Girl Night

Friday Allen got up before dawn so that he could come home early. He come home early so Karen and I could have a Girls' Night Out!!! What a sweetheart. I am so grateful for you, Allen. What a sacrifice for us. I am not sure I would get up before dawn for anyone to do anything fun!

We started off by going to get a massage!!!! It was so nice. The pampering was tremendous and the quiet was so unusual ;)

We also got to have an awesome dinner. We went to PF Changs. I had never been there before. Here Karen is having her egg drop soup while our lettuce wraps (yuuuummmmy!) was waiting.

We ended the night at Starbucks! I know...what a super day. I hated for it to end, but we are getting way too old to stay out past 10 :) We got to relax, get a few errands done, have a wonderful dinner, and get to just sit and talk.

Thanks Allen and thank you Karen for such a stupendous night!

Early Easter and Bday Dinner

Papa and MawMaw are off in NC visiting Julianna and Lily (well, and Michelle and Alan too). We had an early Easter time as well as birthday cake for Papa as they will be in NC for those.

MawMaw made the cutest Easter gifts. She made Joseph a BBQ apron and mitts with cowboy material. Then she made the girls baby carriers. They are so adorable!

Papa's birthday isn't until April 10th, but we wanted to make him a cake and get to sing to him ;)

We hope they have a wonderful trip, although they will be greatly missed. Joseph was just asking this morning if Papa and MawMaw could pick him up today and take him to "Jewanna's" house.

Family Time

Saturday we took some much needed time out to have some family time. We took the kids to Sousson Park in St Louis.

It was great to let them out to play for a while. It seems like it has been way tooo long since we have been able to turn them loose.

They have become so good with pictures. They are kinda getting that it goes a lot faster if you cooperate with mom.

Feeding the fowl. I was a bit nervous given our propensity for tripping and things that one was going to end up in the pond. Thankfully, no one did

Ha ha ha, I just LOVE Joseph's wind up in this picture

Hannah said she WAS smiling in this pic. Oh well

We got to have another weekend with people we love. This weekend we got to have down Chris, Dana and the kids (my brother and his fam). We had such a great time. It just goes way too fast!


The kids had so much fun! They played and played. Here they are with the afro wig. Too funny

Having fun snuggling Auntie Dana!

Me and my brother

Emily really liked the pie, can you tell?

Saturday night we had a party. We had the Boyd's over and Papa and MawMaw stopped by. Here are all the kids. They loved playing all day long. It was so great letting them play outside.

Wowzers...can you feel the excitement? This is during game time!

The kids really got into the games :)

After all was said and done and the kids had their baths Joseph crawled up into Dakota's lap. They are buddies!


It wasn't long before he was out cold! So sweet. I am so grateful these kids all love each other so very much

Our Trip to IN

This weekend we set off for IN to see Troy, Sherry and Jacob. We had a wonderful time. It was way too short however! They took us to one of the largest dairy farms in the Midwest. The cool thing is that we had just seen this farm on Dirty Jobs last weekend!

Milking practice
The Cole Family

We took a bus tour of the place. It was really neat. They even drove into the barns.

Proof that Dirty Jobs was on our bus :)

Joseph was in his glory seeing all the farm equipment!

Aww...aren't they so cute?

The milking carousel. They had quite an efficient set up. The cows even got on and off by themselves. It was fascinating

Tee hee hee.....his cheese is getting cheesier!

Jacob decked out in his 3D glasses. So cute!

All ready for our 3D movie

Practicing the milking station

One of the vets seen on Dirty Jobs feeding the baby we just missed seeing be born.

We got to see this cow have her baby. Ouch! Can you see those sharp hooves coming out?

The vet had to step in and help the poor gal out. We saw Mike Rowe do the same thing on Dirty Jobs.

So cool! It's a boy

So sweet!!!!

Look at that face

Then we got to enjoy some fresh ice cream. Oh my! It was SO good

Party Weekend!

This last weekend we got to have my parents down for the weekend. They got to leave around 1 so it was nice to have some more time together Friday night. Friday was Mom's birthday. So, we had a little celebration. The kids are so funny....they were a bit offended that she didn't have a pinata. They have always had one so they think in order to have a good party there but be some pinata swatting :)

Singing Happy Birthday to Nan. I found some delicious (yet expensive) gluten free cupcakes at Whole Foods. So, Nan got to actually have cake on her birthday. We put trick candles on her cupcake and the girls thought it was hilarious!


Singing

Nothing beats special attention. Bumpa spend a good while playing and wrestling with the kids on the floor.

Joseph picked out his Packer sweatsuit to wear because he said, "Bumpa likes Go Packers". He was so thrilled to see that he matched with Dad too.

Being the special birthday girl came with some privileges...like wearing Hannah's special sombero from school :) Nan's a good sport!

Dad worked on putting on our front storm/screen door. It is soooo wonderful. I love being able to get fresh air in! Thank you so much, Dad

Saturday night we had another party. We got to have MawMaw, Papa, Uncle Gary and Aunt Carlma over as well. Allen smoked ribs with his smoker. Yum, it was so good!Father and Son

Poor Uncle Gary getting mauled by my kids!


Aunt Carlma and MawMaw