Silly Boys

The boys are at a wonderful age right now. They are mostly independent and love playing together. Just today I heard Caleb tell Joel "wait for your best buddy!" They get along great (most of the time) and are loving being outside (FINALLY). We graduated them to bigger bikes which they are SO proud of and are hoping to get training wheels off soon. One of their favorite things to do is hang out at the neighbors when they are outside. As soon as they see them come out, they are over there helping with various yard work. They love helping pick up sticks and mainly chatter to "Grandpa and Grandma Neighbor". I think the neighbors love it and it keeps up a good relationship with them.

The boys singing at their Story Hour program

Joel fixing his lawn mower

Caleb fixing his lawn mower

Helping daddy with some leverage issues...

Helping the neighbors pick up sticks

Fine Arts Night

A few weeks ago Kiera had her fine arts night at school. Grandma Link happened to be in town helping us with our garage sale so she was able to join us! We got to see lots of projects Kiera had worked on all year, walk through the classrooms, and ended with a music program. It was a fun night and we enjoyed watching Kiera run around with her friends and enjoying showing off all her hard work!

Some of the various projects she worked on this year.

The kite she made with her kite poem.

Kiera and her good friend Brinley

Their Lego city they made...Kiera made the big car front and center.

Waiting for everyone to get situated...

Easter

Here are some pictures from Easter. We went to Ryan's folks for the weekend and had a very relaxing time. Now we are starting to enjoy the warmer spring weather we are FINALLY getting! So long winter!

Decorating Easter Eggs

Joel

Caleb

The dyed eggs and plastic eggs the kids decorated

Checking out their loot

Happy Birthday Kiera!

At the end of February, Kiera was able to celebrate her 7th birthday. Back in the Fall, we had purchased a Groupon for 2 nights at the local Ramkota hotel that has a water park with it. We decided to save this and use it for Kiera's birthday. Since we were swimming for her birthday, she wanted a swimming pool cake. It was actually a very easy cake and I was happy with how it turned out. Kiera invited some friends to swim one of the evenings and then the second day she had her cousin Eli come and spend the day swimming with her. All the kids had a blast swimming and there were always tears when it was time to quit. We had an enjoyable weekend as a family and all had a great time swimming! Enjoy the pictures!

All 3 kids LOVED the slide!

Taking a break to refuel (with cousin Eli)

Cool dude Joel

Crazy Caleb

Kiera's school party

Opening gifts at the family party with Grandpa and Grandma.

Where have we been???

Wow! I can't believe that I haven't  posted since the boys birthday! I guess time flies when you are having fun. Christmas came and went in its usual busyness and then we got back to school which always comes with its own version of crazy.  Now it's March and I can't believe it's almost over too! Here are some of the highlights of the past few months:

1. In January Kiera participated in her class spelling bee and made it to the finals. She didn't end up placing but performed very well. We were so proud of her!
2. January also brought us to our annual school Carnival which the kids love attending. They came home with lots of loot, candy, and smiles...not to mention the HUGE sheet cake we won at the cake walk. They aren't huge cake eaters but managed to snag the largest cake there. Nice.
3. January 21 was Ryan's birthday which we had fun celebrating. It was fun to help him add to his model train project that he has been working on all winter.
4. February was our usual routine of church praise team (Ryan on bass and I on piano), nursery duties, story hour leading, and Ryan's youth group duties.
5. Ryan took the high school group on their annual winter retreat and it was a very uplifting spiritual experience for everyone. He was very pleased with how it went this year.
6. While Ryan was at his retreat, I took the kids up to my sister Tami's in Cloquet, MN. We had a TON of fun! We ice skated, went sledding, played lots of games, and basically held down the couches from floating away. It was super relaxing and so nice to actually all be healthy together!
7. By the time we returned from Cloquet, it was time to get ready for Kiera's birthday. I will write more about this later.
8. Kiera also had reading week at her school the last week of February. We were very proud of her reading and she won the most minutes of her class! This mom is very happy to have another reader in the family!

The same weekend that we celebrated Kiera's birthday, I received some very sad news that my Grandfather DeGroot had passed away. His health had been failing the past few years and the Lord decided it was time to take him home. My sister Tami and I were able to get last minute Amtrak tickets and head to WA for the funeral. It was a bittersweet time. It was very difficult to say good-bye to Grandpa, but very comforting to know that he was not in pain any longer. It was a ton of fun to see all my relatives that came. We had a wonderful time remembering Grandpa and celebrating his life together.

I also got the added bonus of meeting my newest niece, Kaiya! What an amazing baby she is! She is so good and it was so fun to cuddle her. It was also fun to see all my other nieces and nephews out there and be able to spend time with my family.

Life has definitely been busy these past few months but we rest in the fact that He is always in control and is always with us through the joys and the sorrows. Great is His Faithfulness!

The gorgeous view from my parent's house...the Olympic Mt. range, ocean, and green, green, green! I miss it all so much!

My newest sweet niece Kaiya...what a doll!

Happy 4th Birthday Boys!!!

Whew! What a birthday this was!!! The boys have been counting down the days for SOOOO long and it finally arrived. I must admit that it was a little bittersweet for them. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but the boys were not potty trained as of yesterday. They are 2 stubborn little boys who refused to try/attempt/show interest at all. I finally decided this summer that it really wasn't worth the stress and headache...especially trying to convince 2 strong willed boys that they should. Anyway, we decided to really push turning 4, and that they no longer made diapers for 4 year olds. I am ecstatic to report that it worked!!!!! This morning Joel went on his own and never had an accident the whole day! Caleb took a little bit longer, but by this afternoon was successfully trained. We did spend most of our day in the bathroom and potty training twins is exhausting! A few times I was running back and forth from bathrooms cheering, encouraging, reading to, washing hands, putting clothes on......I am BEAT! But, we survived and have entered the world of no diapers! YEAH!!!!!

Amidst all that drama, we still managed to have waffles for breakfast, per the boys request, open presents, skype with grandparents, play with our new presents, celebrate Dairy Queen for supper, make a cake and eat it, and even ran to the toy store to exchange a defunct gift. The boys had a ton of fun and loved all the gifts everybody sent and blessed them with! We are so proud of our boys and it's hard to believe we are at year 4 already! What a blessing Caleb & Joel have been and we love their cheerful outlook, sweet nature, and crazy antics! We love you both so much!!! This mama is now headed to crack open a diet coke and put her weary feet up. Enjoy the pics from our day!

This picture makes me laugh...the night before we laid out all our underwear as we were excited to start!

Eating our waffle breakfast!

So excited to open gifts!

The boys chose a Candy Land cake as it is one of their favorite games.

I am proud of how it turned out! The boys loved it!

Joel on left, Caleb on right

Waiting for our food at Dairy Queen

Caleb and mommy

We are 4!

Mommy and Joel

Playing our new Headbanz game. It was lots of fun!

1st Piano Performance!

Kiera started taking piano lessons this year. As I am her teacher, she doesn't have recitals or anything. I didn't want her to be afraid to play in front of people like I was, so we had her play a Christmas song at our church Christmas program yesterday. A number of kids signed up to do part of the prelude. Kiera and I did a duet together.  I am SOOOO proud of her! She worked so hard and voluntarily practiced to make sure she was ready. She did AWESOME! No mistakes and she wasn't even nervous!

This is exactly what the boys looked like through the duration of the program. They didn't move, didn't sing, didn't do actions...nothing. I guess at least they participated!

Still nothing...

Kiera, on the other hand, did fabulous! She sang her little heart out!

Our kids with their Link cousins who were also a part of the program.