Friends in April

 One of our favorite park dates of the season...a couple hours with a couple of really great friends, thanks Carly, Evelyn, & Anna!

 While Silas took his time finding all of the super hero stickers and pasting them to his shirt...

 Leila *enjoyed* her neb treatment...off to the pharmacy for some meds. This girl had a double ear infection and wheezing. It has been over 10 days now, and she is doing much better :)

 The three amigos from Sunday school; Sam, Kohen and Logan...great (and busy) buddies!

 Here is the rest of my sweet 3-4 yr old little rocks class. 3 kids should be in the 5yr old class but aren't quite ready for the transition to the big rocks . One is a newbie from the pebbles. Can you guess who?! She definitely holds her own!

 Some more dear friends Anna and Isaac visiting for the morning...

 Leila is almost 8 months old already and sporting two bottom teeth. She loves the army crawl, apple slices, and never misses a beat with all of the action around here. She's always looking for someone to play with (or they are looking for her!!).

Here are Ethan (highchair) and Leila (excersaucer). We watched Ethan one afternoon and had a lot of fun reading stories & playing with toys. Grets, Sam and Sy all got to feed him a bottle. They loved it!!

Four and More

Sammy Lewis (a.k.a spidey) is four years old today. He was almost named 'Milo Timothy' until we saw him (yes, we were those people :). We *quickly* scanned the Bible & a baby name book, not wanting to leave the hospital calling this sweet boy "little one" or something like that. Maybe even more, we wanted to tell his big sister what she could call him. We love the account of Samuel and Hannah, so Samuel it was. Lewis is after our love for the one and only C.S. 

 I wish I had pages to tell you about times like how Sammy spends 90 percent of the day in his undies and cape, or how he overcame his fear of the water seemingly overnight while we were in Georgia swimming with cousins, or how he is ALWAYS the last one at the table finishing his meal, and usually not because he doesn't like it. Maybe because he has the gift of gab. :) He loves sports and can't wait to go to "football class". He picked out his outfit above when we found out he was going up north with grandma and grandpa. As my dad and uncle Phil would say "RODNEY!"

 Sammy loves these pjs he got for his birthday from GG and Gampy. Sy tried to wear them the other day, which left Sammy in tears. So since Sam got his pjs back, Sy has been coming downstairs in the morning with just a diaper. Not sure if he takes his own pjs off before bed or once he's awake...I'm just thankful (and surprised) that the diaper stays on.

 Dedication Day for Silas and Leila (and mom and dad!!). We chose Romans 4:20-21 for Silas and John 3:33 for Leila. What a refreshing way to renew our "parenting vows", ask for accountability and support from the church, and publicly acknowledge that each child is a gift from God.

Great Grandma and Grandma Lo with the boys. 

Here's cousin Grey-Man, hanging out on the deck after the church service at our house celebrating Sammy's birthday party...yes it was one busy day!! He's taking it in stride :)

 

Most of the time, Silas wants to be just like Sam. Good thing Sam got two scooters for his birthday; they can each cruise around on one.

 

What is everybody looking at?

 

A big blue truck in the driveway delivering mulch. Tim (with lots of help from friends- thank you!!) has been working so hard on building up the foundation of our house and landscaping...a great reason to get out of the house and go to....

The park with Grandma GG! But you can't end a day at the park without...

 

Ice cream! I'll have chocolate please.

 

It's vanilla for this kid.

 

Grets was the first one done.

No ice cream for  Lou...yet :) All she wants is mom to make those silly faces...

Some friends of ours will soon be moving to Minnesota...sniff sniff. We will miss you!!

They are not always like this. Trust me. That is why I grabbed the camera :) Goof balls!

  

  We finally picked up Gretta's ballet dvd to watch with some friends, and today was the perfect rainy day to watch and eat popcorn. We had a blast, lets do it again!!

A Leap Year

 If I can get this posted before 12am, I am still meeting my at least once a month blogging goal thanks to February 29th! ....

 We just had an impromptu play-date earlier today at our good friends who have almost all matching aged kids as ours...here are Leila and Anna getting to know each other...

 And a picnic in the kitchen with pizza lunchables.....so fun!!

 Leila Lou loves to roll these days...

 And here's Sy Guy sitting on his cat "Itty". Silas brings him E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.

 

Another friend Anna playing super heros with Sammy....

 

   

Lei tried oatmeal for the first time this month. She didn't know what was coming...

 

 "Ugh...what IS this stuff?"

 Grets has her first ballet performance tomorrow night. This is her rain jacket costume. She is so excited!

 Here's Leila's 5 month picture...hair accessories approved by Gretta...

 So happy!

 Love this pic, but Sy Guy was too busy...maybe next time :)

And finally a group shot of all four with GG after a fun night at the cabin. We love you GG!!

iphone updates

 I've heard that when you are behind on something, like lets say scrapbooking or blogging for example, the easiest way to catch up is to start from the most current and work backwards. I've got tons of pics from Christmas and birthdays, but since those were so last month, I will start with the most recent...all four in one picture! This is nearly impossible these days....

 My girls! As for eye color, we have one boy and one girl with blue eyes and one boy and one girl with brown eyes. The two oldest are brown, the two youngest are blue...so fascinating!!

Being goofy as always :)

 Here we are at our favorite park on a warm winter day...this is our favorite hill at the favorite park (facing the neighborhood). GG was with us this time, and she attempted a long roll down the hill...no pictures to show it! What a trooper!!

My shadow...

Sammy on the swings...

Gretta too; they both loved the underducks...

And Sy loved the freedom of a big kid swing...he held on for life :) Is Lei still sleeping in her stroller?...

Nope...she's wide awake!

 Sammy LOVES doing headstands, and he is getting pretty good (with a little help)! I think Linds and I lived half of our childhood upside down...there's something about that view :)

 Rooster Leila just woke up from a nap...you should see the curls after a bath!!

 And of course a thumb picture. Lately, her index finger has been her favored one...

And finally, our trip to the Library to read to Keeva (the little dog between Sam and the Lady in red)...I totally thought Keeva would be a golden retriever, so we got quite the surprise when we first met her!

 

Even though we've had a very large dog for 5ish years, the kids are extremely afraid of other dogs...Silas was the most brave, even letting Keeva lick his face....

 

And Gretta...well, she was perfectly content reading to Keeva while she sat on her owners lap.