Unwanted guests

We have had several unwanted guests in our home - rats.  Yuck!  Several months ago I heard some scratching in the walls above my closet which would be the attic.  Todd set some traps with Abby's help and they caught 2 rats.  Abby thought the dead rats were cute.  We found the hole where they were coming in, sealed it up and thought things were taken care of.  Not so.  Todd and I were watching TV upstairs about a month ago and heard some scratching again but up in the ceiling.  Todd set the traps again in the attics but we caught nothing.

I was outside one morning when our neighbor behind us, with his window open in his second story room, called out to me and told me he could see a hole in a vent and mentioned he saw something go in not too long ago.  Ewwww!  When Todd got home he climbed on the roof and checked everything out.  He sealed everything up well that when he checked a few days later he could see some claw marks on the inside where the rats were trying to get out.  The poison was eaten and we are now hoping our unwanted guest situation is now under control.

Olivia on Spelling

Olivia comes running into my room, "I know how to spell Tinkerbell.
D-V-D, Tinkerbell!"

Mom to Olivia after she opened a store door: "How'd you get so strong?"
Olivia:  "Jesus made me strong!"

Piano

My parents have one shot of the girls from behind and Abby has her arm around Kaitlyn.  Too sweet!

Abby has finished her 3rd year in piano lessons and Kaitlyn finished her first.  I am so proud of how well these girls practice and improve on their talents.  Out of all the things Kaitlyn does, she says piano is her favorite.  She loves to play and is quite motivated.  Her teacher has a "punch card" that gets her prizes out of her  prize box.  Every lesson, she works hard enough on her music, practices, and does well in her lessons, she always comes home with a prize!  I have to say that I just love their teacher!  She is so good with both girls, finds music that they want to play and they have fun playing!  I also love that she is a street over so the girls ride their bikes to and from piano- a nice extra bonus.

Abby played 3 songs for the recital:  Ode to Joy, Tomorrow from Annie, and Teach Me to Walk in the Light.  She was so nervous she started playing Ode to Joy super fast.  She did a fantastic job.  I love having my home filled with music.

During one of Kaitlyn's songs, Todd had to step out because Alec was fussy, he popped back in the doorway, Kaitlyn turned to Todd and got the BIGGEST smile on her face.  Just beamed at her Dad, it was the sweetest thing.  Kaitlyn played Au Claire du la Lune and Parade.

I can't leave Alec and Olivia out, Alec likes to climb up on the bench and bang on the keys too.  Abby will practice with him banging away.  Olivia likes to flip open the piano books and say that she is practicing. I just hope they will be this excited to play piano when I put them into lessons down the road.

1 year old!

We went from 5 weeks early at 5 lbs 4 oz and in the NICU for 5 days,

to a cute and skinny 6 month old,  look how big those pants are around his waist!

to a handsome little guy at 12 months!  Alec has us all wrapped around his finger.

He is such a cute little guy and we are so grateful to have him in our family.

Stats:

-20.5 lbs

-two top teeth have now come in

-voices his opinion very well with screaming

-loves to hang out on the couch, look out windows, and play with the remotes

-enjoys being outside swinging, going for walks, or playing in the flower beds

-has some serious mom attachment anxiety - ever since we came back from Hawaii, he HATES having me out of his sight.

-still has the cutest cheeks that I just want to kiss all day

-loves to dance (bounce) and clap to music

-up longer in the morning before he takes his long morning nap

-can climb up and down stairs - figured both out on the same day

-working on standing on his own - 10 seconds is about the longest he can stand

-cruises along furniture or likes to walk around with help from his walker

We celebrated Alec's birthday on Sunday and Gma Gigi,  Gpa, and Aunt  Monica came over to help celebrate.  I went with a simple cake since I had just finished doing a big soccer fondant cake for Abby's soccer party on Friday.

Kaitlyn gave Alec a stuffed animal of hers for a present with a cute note -

I hope you have a gode prasint (good present)

Abby made him a sign for his room and a cute card.

Alec loved the chocolate cake!

This is how Alec played with balloons - it was too cute.

I think his favorite toy was a little police car that makes a siren sound when it rolls.

In other Alec news, all Monday night (his bday), Alec did not sleep and cried the whole night long.  Todd and I basically took shifts holding him.  Took him into the Dr. the next morning to get his ears checked, sure enough his right ear was infected and looked like it would burst.  Poor little guy.  To top things off, he has a tight tongue and we took him in early Friday morning to get it clipped.  He was grumpy the whole weekend but I think we are finally on the mend now!

Bluebonnets

 The annual trek to get pictures in the bluebonnets.

This is what it was like in our family- Kaitlyn didn't want to sit down, either did Olivia (you can see in this picture Olivia is upset), and Alec didn't want to be out of mom or dad's arms

We did get one, these are both a little dark though. 

 I need to learn photoshop and how to take the correct exposure!

Abby always willing to smile and pose.

 This happened every time we sat him down.

Kaitlyn no problem standing for a picture.

 About as happy as we could make her.

We'll try again next year....

Easter

Our yearly tradition - new spring pjs the night before Easter.  I think this will be the last year the girls all match.

 We have early morning church this year, 9:00, and to get a soft seat you need to arrive at least 20 minutes early so that didn't leave us a lot of time in the morning.  We quickly hid some eggs in the backyard not realizing that everything was wet from the sprinklers.  Oops.  No one minded.  After quickly finding our eggs and eating a little chocolate, we all quickly got ready for church.

I wanted to take pictures of the kids out front in their Easter clothes.  Abby and Alec are the only ones in something new.  We have so many dresses for the other girls I didn't feel the need to go out and buy new ones.  New shoes were a different story.  Anyway, we were so rushed I was going to have to wait on pictures until after church.  Well, there was a torrential down pour of rain as we left.  Have not seen Texas rain like this in quite some time.  We all basically took a shower running to the car.

At home, Olivia was so upset she was all wet same she feel to the floor crying and pulled out her cute braids in her hair.  Kaitlyn was just in a mood and didn't want her picture taken.   Todd was still at the church doing his calling so I tried my best to get the moody ones happy.  This is the best I got:

Best one with all four - one is crying, one looking away, and one with a finger in their mouth.  

It is what it is.  

After every changed and had a nap we enjoyed a nice dinner.  

Alec made cute faces at Aunt Monica.

 There was no school on Monday so the girls had a sleepover that night in Abby's room.  Everyone started on the floor in sleeping bags but ended up in Abby's bed.

Tarzan

Overheard tonight

Todd:  "Pick a movie to watch"
Olivia:  "I like Tarzan.  I like Tarzan because he's naked."

Easter Roll-Off

Our yearly tradition - minus last year - that we just love at Easter is the Easter Egg Roll-Off.  A huge shout out to Mike and Katie for teaching us this fun and fabulous tradition of theirs that we stole.  We invited a few families to join us again in racing.  Some have come in years past and some were new at the game.

We started out by dying our eggs and choosing our racers.

Then we made and decorated sugar cookies for our friends.

These are Abby's amazing creations - she did these all on her own.

Olivia getting a little help from dad.  

Our race track this year.  It had sides so we didn't need to worry about falling eggs.

 Me against Todd - attractive picture I know, it's my game face.

TODD WAS THE WINNER!

And everyone was treated to a rare dance by Todd too.

and where's Alec through all of this - as you might guess, napping.  He missed all the festivities and is none the wiser.