Fun Stuff We Are Doing

A few random pictures of some of our activities and outings lately. I fully admit I have been absolutely horrible about taking pictures so far this year. We have been so busy with house stuff, time has just gotten away from me.

My poor kids ... I make them earn those gummy bears!

Alia's version of the activity - I was pretty impressed. She did this with ZERO help from me!

Sorting colors and matching them to the numbers with Easter m&m's.

Max needed a little help with this one. He had a hard time focusing once he realized he could eat the treats when he was done.

At Alia's suggestion, we stopped to take a picture here after a trip to one of our favorite play places "Outdoors In'. We were killing time for an entire morning when our house was being shown.

Last Sunday, during our open house we took the kids to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). They have an amazing play area for little kids. We spent all of our time there and in the fancy cafe. The food is great!

more playing and learning

*pretending to be chipmunks*

That's Alia's chipmunk face :-) As you can see Max managed to gather quite a stash of nuts.

An outstanding little project that arrived by way of the Easter Bunny (and the Dollar Tree). The kids had a great time putting these together.

Alia Reading

Here is a short clip of Alia reading for those of you who aren't on Facebook and haven't seen it yet. You may need to turn your volume up a bit to hear her. She is reading to us every night before bed now. It is amazing how much progress she has made in the past month.

Easter 2013

I think this was the first time all 4 of us colored Easter eggs together. You'll notice we are wearing short sleeves and tank tops on the night before Easter ... in March. It was an absolutely gorgeous weekend here!

My handsome little buddy

Max was very excited to find bunny crackers and colored goldfish in his Easter basket. He also got a Francesco car , a  Cars book, Silly Putty, some art projects and a toy shaving kit for the bath tub.

Alia found her Easter basket hiding in the pantry. Alia's had many of the same things as Max, but also received a Bob the Builder DVD, bath tub crayons and two "My Little Ponies".

Two of the cutest kids around in their Easter best.

Sibling LOVE!

Poor Alia had a fever and was under the weather most of the weekend, but still loved wearing her beautiful dress and flowery headband. Max even let me put gel in his hair and make it look just like Daddy's :-)

Blake and Kelli Visit

We had a great visit with Blake and Kelli. They came all the way from New Jersey and somehow managed to get a direct flight. I'm still pretty impressed with that, since we never get so lucky! Here are a few pics from their stay. 

On Monday, we went to the zoo while Jason worked. Uncle Blake was on an elephant ear mission and finally managed to get one. He was kind enough to share with the kids and it was a big hit!

Pretending to be eagles in the nest ...

Max "way up high"

Jason, Blake and Kelli did a wine tasting trip

More pics from the zoo ... this one is ridiculously cute!

My attempt at getting a picture of all 4 of them together. Blake and Kelli bought the kids those little stuffed animal snakes. They gave them a choice of just about anything in the zoo store and that's what Alia wanted (which was therefore what Max wanted). Alia named hers "Petty", so Max did too. 

On their final night in town, we got a babysitter (who took this picture for us) and the grown-ups went out to Toro Bravo, our favorite restaurant :-)

Vegas Baby!

Once again, I'm a little behind on my posting. It's been a crazy, busy and totally fun month! My mom came out to Portland to hang with us a bit. The last few days she was here, Jason and I ditched her and skipped town to Las Vegas to help Clint Pies ring in the BIG 4-0! The sunshine and slower pace felt great until someone over-served me margaritas and Jason got the flu. Luckily, that was on the very last day we were there :-)

On the plane (one the world's cheapest airline, Spirit Airlines, that we don't recommend) heading to Las Vegas. This was the longest and farthest we have ever been away from the kids together.

Quality grown up time :-)

Doesn't get much better than this ... SUN, margarita and a crossword

Our party of 6 was too big to fit in a cab, so we were "forced" to take a limo. Bummer, huh!

Here are the boys ... Jason, Clint, Ryan and Ben

New House

I'm pretty sure the word is out with just about everyone now. We are moving next month! We are so excited. The house is larger, in a great neighborhood, is literally next door to an outstanding elementary school, park, playground, community pool and a preschool that we will walk to (when weather allows :-). We are so excited to have a guest room for when family comes to visit and a TON of storage space. There is no basement but there are big closets everywhere. 

I'll make a long story short ... the current owners had to re-side the house and we got to pick the new colors when they painted the siding. I think it looks great. There is a ton of painting to do inside (their kids, now all grown, expressed their creativity in several rooms) and we will have to get new carpet because of Jason's pet allergies. Lots to do, but we couldn't be more thrilled.

Our house is scheduled to go on the market April 5. We are spending most of March trying to get it ready to go.

NEW siding and paint :-)

OLD siding and paint

Valentine's Day

Yes, I know it's a tad late. We've been one very busy family this year! Here are some pictures from Valentine's Day ...

Coloring with some heart shaped crayons

The classic candy sorting activity.

Max did a really good job with it!

Valentine's Day breakfast (heart shaped pancakes and "fruit on a stick") as requested by the kiddos.

Mommy and Daddy got them some new dishes for Valentine's Day too. 

Max got Cars and Superman and Alia got Princesses and Minnie Mouse

My handsome little man waiting for his class party to begin.

The gorgeous and festive Alia at her class party.

Yes ... that's ice cream cake! In addition to it being Valentine's Day, it was one of his classmate's birthdays as well. Twice the sugar, hooray!