Papa visits are the best!

Papa and Cate were best buds all week. I think she is still looking around thinking where is that guy with the beard that pays so much attention to me and carries me around, yeah I want that guy, where is he? And then she starts crying. Papa was amazing, he took care of three kiddos all by himself for a whole evening (got everyone dinner and to bed) while I was at work and Brad was in Texas. Poor papa took a beating though, he got a paper airplane in the eye (one eye was blood red), stayed up late, got up early, changed poopy diapers, and worked his bum off helping Brad at the lake. Hope you get rested up Dad and thanks for everything!

Few random lake pictures

Abi took this picture of Cate and I

Abi is our wind blown, messy haired sweetheart.

This is classic Ben, dirty hands from digging in the dirt and being silly trying to make me laugh.

Progress on our shed/bathroom

We're going to miss you Papa!

Especially me!

The cutest bum

Nothing cuter than bath time nudie.

 Sorry Cate, you have my bum. High crack and flat. But you are still the most adorable thing ever.

True!!! Sometimes I pick up toys to vacuum under them then scatter them around again.

Peanut is 8 months old

Cate loves her brother's green monkey. The thing about this monkey is that it is one of only things we still have that my mom bought for the kids so it's extra special. I like to think she's drawn to it for reasons beyond it being soft and cuddly. And I like to think that when my mom saw it and had to buy it that some how she knew it would be loved (by this little one). 

Cate had a rough a week getting teeth so smiles for 8 month pictures were challenging, although I managed to catch a few with Ben's help. Expecting those top teeth to make an appearance any day, kind of sad because she'll look so different with teeth, grown up. Any second she is going to start crawling. She can scoot backwards and rock on all fours. I had to start baby proofing, it feels like it has been so long since we had to have a baby proof house. She can stand holding on to something without support and her hair is finally long enough to tickle her ears. Now that it is warm outside she gets to experience all kinds of new things like grass between her toes, grass in her mouth (yuck), sun and wind on her face, and even her toes in the sand (at the park). We hiked up on the hills behind our house and I got a few pictures of this sweet little and her loving sis and silly bro.

Ben "Come on guys"

Abi is such a nurturing big sis. 

Feet don't get any cuter or sweeter.

     Ben can always make her smile.

She is also not having the stickers. I stick it on, she pulls it off and puts it in her mouth, lol.

Spring break madness

We went to Seattle and stayed with Grammy for spring break. I drove five hours with three children all by myself and surprisingly that was the easy part! The kids were a bit under the weather (so if we didn't see you that's probably why) and we were busy, busy. We went to our favorite parks, restaurants, stores, Children's museum, Zoo, Elevated Sports, I had lunch with my old coworkers, saw family, and caught up with an old friend (my mommy-ing soul mate). Meanwhile, Brad was busy at our lake place building a bathroom/shed.  

Gram and Cate 

Highland Park

Aunt Keri!

Frost, Bookstore, Central Market fun with Aunt Keri.

Our favorite animals at the Woodland Park Zoo were the penguins, jaguar, and chimpanzees.
But the giraffes, komono dragons, and kangaroos were pretty cool too.
The chimps putting paper over their heads to hide from us cracked us up.

This baby kangaroo was the cutest thing ever. 

It crawled out of it's mom's pouch hopped around for a minute then went back in.

The peacock did a dance for us.

Cate's first time at the Zoo! (She wasn't too impressed)

Carousel ride

I had to drive by our old house since we were in town.
It's crazy the kids don't really even remember it. 

The water room was our favorite at the Children's museum. 

This is me and Cate up on the screen and Abi and Ben being vets.

Lunch with my Childrens coworkers. I miss these ladies!

Thanks for putting up with us Grammy! We had soooo much fun.

Shed/bathroom at the lake. Brad and Jeremy got most of the roof done too.
Pretty amazing for one weekend.

Currently Brad and I are both recovering from our travels/exhaustion. 

It may take awhile.....but totally worth it.