Fishing.Friends.Fun

This past weekend the sun finally decided to come out in Ohio! We had great weather and knew it probably wouldn't last too long so we took full advantage of it. We spent the day outside with our good friends Tyler and Haylie. They are big outdoor people and have all that fun stuff so we went fishing with them in our neighborhood.

Josh and Haylie feeding the ducks.

Natalie was a little unsure of the ducks so she just stayed on the hill and watched.

The boys getting everything ready for fishing!

Mark and Josh putting a worm on the hook.

Josh liked the fishing for a little while, but I think it requires a little more patience than a 3 year old has! He spent most his time finding bugs and throwing rocks and sticks into the pond.

Mark caught the first little fishie of the day!

After doing a little scoping out of the pond Mark found an area with quite a few fish in it and had Josh come fish over there in hopes he would catch a little one! Well he did! He caught his very first fish ever and he even reeled it in himself! It was the biggest catch of the day!!

He liked catching it but didn't want to get too close to it!

Of course, on our walk home, we had to stop at the park and get a little see-saw action in!

Natalie was all tuckered out.

That evening we headed over to Tyler and Haylie's for dinner.

The kids look a little beat huh?!

We roasted hot dogs over a fire that the boys made in the grill...funny huh?! We had tons of fixin's for them and they were delish! A perfect way to top off such a great day!

The boys played some Bocci...

...and us girls watched them and enjoyed the weather!

Thanks Tyler and Haylie for such a fun day!! We love having you guys so close to us!!

Two Cute Dinosaurs!

Joshua LOVES dinosaurs. Anything and everything about dinosaurs he is crazy about. His favorite shirt is his "sharp tooth" shirt. He would wear it everyday if I would let him. He has two bouncy balls that have dinosaurs in them and if he shares those with you, you are a very lucky friend! Well he also has a hat and mittens that have dinosaur spikes on them, so his newest craze is pretending to BE a dinosaur. (He is pretty scary too!)

Not only does he like to be a dinosaur but Natalie is the "baby" dinosaur. He pulls out one of Natalies hats and mittens, which look nothing like a dinosaur, and she plays right along with him. Not only does she NOT resemble a dinosaur in any way, but she comes no where close to sounding like a dinosaur or even knowing how to act like one. But that doesn't matter to Josh. He loves to play dinosaurs with her and she loves it too!

They are two cute dinosaurs if you ask me!!

Easter Weekend Sneak Peak!

For easter we headed down to Dayton, OH where Marks sister Michele and her family live. We always have a great time visiting them! It was an action packed weekend, we had so many fun things planned we didn't even get to do them all! So this is just a sneak peak of the weekend...highlighting easter!

The kids dyed easter eggs on Saturday afternoon and had a great time doing it!

Tyler, Jonathan, Joshua, and Mackenzie

Josh loved his easter basket! If all he had got in his basket were those two dinosaurs it would have been the best easter ever!! So easy to please at age 3!!

Natalie wasn't quite sure what to think of her first Easter! Her cousins helped show her all the fun things in her little basket!

We thought we better get a picture of these cute cousins before church because after they would be looking like hoodlums!

After church the kids went on an easter egg hunt. Joshua and Jonathan hunted together and Mackenzie and Tyler had a more difficult hunt on the other side of the backyard. That easter bunny sure knows what he's doing!! Natalie was snoozing away for the hunt. Once all the eggs were found the kids opened all of them to get their goodies!

Michele put together a cute duck pinata for the kids to break open! Jonathan and Josh each got a turn and then Tyler busted it open! They all had a bag to put their treats in, even Natalie!!

We had a great weekend with the Sorensens! This was just a sneak peak into all the fun we had Easter weekend! There is more to come...

Happy Happy Birthday Natalie!

[My computer is acting up again and will only let me put the pictures at the top of the blog...has anyone else ever had this problem?]

