Happy, Happy Birthday, Ellary and Alyson!

Ellary's 4 Year Old Party!

 Ellary turned 4 years old on April 22nd!  She was so excited to have her first ever friend birthday party.  What a great time!  12 little three, four and five year old girls running around, making paper bows for their hair, playing freeze dance, swinging at a pinata, then eating cake and ice cream and opening presents.  What can be more fun?

How about a nap after everything is all said and done?  How about that?

We are glad Ellary had such a fun time celebrating her birthday.  We are proud of the big girl she is becoming and how she brings so much happiness to our lives.

Just for memory sake, here are some of Ellary's favorite things at this stage in her life.

Color: Pink

Activity: Dancing

Cartoon Character: Daisy Duck

Disney Princess: Ariel from the Little Mermaid 

Things to do during the day besides dancing: Coloring, playing with My Little Ponies, and on her little learning lap top.

What she can't hardly wait to do: Go to preschool, and tap and ballet lessons in the fall.

Alyson's Big Celebration!

Alyson turned 9 years old on April 30th.  Wow-nine whole years!  This was the first year she had a slumber party for her birthday, and it was so much fun.  The energy Kris and I spent on 8 eight and nine year old girls in a 16 hour time period was far less than the energy we exude for 2 hours with 12 little girls.  What fun this older age group is, not to say Ellary's age isn't fun, just requires a little more endurance!

Aly, we hope you had a lot of fun and that you always remember the special time when you celebrated your 9th birthday with your friends (and us too, or course!)

 Girlies eating pizza on the deck.

 

Opening presents.

 All the girlies watching Alyson open presents.

Every half hour a girl would pop a balloon and get a prize or have to do some silly requirement to earn one depending on what the paper inside said to do.  They also tie-dyed shirts but we didn't get any pictures of that.

 

Kris judged the toilet paper mummy contest.

Some of the girls taught the others a new group dance. 

Girls have gotta be girls and most girls like nail polish.

The next morning eating pancakes that Kris made them...Hey, the girls only stayed up until about 11:00pm.  Not too bad, right?

Some fun facts about Alyson right now:

Favorite color: Blue

Favorite subject in school: Art

Hobbies: Violin, running, tennis, riding her bike

One of her favorite foods: Chopaghetti (Korean noodles)

Something she is very good at: Making desserts, especially cakes, and taking care of her little brother and sister.  She is great with kids!

2012 Spring Break at Crystal Mountain Resort

Even if it means we have to back track (again, sorry about that), Spring Break 2012 is definitely worth mentioning.  While some people like to escape Michigan winters at the beginning of March by traveling south to sunny places like Florida or Cancun just when the cold really settles in and it feels like the snow and glum will never go away, our family decided to try something new.  We embraced the Michigan cold head on and traveled North instead of South for the winter.  We enjoyed the snow, well what was left of it after a few warm days of thawing, and spent some quality family time together.

We spent four nights at Crystal Mountain Resort about 45 minutes south of Traverse City.  We got a great deal on our stay.  We are always looking for deals when it comes to trips and travel.  You sort of have to when you have four kids.  We bought two nights and got two nights free.  Great fun at a great price.

The first highlight worth mentioning right away is that Alyson and Kourtney skied for the first time.  They took one full day of lessons, then got back out on the slopes with Kris for a little night skiing.  They loved it so much that Kris spent the next day skiing with the girlies too.  I didn't ski because we had just found out about a month earlier that I was pregnant.  Maybe next year.

 Although Ellary and Keegan didn't ski they had a great time playing in the snow and hanging out at the lodge.

 This was our walk from the mountain to the condo we stayed in.  Cutesy little place.

 Ellary, Keegan and I spent the first two days mostly in the condo and checking out the lodge.  The kiddos also had their faces painted at the local shop and we met up with Kris and the girls to have lunch on the day they skied together.

 

 Just chilling on the fold out couch.

 The snow really began to thaw on the third day.  So much for having to embrace the Michigan cold.  We took a little trip to Traverse City and walked downtown.  This is a picture of one of our favorite stores to stop in (I think it's the Cherry Republic).  This mettle crate is full of cherry pits and believe me, we brought plenty of them back to the condo in the kids' coats and shoes.

We also went swimming on multiple occasions at the resorts athletic club.  No pictures please!  And we spent one evening playing bingo in the lodge.  Fun, fun, fun!

 On the last day we painted the kids' faces in the lodge with some face paint we bought in Traverse City.  Kris is quite the artist...don't yo think?  Still, maybe he'd better stick to his day job and me to mine.

If you can't tell, Kourtney is a panda, Keegan is a lion, and Alyson and Ellary are both rabbits.

Last pic before we left to go home.  We had such a great vacation filled with tons of memories I'm sure we won't be forgetting anytime soon.

And the verdict is....

We are having a BOY!

Most family and friends know it already (we found out almost two weeks ago) that we will be welcoming a baby boy into our family mid to late September.  We are so excited to have another little baby to love.

Everyone's reaction to the news...

Kris and I are just happy our baby boy is healthy.

Aly and Kourtney were almost relieved that a baby boy is on the way.  They look forward to the times when Keegan and ? can wrestle with eachother.  Then they won't have to keep one eye out for the little rascal otherwise known as their little brother.  Wait, or will they have to keep both eyes open for two baby brothers on the attack?

Ellary wanted a baby sister, and she wanted her name to be Ellary Evelyn.  She cried for a few minutes, then something distracted her and all was good in her world again.

Keegan probably doesn't care too much whether the baby is a boy or a girl.  He just loves to touch my tummy and kiss it.  What a sweet boy.  You'd never know he had it in him to take his sisters down with just one yank of the hair or pull of the shirt.

Kris and I love our kids!

Easter 2012

 We have a tradition that the Easter Bunny makes his egg delivery the day before Easter, that way our family can remember the true meaning behind the holiday on Sunday and have a different kind of fun on Saturday.  Here are the kids waiting patiently to come down the stairs to find their baskets.

 This was the first year Keegan really understood what was going on.  He was determined to find his basket and show us all the things he found in it.

 Then we went outside and the kiddos found the eggs!

The weather was gorgeous, and we had such a fun time together!  Happy Spring everybody!

Spring Time Fun in East Lansing

 We are a family that likes to get around on bikes whenever it's warm outside.  So far this spring we have peddled to the grocery store on multiple occasions, to Speedway for frosty drinks, MSU campus to see Kris and to go to the Butterfly House and 4-H Garden.

Ellary, however, reached a mile stone in April when she peddled a round trip of nearly 5 miles downtown and back.  She was so proud and felt like the big girl she is becoming.  Her little legs peddled so hard and so fast that we barely had to slow down for her to keep up.  Way to go, girl!

 Over spring break the kids and I went to the 4-H Garden on MSU campus.  The flowers weren't in bloom yet, but the butterflies were fluttering about in the Butterfly House.

 All of the kids had a butterfly on the finger at one time or another.

 But Keegan liked the pond best of all!

 Alyson was a pro-butterfly catcher.  She helped the others get a chance to have a butterfly on their fingers too.  What a great big sister!

The end of our trip at the Butterfly House...just before we went to the MSU Dairy Store for some good old ice cream!