McD's Playland

A few pictures of a rainy day a couple weeks ago. I decided to pass part of the day in McD's playland to let the kids get rid of some excessive energy!








Israel just loves to play with balls. He was nearly happy just with that, but I actually did take him up once to crawl around in the tunnels and go down the slide. This McD's encourages parents to do so, and has tunnels that are plenty big. Still not my "cup of tea", but he enjoyed it!

After *many* attempts, I got this decent picture of all three of them together. :) Inevitably, one or more look away or close their eyes or put a hand in front of their face, etc, just as Im trying to snap the shot! (Not to mention the battle against fake smiles, like Joshua's here....)
But, just for fun, I thought I would include these more realistic shots! They probably do a better job of capturing real life!


Pictures of spring coming soon!

More Exciting Stuff

Well, in my last post I said we hadn't been doing anything very exciting lately, but since then we sure have!

This first picture is of Fabio downtown Chicago last week, a few minutes after passing (with flying colors) his interview for citizenship! Yay!












Then, this past Monday, we had the pleasure of a visit from my Grandma Nita! She came up on the train Monday morning and stayed until Wednesday evening.


My grandma's birthday is in April, as well as both of my brothers' birthdays, AND Grandma had the privilege of a great-granddaughter born on her birthday last year when Moriah was born! So, Tuesday night we had a celebration for all of the April birthdays.








Wives of the birthday boys, and Moriah, the birthday girl!












My neice Jessica and Israel (also known around here as "Fuzzy")












Cheyenne and Dominique playing the piano and singing together. These little gals are two peas in a pod! They both compose music all day long - maybe one day they will actually sing together??












It is really hard to believe that Moriah is already ONE year old! Time seems to fly by faster each year...
She sure enjoyed her cake!














Cheyenne, Dominique, Me and Grandma Nita










Grandma Nita and Israel

















And, Michelle inspired me to do an update: me at 17 weeks. :) Growin' right along!

Hangin' Out at Home

Well, I don't guess we've been doing anything really exciting these days, but life tends to still be busy, even when we are at home, with children these ages. :) Never a dull moment! So, here are a few pics from the last couple of weeks. Oh, and by the way, we have been spending a LOT of time outside these days, enjoying SPRING!!!, but I haven't gotten any pics of that yet.

As always, it is super hard to get a decent pic of all three. This was the best I could do for now!

I am infatuated with Dominique's hair! Here she is on a good hair day. :)

Another fave of mine: Israel in his diaper!

My poor baby burned his little baby fingers the other week. He is fine, though. They only seemed tender that day, and didn't seem to bother him at all after that!

We were having curry rice the other day and Israel insisted on eating out of his own bowl, with his own spoon. Funny how proficiently they communicate these things, even without too many words! Anyway, he soon gave up on the spoon and decided it was easier to shovel it in with his hand. (It kept falling off the spoon!)

"What? What's wrong with the way I'm eating??"

This little guy is a cuddler! Any time anyone lays down on the floor, he loves to come up and lay down on us! This day, Fabio got home from work and was taking it easy on the den floor for a little bit, with Israel laying on his chest! So, Daddy started to stroke his hair and sing to him, and the little guy was totally eating it up!!

The other day, Fabio dropped a large board on his foot and came home with it sore and swollen. I made a comfrey poultice for him, and later had him soak it in a tub of water with some essential oils and epsom salts added. The next day, the kids re-enacted the scene in the bathroom - and had a BLAST doing it!

My friend Kendra was down from MI last week and so we had to get another line-up shot of our kids. We tend to leap-frog. Now our kids are ages: 5,4,3,2,1,0 .... and next year, there will be one more to add to the line-up! :) So far, Dominique is the only girl in the bunch, but she doesnt seem to mind. :)

Matching shirts Mom found at the thrift shop!

Dominique and Joshua having a ball mopping the kitchen floor together! Life just doesn't get more fun that this!