Garage sales and pool fun

Our garage sale went pretty well! Friday was definetly better than Saturday, but we sold quite a bit of stuff nonetheless. The kids were great for the most part. It is always stressful trying to set up a garage sale with 3 little ones asking you why you are selling their stuff. I don't think I will do one again for a while :) We did buy a pool this weekend as it has finally reached the 80's here and that helped distract them a bit. Below are some pictures from the past two days.

Kaelynn loves to go grocery shopping with her cart. Good thing it's just the pretend grocery store because I don't think the regular grocery store would let her in looking like this :)
The boys love to play with boats of any type in the water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They had a great time splashing around.
Brothers and best friends!!
Garage sale lady!!!!!!

Memorial Day weekend

We had a good Memorial Day weekend. It of course included lots of fishing. In fact it was Kaelynn's first time fishing. We got her a Barbie fishing rod with a little blue fish already attached. She had a great time dropping the fish into the water and reeling it back up while proudly exclaiming, "I caught a BIG fish." Daddy was going to put a hook on the end of her line, but quickly realized that it wasn't necessary. Carson caught the biggest fish of the day and was definetly in his element. It's amazing the attention span he has when it comes to fishing.

Connor did a great job teaching Kaelynn the in's and out's of being a good fisher-woman.
On Sunday we went to Big Creek State Park with friends of ours. There is a huge playground and a great swimming beach. The kids loved splashing in the water. The two girls in the middle are Rachel and Samantha. They are twins and were in Connor and Carson's preschool class.

The boys went fishing and caught a bunch of walleyes. Unfortunately none of them were keeper size. It made for a fun afternoon though!
Enjoying an afternoon snack!

We haven't fallen off the planet :)

Let's just get it all out. Yes, I have been completely delinquent on the blog. Sorry!! I do have a couple of really good reasons. We have been outside a lot and I am trying to get ready for a garage sale this weekend. So, there you have it. Please don't be too harsh on me :) For the most part things are pretty normal around here.
Andy and I celebrated our 8th anniversary on Tuesday. Actually we tried to celebrate on Tuesday, but Kaelynn woke up with a 103 degree fever. That put a slight damper in the plans. We ended up celebrating on Friday night instead. Connor and Carson have been enjoying the outdoors. They helped me plant some flowers and are starting to really love baseball. They both do very well at hitting the ball off the tee and Carson is starting to be able to hit the ball when it is pitched to him.
Kaelynn has definetly hit the terrible two's in full force. She is quite strong-willed and is not afraid to let you know that she doesn't like not getting her way. I love her to death, but I am already looking forward to her growing out of this stage.
We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend. We hope yours is relaxing too!!!

Kaelynn loves to dress up! Here she is in one of her favorite princess costumes.

Some outside fun...

Congratulations Carson and Connor!!!!!!

The boys have successfully completed their first year of school. They had a program tonight and were promoted to the next year of preschool. Yeah Connor and Carson!!!! We have included a few videos from the evening that show the two songs they sang and each of them receiving their certificates. In the second one you will see Connor having to fight off the little boy next to him. Unfortunately that was not the only time that happened. In fact before they started singing, the little boy (whom shall remain nameless) almost pulled him off the risers. Connor was very mature in how he handled himself. We are very proud of him for ignoring the little boy and not getting mad at him.
The night was topped off with some surprise cookies from their favorite babysitters and a trip to the Dairy Queen for sundaes. It was a great celebration of a job well done!!

The graduates!!!

Connor and Carson's friends who are in their class. They are all in Sunday School together too. This was taken a week ago at their spring program.

It's been a while :)

I have been very lax on the blog because I simply haven't felt like doing it. SORRY!!!!! It has been a bit of a hard transition back to reality coming off of the cruise. Last week was a bit more crazy than usual with the boys having a spring program and getting ready to travel to Kansas for Jason Thompson's wedding. This weekend Kaelynn and I are going to Mpls. to do some wedding dress shopping with my newly engaged sister, Katie. The wedding is only four months away and it is necessary to find something soon!!! We are very excited for her and Rusty and are excited to have another wonderful brother-in-law!!! Mother's Day was spent in the car driving home from Kansas. Not exactly stress-free, but somewhat enjoyable still. We did stop in Kansas City at a T-Rex restaurant. "What is a T-Rex restaurant?" you may be asking. If you have been to a Rain Forest Cafe, it is along those lines except with a dinosaur theme. Yet again, not exactly stress-free but it made the kids happy and isn't that one of the chief goals of a mother- especially one who has been in the car with them for 3 hours with three+ more hours to go :) We did get video of the boys' spring program and hope to put that on soon for you to enjoy. They have a preschool promotion ceremony on Thursday that we will post too. Hope you all have a wonderful week.

Cruisin'!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well we made it back safely.  We are currently sitting in the Mpls. airport at 10:00pm on Friday waiting for the rest of our luggage to come in.  

We had a wonderful time on the cruise.  I'll give you just a few pictures for now and will put more on here when we get home.  The weather was beautiful (a little windy), but sunny and warm nonetheless.  We missed out on the most fun day because it was too windy and the little boats that take the passengers ashore couldn't get out to the cruise ship.  That was a bummer. We still got plenty of sun on the decks along with the other 2,000 people that were on-board :) It made for some interesting people watching!! 

You may be wondering if we went to the conference.  Yes, we did.  The worship times with Tommy Walker and Ross Parsley were amazing!!  We feel completely blessed to have been given this opportunity.  We loved every minute of it, but are very much missing the kids and can't wait to see them in the morning.  It sounds like they had a great time with Grandma and Katie :)

This picture was taken on the formal night.  Andy looked very handsome.  And yes, that is his tux from college :)  It still fits :)  

The sunsets were beautiful!
We spent a half day at the beach in Key West, FL.  We tried to do some snorkeling on our own, but it was very windy and the water was very cloudy.  I was just so pleased to be sitting on a white sandy beach!!
The ship was bigger than we ever could have imagined!!  It is amazing that something so big floats on the water!!  It was beautiful on the inside.  We were pampered in every way and felt very blessed!!