Go Gophers!

Cade had his first soccer game of the spring season last Saturday. He actually missed the first game because we were at Maddi's dance competition that weekend. We gave him the option to stay home with Brett and go to his game or go to Indianapolis and go to dance and he chose dance because there was a pool at the hotel. Anyway, their team name is the Gophers, which is a very silly name for a team if you ask me. He played really well and was more aggressive than he has been in the past seasons. He scored two goals. Here is a video of one of his goals. He's #27 and he starts out throwing the ball in bounds. I forget that my camera is messed up and there is a black spot when I zoom in too far. Sorry about the annoying black spot, but maybe one of these days I'll look into what's causing it.

Easter

I don't know what I've been doing with my time lately, but it flies by and I never seem to get anything done. I'm finally updating with pics from Easter. It was a beautiful day in the 50s with sun. Unfortunately that meant the kids still had to wear jackets with their Easter clothes, but it was warmer than it had been before and after Easter. I was really grumpy about it being cold around Easter and wasn't going to get Maddi an Easter dress. The Friday night before when I realized it wouldn't be too cold I went out and got her a dress. I felt better about not being a scrooge. Then I wished I had gotten Cade a new shirt to match her but I didn't think about it until it was too late. I wasn't sure if she would want to wear a dress or not but she was so excited to have a new dress. She hardly wears dresses anymore which makes me sad, but I guess that's the fashion for kids her age these days.

Brother and sister love. We are so thankful that Maddi and Cade are as close as they are. I can't imagine what life would be like without one or the other. Of course they have their moments, but for the most part they are just so good to one another.

My Cade man loves his holidays. He woke up at 5:30 am for the egg hunt. We sent him back to his room until 6:00. Then Maddi woke up after 6:00. She came running down the hallway shouting "Jesus is alive!!!!" It was so awesome to hear her excited about the real reason for Easter and not just about the Easter Bunny. Brett took them downstairs to see their Easter baskets and they hung out and watched tv until after 7:00 when I finally drug myself out of bed. I just don't remember getting so excited to find eggs when I was younger. I'm sure I did, I just don't remember it.

Since it wasn't too cold out, the Easter Bunny hid the eggs outside. Apparently he hid the eggs inside at all the other houses. The kids were very confused as to why nobody else was outside hunting eggs.

Now they are finding eggs in the front yard. They sure found all the eggs very quickly. It was really cute to hear them talking about how the baby will be finding eggs next year. I told them the baby will only be a 5 months old or so next year and it will be a few years before the baby can hunt with them. They thought that was pretty funny.

Here is half of their loot. They found all the eggs in the backyard first and then their baskets were full so they put those eggs inside before hunting in the front yard. The smell of hard boiled eggs and all the candy was pretty nauseating. It's the first Easter ever that I didn't have one piece of candy. Normally I'm fighting the kids for their candy. Not this year with this early pregnancy stuff.

After the egg hunt we tried to get some family pics before church. I love my boy!

I love my sweet Maddi girl!

You can see by now Cade was not loving getting his picture taken. It's amazing how hard it is to get a decent picture with the kids.

Maddi was a good sport and took a few pictures with her Daddy. Cade was not cooperating at this point.

Then Maddi even agreed to take pictures of Brett and I. Then it was off to church and then we went to brunch with a few families. It was a really good brunch. I found that I could eat the belgian waffles with strawberries and peaches and I went back for seconds and thirds for those waffles! The rest of the afternoon the kids played outside and Brett and Cade flew his new kite. It was another fun Easter!

The weekend after Easter Maddi had a dance competition again, this time in Indianapolis. We left Friday afternoon and the kids went swimming at the hotel with the other dancers and their families. I didn't take any pictures, but other moms did and I hope to get some of the pics from them. They had a great time swimming. This is a picture of some of the girls in their lyrical costume. Maddi is 3rd from the left. The girl just to the left of her reminds me of Maddi. I get them confused in pictures. They did well this weekend, but not as well as they've done at the other competitions this year.

Here is Maddi with some of her friends. She is the youngest girl at this dance company and she plays the "baby" role really well. She loves the attention of the older girls. They seem to carry her around a lot and I can't figure out if she asks to be held or if they just do it. I'm thinking she asks....my little lap child! We headed home late Saturday night instead of staying another night. We spent the day Sunday re-arranging our house. We are going to get new family room furniture so we are putting the current stuff in the formal living room which is now the office. So we're moving the office to the study which is now the game/play room. The study will be a study/play room. We also moved Maddi's furniture around in her room because she's been asking us to move the bed b/c she thinks there is a monster behind her bed the way it sat in the corner. Now maybe she'll stay in her bed since her bed is moved against the wall. I actually like the way her room looks now better than before.

