Owen at 4.5!

Owen was 4.5 in February when this picture was taken.  This is his first school picture from pre-school.   I always try to write down a few questions on birthdays and half birthdays for his baby book.  Here is what I got this time...


What do you want to be when you grow up?  "A fixer, you know those guys who fix stuff"

Who is your best friend?  Owen L. (from preschool)

Favorite place to go? School

Favorite food?  Pizza

Favorite toy?  Mobigo

Nicest thing you ever did for someone? Gave someone a big hug and kiss

What does your mommy do while you are at school? Clean up the house

What does daddy do for work?  Coaches and works at Hornet High school

What is your favorite thing to do with your dad? Play wii sports

What is your favorite thing to do with mommy?  I love going to movie theaters with my mom.

Favorite sport-baseball

What do you like about Ella?  I like when she plays with me.

If you had 100 dollars, What would you buy? GUM!!!

Favorite part of school? Singing songs and going to the library

What animal would you like to be? A tiger so I can growl at people

Who do love hanging out with? Grandpa and Skyla

Fave movie?  Ice Age

Fave song? Colors song (at school)

What do you want for your next birthday?  A night light pillow

Spring Break Has Arrived!

Although spring break is here, it still feels very much like Winter.  This past week has been busy. (Didn't take many pics!)  It seems like it has been one of those weeks where Dustin and I have lots of plans but not with each other!  Thursday night I went to dinner with his mom and her church group, Friday Dustin had his yearly man date with Anthony and Nick for March Madness, Saturday I had a fun girls night with my girlfriend Jenni from college.  It was a fun night in eating and playing games.  Sunday Dustin went to Louisville for a basketball game with a friend.  Finally on Monday we started Spring break and had two wonderful days at home in our jammies with the kids!  We had a snowstorm with 8 inches of snow in there at some point too!

Tuesday night we headed up to Thorntown for a Pizza King dinner with the Haney's!  There is nothing like Pizza King from the Lost Frontier!  Our southside pizza king is good but doesn't measure up! 

Last night we took the kiddos to Columbus, Indiana to a hotel that has been there forever.  Dustin and I both went there as kids and it was the first hotel we stayed in as a couple.  It was fun to take the kid's somewhere that we have had so many memories in.  They have a putt putt area, arcade and big swimming pool.  We didn't get to go anywhere this spring break but just having one night in a hotel makes it feel like a mini vacay!  I will make a separate post with those pics.

I will leave you with some pictures of the Beech Grove Easter Egg hunt that we went to last Saturday.

Homemade Easter baskets from Kathy!  Thank you Kathy!!

When he takes her hand without me asking I could just cry!  So sweet.

Finally not scared of the bunny!  Ella of course screamed though!

Owen's buddy Nolan!

Heading home with some candy!

Owen found 6 eggs but gave all but one away.  He said he wanted everyone to have candy.  Proud of my sweet little boy!  Ella came home with two :)

St. Patty's day and more!

The last week has gone really fast!  I unfortunately have had a cold.  Luckily I am the only one!  It didn't stop me from our yearly tradition of St. Patty's Day celebrations at O'gara's.  Dustin and I met the Raders and Beckhams for a kid free night out.

 The kid's went to Dustin's parents for the night.  They went with his mom to church the next morning like they always do so this meant that Dustin and I got to sleep in for the first time in about 2 years!  Dustin took the day off and it was so nice to be lazy and lay in bed until noon!! 

Monday evening, Dustin's 8th grade team was given a plaque from the Mayor and the city of Beech Grove for their perfect 18-0 season.  The kids and I went to the Mayor's meeting.  Seeing the boys and their parents made me miss basketball season.  It's hectic but I always miss it!

Ella had another molar come in this week.  She takes getting teeth pretty well.  She was kind of restless throughout the night because of it...but never actually had to get out of bed.  She would wake up, whine, and go back to sleep a few times throughout the night.  Sure enough after a couple nights of this and the bottom left one popped through.  That makes ten teeth! 
She also had become obsessed with the word "UhOh"  I think she makes things fall or trips just to say it.
She is still obsessed with coloring this week.  As soon as she wakes up in the morning, she grabs the crayon bucket and gets to work while I am getting ready.  It's so cute!!

Owen started a new behavior chart this week.  He had been really good lately for the most part.  The two's were a breeze, three's were a nightmare, and the four's so far have been like the two's with a dash of three's!  Good most of the time but there are days where he tests us!  I know this is typical for his age and all ages for that matter but I saw this behavior reward system on Pinterest and so we are giving it a try. 

He made six coins (card stock circles that he colored and decorated).  A coin can be taken away for bad behavior and earned back for good behavior.  At the end of the day...if he has all 6 coins left he gets a sticker for his chart.  After he earns ten stickers, he chooses a reward.  He chose a trip to Chuckie Cheese for his first goal.  We have done it six days and there were only two days that he didn't get a sticker. 

