Vitamix in the house!

I am having trouble believing there is actually a Vitamix on my counter!!  Its not an optical illusion - I really did get one!  FINALLY!

And my Green Monster has never been more smooth!  Yesterday's GM included ground flaxseed, vanilla protein powder, almond milk, frozen mangos and pineapple, 2 heaping handfuls of spinach and a frozen banana.  Seriously amazing.  I can't get over how smooth it was.  LOVING my Vitamix!

Loving this guy too.  Not sure why we were taking his picture with his shades on in the house, but oh well.

These next pics are for Grandma Tone Loc.  This was my swimsuit when I was little.  And here is Avos modeling it so nicely.

It fits her like a glove right now, so I don't think she'll be wearing it for long.  Better late than never!

And here they are for their morning cartoon with all (?) of Avery's babies.  Creepy Baby is the one in the middle.  Avery just scored a ton of baby clothes from my old babies, so she's been in heaven dressing them up.  Side note - check out how tan these children are already!  We've hardly had any sun!  They are clearly our children as Eric and I turn into island natives each summer.  Soon we'll be a family Sullivan Lake natives!

Have a lovely day!  I'm hoping the sun makes a rare appearance here today! : )

Steel Trap Memory

This morning I was doing a little toenail maintenance and Avery came over and started yelling, "AVERY'S!!!!!"  Meaning, "do mine too!"  So I painted hers while Dylan looked on.  Eventually he said that he wanted his done too and picked out 2 colors.  The green color to match mine and Avery's and orange for his fingers.  So I did his toes, and while I was doing them, he says, "you're gonna have to take this off right away before Dad comes down."  "Why????"  I asked while gritting my teeth!  "Because I don't want him to say what he said to me at Avery's birthday party last year."  ?????  I have no recollection of this, but I guess his Aunties painted his nails and his dad got mad.  He never forgets a thing it seems!  Eric was just telling me a story about how he remembered some random detail the other day about something Eric had long forgotten.  Its funny how much he remembers.  I might have to write stuff down so he continues to remember.  I know I don't remember much from being a kid!  Guess thats what this blog is for - to document their happenings!  Anywhere - here are the toes. The polish was removed immediately following this photo shoot, so don't worry Daddy.

More photo shoots

Mmmmmm muffins.  I'm working my way thru the cookbook Super Natural Every Day. These are the Bran Muffins and they ROCK  I can't give out recipes, but I can tell you to buy this book.  Everything in it looks awesome and everything I've made so far has been great.

I'm trying to get new pictures for our header on this blog.  I'm also thinking of moving to Word Press so I can comment back.  Stay tuned.

The photo shoots so far have been mediocre at best.  But I'll keep trying.

I was calling her Cyndi Lauper when she put this on.  She did this all on her own.

The grass is finally greening up but we still have to wear our hats and jackets.  You know whats going to happen right - we'll go straight from winter to summer with no spring temps in between.  No joke - it was snowing on Monday - MAY 2nd.

And the trees are finally starting to get little buds on them.  See anything else?

She blends in so well this time of year - brown grass, brown trees.  I love watching her climb down trees.  She goes up them so often, but when its time to come down its like she has a momentary brain fart - "how do I get down again?"

Here they were wanting to look at the pictures on our calendar for May.  Avery doesn't recognize her baby self and keeps asking why the baby is crying in the pictures?  UM, YOU TELL ME!  I'd love to know why you were crying Avery!

He's still working on pumping.  He told me today that EVERYONE needs at least one or two pushes to get started.  Even adults.

And then he was messing around and literally got stuck like this.  And apparently this is not the first time either.  Ummmm???

Again, back at my photo shoots for the new header.

Its a "Y"

This one is probably as good as we're gonna get for now.

Pretty cute together!  I had Dylan's conferences today and his teacher said he talks about his sister a lot.  Not surprising!

Thats all for tonight!

Hot Tub Time Machine take me to SUMMER!

Sorry - couldn't resist, Avery!  One day she will be maaaad about pics like this, but she's the one who doesn't care if her hair gets done or not.  She went to sleep the night before with a wet braid in her hair and this was the result.  Would she let me fix it and make it pretty?  NO!

Puuuuuuuurdy.

Its hard to see, but if you look closely, you can see snowflakes here.  We filled the hot tub earlier this week and we weren't going to let a few snowflakes stop us from our nightly soak.

The kids thought it was pretty fun getting snowy heads while in the hot tub.  Eric tried to enforce a stocking cap rule, but it didn't go over.

And then today, it was back to business as usual with Spring.  Okay, Minnesota!  Figure it out!  Snowing and 35 yesterday.  60 and sunny today.  Whatever.

All the rain/snow has been helping the lawn though!

Seriously can't wait till its summer though.  I'll take the 60 degrees - just please - no more snow!

Alright, now I must go clean up some cat puke.  Be jelly.

 

Easter Weekend

We spent the Easter weekend up at Eric's parents house.  His entire family was there plus a new puppy so there was never a dull moment.  Kelli and I planned out a "Zumba-thon" for Saturday morning.  She and Lisa were super excited (they both get licensed for Zumba this coming weekend in Minneapolis)!

Jamie and Kacie, were not.  They were first timers and were worried about their images.  Ha!  They tried to hide in the back of the class with no luck!

They probably won't be too happy about these pictures, but oh well!  My blog, I'll do what I want!

Grandpa Danny was secretly wishing he could scoooch on in and dance with us.  He definitely was back row material, if you know what I mean. ; )  Check out my air tho!  Wooohoo!  Thanks to Gma Kim for taking the pictures.  Its fun to see us in action!

And one more - I like this one.  Check out the future Zumba princess watching from the high chair.

This is what the kids did ALL weekend.  Gma and Gpa treated them to not ONE but TWO Power Wheels vehicles.

To say that they liked them is an understatement.  And its a good thing there were two or there would have been some serious fights.

Even the littlest cousins could drive them (with supervision of course)!

Here's Hobey (or Homer, as Eric likes to call him) chasing Kelli.  This is Lisa and Chandler's new puppy.  The kids have a love/hate relationship with him.  Since he's a puppy, he likes to bite when he is playing.  They all were NOT fans of that.  Avery kept shaking her fist at him and yelling, "NO! NO!"  The older kids went the "I'm going to run super fast to get away from you" route, which only egged poor Homer on.  Make him want to bite them even more!

Avery, Easton and Addi drive with pillows behind their backs so they can reach the pedals.  Once we figured out that they could drive them, it became evident that Gma and Gpa need THREE Power Wheels.  Its not our fault they had so many kids!  Side note: They admitted that they got them as a bribe to get everyone to come home more.  Guess we're gonna need that third Power Wheels vehicle then! ; )

Gma Kim loves her picture times!  Clearly the rest of us do too!

The 7 grandkids.  If you look closely, Kacie is also in this picture.

And here's Easter morning.  Bunny had just come.

And our holiday attempt at a family picture.  Brown grass, bright sun, forced smiles = mediocre picture.  OH well.  Summer, shades and real smiles are coming soon!

Hope you all had a good Easter!