Work kids work!!!

So on Friday night we set the kids down and had a long talk with them. We told them that they are no longer going to get free food. They are old enough now that they had to starting working to earn their room and board. So Saturday morning they got to work. They tore up our front sidewalk and front step. Then they had to clean it up. I am letting them wait til this coming weekend to lay the new sidewalk and step. Then they got to work on a new sliding door in the back of our house. Here is evidence of their hard work. In this first picture the kids had filled up the big wheelbarrow and were starting to fill up their shopping cart.
Here is Ethan hard at work.

That is about the biggest pieces of stone that they could pick up.
Here is the new door. Ethan worked really hard on this -- notice his handy dandy hammer.

Ella decided that she needed a little break -- after all she is only 16 months compared to Ethan's whole 2.5 years. OK - in case you could not tell the sarcasm - the kids were just having fun helping -- we are still feeding them, buying them toys and clothes, and letting them sleep in our house - even if they were not the hard workers that they are they would still get these wonderful privileges. OH to be young again.

Catch up

OK -- so we have been busy lately. Sorry we have been so delinquent on updating our blog. My parents came back from Florida so they have been keeping us and the kids super busy. So lets just cover the basics.

SUMMER CHAIRS:
POTTY TRAINING:
MAKE AN OFFER:
OH NO! LEAK:

Summer Chairs: So here we have the new summer chairs. Nonna and Pappa bought these for Ethan and Ella. Not only are they chairs but they double as a back pack. Ethan is sporting the chair as a back pack in this first picture. Ella is not big enough to use it as a back pack but the second picture shows the kids sitting in their chairs.



Potty training: I guess you probably thought there would be a picture of Ethan the great - but no he is not potty trained yet but we are working on it. Ella on the other hand wants to be potty trained but I personally think she is to young. So here you have it -- Ella on Bob the Builder potty seat. She has been using the potty since she was 14 months. I think I will go full force with both of them this summer and hopefully get rid of diapers all at once.

Make an Offer: So what is it? $1, $500, how about $2,876,456? Unfortunalty she is not for sale because I could never put a price tag on my princess.
Oh No! Leak: So we have a little problem with our skylight. But have no fear - we will be getting a new roof very soon. During the storm last night the roof was leaking pretty bad until Blake got up on the roof and put a beautiful blue tarp on. The kids had lots of fun playing in the water as it came down. The second picture is of Ella splashing in the water.

So that is a brief update on some things we have been up to. Hopefully I will be better here in the next few weeks.

We got 2 puppies

I had you all fooled huh? We are actually dog sitting for my parents. So the new fixture in our home is this wonderful dog cage which creates hours of entertainment as you can see.

Garage sale

We had a huge garage sale this weekend with great success. It took us three nights to get ready for it. It was worth it because now we have more room in our attic to store our winter clothes. Blake was very proud of all our HOT PINK signs. They seemed to work because the people just kept coming.

Ella has hair.

If you look really close you can see Ella has a tiny little pony tail on the top of her head. See -- she does have hair after all. This is a picture after Ella riped out the pony tail holder. You see it now don't you. She has such beautiful locks of hair!

Ethan's new room!!!

So Ethan finally got a big boy room. When Nonna and Papa (my parents) came to visit my mom decorated Ethan's room. Thanks. She had ask Ethan what he wanted to have in his new big boy room. ANIMALS, ANIMALS, ANIMALS - so animals he got. We are still wanting to paint a big palm tree on the wall in the corner of where his bed is.

Easter, Easter, Easter

Thanks to Aunt Debbie the kids had so much fun playing with their new toys. She bought them the family for Mr Potato Head and a lot of play doh. This first picture of Ella is pretty silly but it shows how much fun she was having.
Ethan put together this Mr. Potato and was so proud of it.
And here is the picture of the whole family. Blake has the green hat. Ella has the red hat. I am the one in the back with the bunny ears and purse and Ethan has the blue hat and big yellow smile. You think they look like us?
The play doh that the kids got had some potato head parts -- Ethan made some kind of strange animal and is of course showing it off for the camera.

Look at all this play doh -- and I even hid half of it for later because there was so much. Notice little Ella in the back starting to make trouble for Ethan.
Pretty girl Ella in her Easter dress. She got so excited when she saw her dress for the first time. She is such a girl -- she even got excited about her new white sandals. I did not get a picture of Ethan looking handsome but he sure did -- he had a lime green sweater vest that made him look like a little man. It is fun to dress up for Jesus on a day that he did so much for us.

We had an Easter egg hunt over at Nonna and Papa's house. It took a while for Ella to catch on but both kids had a blast. Here is Ella eating the organic oatmeal cookies found inside the eggs. Ethan was on a roll -- check out his basket - it was overflowing so much we had to get him a second one.

Cousins

With in one week we were blessed enough to see 4 cousins. This first picture is Ethan with Faith (my sister Janel's baby). Ethan loved Faith so much. If only he were this gentle with Ella.


Then we got a surprise visit from Blake's cousins Ryan and Chiara and their 3 kids. Zach and Ethan were having fun on the tractor -- can you tell they are both Andrews? The Andrews love their farming. Zach is almost 5 years. Ella and her cousin are only 3 months apart. Oh the fun they will have when they get older.

Here is a picture of Cammy and Chiara. I could not get one of her with the other kids because she fell asleep in the car and continued to take a nap. She just woke up in this picture. Ethan and his cousin are only 2 months apart. Watch out family reunion -- we will take over with all these toddlers.

Final 4 late night

Last night for the final four we went to the Albert's (friends from college). It is always fun hanging out with college friends, and we had a wonderful time. The night was going great until Ethan had a little accident. He was running around with another little girl and he tripped and fell flat on his face. He could not get his hands down quick enough - resulting in the huge bump right in the middle of his forehead. He is fine now -- just did not like having to ice it. These two pictures are on our way home. Ethan with his goose egg and Ella realizing that it is way past her bed time. We are getting Easter pictures taken on Thursday with Faith (Janel's baby) and my two kids so hopefully the goose egg will be gone by then.

Warm days with friends

We have had just wonderfully beautiful days here the past 2 weeks. We have taken advantage of it (knowing that in Indiana the weather can change at any time and get cold again) and played outside, gone to the park and have picnic lunches with friends. This first picture is from Friday. My friend Cindy and I met at the park with the kids. Here is a picture of Ethan with Julia (Cindy's oldest girl). The kids had a lot of fun and now Ethan can't get in the car without asking if we are going to go see Julia.

Here is Ella with her friends -- puppy and puppy. She loves her puppy's and her blankies.