After Strawberry Picking

After strawberry picking we grabbed a quick lunch and headed over to Busch Gardens. It was only 15 minutes away and so we went over to play for a few hours. It wasn't crowded and we had fun looking at the animals and going on the rides. They loved watching the gorillas and bouncing in the bouncy area. We watched an animal show and just played around. Austin was disappointed because he isn't tall enough for the Grover rollercoaster and keeps asking me when he can ride it. But he was finally tall enough for another ride and he loved that. We stayed until evening and then made the drive home. We were all pretty hot and tired but we had a really fun day.

They loved checking out the gorillas today

Loving the motorcycle ride!

On the train, Austin saying "choo choo"

Flying together

Flying again

Going for a drive

Austin is finally tall enough for the hippo ride! He loved it!

At the top of Elmo's treehouse

See how different they are - Austin runs right across and Rexford goes slowly clinging to the side :)

They had fun crawling around but then got stuck and someone had to help them down :)

Last ride of the day - so hot and tired

They wanted to climb on top of this lion statue for a picture

Strawberry Picking

On Friday we went with some friends to Dover (almost to Tampa) to pick strawberries. The boys loved it! They were so excited to show me their buckets with their strawberries. They picked for an hour and were really good while we were there. We picked 16 quarts of strawberries! We were hot and dirty and had strawberries on our clothes and hands but we had fun. We spent the next two days washing, cutting, freezing, and making jam(and homemade bread to go with it)! They have been talking about it for days and every time they eat strawberries, make a smoothie, or eat the jam, they are so proud and tell us how they picked them.

Austin picking strawberries

Rexford looking for strawberries

Rexford with his bucket

Me and my boys

We made lots of strawberry jam! Yummy!

All Boys!

We watched Anderson one day over spring break while Shannon took Wally to the vet. Rexford wanted to hold Anderson and then asked me to take a picture of them together. Austin and Matthew jumped in and wanted to be in it too. So here's a cute picture of all the cousins together!

They had fun playing blocks together too

Austin and Buzz

The other day Austin came in my room with his stuffed bird and a book and sat on my bed and "read" the book to the bird. Before I could get a picture he noticed me watching him and stopped but then said, "I want to take a picture with Buzz." He loves Buzz. He always has a Buzz in his hand. Sometimes the big talking one and sometimes this little one. He sleeps with them, he takes them in the car, he sits them on the table by his plate while eats. So unfortunately I don't have a picture of the adorableness of reading to his bird but I do have one of him and his friend Buzz :)

And just a picture of my sweet boy

Rexford and his Plants

Rexford brought home two plants the day before spring break started - a bean plant and a cup of grass. Neither of the plants had sprouted when we brought them home but by the end of spring break they were tall. Now the grass is super tall and the bean plant is growing like crazy! Here's Rexford with his plants.

Austin's Tower

The other day Austin and I were playing with blocks and he wanted to build a really tall tower. After we finished the tower he said, "i want to take a picture with my tower." So here is Austin and his really tall tower. He was very proud of it and it stayed standing most of the day :)

Doesn't Austin just look so much older lately? He's not a baby anymore :( but he's still adorable to us!

Rexford's First Magic Game

My dad bought tickets to a Magic game and took Rexford last Friday night. He got Rexford a shirt to wear to the game and even brought Austin one too. Rexford was excited and wanted to stay for the whole game. He had a great time and came home telling us all about the game and the mascots doing tricks during half time and all the fun things he saw there. He wanted us to look up the Charlotte mascot's name (which is apparently Rufus). He keeps saying, "The Magic game was so fun, you should have seen it." Thanks Papa for a fun night!

Rexford and Papa getting ready to go to the game (and Austin wanted to be in the picture too).

Everybody with their Magic shirts on

Beach Day

Most of spring break this year was very wet and stormy. Finally the sun came out on Friday and it was a beautiful day. We were going to go to Aquatica with Brian's family but it was a little cool so we all headed to the beach. The kids had a blast splashing in the chilly water and playing in the sand. Rexford had fun trying to catch waves on a boogie board and Austin loved to splash in the water.

Ethan and Rexford

Austin, Stella, Ava, and Rexford

Austin, Ethan, Stella, Zach, Ava, and Rexford playing in the sand

Austin liked to dump dirt on himself

Splashing in a little pool of water

Austin loved to splash in the little pools

Carrying a heavy bucket of water

Playing on the beach

Big Boy Bed

My baby is now in a big boy bed! The transition was sad in many ways but it's good too. I've been wanting to rearrange things and so this whole process forced us to clean and organize and so that was good. The boys wanted to share a room so we set up Austin's bed in Rexford's room and moved the toys to the other room. Austin wanted a Toy Story bed so we put Toy Story sheets on his bed and then got a matching sports quilt like Rexford's to go on top of the bed and he loves it. They like being together and they have been sleeping in later because it's darker in that room for Austin and Rexford will stay in bed longer when he notices that Austin is still sleeping. Austin was starting to fight a little at nap and bed time but now he climbs up in his bed and wants to read a story and snuggle a little. So sweet!

