Training wheels are for sissies!

We've had some great weather the past few days... Since we know it'll be short lived, we've tried to spend a lot of time outside. After finding a you tube video of a guy mountain biking with his 3.5 year old, Tony has his heart set on a 4 year old mountain bike buddy. While we know realistically that probably won't happen, we decided to remove his training wheels to start getting him ready to ride like a big boy.

He was pretty excited at first. But that waned as he realized he couldn't just hop on and ride like Daddy. We went to a field at our local elementary school, figuring that falling there would be better than on asphalt... Tony started him coasting down some small inclines to get used to balancing the bike. Then, we took turns running behind/pushing him and then letting go. Sometimes, he fell almost immediately, and other times he made it pretty far. Funny thing - he really liked falling. So much in fact that even when he was riding great, after a little while, he would just hurl himself to the ground. Fun for him, but quite frustrating for us : )
This pic was the farthest he made it... started out where I'm standing, and made it to Tony...
Charlotte amused herself the entire time running up and down this hill!
We'll keep practicing!

Little dorks!

Happy heart day!!!

Hope you all had a happy Valentine's Day!!! We sure did. The kids wore their Valentine's outfits. Lucas spent the last 3 weeks making cards for his class. At school, he had a party and a sweetheart dance. Lottie enjoyed stealing all the candy from his school cards! Tony gave me some gorgeous white roses... Both kids got a car from the movie CARS... We hadn't planned on it, but ended up eating out at a Mexican restaurant. It wasn't busy at all, probably because it was 4:15. The kids behaved well, and we had a good time!

Snow days...

Back at the end of January, we were home for 3 days from a snow/ice storm... We had fun finding some new hills to sled on!!! As you'll see, Lucas preferred using his tushie instead of an actual sled...

Our "new" abode...

As many of you already know, we backed out of our contract on the other house... the short sale we signed a contract on in early September. What we like most about that house was the open floor plan, and how the whole back part of the house was one big room that ran the length of the house... One day we were sitting around and Tony thought, "hey, I'll bet we could knock out this chunk of wall to open up our living/dining room (play room)... The very next day, the wall came down. Over the next week, it was framed up, drywalled, spackled (with some help from Mike!), and painted... We love it and can't believe we didn't think of it sooner! Forgive the bad pics, but all the dust in the air really showed up in them...

Before:
During:
After:
After this was all done, I got really ambitious while home for a few snow days... And re-painted the living and dining rooms...

Welcome Summer!

Sorry, didn't mean to confuse anyone... No, it's not warm here yet. In fact it's been pretty cool and windy lately... But our friends Kari and Billy welcomed baby girl Summer Brianne on Feb 9! I cannot even fathom that Lucas and Charlotte were ever that tiny (even though I know they were). The kids were not too interested in her. Lucas couldn't have cared any less... Lottie tried to poke her in the head once, and then just stood near me. No jealousy at all... And it didn't make me want to have a third kid at all, so that's good : )

What are you all about?

This morning, Lucas said out of the blue, "I'm all about racecars and Dino Dan is all about dinosaurs". So, I decided to ask him what many more people were all about... I had to write it down before I forgot!

What are you all about Lucas?
Racecars

What's Charlotte all about?
Shoes and boots

Daddy?
Pablo (our black outdoor cat)

Mommy?
Me (as in Lucas)

Pop?
Wood

Mommom?
Us (as in Lucas and Char)

Gigi?
Us

Pablo?
Getting back in the house

Jacob? (friend from school)
Dumptrucks

Tyleal? (friend)
Getting me to play with him

Danny? (neighbor)
Niz (his wife)

Niz?
I don't know

Salem & Oreo? (the cats)
Being bad

Grammie & Grampie?
Coming to see me

Ms. Kathy? (his teacher)
Teaching me stuff

Sister Lucia? (the nun that works with his class)
Hurting us. Sometimes she grabs our arm too hard when we don't listen. (ha!!!!)

Ms. Otis? (the other teacher in his room for the afternoon)
Putting out the beds for nap

Kids are too funny!!!