Mowing with Papaw

Papaw teaching Nolan how to mow

This reminds me of when I was little

Zach (cousin) and Lauren riding with Papaw

Lauren is also a graduate!

Lauren also graduated from preschool. Okay so not really, but for the year she attended. Unfortunately for her, she has two more full years of preschool. Her birthday, along with the rest of our kids falls right after the cutoff date for kindergarten. She loves school, so Im hoping she doesn't get bored before kindergarten starts. For her graduation the kids sang songs, repeated the pledge of allegience to the flag, bible, and christian flag. I was so impressed how well she memorized them all! Also they walked out individually with their caps and tassles to receive their diplomas. Very cute!

A Surprise Visit from Grandpa!

A few weeks ago Grandpa surprised us all with a last minute visit. He called around 8pm on a Friday night and asked if we had plans for the weekend. Before we returned his phone call, Joe and I were just joking around saying, "wouldn't it be cool if he were calling to say that he was here!" Well, we got our wish! My mom was out of town, so he had some extra time on his hands. He drove all night and stayed all day Saturday. The kids love their Grandpa. He did various Grandpa activities with them such as playing playdough, going to the park and taking walks. His visit was short, but very enjoyable!

ALS graduation

Joe recently graduated from Airman Leadership School (ALS). ALS is a 5-6 week course that each airman must go through to rank up to Staff Sgt. He did very well in the course and is so relieved to be done! The course was very intense filled with early mornings and long days, tests, marching in formation, push-ups on the hour every hour, and weekend service projects. We missed him during that time, but are glad to have a stress free daddy back! He will sew on Staff July 1st! Yay! We had two goals when we first moved here at Whiteman. Our first goal was to have all of our children at the same hospital (Western Missouri Medical Center). Our second was for Joe to make Staff before we got orders. Looks like both our goals will be met with no problem. I am so proud of Joe and his hard work to make the best of his career in the Air Force. We are hoping for new orders very soon! Fingers crossed!

A funny moment with Lauren

This morning as we were leaving for an appointment Lauren said, " mommy those birds were fighting back there!" I replied, "Lauren I dont think they were fighting, I think they were mating." She questioned what mating was. I replied, "mating is what they do to make babies." Her response to that was, "No, them not laying down!" We tried to get her to explain why the birds would need to lay down to make babies, to see what she would say, but she never did explain! We just thought that was so funny for her to say. Not quite sure what all she knows, but little kids are like sponges as we're learning! We must be very careful!

Our little sponge of joy!

Trip to Branson

This happened awhile back, but I never got to post about it. Joe's little brother, Ben came out to Branson for a school trip. Their show choir was in a competition down there and since we live so close, we got to go watch! We enjoyed watching and also the extra time the teacher allowed us to have with him between and after competition. Here are just a few pictures we took while we were together.

Ben stetching and then doing a little showing off afterwards!

Ben in action!

Joe and Ben

This burger was so huge and if I remember right, he ate it all!

Cars

Kind of a dark picture, but it serves it's purpose!

Nolan is growing up too fast. Just 6 weeks ago he was hardly saying 10 words. His vocabulary has muliplied by 10 times since then. He is saying everything and whatever he doesnt know how to say he attempts. I was a little concerned since he wasn't talking, but decided that some kids just fall a little behind in areas and that eventually he would catch up. It's hard when you have the first child to compare them to. I notice Lauren talks a lot for him, which could and probably is the reason why he wasn't talking. Nolan does have a favorite word....one that we hear about 1000 times a day. His favorite word and thing in this whole entire world so far is "car!" We see so many cars and don't miss one. He will bring me anything and everything with a car and show it to me! And would you guess that his favorite movie is "Cars!" He will sit mesmerized the entire movie! It is so cute to watch! Boys are so different!

Our First Symphony!

Howard Shore
Composer of The Lord of the Rings Symphony


Last night we went with some friends to see the Kansas City Symphony presenting The Lord of the Rings. We surprisingly loved it! The music was so calming and soothing. The stage was full with over 200 musicians and singers. I was so surprised to hear how close even the voices of the singers came to the original music. It was perfect. I'm so glad we went! Now we want to watch the trilogy again. It takes so long, but it means more to us now! What a great experience we had!

Spring Dance Recital!

Lauren had her Spring Dance Recital to finish up the year. She and her class did so well! They always look so cute whether they get all the steps right or not! They danced to two songs, "Perfect Piggies" and "Lolipop!"

