Our artist

Carson now is officially untrustworthy around anything that he can write with. His quest to be "artistic" has led him to draw on the wall with a sharpie, scribble all over daddy's home inspection paperwork, and now draw on himself with mommy's lip liner. I know that taking a photo of him is probably only going to encourage him further, but I just couldn't help it!

Garden day at preschool

Tate and Carson go to a great preschool which hosted this "garden party". The kids and their parents all came to preschool last Friday to plant seeds and starter plants in the school's garden. Then over the summer, they will get to go out each day to see what is growing and pick the ready veggies.

Tate took great care to dig a hold for and water his bean plants.

The boys then went to the next "station" where they could dig in the dirt for worms. Tate and Carson worked together with their spoons and shovels to collect worms on a paper plate. They watched the worms wriggle around for a bit before finding good homes for them in the garden.

I took Tate's picture when he first started preschool last year, so now it is Carson's turn to pose for his "big boy" school picture.

This is the room where the kids do their artwork, playdough, and messy activities. Carson paints everyday, but I'm convinced that he ends up with more paint on himself then on his paper. Thank goodness for washable paint!

Baby bath time

Each night we are so busy with dinner, baths, book reading, teeth brushing and then finally bedtime, that I have not yet(until now) taken any baby bath pictures. So....this is Miss Holly having fun in her bathtub. She likes to watch and try to grab at the spray of water and loves to wiggle in the warm water.

A close up of a clean baby

All wrapped up cozy in her bath towel and ready for pjs.

The kids

My wonderful sister-in-law Dawn was kind enough to take some photos of the kids while she was here visiting this week from Utah. Rah Rah and PaPa who live in Sun City have a great grassy preserve area with beautiful oak trees just up the street from their house. On sunny days, we take the kids for a walk here and go for a picnic. Today, it made for a great background for some family photos.

Holly was very cooperative and very photogenic for all her photos and was happy to smile for the camera.

Tate was also very cooperative for his photos. Uncle Lance tried all his tricks to try to get a "real" smile out of Tate. Tate says "Cheeeeeeeeeese" the entire time his photo is being taken, and doesn't stop saying the word the entire time!

Carson was not at all wanting to have his picture taken and would cry or scowl despite our best efforts to get him to laugh. Finally, the only way to get out a smile was for me to sit with him!

Getting ready for Easter

The kids greeted the Easter bunny out in front of the Nugget grocery store. After lots of hugs, high-fives, and candy....we finally made our way into the store to buy eggs to take back home for coloring.

They were so excited to make their eggs all the colors they could think of. I don't think they have ever eaten hard boiled eggs, so I will be very curious to see if they will like to eat the eggs that they worked so hard to decorate.

We were actually able to get all of the eggs colored with no spills or accidents on the table or clothes...how about that for careful!

Carson loves the color green right now and he would have been completely happy to color each of his eggs all green, green, and more green.

We were lucky enough to have Mimi come over to lend an extra pair of helping hands in the egg coloring event. We have so many eggs now that we will have to have an egg salad sandwich party!

Holly will get her chance to help color eggs next year, but for now she got to watch from her "Bumbo" chair that our neighbor loaned to us. She really likes to sit up in it and watch what is going on around her. Won't be long now before she is sitting up on her own all by herself!!!

Funderland and the park

My mom and I took the boys to Funderland and the park last weekend while Eric was out of town. It was a beautiful day and a great day to spend outside. We've taken the boys to Funderland before, the last time was in August last year and on that visit, I was quite pregnant with Holly. This time, Holly got to go with us, but no pony rides yet for her!! After the pony riding, the kids went on the amusement park rides including a dragon mini rollercoaster at Funderland. Then we had a picnic lunch at the park and were surrounded by millions of tiny white dasies in the grass. The boys kept busy eating their PB&J sandwiches and picking as many flowers as possible.

Carson cried the last time we tried to get him to ride the pony, but this time he loved it! Carson's pony was named Candy!

Tate is an old pro at the pony rides now. This time he rode on this sweet brown pony named Rocky.

Long time no see - here is what were up to!

Now that the holidays are over and the weather has been mostly cold and rainy, we have been busy with day to day life but nothing so exciting that I've been compelled to get out the camera. So...I have not been so good about updating this blog with new photos over the last few months, but hope to better starting now. Here is a brief idea of what we are doing these days!

Tate is 4 1/2 now and continues to amaze and entertain us daily. He loves baby Holly and tells her how pretty she is each day. He loves to make her smile and is very concerned for her well being. If he sees her spit up, he runs to get a rag to wipe her chin or if she starts to cry, he goes to the frig to see if there is a bottle in there for her. He is a great big brother. He is a sweet boy who tries to be helpful to mom and dad too. He likes to help me cook dinner almost every night and is so good to happily clean up all the toys at the end of the day. Last week he told me that his two favorite things are cleaning and candy...he is definitely my child!!

Carson is 2 1/2 now and is very fun and very busy. He is so sweet when wants to be held on my lap and have me give him back rubs. He says "I love you" many times throughout the day and is an overall charming kid. He does have some very definite ideas though about things and if these things don't happen then he lets you know it by flinging himself out flat on his stomach onto the floor and does a silent protest. These amusing protests are most often brought on when he is told he cannot have anymore of his favorite food (string cheese) or drink (chocolate milk) because he would have these things all day if he could. He just started preschool this month at Little Orchard Preschool, so now he goes with Tate two days a week. He seems to have fun there playing, learning and doing art time. He brings home lots of artwork and has come home each day with more paint on his clothes then on his paper. I think I should invest in oxyclean stock!

Holly is 4 months old today and is a great baby. She sleeps all night long and has a very sweet disposition. She smiles at anyone that makes eye contact with her (much to the delight of the little old ladies at the grocery store). She is most content when sitting on my lap and just watching the activity of her two brothers. I don't need to try hard to keep her entertained when she can watch the silliness of her bothers and the dogs.

I have been back to work (just 2 mornings, 1 afternoon a week) for about a month now. I'm lucky enough to have a job that I really enjoy, so its been good to be back at it again. Most of my free time has been spent at the gym 6 days a week. It's hard work to keep it up, but has been rewarding and gives me the energy to keep up with the kids. Eric is busy working really long days, followed by more long hours of computer work each night. He is getting a much deserved golfing weekend in Bodega Bay next week with some of his buddies.

Ok, so that is us right now wrapped up into a few paragraphs.