April Fun

April was quite the month! We had lots of fun and lots of company. We spent the first half of the month celebrating my birthday, preparing for our huge garage sale, and preparing for company to come. My sister Lisa and her family arrived on the 15th and that weekend started a week of the 12 hour stomach flu. It was awful. My sister Tami and her family arrived that Monday and we spent our week together battling the flu. Almost everyday someone else came down with it. It was quite frustrating and disappointing to spend our little time together being sick, but we made the best of it and have quite the story to tell now. Thankfully Lisa was able to stay a week longer and managed to be the only one (along with her 9 mo. old daughter Rylee) not to get sick. We all were able to spend Easter together and had fun hiding eggs for the kids to find. We even made a nice Easter dinner for all 11 of us and it was yummy!
The last week of April I had a garage sale here with 5 other friends. It was quite a job, definitely worth it. I was able to fund over half my trip to WA this summer which was a huge blessing! Enjoy these pictures from our crazy month!

Notice that Caleb & Joel learned how to take their pj's off...
Reading some man material. Doesn't Caleb look thrilled?
Joel coloring Easter eggs
The other kids decorating eggs.
Caleb very intently coloring
The kiddos getting ready to find their eggs.
Joel, are you finding the eggs or stealing them? Always having to compare...
Looking hard...
Two best friends and cousins getting ready to hunt. Don't you love their matching pants?
Even Rylee got to help hunt.
Very serious hunters enjoying their loot.

They had a fun time with cousin Elliana. She is such a hoot!
Checking out all their candy while daddy watches (and waits for his cut)
Caleb didn't like the peanut m&m's (he's in the red)
Swinging and eating candy. Life can't get any better than this!
Our beautiful Easter meal!
Sharing their favorite cars with cousin Rylee.
Kiera wanted to earn a specific toy from Target. I told her to sell lemonade at our garage sale. In about 3 hours she made over $10 selling 25cent cups of juice. As soon as she hit her goal, she was out of there. It was so funny to watch her sell.
She maybe would have sold more if her brothers hadn't drank half her juice!

Double the Fun!

After a trip to the dentist I am almost completely convinced that the boy are identical. The dentist told us that they suck on their pacifiers the exact same way and their front teeth are pushed out exactly the same. He could hardly believe how identical their mouths were! So crazy! We still find ourselves getting them mixed up and if they are dressed the same and not together (which doesn't happen too often if I can help it) I can't tell who I'm talking to until I get them to smile. Their dimples on opposite cheeks are our saving mark. Whew! They still spend all their time together and listening to them talk to each other more and more is just so precious. Here are some pictures of some fun identical twin moments in the past month.

The boys love playing in their cribs at bed time. It always takes them awhile to settle down. In this picture they had jumped so hard in their cribs they had rolled them to the middle of the room so they could pass things. Kind of hard to scold when you are trying not to laugh. I love to hear their giggling but am nervous to open the door and see the mess....
I had put a movie on after naps and did a double take when I walked back in the room. Now tell me they aren't mirror twins.....
So crazy...THIS IS NOT POSED!!!!
I babysit a 4 mo. old twice a week and he is always here before the boys get up. They are so excited to see "Baby Ethan" in the morning and just swamp him with cars!
A rare moment in our home...falling asleep on the couch.

Preschool Graduate

Well, we have been attempting preschool with Kiera this year and she has done very well. We finished all our letters this week and I'm thinking we'll be done for the year. We'll probably practice our letters throughout the summer and do some fun worksheets but we are officially done! Here are some pictures of our little graduate!

Here's Kiera with all her letters she made. Thanks to my mom for her fun curriculum!!!
Here is Kiera's accomplished letters. She has some very neat handwriting. She wrote all of this by herself! I am one proud mama!!!
Another huge milestone was achieved this week also. Kiera lost her first tooth!!! It was loose when she woke up and then by mid-afternoon it was gone. We think she swallowed it during lunch. So she wrote a letter to the tooth fairy to make sure she would get her money!!!

Birthday Fun!

And the theme this year was: Princess
Kiera picked this castle cake to make.

How fitting that her boy cousins came over and loved playing with her princess castle!
The VanHulzen clan helping us sing to Kiera at her b-day supper
Daddy and Kiera working on one of Kiera's gifts from us. Kiera had 3 friends over for a princess party. We played all sorts of princess games. They had lots of fun. Here they are working on a craft while we paint their fingernails.
Kiera blowing out her candles

Kiera having an ice cream cone (only one girl actually had cake at the party...go figure)

The highlight of the party was playing the game "Getting ready for the ball". Ryan's mom brought a bunch of her Mary Kay samples and the girls got to get makeovers and their nails done. They absolutely LOVED this!


Kiera got to sit on the throne whenever she opened her gifts.
Our Princess and her cake
Kiera playing with a strawberry shortcake clubhouse she got.
Our sweet girl kindly letting her brothers help open her gifts.
The three cheesers
Totally unrelated: Last night Joel fell and smacked his nose on the coffee table. We don't think it is broken, but he is definitely swollen and black and blue. Poor little guy! We can tell them apart now!