Snow and Cascarones

This was the view out of our kitchen window Monday, April 6th. This is life in Chicago. Even though the calendar says spring and it's almost Easter, it can still be quite chilly and snowy! Luckily it all melted by the next day.

Omie sent the kids a box of Easter presents. She included some cascarones which the kids LOVE! The people here have never heard of such things in their lives and all the neighbor kids were having a great time having cascarone battles with each other. Cade was running too fast here and crashed out but he didn't cry because he wanted to continue the battle. I tried to explain to our neighbors what Fiesta is and they just don't get it. Made me miss the yummy Mexican food just talking about it.

Cade armed with his cascarones.

Maddi was more about getting as much confetti in her hair as possible rather than crack them on someone else.

Cade and Lauren were very serious about not getting hit with the eggs and they were running around like crazy hiding from each other.

When the eggs were all cracked it was time for some tug of war. Boys against girls. I think you can imagine who won.

I had to jump in and help the girls a few times.

Then it was time to dye the Easter eggs.

I was a total ding dong and forgot to put newspaper down on top of the table. How many years have I been doing this? Luckily most of the dye came out of the wood but I'm sure I ruined the finish on the table even more with so much fantastic.

Putting on the finishing touches before getting a bath and heading to bed so the Easter Bunny can come visit. Let's just say that the smell of hard boiled eggs plus the smell of vinegar from the dye is not a good combination for a pregnant mommy. I was so glad to get those eggs hidden and out of our house!

Egg Hunt

Saturday morning we had an egg hunt and brunch at the clubhouse. It was a nice day, but still in the 40s. Hardly feels like Easter to a Texas family. It just doesn't seem right that kids are still wearing coats and hats while hunting for eggs.

Here is Maddi and Maddie with one of their friends, Scott. 2nd graders are so funny. The girls and Scott are good friends but they sort of have crushes on each other too. As soon as Scott saw the girls he ran up to them and all three of them stuck their tongues out at each other and starting making puking noises. I don't really get it.



Cade and his friends spent most of their time trading prizes/candy from their eggs with each other.

Maddi was quite excited about this egg with wheels. After the egg hunt the kids enjoyed some time on their new bikes with neighbors. Then Maddi had a birthday party for a friend, then we had a 40th birthday party for a family friend Saturday night.


Sunday Brett spent the day putting lights under our cabinets in the kithen. I am so thankful that he is so good at stuff like that. We had the tile backsplash installed last weekend and now the lights are going up. I'm liking the kitchen more and more, but I still don't want to cook in it! I have been feeling so yucky that I don't even want to bake or eat sweets. The thought of sugar/sweets makes me sick. Hopefully this aversion to sweets will last a long while, but without the naucious feelings that go with it.

We are supposed to get some more snow tonight. Hello spring. Are you there? Come visit us in Chicago and stay for a long while.

The Rest of Spring Break

Here are some pics of the rest of our Spring Break last week. The kids both got new bikes since they are too big for their old ones. I have to think they enjoyed helping Brett put them together as much as they enjoy riding them. Don't mind my disasterous living room in the background. It took me all week to get the laundry done. I would do a load and then it would sit on the couch to be folded and then I'd fold a load and then wash a load until finally I mustered up enough energy to get it all sorted and then I finally carried it upstairs where it sat for me to put it all away after a few days. By the time it was all put away the hampers were overflowing with clothes again. I really need a laundry fairy.

One day during the break we met some friends for lunch and then went bowling. I forgot I had my camera until after the bowling when they were riding the bumper cars. It was a new bowling alley and it was nice and clean and had a really fun game room. The kids had a great time. My kids look like demons with their glowing eyes. I tried to make them look normal but I can't get the crazy eyes to go away.

Maddi and Maddie spent a long time sitting on the motorcycle game watching two teenage boys playing dance dance revolution. The boys were really good. They must spend all their time and money playing that game.

Here is Cade man pretending to play the motorcycle game and watching the dance dance revolution boys too.


I was going to put up a picture of the sonogram picture of the new baby but I realized that both of the kids took the pictures to school today to show their class. Maddi begged to take it to show her dance teachers and friends on Monday and Tuesday. It's so cute to see the kids so excited about this new baby. I think this baby is going to be so loved by their big brother and sister. My first appointment went well. Due date is 11/11 and there is only one baby. Thrilled it's not twins! I will have another ultrasound at 13 weeks so that's exciting. If it's a boy it's possible that we would be able to tell. If it's a girl, we won't be certain but we might have an idea. I just have to think that this baby is a girl since Maddi has wished and prayed for a sister for so long. Honestly it doesn't matter what the sex is, we just want it to be healthy. We have already been blessed with a girl and a boy so what more could we want.