He also celebrated St. Patty's Day at preschool.  The leprechaun played a lot of tricks on them (toilet water was green, green milk, etc) He loves it and said it is his favorite school holiday!

 

 

I will leave you with a few other pics from our week!

 

Cousin Skyla came over to play twice this week!

Ella and Owen watching cartoons together one morning.  Ella looks funny with slicked down hair!

Allister was so sleepy!

Owen helping Mommy clean

Owen told me that I HAD to come see Ella because he tucked her into his bed.  It was adorable!

Daddy joined the fun!

Not sure how that little bed held all of them!

 

Finally back to Normal around here!

It seems like we are finally back on the healthy side.  Ella hung on to her stomach flu and threw up every other day for a whole week.  Towards the end she was not acting sick at all.  The doctor said she probably just had a sensitive stomach and was not ready for certain foods.  Anyway...the part that really got me was her 6:30 wake-ups every morning for 3 days!  I have been blessed with kids that usually sleep in anywhere from 7:30 to 9am, so it was rough for me! BUT thank goodness we are sleeping in and healthy now!
We had a pretty low key weekend.
We had dinner Friday night with Dustin's parents and then we spent Saturday night having dinner at the McClary's. Monday night we had dinner with my Aunt Jean, Uncle Joe and Grandma.  With all of these dinners at other peoples houses, I haven't had to cook!  My grandma even sent home a spaghetti pie for dinner last night!  I love to cook but it's nice not having to do it sometimes!

Sunday night Dustin's sister watched the kids for a couple hours while I went to see Dustin play in his basketball league.  I love watching him play and it reminds me of our time before babies when he played a lot and I would go to all of the games. We went to Orange Leaf afterwards to finish off our "date" YUM. 

Here are a few pics that I took this week.  Nothing too exciting just pics that we took while hanging out at the house.



Ella's hair is finally big enough to put all the way up!



Flash kills them!

Owen is the sweetest brother!



So handsome!!

Ella has been really into coloring this week!

Last night Owen and I went on a date to the movies!  We saw Wreck It Ralph.  It was such a good movie.  Owen loved it and thought it was hilarious! It was adorable to see him laughing that hard!!  This picture isn't great because as usual my flash never allows my children to keep their eyes open!! It was still dark in the theater after the movie so it made it even worse!  Anyway we had so much fun spending some rare one on one time together!

Owen left today to spend the day and evening with my dad...He was so excited to pack his bag!  Last I heard they were going to see a movie together!  Two movies in less than 24 hours!  Owen probably thinks he hit the lottery!  :)

Overall great week!  Looking forward to the weekend for some St. Patty's day fun! Dustin and I are going to have a fun night out with friends!

And Dustin makes 4!

This is basically what we have all looked like the past few days!  Throwing up...no energy...ugh.  Ella was worse than anyone!  But Sunday evening Owen started.  Then it didn't take long for me to get it.  Dustin stayed home on Monday to help with the kids, since I was sick.  We were happy that he didn't have it.  Spoke to soon though!  Tuesday afternoon he text me that he was coming home from school a little early because he was feeling weak and sick.  He came home and took a nap, and luckily that was all that was needed to kick it.  Thank goodness the virus weakened as it hit each of us! 

Today we had a two hour delay due to the 5-7 inches of snow we got last night!  Unfortunately that meant that I couldn't go to work because my schedule and Owen's school schedule were not matching up well so it was a snow day for me!  I am ready for some non-sick, non-snow, normal routine days!!

Bye Bye Basketball Season...

This has been a busy week.  We went to 3 basketball games.  That is a pretty small number considering there have been weeks this season where we have gone to 5-7 per week between Dustin's team, Varsity, and Irvington games!  Luckily our two little ones have been going to games since they were just weeks old, so they are troopers and pretty well behaved at games! Ella even got her very first sucker at the last home game last week! 
Here are some pics from games this week!

Friday night we met my dad in Danvile for what ended up being our last basketball game for the season!  Owen didn't pay much attention to the game since his grandpa was there.  They are best friends!  I can't believe we are done with basketball for another year!  Kind of sad since this was such a great season.  I love these pictures of the kids with my dad.  The first one really cracks me up...I told Ella to say cheese and she gave me the meanest little look! 

 

 



Saturday we went to BGHS's cheer competition!  Ella dressed the part and had so much fun watching the teams compete!   Owen liked dancing to the music of course! It really made me miss coaching! 

 

Ella ended our Saturday evening with a bad stomach flu!  She threw up 5 times and could not keep anything down.  All she wanted was to lay on my lap and although I hate seeing her so sick, I soaked up every bit of those cuddles.  She is usually not into cuddles as much as Owen was at this age so I was happy to hold her all day.  She is usually so busy playing and climbing that she comes in for quick hugs to check in and feel some love.  I am hoping that she will be feeling much better by morning and I REALLY hope the rest of us don't get it. 

 

 

Overall it's been a great week!  It went really fast!  I can't believe it is March all ready!  Hopefully we can start having some warm weather soon to get us outside and walking again!