To My Precious Daughter...

I dedicate this post to my precious daughter Kiera who turned 5 today. We will try to get pictures up of her birthday in the next few days.

It seems like just yesterday that we were walking around the Almond Blossom Festival eating as much fried food and getting as much exercise as we could to try an induce labor. The next morning we headed in to the hospital. After being sent home twice and dilating to 10 at home, Kiera was born within 20 minutes of being there. She is still often in a hurry and wanting things done right now!

It isn't very often that Kiera gets the spotlight in a post. Over and over again the boys overshadow her, but today we are focusing on her. She is my little ray of sunshine! What a bubbly happy girl she is. She is always smiling and giggling. We like to call her "little miss Giggles". She loves to tell knock-knock jokes and thinks her are always the funniest! There are very few days that I can remember her being grumpy. She has such a positive outlook on life and on people.

Kiera also is my never ending talker. She started talking at a very young age and hasn't stopped since. Her vocabulary is amazing and I so often chuckle at the grown up things she says to me. Some days I wish she would just take a little breather and rest her voice, but I love to listen to her take on life and constant questions. I will definitely miss her chatter (especially since I have 2 boys who rarely talk) when she starts Kindergarten this fall.

Kiera is such a people person. She loves to socialize with her friends. Story hour is the highlight of her week since her class right now is all girls. What a giggly bunch! Kiera is very tender heart and is quite sensitive to other peoples feelings and is quick to please and make someone else feel better even if it means she goes without. She loves to go places and be where people are.

Kiera loves to mother her brothers. Because we had twins, Kiera was forced to grow up very quickly. She spent many hours helping me feed bottles and put pacifiers back in. She is so quick to pitch in and keep the peace between her brothers. She quite often will give up a toy just to make them stop crying knowing that she'll get it back in 30 seconds. I am constantly amazed at how grown up her thinking is in negotiating with her brothers and entertaining them. She is so good with them and always has time to share her toys with them. They love playing Strawberry Shortcake and Princesses with her and she is learning how to tell them what to do and say.

Kiera loves to learn and has been lots of fun to teach preschool to. She has really mastered her letter writing and it is so fun to see the light turn on when she grasps something new. She loves to do crafts but prefers to do them with someone else. She has a very active imagination and plays make-believe so well. She can spend hours in her room playing Barbies by herself and I love listening to her talk her characters in whatever it is she's doing. She can be so girly-girl and into princesses one minute and playing trains and cars the next.

God has definitely blessed us with a beautiful daughter who has brought us joy in so many different ways. Her love for Jesus is so evident in the songs she sings, the care she has for others, and the actions she shows in her willingness to help out around the house and obey the first time. These past 5 years have gone way too quickly, and I am amazed at all she has learned and the person she has become. I pray that God will continue to give us wisdom in raising this precious child to love and serve him with her whole heart and to become less dependent on us and more dependent on Him. Thank you Lord for this precious child you have lent to us. We pray for many many more years together. We love you so much Kiera and couldn't be prouder of you!!! Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Fun with the Nelsons

Levi had a cooking party for his birthday
The kids having a little R & R after naps.
Tori and Kiera were inseparable. They had so much fun together. Even had to dress the same!

Having an older boy cousin is awesome when he builds tracks like this!
Kiera and Tori showing us what they learned at ballet

Ryan had a youth retreat over President's weekend so I decided it was time to visit my sister. We headed up to Duluth to see my sister Tami and family. We had a fun time just hanging out and laughing a lot! We were able to celebrate Levi's 9th birthday with him, Kiera got to attend ballet with Tori, the boys had fun confusing Elli (who's their same age) who liked to call them "elab", and the adults got some great games played after the kids went to bed. It was very relaxing and so nice to spend time with my sister. We even got to extend our stay when a snow storm blew into the midwest and made driving very dangerous. So we just hung out a little longer and laughed some more! Thanks so much for a fun weekend!!!

January

I can't believe a month has gone by since I last updated. Yikes! January was full of snow and very cold temps. We tried to plan lots of things that would keep us from getting cabin fever. Here are some highlights from our month:

~Wednesday coffee break/story hour. The boys started attending the Little Lambs at the beginning of the year and LOVE it. The funniest time was when they made a fruit loop necklace and when I picked them up, all they had was the string. They spent the whole class eating their necklace!

~Play dates with friends

~Playing outside on the few days it hit 30 degrees

~"Helping" daddy shovel snow

~Trips to the Library and Target (to eat popcorn and look at toys)

~Going to the Children's Museum

~Playing at Xcite (the local business that has giant inflatables)

We had a fun month just looking for ways to stay warm! Ryan and I were able to enjoy a date night on his birthday. It was a rare treat and we had a great time!

Here are some snapshots from January:

The boys playing in Kiera's room
The oompaloompa's shoveling snow
Playing Lego's with Daddy
Here's a great shot for down the road...they love to wear Kiera's tutu's
Reading books