we were at the park-- that's all she does is DRAW!

The Boys at the Park

Here's the little monkey in action- he LOVES the parks!

Here's Bubba doing his thing

He's so adorable!

This was his first time climbing up this ladder- he was a little scared, but he made it all the way to the top and now that's his favorite thing at the park.

WEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

Update

So, April is finally over- I thought it would never end (not to sound negative or anything, it just seemed like it was dragging). We are finally done seeing snow, and started seeing the signs of Spring!!! We're so excited. Cherry points out EVERY bud on EVERY tree that she sees when we go on walks. For all of you temperature fanatics- it's been in the 50's for the most part, for the last 2 weeks. The sun has been coming up around 6:30 I think (it's hard to tell, but it starts getting light around 5:30 or 6:00). Then it sets around 10:30. Kinda fun! I LOVE the sun!! We are totally taking advantage of the nice weather. We went on a walk Saturday to Goose Lake, it's a little farther of a walk than I had anticipated, but it was really fun. The kids actually did really well too. There is a lake, and a playground, and in the Summer they have part of the Lake roped off for swimming and part for paddleboats. It's still a little frozen right now, but it won't be for long.
There are some new developments in Nate's applying for a job, if you wanna hear about it just ask. It's too much information to put on here, but it should be getting us back home sooner than we had planned, so that is pretty exciting. We will see! We wanna wait until the end of the year anyway though so that we can be eligible for the PFD next year. Nate just finished another semester of school (only 2 more to go), and he did REALLY well, I think it's okay for me to brag- he has a 3.91!!! WAHOO! And he is supposedly done with all of the harder classes. We are looking forward to being able to spend a little more time with him during these three weeks while he is home. He's working SO HARD, I hope his work can pay off soon!
The kids are doing well. They are all so happy that Summer is coming. Cherry and Kelz are riding their bikes a lot and playing outside ALL THE TIME. Cherry is really excited to register for school which we will do shortly. She was teaching Bubba how to pump on the swings the other day which I thought was totally a cool-big-sister thing to do. She's growing up so much. She doesn't pretend to be a dog as much which I must say I thought would never happen. But she is way into horses right now. Kelz is a little lady these days. She loves to have her hair up in two buns, and she likes wearing necklaces and being pretty. She has to wear a dress and her cute little black sunday shoes all the time. She always wants to pretend that Brad is my baby and Luke is her baby. She's really funny. She spends most of her time drawing though. No matter where she goes she has a paper and a pen with her. And I can't tell you how quickly we go through paper and markers because of her :) I guess she got her Daddy's genes. We caught Bubba making way to drive his little "bike" (it's more like a big wheel) down the ramp from the shed. He's a total boy- he had a wagon and a bike right at the end, and barely remembered to move them before risking his life to go down. He did make it safely though, and then he went down a few times before it became boring. He's a fun little boy. He is really good at focusing on things (when he wants to), and accomplishing them no matter how long it takes him. He emptied the entire dishwasher- took him like 20 minutes but he did it all- and all by himself- he didn't want any help- it was pretty fascinating :) He loves cuddling up with Kelz on the couch when they watch a movie. (So Brent and Heidi aren't the only ones that like cuddling with their siblings :) ). Lukey is really getting around now. He can walk really well. He is able to crawl up to the top of the playground and go down the slide by himself now. It's pretty cute to see him do big boy things. When we got home from church yesterday he actually set the table for dinner- all by himself. Nobody coached him or even asked him to do it- I think he was just hungry and knew that that could only speed up the process :) But it was so cute of him! The kids totally cheered him on the whole time. He's loving that he can go outside just like everyone else. And he's getting another tooth. We are almost done weaning him from his bottle- thank goodness! It's been a long road, but I think he is almost happy with the sippy cup now. Stinks that we waited so long.
So anyway- that's what we are up to. Life is good. We will be celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary next week and I can't believe it!!! They have gone by so fast! We have been so blessed. I really wouldn't trade this time in our lives for anything.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY EVERYBODY!!

Some more of Kelz' art

This is a picture of Daddy at his school- complete with the planes and all

And here is Daddy at work- "dat duh walk way"

eating- with a spoon

This is just cute- he likes to eat holding a spoon- but he hasn't quite got it down-- I don't think it's fast enough for him- but I just think he's adorable :)

Snow Shovel Fight

The kids were outside playing with what was left of our snow, and so I went out to get pictures and they all started attacking me with shovels of snow! We sure had a lot of fun throwing snow at each other this winter! I made the mistake of calling this a "snowball fight" and Cherry corrected me and said it was a "snow shovel fight"! And if you asked her about it she would tell you she "got mommy in the face!! :)", and that mommy "got her in the ear!!". We had a lot of fun though.

This is a picture of Bubba sneaking a snowball to throw :) He got me in the back! Look at that little smirk on his face :) He's such a tease!

And of course Kelz! She's the silent one that sneaks up out of nowhere and gets ya good! She's pretty sensitive though- she and Bubba both don't take it too well when you get them back :) Guess we'll have to wait till they're a little older to have a real war with them :) Cherry was a real good sport though- and took what she dished out :) I loved it!

First time back to the playground without snow

The place sure looks different without all the snow! :)

I love this picture with bubba looking at Lukey

and then Lukey looking at Bubba :) They're such cute little boys!

Cherry feels like she is the boss when we are at this playground because this is "where she is going to go to school in the fall!" (the mountains look cool too :))

Here's Kelz doing her thing :) If you know Kelz you know what she's doing- she's making a home with the rocks :) She's such a nester :) Busy as a bee!