Hello!

Revised w/ dining room picture...so you guys won't think I am a real slob, just an occasional one!
Here is a dining room picture to prove that I did actually clean it up!

Yes I have been digging out. Actually I have been Spring Cleaning, something I think I didn't do to well last year when I was prego with EK. In fact there are lots of things I let slide in the last year and I am now trying to get caught up. The back yard has taken lots of hours lately. The front yard is gong to take many more when i make my way out there. In the mean time here are some things we have done since I last blogged, which will partially explain why I haven't blogged.

Here is Kolby last week accepting her prizes for selling 50 cases of girls scout cookies this year. At 12 boxes per case that is a whole lot of cookies. Her troop had an incredible cookie season and even gathered enough donations to send over 1000 boxes of cookies to troops in Iraq. Gotta love Girl Scouts!

Saturday was Rhett's last soccer game. He and Rob (and Justin and Robby) had a great time playing with "Blue Force"this Spring. Summer T-Ball will start soon!


Finally bought EK a baby swing and she loves it! Her first five minutes in it she just laughed and laughed! Now it has a calming affect on her. She loves to swing and watch her siblings play! Rob and I have been trying to update and re-vamp our swing set/ fort which we inherited five years ago from the previous owners of our house. We were trying to decide whether to tear it down and start over or just try to repair and update it. After looking at the prices for new play structures, we decided to update! So far we have bricked the sandbox floor , added supports to everything, and poured over 800 pounds of sand into the sand box. If it will stop raining for a day or two , I plan to re-stain the entire structure and add a solid roof to the "fort". Too many trips to Lowe's these days! And that is just for the play fort! The rest of the yard will take many more trips I'm sure.

In other news, Miss Ella Bella is growing like a weed! She was 10 months old yesterday! She is pulling up on everything and can stand on her own for almost a minute. She will be walking in no time. Her personality is really shining through! She is happy, laid back and has a gazillion expressions. Her favorite expression as of late is a very cheesy, toothy, crinkle-nose grin. (as pictured above) EK makes me laugh about 2 dozen times a day with this! She also has a few little half words. She says her version of bye bye, da da, and says "quack quack" (again her version) for all animals and anything associated with bath time. She also has a wide array of grunts that we have come to know as hungry, thirsty, sleepy, mad, frustrated, and bored grunts. Doesn't sound too lady like, but still, she is communicating. She has started using tone and volume to communicate also. She has the sweetest little soft lovey voice and the strongest loud firm "I don't like this" voice. EK loves to watch Rhett and Kolby and still breaks a sweat trying to speed crawl across the house to keep up with them. She loves to look out the window and pound on it while"talking" to things she sees outside. She is a such a delight. It is going so very, very fast.


And speaking of fast, Rob and I took Rhett to Kindergarten round-up last week! WOW! How did that happen? Rhett will be almost 6 when he starts kindergarten and still it seems to have gone too fast. I can't believe he and Kolby will go to school together next year. Rhett thinks he is ready to go now and was very disappointed that he couldn't go to school with Kolby the morning after round-up. After all, he is "registered to be a Kindergartner now!" I am so happy that Rhett is excited to go...but I still feel strong sentimental tugs on the heart strings when I think my baby boy is going to be in school, real school, in just a few months! Sometimes I wonder if global warming has caused the earth to rotate faster because time sure seems to be going by faster than I ever remember! Am I going to feel this way about time from now on? I wonder.

Lastly, it is hard to get a picture of EK these days unless she is strapped into a seat. She immediately tries to crawl and get the camera. But Sunday after church, sitting on her brothers skateboard was entertaining enough to distract her for one or two pics! I love church pictures!

Hope you are all having a great Spring! Summer is just around the corner!