In Austin's new big boy bed

I think it's sweet that they wanted to share a room :)

Cool New Jeep

My mom found this Jeep at a garage sale and the boys are in love! They were so excited when we gave it to them and want to ride it all the time. They have so much fun riding it around and it's so fun to watch them.

Pretzel Fun!

One Monday evening Rexford wanted to know what we were making for Family Home Evening dessert so I started looking around the kitchen to see what I could find. I pulled out my fun kid's cookbook and found an easy recipe for pretzels and since I had all of the ingredients we decided on that. The dough was super easy to make and not too many ingredients and the kids loved helping. Then we divided the dough into little balls and then rolled them into long snakes and then twisted them to make pretzels. Austin couldn't really roll it out but he helped anyway :) Rexford was a great helper and especially liked brushing them with egg and sprinkling the salt. They were good and the kids loved them! Next time I think we'll try sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar!

Austin saying "cheese!"

My little helpers

Rexford showing off his pretzels

They were yummy!

Orange Juice

We had a bunch of really juicy oranges/tangerines? from my mom and so I got a little hand juicer and let the boys help make orange juice. They loved it! They thought it was so cool that they got to squeeze the juice out and make their favorite drink. They drank their juice for Family Home Evening dessert. It was yummy!

Happy 10 Years to Us!

We've been married 10 years now! We got to spend a great evening together (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Ursic) and enjoy several hours just the two of us.

Rexford helped me make and decorate a cake. Austin wanted the cake so bad, he whined for an hour and kept trying to stick a spoon in the cake :)

Here we are on our wedding day. Don't we look so young?!

Updates

So I thought I should write some updates about the boys and what they do and like and don't like, etc. so we'll have it when they are grown up.

Rexford is doing well in preschool. His writing has improved so much and he does it so much faster and it's easier for him. He even does a journal at school and he sounds out words and tries to write them. He is still nervous about where to cut with scissors sometimes. He likes math and he can count to 100 by ones and tens. He is doing addition problems and he loves to show us his work. He is starting to like drawing and coloring more and often draws pictures of our family. He likes to play video games-Mario Kart at our house and Lego Star Wars at Papa's house. I have to turn Mario Kart off sometimes because he gets angry and emotional if he's not winning and he's trying to unlock a new cart or something. His new favorite show on TV is Wild Kratts (it's about animals and rescuing them-real life/cartoon combo). He has taken an interest in basketball and likes to play at school when they play inside and he likes to play at Papa's house. Even with the big ball and real hoop he can make some shots! He is a sweet older cousin-he loves Matthew and Anderson and they love him. Matthew always gets excited when he sees Rexford. He is sweet to Austin most of the time but they do have their little fights sometimes. He is a very loving child and always gives us hugs and kisses and tells us he loves us. He likes us to do things with him and spend time with him. He is very sensitive and gets very embarassed and upset when he gets in trouble. He likes to help Daddy outside and ride his bike.

Austin is growing so quickly lately. It seems like he is so much older these past few weeks. He talks so much and so well and can say just about anything he wants. He is more assertive and gets upset when people touch him (on accident or on purpose) and will shout, "Don't touch me!" or "Don't take my toy!" He can tell me what happened when he gets hurt and can tell me where he left something when we are looking for it. Whenever he falls down, he usually gets up and says, "I'm ok Mom." He loves Toy Story and wants to watch the movies all the time. He plays and sleeps with his little Buzz and Woody. He says "to infinity and beyond!" many times a day and always stretches out his arms when he says it. He does it on the carousel at Sea World, riding in a cart at the store, and running through the house or at the park. He thinks he's Buzz Lightyear :) He also likes to say "I am Buzz Lightyear, I come in peace." He likes to listen to Toy Story songs on my ipod. He loves to color and paint and play with playdoh and chalk. He is starting to want to write his name. He asks me to help him and he loves doing it over and over. He plays well by himself and will sit and talk and play but sometimes will ask me to come play with him. It is sometimes hard to get him to eat sometimes. He likes pasta, fruit, and cheese. He is often shy around people and if they try to talk to him he will close his eyes and turn or bury his head. But sometimes he is very outgoing, just depends on his mood I guess :) He copies everything Rexford does and wants to be just like him. He doesn't like his hands messy or getting wet when he's in regular clothes. He always asks me to wipe his hands and he hates it when I spray his hair in the morning to comb it. He is sweet and says, " I love you too mom" and gives me hugs.

They are growing up so fast! We love Rexford and Austin!

Daddy and the Boys

Just wanted to post a couple of cute pictures of the boys and Brian.

Painting Fun

Rexford and Austin love to paint. Here are just some art pictures taken in the last month. Last month they wanted to paint but I needed to cook dinner so I couldn't give them messy paints and leave them (well Rexford is fine but I can't leave Austin just in case). So I found these paint by water books we had in our art box and gave them those to paint. They had so much fun! They did a whole book :)

Busy painting

Rexford loved the paint with water pictures

Austin had lots of fun too!