A little of this a little of that

We've been doing a lot of remodeling to our backyard lately so here a few pictures of working on our garden and the kids outside.

This tree swing is Gage's favorite. It makes his muscles bigger.
Beautiful Molli with the wind blowing through her hair. It seems like something is missing from this picture but I just can't put my finger on it...
Little miss attitude letting us know who is boss.
I really love watching my kids play in the dirt. I love that something so simple can entertain them for hours. I have seriously considered getting a big pile of dirt and just putting it in our backyard for the kids to play in. Sand is too messy and just gets everywhere. But dirt, if it gets anywhere in our yard, just helps the grass grow.
This is the first 4x4 square foot garden that Jake built. They are really turning out nice and I will post pictures of everything when we are done.
A small glimpse of what it's like to be me lately: always a baby on my hip and another one trying to climb up my legs to be on my other hip.We planted two Gardenia bushes in our backyard this spring. This is my first bloom. It's had many blooms since but I was so excited to see this first one. They are such pretty flowers and they smell so good. Jake's granny HAD to have a Gardenia corsage for any all weddings she attended. It's a good memory of granny to see these flowers in our backyard.
I celebrated my birthday on the 10th of April. I woke up and Jake had spelled out a couple of birthday wishes on the counters in the kitchen while I was a asleep. See if you can figure out what they say.

Molli has decided she likes to paint. Although, I think paper is her least favorite media to paint on!
The kids just love little Daxlee - Do. We have the best kids.



I'm thinking that Molli AND Daxlee weren't so sure this was a good idea. Molli is such a good big sister though

Gage has been running to school with me lately. One day, he had a spill and was quite traumatized. We're happy to report that he is now back up and running again.

We celebrated Jake's 29th birthday on March 11th. Some friends came over for a BBQ and brought some great gifts. One was a photo book with Jake's head put on a bunch of miscellaneous bodies (the guys were making fun of us girl's for making scrapbooks of each other). Another was a "Fart" book about how to spot the different kinds and it even had what each sounded like (that's an inside story with the Foster's because they cause Jake to have gas - really a great story we'll have to share sometime)! And another gift was a handmade gift from Sam. Sam has the wonderful talent of being able to make anything out of wood. There is one rule to Sam's building though. Pretty much every piece of wood has to be absolutely free, so he usually picks it out of dumpsters or construction sites. He made Jake this beautiful golf club and painted it silver... so thoughtful Sam!

Molli's little friend Livy was at Jake's birthday party and like all 2-year-olds, they have a love/hate relationship.

I'm not totally sure what they were doing in this one. Molli might have been trying to get Livy to dance with her? Jake had his first big race on April 2nd in Galveston, TX. It was a Sprint Triathlon so it's a 400m swim (in the ocean), 12 mi bike, and a 3.3 mi run. We got a hotel in Galveston right on the beach and made it a fun family weekend. Jake's parents were in Houston for his Uncle's golf tournament, so we were lucky to have them there with his Aunt Nancy. It was really fun and exciting to watch him finish a race that he's been training for for about a month or two. We're hoping to both be able to run it next year and make it an annual event while we live here.
I got a little frustrated because he forgot to pin his number on his shirt after the bike and before the run so he had to run back to his bike and pin it on. He's the guy with the blue sleeveless shirt on.

Well, he finally got it pinned on but... it was upside down! He didn't know of course, until after the race was over. His reply to me after I told him was, "Well, I could read it and that's all that matters." I just laughed.Fine lookin' piece of machinery right there!This is Jake with his buddy Brandon. These two just looked so cute sharing a bed at the hotel. When we woke up the next morning, Gage was sleeping at the bottom of the bed and Molli was sleeping in Gage's spot. And that, my dear friend, is why we don't share our bed with our kids!Gage had "Field Day" at his school in March. It was fun to see him do a bunch of sports with his friends. Molli loved seeing her big bro and was having so much fun watching him that she had to go give him a big hug.