"The Phantom of the Opera is There!"

A few weeks ago Joe and I treated ourselves to a night out on the town! We went out to dinner and then to see the Phantom of the Opera. We loved it! I have been waiting for so long to see it live and I finally got my chance! I was very surprised to see how close the movie that came out a couple years ago was to the play. Joe got me tickets for Christmas so once again honey, "Thank you!" I loved it!

Easter

We arrived home from vacation just in time to celebrate Easter. Our ward had Stake Conference so we decided to take the opportunity to stay home and watch General Conference as a family since we were gone to watch that. It was a great idea and would have been even greater had our internet been up and running! I hate that we didn't attend church to worship our Savior, but we did have good intentions. We instead made up a lesson for the kids and watched videos about the Savior. I fell asleep during "The Testements," a movie I absolutely love! Us Wilson's all fall asleep to movies! It's genetic..... so I've heard! Anyhow!....we did enjoy ourselves to a feast of beef and noodles with mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, and dinner roles. Oh, and I can't forget the deviled eggs and the oh so yummy strawberry shortcake! Rain and all, we enjoyed some great family time together.

Joe insisted I take a picture of this year's Easter Bunny!

Yay!...Nolie found one!

Lauren helping out with dessert!

Nolan throwing a fit after an easter egg hunt in California

Lauren's first real easter egg hunt...she was so excited!

Haircut Facade!

It amazes me how a haircut can change a child so much! It's crazy the difference! He looks so much older now!

Nolan on 3/5/09


1 week later after a haircut!

Our never-ending vacation 2009!

At Sea World

We have been so busy since the last time I posted. Mid March me and the kids headed to California to visit my Sis-in-Law. My brother is deployed and Joe was supposed to be in ALS so it was going to work out perfectly. Well, come to find out, Joe was told the wrong date for ALS and he actually wasn't scheduled to go until the following month. I already had tickets and I wasn't going to change my trip. So, after 2 weeks into my trip, he came out to join us. We traveled all over California once he got there. We went down to stay with his Aunt for a week. She lives in between San Diego and L.A. It was so fun to be around so much to do! We went to Sea World with the kids this time. Joe and I went last year and it was a lot of fun so we thought we would share it with our kids this year! We're so nice aren't we! The kids didn't like Shamu splashing them. The weather was a little cool to be getting splashed

Lauren wasn't sure whether to smile or cry after Shamu splashed us!

Nolan was so shocked we would do that to him!



by 52 degree water! We all dried and enjoyed the rest of our day there. The next day we went to Disneyland. It was hard to go with such young kids. It's hard to have a stroller we figured out b/c you can't take strollers in line with you....and there are lines for everything! The second day, we met Joe's brother and his family there. That second day we a lot more fun for us. It was very chilly, but it seemed like we were able to go on a lot more rides with more adults around. We decided to tackle the never-ending princess line first that day. It really wasn't too bad. Lauren was shy at first, but warmed up towards the end. We met Snow White, Aurora, and Pocohantas. She really didn't know who Pocohantas was, but that gives us another movie to introduce her to. We met Mickey afterwards. Nolan enjoyed playing with his big nose! That line actually wasn't too bad. Lauren went on a couple roller coasters. As you'll see on the pictures she loved them! Both Joe and I get really motion sick on rides so we always flip a coin to see who has to go on the rides with her! We both ended up getting a little sick by the end of the night! I hate rides! I don't know how we used to do it as kids. I remember loving the feeling when I was dizzy! So weird how our equilibrium changes as we get older!






Told you Lauren loved the roller coasters!

The oh so famous Mickey Mouse!

Snow White loved Joe's idea to bring the apple! Lauren was very shy with the princesses!

We had one more day to go to Disney, but we were so tired that we decided not to go back this trip! We decided that we will not be back until Lauren is about 8-10 years old! That will make our other kids old/tall enough to ride all the rides and to walk by themselves! The last couple days of our trip we just relaxed. We needed it after 3 days of theme parks! I think our favorite part of our vacation was the beach! We traveled down the coast on hwy 1 and saw some amazing views! As we traveled down by Tori Pines Golf Coarse ( I guess the US Open was held there last year...so my dad tells me), Lauren said something so funny! I was telling my dad on the phone that we just went to Tori Pines and Lauren overheard me say that and said said,"No mommy, Lauren Pines!" It was so funny b/c her cousin that we had been staying with is named Tori and she thought that we were using her name. I dont know if you were there it would have been more funny! The kids did so great on this entire trip. I will admit the beginning of our trip was rough. Me traveling alone all day with 2 kids and one shrinking lap with a baby on the way was a challenge! Nauseous and all, I made it through 2 connections and 10 hours of traveling on airlines! Never again though!!!!! The way home was so much better with Joe helping! I feel like Im leaving so much out, but I feel like we did so much that it's impossible to tell about everything! I feel very satisfied with this year's family vacation. Even though it wasn't planned, we are counting it for the year! Early in our marriage we decided that family vacations were important to us. We have done a good job so far at keeping our word to ourselves. Next year I think we are headed back to Florida. We really enjoyed that trip a lot. We would like to take the kids this time. They loved the beach so much. We would love to live near a beach someday!


