A to Z

Caitlyn has been learning/working on a letter a week. This week the letter was Z. Every night when I put her to bed we talk about what she did at school. Tonight she was eager to share her knowledge of "z".

She jumped down off her bed, while saying, "It's the letter in the book. Where is that book?"

Now she is thumbing through a stack of books in her nightstand. "Oh, here it is. Remember this book mama."

She begins flipping through each page.

This is going to take forever, I'm thinking.

She spots a name on the dedication page that begins with a z. Yeah! We are in luck!

Nope - we are headed to the end of the book.

I am trying to go through the process with her. "Is z at the beginning or end of the alphabet?"

Nothing. Flip. Flip.

"There it is! That is the letter z. We are doing that letter in class."

It is so worth it. On the way back through the back (flipping page by page) she finds R for Rickert, J for Jeff, N that is in her name, I that is also in her name and so forth and so on.

It is so much fun to learn with her and see how she puts it all together.

Happy Easter 2009

We had a fabulous Easter today! We made it to church on time, found a great parking spot and everything! Here are the kids opening their Easter baskets. I really tried to not load them up with too much candy and small toys that would just end up littering my house. They were still very excited!!! I was a little worried but it is so easy to please little ones. Brent kept calling the eggs "ball" and chucking them.
Here we are at lunch. Aunt Claudia got the kids presets that dance and sing songs and a ton of other toys to occupy them at lunch.

Uncle Les and Brent. I love the squished up eyes on Brent!
Aunt Claudia and Caitlyn.

Our family picture. Notice Brent's little plaid shoes. They are soooo cute!
My handsome men. I am starting to notice that Brent is beginning to look more like me (well, a little bit!).
Caitlyn dressed her self this morning. We laid all her clothes out last night. My mom used to do this every night before Easter and I loved waking up to my Easter clothes being hung up on my door (of course she made everything that night because she rocks!)
Caitlyn and Brent were not afraid of the Easter Bunny this year. Brent would not take his eyes off of the Easter Bunny though.
There were bunnies when we arrived.
Here are our precious little ones all dressed up and ready to go to church. Happy Easter!

Sneaky Kisses

Brent is finally giving kisses all the time when we ask for them. He even gives them when I tell him I love him! They are the best, little, wet kisses ever! He is becoming so affectionate with hugs, kisses and he is into snuggling again!

Caitlyn is fabulous too. She loves candy and she will do anything to get it. Even if that means she has to quietly move the stool over, get her Easter basket from school down, sneak it upstairs and eat all the candy in her bedroom while she is supposed to be napping and mommy really is. She then proceeds to clean up the red mess she makes on the carpet with a wet wipe, which doesn't work mind you. All this while trying to convince me that she had indeed taken a nap.

She is sleeping now!

Back to reality, Brent is on the table. Again.

Mastering his own spoon

Brent loves using his own utensil, especially since he sees everyone else doing it. He is getting pretty good at it (well with thick items - rice still goes flying). He says "all done" at the end. But the big bites are not until after that.

Six Flags 2

Six Flags is becoming a favorite of ours. The kids love it. This is another perfect day because it was overcast and windy so the lines were minimal.
Caitlyn is usually so frantic of the life size characters but she is beginning to embrace some of them.
Lots of wait time. I hope the bars didn't give him a complex.
Brent's favorite ride, so far is the train. He lights up and gets so excited.
Caitlyn loves this ride and will ride it by herself. It takes her up high and drops her repeatedly. I am not a big fan of it myself.
My happy guy.
Caitlyn and I went on the oldest ride, Judge Roy, after Caitlyn went on it with her daddy.
Up we go!

Six Flags

We are having so much fun as Caitlyn is getting older. Brent is still a little young to enjoy Six Flags but he is still having fun too.
We have found out that the best days to go are cold or rainy days - the lines are much shorter!
Caitlyn loves roller coasters and can ride bigger ones. She is tall enough and daring enough to ride rides that are up to 42 inches tall. That is so hard to believe for me.
Brent on the other hand does not really enjoy movement other than his stroller.
But since this picture he has smiled on the swings.
Brent is in the back with Caitlyn and he cried the whole time. Caitlyn tried her best to console him while on the ride. So sweet.
You can't see her, but Caitlyn is right beside Jeff on the Tony Hawk, a "big" roller coaster that spins around and around while going up and down really, really fast. She loved every minute of it. She was giggling the whole way. Crazy girl!
We wrapped up our day with a ride on the carousel!
Brent is now beginning to say "cheez" for the camera!

Guitar Hero

My little hero's are not the only one with games these days. We are jammin' out to Guitar Hero and Rockband these days.
DeeDee, Jeff's sister, mom and Aunt Betty also got in on the fun when they visited last week. I wish I had more pictures. Memories will have to suffice.
Caitlyn is pretty excited when she gets the guitar and doesn't mind getting boo-ed off the stage.

Great Wolf Lodge

We got the chance to go to Great Wolf Lodge last week with Jeff's mother, sister and aunt. The kids had so much fun and I hope they had as much fun as we did. Here are just a few pictures to highlight are special vacation.
Brent loved the water and got so brave that he would go up the stairs and down the kiddy slide all by himself.
Caitlyn finally began to enjoy one of the slides in the kiddie area. Both of the kids loved the wave pool and lazy river.
We had a great time and the kids crashed when we got home!

Caitlyn's New Camera

Caitlyn got a new camera for her 4th birthday from a very dear friend. The pictures aren't the best pixel quality and the camera doesn't have a flash, but what I love is the perspective she is able to capture that I will never be able to. She is enjoying her camera and thankfully it is durable as Brent loves to get his hands on it every chance he gets!
It's dark but you can see how Jeff attached Brent's basketball hoop to the stairs. He even more recently raised it. This is one of my little man's favorite activities, "ball, ball"
It is very difficult to get through the garage without Brent climbing up on the four-wheeler.
He loves to ride.
As you can see by this gorgeous smile!
Here is life at my house around 5:00 every night. Holding a baby, putting him down, picking him, etc, all while cooking a "gourmet" meal. Priceless shot!
Here's daddy and Brent (he's in camo - can you find him?) trying to get me out of bed.
Who can sleep and resist a smile like that?
Here are two of Caitlyn's friends. The piano is always a big hit at our house, too bad I never sit down to play anymore.

Hmmm, I'm sure I'm looking up the stairs at one of the children running through my house that afternoon.
Carson just adores Brent.
Lastly, it is not a great picture but it shows exactly what Brent is into these days, crawling up on every surface that he possibly can. His main word of choice it seems is, "up, up." In fact he says that even when he wants to get down.

Thank you Caitlyn for showing a different view of our life. It's priceless and mommy loves it!

By the way, there are two posts today!

Bull Riding

We enjoyed dinner this week at one of favorite restaurants which just happens to have a bull to ride. Caitlyn and Kenley had a blast riding with their daddy's after dancing on the dance floor all night.