Prom...

Some of Cayden's favorite girls! (All are students of mine). He had fun cheering for them during Grand March :)

I'm in for trouble...

Aleah (in pink) and Cayley (in green)

One afternoon, I'm off in the kitchen doing something. I hear all of these giggles and squeals of delight coming from the living room. I go to investigate and find the little girls sitting in the chair. Those little climbers! (And I have to say that I love the static hair). Aleah can now climb up all things in the living room. Cayley is bit more reserved, and doesn't climb quite as much as Aleah. And well, Brycey is just a bit more "husky" and doesn't quite get up on things as easily as the girls. Although I did observe him climb up on the couch the other day.

Picture says it all

I don't normally like to draw attention to myself, but I thought I would share this for two reasons.

1). My hubby is deployed and he missed out :(

2). Because of the writing on the cake. Now the cake maker (not going to mention her name) did a very nice job. But she did point out to us (Myself and the kiddos), that she kind of messed up on the "Y" on birthday. Then Cayden says, "But Grandma, you also messed up on that "A" oops, said I was going to say who the cake maker was -wink, wink ;). The "A" Cayden pointed to was the A in Happy.

You wouldn't believe how much the babies love cake! Cayden on the other hand could take it or leave it (he definitely doesn't get that from me!)

Easter

Cayden and Bryce HAVE to have matching shirts whenever possible. I think it is funny because it is ALWAYS Cayden's idea. I wonder how long Cayden will "be nice" to Brycey and want to match Bryce.

The girls... Well, they are peanuts! I bought these dresses for the girls last fall to wear from Thanksgiving (size 18 months). The girls are 20 months, and still wearing 12 months clothes. At their 18 month check up (which was really at 19 months), Aleah weighed 20 pounds and Cayley weighed 21 pounds, and that was with clothes on and WET diapers. (By the way, Bryce weighed in at 26 pounds, or was it 27 pounds-I can't remember).

Easter Egg hunt was fun. The "big kids" had fun, even running on little sleep. As for the "little kids", the girls did fine. Bryce wanted nothing to do with the grass! I set him down and he immediately stood on his tippy toes and screamed and cried! It's going to be a long summer for us if doesn't want to go on the grass!

Here is some pictures from Easter.

Cayden checking out the gifts from the Easter Bunny

Bryce

Aleah

Cayley

Cayley with Grandpa

Aleah with Kara (babysitter)

Bryce staying clear of the grass.

Cayden and cousin Ash looking for eggs.

Counting eggs to make sure they found them all!

Easter Lunch
(L to R: Cousin Ash, Cayden, Cousin Addy)

Basketball obsession

I need to preface this post with some information. I'm guessing sometime in January, I took Cayden to a high school basketball game. We HAD to sit on the floor next to the student section and by the cheerleaders. For WEEKS after this game, we had to cheer for "Team Minot" who happened to be the team wearing whatever color shirt Cayden was wearing. If it was just me watching him, I had to be the cheerleader cheering for Team Minot. If it was me and one of my parents, I had to the cheerleader and my parent had to be "the announcer person". Oh, and Cayden was playing basketball in the living room with one of those hoops that hooks over the door.

So now to the post... While we were in MN for Easter, we took the "big kids" to the Harlem Globetrotters. It was a blast! Here are some pictures of the action. Unfortunately, I didn't get any of Cayden or the rest of the crew that went.

Here is Globie, their mascot. Can't remember who he was supposed to be in this picture...

... But this would be Globie as Beyonce. I thought this little skit was hilarious.

And some action shots of the actual "game".

Let's Pretend...

Let's just pretend that we went to a Twin's Game. The MN Twins had their home opening games in the new Target Stadium over Easter Weekend. We ended up driving by the new stadium on our way to a different event. So, I thought I would snap a few pictures and pretend we were there.

Easter Egg Dying

We went to Minneapolis to spend Easter with my sister and her family. Unfortunately, the day after we got there, I felt really ill and spent all day in bed. I did get out of bed long enough to snap a few pictures of the "big kids" dying Easter eggs. For some reason when we are all together, I stop referring the the babies as babies and call them the "little kids". So, the "little kids" dyed their own Easter eggs later, but I unfortunately missed it not feeling well.

Here is the start of the egg dying. One of our babysitters came along to help me in the car and with the "little kids" in general during the trip. Here she is helping Cayden (far left), and cousins Addy and Ash are also dying eggs.