Nolan kept resisting the hand-holding, but it still turned out cute!

Courtesy of Dan Capel

Lauren and Daddy building sand castles

It was so cool to see a live star fish!




Nolan loved pushing this truck around!

Snow in March

Okay so it was February when we got the 3-4 inches of snow, but it was still a surprise! Our weather has been so weird and indecicive. One day its 20 degress (like today) and here in a couple days it is supposed to be 70 degrees. It's been like this all winter. I can't complain about the warm days because usually it is cold all through March and most of April. It's just getting me so excited for spring! Im ready for the kids to be able to go play outside and for yard sales to start! I love to go hunting at yard sales! I don't always buy stuff, but for some reason get joy out of looking through people's junk! On base, the junk is nicer for some reason too! I rarely yard sale off base for that reason!

Back to my topic! The other day I took the kids outside to enjoy the (hopefully) last snowfall of the year. I bundled all 3 of us up and took the kids outside. We have a slight hill in the backyard perfect for kid sledding. It's just the right slope that it doesn't go too fast for them. We all went down a few times. Nolan loved it. Lauren figured out how to stop really quick! She would put her little feet outside the sled when she knew she was going too fast or when she was going to hit something. Nolan fell some trying to walk in the thick snow. He didn't enjoy the cold hands that came with the falls. He kept taking his gloves off. It was a really fun 30 min. Im glad I put the energy into it. Afterwards we came inside for some hot cocoa. Lauren made it and it was perfect!

Hidden treasures

Last night as I was helping Lauren put her pajamas on she said something that caught my attention. She kept inhaling like she has a runny nose over and over again. She told me, "I thint I have a wot in my nose." (interpretation: I think I have a rock in my nose.) I looked up her nose, I even pinched it to see if I could feel anything. NOTHING! Shortly after I pinched it, she sneezed! Sure enough, a rock along with some nasty snot came out! Where did she get the rock to put in her nose, I have no clue. When did she do it and why the heck why? I am very glad that she is okay and that she was able to communicate that to me. I will have to keep my eye on her from now on. I hope she has learned her lesson. She looked really scared when she sneezed that out! I took a couple pictures, but they were'nt very good.

Fun Weather!

We have had some really nice weather lately (except for the snow flurries we had this morning!). The other day we took a nice afternoon stroll. We had a few extra kids, but it made it more fun! We ran, explored, and played! The kids all loved it! Thank goodness for the double stroller! I don't know how mom's make it without one! I love it and would highly recommend it to anyone having young children all in a row! Here are a few fun pictures of our afternoon playtime!

My growing baby

Last week Lauren started preschool. I can't believe how much my baby has grown up. I could tell she was ready to get out of the house because she always seemed bored. I hated to see her watch tv all day long. It's not something Im proud of, but the tv is such a good babysitter sometimes. I'm sure everyone at some point has fallen guilty of that!

Lauren goes to school twice a week for just a few hours each morning. She loves it! Everytime I pick her up she is glowing from ear to ear! She says she has new friends! She gets so tired of me asking her what she did! She always tells me, "Mom, I already told you that!" It's hard not being able to see exactly what she does when she's there! I wish I could stick a camera in her backpack so I could watch! I am so excited that we enrolled her. Because of her birthday she will be in preschool for 2 more years. This fall when she turns 4, she will be starting classes 3 days a week.

Since she has started school, I have been really busy during the week. This time of the year is always more busy for Joe at work meaning he has to work more weekends and later hours. He too is taking 1 online class. I am in a math class on Mon. and Wed. nights. And Lauren has school and dance. That takes up about every day of the week for us. I think I am beginning to feel better which will be a nice change. I have felt so tired and sick lately. I am still tired, but the sickness is starting to fade. Such a relief!