Just Life

Here are a few pictures from our life this spring.

Dad and James went to pick up some stuff for our basement at home depot. It wasn't ready yet, so they decided to try out the little craft that they have there.

He was pretty pleased with his final project!

This little lady loves dressing up in whatever she can find. Boots of some sort are usually involved. :)

That's one way to unload a dishwasher. Not the most helpful, but probably the most fun.

Here's our diva working her way up a ladder

And down the slide

Daddy had to get some work done while at the playground...

Our town had a fun Family Fishing Day at a local lake. They provided the polls, bait, etc.

The boys were in heaven. They love fishing and we are not with it enough to make it happen on our own.

Here is the famous picture of James and Alan catching the same fish. Yes. This truly happened. Not the brightest fish in the pond, I'd say. 

Alan loves to write these little books. This was one of his favorites.

Popcorn trees!

A picture of some of the artwork before it got recycled. :)

Yes. This is pretty much how life looks in our house more often than I care to admit.

Alan took this chair and turned it into some sort of space ship.

The kids got some stickers from Great Grandma Foulk and had a fun time making scenes!

Dress up, peanut butter crackers, and snapping beans. Again...life.

She really wanted me to take this picture

Somehow we fit both the mulch and the kids in the car.

Lucy loves to be with me when I get ready in the morning, and really wanted to take this early morning Sunday shot.

Cheese!

Also she always wants "Elsa hair." Which is rather hard to do with her short hair. I was pretty proud of this attempt, as I have no practice with this and she has a bob cut.

James would spend hours picking "flowers" in our backyard. These are for his friend Eva. We try to avoid cutting the grass for this purpose. :)

As we were sorting through old clothes, I found this shirt that my roommates had made for me to wear at my bridal shower. I never though I'd get another use out of it, but it is now a favorite night shirt of Lucy.

Another crazy hair day. We tried to dye it with kool aid. I don't think it worked right.

Future missionary!

Our little climber!

And our other climber

And builder!

I had the kiddie pool out on a warm day and was working on stuff in the yard. When I turned around I found that they had been having "dirt battles" after having been wet. Oh my. :)

Yes. This is pretty much life in a nutshell. I mean, there's also a fair amount of screaming, crying, and time outs, but, you know, it's all pretty awesome. :)

Spring Sports

This spring James decided to play soccer and was on the White Lightening team again! It was amazing to see how much better they got at soccer, just by getting a little older. James tried so hard and played very well. We had a great season!

Alan really wanted to play baseball this spring, so we gave it a shot. He loved it. There were a lot of practices and games, but thankfully the field had a playground and we got used to picnic dinners. It was a lot of fun. His friend Andy was on his team, and that made it fun as well. Here are some pictures from our great season!

Basement

Our major undertaking of the spring was the basement. We bought paint a while ago and decided we had to get the painting done before the weather was nice again. So we spent many, many hours painting walls and trim in the basement. The walls were white and very dirty and all of the woodwork was brown. Here are some pictures of our helpers!

Here is a picture of the painted walls and trim (mostly) before the carpet and tile were redone.  The paint is a gray/blue. You can't really tell how awful the carpet was in this picture, but it was ripped and stained and just pretty bad.

Here is the new tile. We brought it out quite a bit further to the wall. And our pellet stove can sit on top of it now.

And here we are with new carpet and tile. Still not finished, as we still have doors and decorations, but hey. we made some good progress. And we love it.

Easter 2016

A few pictures from Easter time!

Plastic Egg races were a hit this year

Also we made pretzel bunnies. Can't remember if the kids saw this online or in the Friend, but they got it into their heads that we needed to make them, so this was dinner one night. :)

Dying Easter Eggs!!

Easter Morning!

Grandma Foulk got the kids these cute Easter outfits. Amazingly, we got everyone (James) to wear them.

But could not get a picture before he ran inside to change. After much negotiating, we got him back outside with the same shirt, but with sweatpants.

And this is the best we could get, and it's not great. It was a rather painful process, 

but it's better than this!

Or this! Crazy kids. Too much sun. Oh well. They looked really cute that day at church, anyway. :)

Ditson Art show

This year Alan worked really hard on an art project that he entered into the Ditson Art Show. He used his how to draw ocean animals book to draw an ocean scene which you can see in the background of the picture below. There was a whale, a squid, a sting ray, and a manatee. He colored them with pastels and used water color for the background. It was a fun event to participate in.

And for a little extra bonus

Pie day! To celebrate pie day, we had a pie eating contest. I won. I just wanted everyone to know that. :)

St. Patrick's Day! Kids made a trap to try to trap the leprechaun. He escaped, but still left lucky charms. :)

Floor Hockey

This winter Alan played floor hockey through our town's rec department. It was a really great experience and he loved it! He learned a lot and even got to dress in full pads to play goalie! Here are some pics from our fun season.