Lisa (my sister) snuck in the picture. She was helping out with the egg dying.

Getting a nice smile from Cayden can be quite challenging. Here was two attempts. I would say these are decent smiles, but not true Cayden smiles.

Sugar and Spice and Everything ICE!

Cayden was in his first ice show! Kiki (Scott's mom) came up to help me with the babies. Ice show is a crazy time for me as a coach, and it was even more crazy having a child skating in it as well. We enjoyed her visist and loved having her here to help. It's so nice to have an extra set of arms.

So here are some pictures of the ice show.
Cayden (far left) and some of his fellow "Big Rock Candy Mountain" Skaters.

He loved the head light they got to wear.

An attempt of an action shot of Cayden doing a "dip".

Cayden in front of the awesome backdrop. Had to be pretty far away to get the main piece of the backdrop. There was so much more to the backdrop!

Close up of my favorite little skater!

Cayden and I after the show.

And a video of one of Cayden's performances.

Where did you find that?

Aleah, where did you find a pacifier!?! I decided to take the babies pacifiers away from them when I had a long weekend off of work. Apparently I missed one! And for some reason now that the pacifiers are gone, the babies decide to throw all of their stuffed animlas and blankets out of their cribs. (Surprisingly, the removal of pacifiers went really smooth. I can happily say that I am so glad that they are gone!)

... Makes your heart sing.

This might not make your heart sing, but it sure did mine. After a long day of work, followed by job #2, followed by a meeting concerning my place of work, coming to a house where all kids were in bed before I could get home. I came home to find this in my garage.

Sidewalk chalk in the garage by wonderful 4 year old. So you have to look at the stick person just right to see it, and who doesn't love a little tic-tac-toe? This truly was what I needed to see when I came home. I couldn't help but smile and feel my spirits lift after the physically and mentally exhausting day I had. It really was just one of "those days" and this made it so much better.

And then to walk into a sleeping house, what more could a parent ask for, especially one day after "Spring Ahead" Daylight savings?

Brush, Brush, Brush your teeth

Okay, here is my bad mommy moment. We, I mean, I just recently started brushing the babies teeth. And I haven't been that good about it. I am not always home to put the babies to bed because I am at my second job and don't get home until after they are in bed. Then in the mornings, they are often just waking up as I am on my way out of the house for job #1. Anyway... I have decided to do my best with this.

Quick (or not so quick) story of the first brushing: Started with Aleah as she is first in the room (left to right). She wanted nothing to do with it. Rather than fight with her, I moved on to Cayley. Cayley loved it! Brushed her teeth and went to Bryce. He took his pacifier out and opened wide for me. Brushed his teeth (and gagged him a bit). Then I went back to Aleah. She overcame her fear of the toothbrush after watching Cayley and Bryce and she enjoyed it also.

So now fastforward to this video... I decided last night to let the babies brush their own teeth (after I did my rounds). They thought this was great! You will see Cayley and Bryce took right to it. Aleah sat with her pacifier in her mouth. I took out the pacifier and then she brushed (sort of). What I didn't get on video is how ANGRY Aleah was with me when I took her toothbrush away to get them ready for bed. I had to pry it out of her fingers. Cayley and Bryce nicely handed theirs over.

Enjoy the video of the babies brushing their teeth by themselves for the first time!

Little Miss Fix It

Not sure what she is going to fix with only a hammer, but this is what Aleah insisted went on her tool belt. She brought the tool belt to me and insisted on wearing it.

Karate Video

With Daddy deployed, he unfortunately missed out on watching Cayden grow in Karate. So this is for you Daddy! Here is the warm up before Karate graduation.

When people come to visit...

The babies get very excited in their own way when people come to the house. I tried to catch it on video. It happened to by sunny out so that is why it is so bright at first. Bryce is in the red sweatshirt, Cayley is in the green shirt and Aleah is in the pink shirt. Bryce saw Grandma drive up and that signaled the girls. They get so excited and just don't know what to do. Aleah usually gets the most excited. The babies aren't talking yet (just a few words by chance I think), and so there are lots of baby grunts. I do think Aleah is saying "Hi" at times, but unfortunately not on the video.

Karate Graduation

Cayden getting his new belt with a blue star and his new headband.

Cayden wearing the new belt and headband (sorry the picture is a little blurry)

All of the kids who graduated to new belts, Showing off their muscles.

And a nice picture of all of the kids.