One already, I can't believe how fast your first year went by! We have had so much fun having you in our family. You were such a chubby, cuddly baby and now that you are cruising around you are losing that cute baby chub and turning into an adorable little girl! You love life! When you get excited about things you react with your entire body! You LOVE to be held and I love this about you. When you first wake up you get so excited when we come in to get you and then you just want to snuggle for a little while before you get down to play. You have a contagious smile and are constantly smiling and giggling!

You absolutely adore your brother. You like to follow him around, but get really frustrated when he takes things from you. Sometimes you even try to fight back! One day you will be able to hold your own!!

You are in love with your daddy. When he walks in the room you can't move fast enough to get to him. Sometimes you fall because your body is moving faster than your feet! But you get right back up and giggle all the way to his arms! You are a chocolate lover just like him...probably because when you get upset he will feed you chocolate pudding and it calms you right down!

Some of your favorite things are: Snuggling. You will just curl up in my lap and snuggle, then look up at me-giggle-then snuggle some more! You are so cute! You love playing peek-a-boo. You really enjoy "helping" me load and unload the dishwasher. Sometimes it drives me crazy so I will try to load it super fast before you make over to "help" me! Nursing. This is your comfort. I don't know how I will ever wean you! Laughing with Josh. Sometimes I will find you two just laying next to each other on the floor, looking at each other, and giggling. Love it! EATING. You LOVE to eat! You are my meat and potatoes girl! You will eat just about anything and everything...except baby food! You only ate baby food for 1 month and then went straight to eating whatever we were having for dinner and you love it! Smiling. You make people smile wherever we go because you are always smiling. This is one of my favorite things about you. You are such a happy baby!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY NATALIE!

Conference Weekend

This past weekend we went down to Maryland to visit my family. We had a very fun and relaxing weekend. Friday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium. Josh loves going there so we try to go everytime we visit. He loved the sharks and manta rays.

We also saw the 4D film Planet Earth. Josh was so into it. He wore the glasses the entire time. During the show water sprays in your face and things poke you in your back and flick your feet. Its really fun. Well it didn't seem to phase Josh at all. He didn't even say anything about the water spraying him until after the show was over. The boy was into it!

Natalie loves the water, so watching the manta rays was torture for her. She didn't want to watch them swim, she wanted to be swimming with them!

That night we partied!...Grandpas (my dads), Josh's, and Natalie's birthdays are all within a few days of each other so we had a little celebration for all three of them! Grandma made Grandpa his favorite cherry pie and made Josh and Natalie a fun caterpillar cake.

On Saturday we watched General Conference and ate yummy nachos. Between sessions Grandma did an easter egg hunt with Josh and Natalie. They LOVED it. Natalie was a little unsure of what was going on, so Josh filled her basket for her. She just liked to take the eggs out of her basket and put them back in. Josh on the other hand had a ball. It was cute, when he first started collecting eggs he was putting all the "girlie" colors (pink, yellow, purple) into Natalies basket and putting the "manly" colors (orange, blue, green) into his basket. Then he noticed that some of the eggs were dinosaur heads so Natalie ended up with all the eggs that were not dinosaur heads and Josh's basket could only hold the dinosaurs. Funny boy! After he would find all the eggs. He would dump the candy out of all of them, then put the candy back in all of them, and we would hide them again! I think he hunted the easter eggs 7 times!!

[The pictures are up top. For some reason my computer would not let me drag them down. Annoying.]

It was such a gorgeous day that we got the kites out and went kite flying. This is the first time Josh has ever flown a kite, but the boy knew just what to do. He loved flying the spiderman kite!

Grandpa got Joshua hooked on popsicles. I can't even begin to count how many popsicles he ate while we were there. Now all he wants to eat is popsicles. When I ask him what he wants for breakfast this is his reply, "Ummm, popsicle mom." No Josh, we can't have popsicles for breakfast. "Ummm, orange popsicle mom." Thank you Grandpa!!

The kids love to go to "Uncle Max's" house, as Josh calls it. It is not Grandmas or Grandpas house. Thanks for a great weekend Mom and Dad!