Technical difficulties...

Blogger and Picasa are not working so well together tonight!! Here are the pics that should have been with the previous post! :)

Check ups...

8 shots, 8 band aids, 2 finger pricks, a few rounds of crying without breathing or making a sound, a sticker and a hand full of m and m's...we survived Ollie and Sarah Claire's one and four year checkups today. Whew!!!

His stats:

Weight: 40 1/2 pounds

Height: 43 1/4 inches tall (puts him in the 97th percentile..still) Dr. Keiffer thought his shirt was ironic!

Eyesight: 20/30

Hearing: good!

He's a tall, lean and growing machine. Who is totally into letters and sounds, says ____ starts with _____ all the time!

Her stats:

Weight: 22 pounds 1 oz

Height: 30 inches tall (50-75th percentile...honestly thought she'd be taller.)

Ears: ok...actually she had another double ear infection on Friday...still weighing the option of tubes, praying that spring would push them out of the picture all together.

Eyes: beautiful blue

She's growing into a passionate toddler right before our eyes. And I mean passionate in good and bad ways, we've seen a bit more personality lately. She's still not walking but cruising every where.

All in all we are so thankful to have such healthy kids.

the other kids in my life...

We had a "photo shoot" for the yearbook the other day on the playground. I don't think I've posted pics of these guys yet this year. They're pretty awesome and very smart...and so very ready for a spring break...alas its still about 3 weeks away!

Alana, Eleanor, Sara, Niheira, Sarah Worth, Avery, Jillian, Azahria, Isabelle, Valerie, Tiet, Elizabeth, Merissa (the girls) and Tilden, Tanner, Hi, Mring, Ymon, Alex, Nolan, Mason, Israel, and Adonijah (the boys) bring me joy, laughter and the occasional migraine headache.

But all in all this year has been a fun one. I really like 3rd grade. Its oh so different than 2nd, not sure that I like it better or worse, but I like it. The school where I am at this year is in a different part of town, in fact if we hadn't moved last year (it'll be a year on May 17th) I could've walked to work (could've.) The PTA is such a strong supporter of our classrooms and they sponsor many events through out the year, which is so neat. I have volunteers in my room every week. Its a neat little spot, well I say little, think we have over 700 students!

I can say that the older Ollie gets and now SC I am seeing the worlds collide a bit, I'll catch myself saying things like "have a happy heart" to my 3rd graders or telling Ollie he will loose a "pirate buck" if he doesn't______! (fill in the blank) Seriously though, I still walk away every day knowing that teaching is a calling...one I'm glad I got called to!

Sarah Lou Who!

I picked up Sarah Claire from school today and her teacher had adorned her hair...with pigtails!!! So cute!!! Amazingly she left them in all day! Unfortunately getting them out was not as fun as I had hoped! Oh Sarah Lou Who!

pink...

Pink birthday dress from Grandma L...oh so sweet blue eyes... please note the slight bruise...a gift from a friend a school.
Pink chair from Grandma H, what a fun gift for a one year old! I tried to do a photo shoot yesterday of this birthday girl, but she was just not feeling it. I think she gave me half a smile one time, oh well she's still cute!

After we changed back into our everyday wear...she seemed a bit more relaxed in the pink chair. Settled in for a quick read...oh my goodness, love this girl!

dishes and baby jaguars...

One of SC's favorite past times these days is to help me "un load" the dishwasher. She will pull out all the silver wear and then hold it up for me to grab. I say "thank you" and she tries in her best way to mimic me. Don't get me wrong only a moma would understand this baby language. But I've been working with her a lot lately on mimicing words. I heard her say "ish" for fish today and a very cute version of "uh oh" when she dropped something. All of this is after I say it to her, not on her own. Still pretty fun!
Today it was rainy and a bit chilly, Ollie built a jaguar bed, he called it, on the floor. We all played "jaguars."
Sarah Claire really, really digs her brother these days. She just loves to be where he is. It is so neat to see them start to really "play." This blog post has a lot of "quotations!"

New swing set!!!!

The last few weekends Matt's been in the backyard working away on this oh so fun project for our fam!! A new swing set! He and Ollie have dreamed up a really fun design. The roof and sides of the "treehouse" part got put on yesterday! So excited for the fun times that we'll have this spring and summer in our back yard!

How about those tie dye shirts?!