Spring Break Beach Trip

We spent a night at the beach during spring break. It was the worst weather of the week, but we had fun anyway. We enjoyed the beach, the arcade room, the indoor swimming pool, letting the kids stay up to watch a movie and being together without the distractions of home.

We headed out during breaks in the rain.

The view from our room.

Fortunately, it didn't rain as predicted in the morning. Emily, Angela, and I went for a walk on the beach before breakfast.

It was too cold to play in the sand or the water, but it was still fun to run away from the waves.

Chillin' on the deck.

And here is a picture of me so I don't get those "Where were you?"comments. I'm usually the one behind the camera, but I got Emily to take this one.

Matthew's Birthday

A couple weeks ago, we celebrated Matthew's birthday with his favorite dessert, Double Cream Lemon Pie from Marie Callendars. I love pictures of him with his 4 girls.Emily worked so hard making special things for his birthday. She wrote a poem book with about 5 poems in it. Most of them she made up herself. She also planned out a scavenger hunt for him to find his present. She was really creative with it. She is a very thoughtful girl!
For some reason, all the girls wanted to give him candy bars. He got quite a load.

Ashley is a sitting baby now. I love that her smile shows her little teeth.

Our Kids Must Think We're Old

After church today, I overheard Emily telling Matthew about a story from her primary lesson about a little girl who's Dad died when she was 5 but that it was okay because someday they will be together again. She said, " That is so sad, but I don't have anything to worry about because you're probably going to live until I'm like . . . 16." I guess Matthew only has 7 1/2 years to live! We thought that was pretty funny.

Skiing on St. Patricks Day

On St. Patrick's Day, we took Emily and Angela skiing for the first time. They took a lesson in the morning, which was a very good thing because I don't know anything about teaching kids to ski and Matthew doesn't ski and has only been snowboarding a couple of times. It also allowed Matthew and I to do some of our own skiing/snowboarding for a couple of hours. They had a blast in their lesson. The tube in the background is a moving walkway (called a magic carpet) that carries them up the slope. By the end of their lesson, they were very comfortable on this gentle slope and were just going around and around. In the afternoon we took them over to the bunny hill on the chairlift. It was a mistake to take Angela, she wasn't ready for it, so Matthew took her back to the magic carpet. Emily had a hard time down the first time, but then was getting the hang of it after that. I was just glad that they had fun and had a good experience. It was a fun day just hanging out without the little girls in tow.

They started out with their coats and gloves on.

But I guess they got too warm.

By mid-morning Emily looked like this. It was not a warm day, it was about 30 degrees, but she gets hot very easily. She did wear her coat again in the afternoon, thank goodness, but I don't think she wore her gloves at all.

6 month cutie!

Ashley has passed the 6 month mark already. This is such a fun age, I wish time would stop. I can see the stranger anxiety and mobility just around the corner, things that will make my life more difficult, so I am trying to enjoy the moment. She is pushing backward and rolling around a lot and I'm starting to find her a few feet from where I last left her. She is a big girl, already wearing some 12 month size clothing. At 6 months she was 18 lbs. 8 oz., 26.5 inches long. She likes to be on her tummy and she's got a really strong back, lifting those arms and legs up.Learning to sit.
And starting solids. So far she hates green vegetables, but does well with everything else.