I was joking with James because he never falls for things that seem like a bad idea.


"Hey James! You should totally put that tic-tac up your nose. Haha, that would be gross, huh!"


A minute later: Hysteria! The tic-tac was stuck up his nose. 


I was right, it really was gross. 

Recent trip to Cabela's

Nate:  "Look Mom! The tiger is hugging the zebra! Zebras are Claire's favorite. We should take a picture so we can show Claire the zebra!"

:-/

It's great - the boys are getting very useful these days!

Easter 2014

We started our Easter this year with egg-coloring on Saturday night. Next year, I will definitely get more eggs to dye. They loved coloring and decorating the eggs, and these guys eat so much, they were gone quickly!

Easter Baskets!

Breakfast Easter morning. The kids loved the baskets, but we were so rushed to get out the door that they didn't really get to see them until the next day!

After church, we had Easter lunch at Grandpa & Grandma Ronk's house.

Grandpa did a good job of hiding the Easter eggs around the yard.

Nate was more interested in the goodies inside the eggs though!

Sweet Bethy.

After dinner, we got to Face Time (or face-book-time if you're my mom!) with Brian, Keri, Kenley and Claire.

Auntie Becca was in town for Easter (even though I don't have any photographic evidence  :-/) so after Ronk festivities, we headed down to Woodinville for the rest of our Easter celebrations.

The boys rode around-and around-and around-and around in the little car at Gwamma's.

And Miss Alexa made them the cutest little bunnies driving a car for dessert!

More Easter baskets with Gwamma!

We had a great Easter Sunday!

SO THANKFUL.

My Birthday #29

I had my first 29th birthday over a week ago!

It was a low-key, but special day with the family. We started with a coffee-date with Grandma.

After John got home, we went to my favorite Mexican place for dinner. I just realized this is the second year in a row we've gone there for my birthday, so maybe it's a tradition now.  ???

When we got home, the boys made Beth and I wait upstairs while they "did guy stuff" downstairs. We had no idea what was going on...  ;-)

Woah, no way! I was totally surprised with cake, flowers, balloons, and colorful birthday cards! James and Nate don't believe you get older until you have a birthday party, so we had a great time.

My favorite part of the "party" was definitely the "Congratulations" and "Red" balloons. Apparently they were out of birthday balloons at the store!

Thank you, family, for a super fun birthday!

Impromptu Sunday Picnic

Yesterday we had a random free day (which hasn't happened in months!). Instead of sitting at home watching the rain, we decided to go for a drive in the rain - and possibly find some sun.

After church, we loaded up the kids and car and headed out with no real plan. We have been promising the boys a camping trip for a while, but work and weather haven't been cooperating.

After a few stops and a BUNCH of potty breaks, we made it to Leavenworth, then Wenachee, then turned around and headed back to Lake Wenachee State Park. God provided perfect timing for a sun break just for us at the beach!

The boys literally squealed with delight while they played in the sand, with sticks, rocks, pine cones,

AND in the water.  (James)

We had a quick hot dog dinner and enjoyed watching the kids be kids.

James decided he would take his chair down to the lake while he waited for dinner.

He is JUST LIKE John!!

Oh Nate.

After dinner, a couple of marshmallows.

The face. Lol.

This ended up being such a special afternoon. The kids had the best time and were such good travelers. I'm looking forward to more camping and traveling with the family this summer!

Bethy's trip to the ER

I forgot to post this, but it's definitely something I want to remember!

Back on April 11th, we were just cleaning up dinner and Bethy took a big fall - teeth first into the wood floor. After John pulled her teeth out of her lip and saw the amount of blood, we all loaded up for the ER.

The boys and I waited while John took B back to the room. The doctor said stitches usually aren't necessary unless the teeth go through the other side of the skin. He gave Bethany a popsicle and said her lip would heal on its own pretty quickly.

Bethany did great. She really only cried before we got in the car to go to the doctor and after we got home when we took the melting popsicle away!

And the next morning she was all smiles again!

It begins...

Nate's Style

Nate announced that he has new "summer shoes".

"Because, see Mom, they have holes in them."

Oh really, where are the holes?

"Right here. Two holes on each side!"

Just to summarize:  Hiking boots that are 2 sizes too big, mismatched Lightening McQueen socks, backwards shorts (that are honestly probably too short for him), and a head-lamp turned on and pointed straight up.

Early Summer

It is SO nice here. We're getting practice for summer. It's the best.

We'll be doing a lot of bike riding this summer.

Boys played "camp site" yesterday.

Dirt bike helmets came yesterday!

The coolest spot in the house.

John caught a snake for the boys while they were doing yard work. Nate named him "Awesome Wiggler" because "He's awesome, and he's a wiggler!"

And sweet Bethy is battling new teeth and pink-eye (again). She's our first kid to get fevers when she's teething. After fever day-2 I figured it out!  :-/

Oh, and the mountain is back! It's been clouded over almost all Fall & Winter. It's good to see it again.