2 weeks!

I can't believe I haven't posted in 2 weeks!  Like so many others, we have been SO busy!  Grandma's funeral, Hazel on the move, colds, family visiting... the list goes on.  We've had a hectic last couple of weeks.

On April 30th, my dad's mom, my Nana passed away.  Her funeral was postponed to this past Tuesday to allow for some of her children living out of town to attend the service.  Howard, Hazel & I made the trek to Bellevue, WA for the service.  It was very nice, a traditional Catholic mass and service.  She would have loved it.  Howard, Hazel & I stayed in a hotel in Bellevue and Howard LOVED it, he couldn't believe he got his very own bed in the hotel (sort of confused me, since he has his very own at home).

On our way over to Bellevue, I felt a cold coming on.  Turns out I had a sinus infection and ear infection.  I'm on antibiotics and getting better, but my ears still hurt bad and are very plugged.  Brian had it first, then me, now Hazel has a icky cold.  Howard has somehow evaded it, so far.

My nephew has been staying at a care facility here in Spokane for some issues he's having.  As happy as I am that he is getting the help he needs for his issues, I'm sad that we can't see him more.  I know he's in the best place possible, which brings some comfort.  My sister & parents have been here a lot to spend some time with him while he heals.  It's been nice to see family.  Unfortunate that it's under these circumstances.

Howard just finished up his first soccer season.  Last night his team had a pizza party at Chuck E. Cheese.  It was awesome!  He got his first ever trophy and we are so proud of him for having such a fun season.

Hazel is ON THE MOVE!  She is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up on everything.  It won't be long before she's a walker!  I love to watch her growth daily!

We hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend.  Hopefully the weather cooperates and allows us to officially start summer!  A few more recent pictures of the kiddos.

Fishy Crackers

Overheard in the back seat of my car a couple of days ago - "Hazel, when you eat fishy crackers, don't eat the yellow ones because they taste like string cheese.  Eat the other colors because they taste really good."

Howard left for preschool today in shorts, a polo shirt, his hoodie sweatshirt (UNZIPPED) and a sweat band on, he told me he wanted to dress like a DJ today and to be called DJ Howard.  When we got to preschool, Ms. Jean told me that yesterday at preschool he told her that all the kids like him a lot.  They like to look at his face.  I don't know how she does her job without laughing herself silly.

3 days ago I took him to preschool and he asked to tell Ms. Jean that he was Luke Skywalker, dressed as Howard.  :)

The things that kid says.  :)

Birthday hangover

Howard is 5!  Where the heck did the last 5 years go?  I remember bringing home my little bundle of joy like it was yesterday!  The last 5 years have flown by!  I think back to all of Howard's "firsts" and can't believe it's bee 60 months.  Just yesterday he was making his first "kissy smooch" noises at Brian and I.  And being able to pull himself up at the front windows, just barely able to see out.  Oh man, the time flies!

We celebrated Howard's birthday at Jump & Bounce with 15 of his friends & family.  We wanted to invite about 50 friends, but had to limit the number of people we invited,  otherwise my wallet might have exploded.  Howard had a Lego party, lots of Lego gifts and even a Lego Star Wars CAKE!  It was fun!  We celebrated the day before his birthday, Saturday, May 7th.

Sunday, May 8th was Howard's "real" birthday!  And yes, that was also Mother's Day.  I cannot think of a better person to share such a special day with.  Brian offered to take us out for dinner to celebrate mom's day and his "real" birthday.  So we agreed on Red Robin - a place we both like and a place I like a lot more than Chuck E. Cheese (his 1st choice).  Dinner was low-key and perfect - just our family.  Here's some pictures of the kids from Mother's Day weekend.

Birthday anticipation

Howard is just 4 days away from turning 5!!!  I can't believe it.  He's growing up way too fast.  We are having a small party at Jump & Bounce with some of his preschool friends, family friends and family.  If Howard had his way, we'd invite EVERYONE.  He asked if he could invite some of his other friends next year.  I told him we'll have to wait and see what kid of party we have next year.  Then, with a real glimmer of hope and excitement in his eye, he asked if he could invite Santa to his party next year.  I told him we could send him an invitation, but I was pretty sure Santa would be busy making presents for Christmas.  Howard wanted to know if Santa would bring presents with him to his birthday.  :)

Howard is having a Lego party.  We got him a Lego table and I LOVE IT!  It's my new favorite toy in our house.  Howard helped assemble it and within an hour he had it well put-to-use.

We have started "rest time" at our house every afternoon.  I have come to love this 30-45 minutes of quiet at our house.  I can catch up on a recorded show, blog, clean or just enjoy quiet.  We've been doing this for almost a month now.  We got Howard an alarm clock that I set for him.  He looks forward to rest time too.  Once a week I let him "rest" in our bed and watch a show on the TV.  Here's a picture of Hazel and Howard during rest time (Howard in our bed).

It's Harry Potter!

The things kids say...  Howard has been asking to see some baby pictures of me.  I pulled out a scrap book my mom made for me just after Brian and I were married.  It has some wedding pictures, college-era pictures and some baby pictures.  We got to the college pictures and I pointed to a picture of Brian from about 1997.  He was much thinner, longer hair on top and bigger, rounder glasses.  I asked Howard who he thought the picture was of.  I did not expect him to shout with excitement and glee - "It's Harry Potter!"  It is the last thing I expected him to say and I laughed so hard I had tears, which hurt Howard's feelings and he started crying.  I'm not good with the scanner, but I'm going to try and scan the photo this weekend - SO FUNNY!  Brian even got a chuckle out of it and agrees that he does look a little Harry Potter-ish.

A couple pictures of the kiddos from the last couple of days.  Howard asked to jump in the tub with Hazel the other night.  I wonder if he's a little too old to share a tub with anyone, but it was great.  Hazel LOVED having him there to splash with.  :)

LEGOS EVERYWHERE!

I feel like our living room has been taken over by Lego's.  They are EVERYWHERE!  With Hazel starting to be more mobile, we've had a hard time finding a solution to our issue.  Howard loves his Lego's and plays with them most of the time that we are home, so I don't want to make him put them away or keep them in his room.  I've been dreaming about owning this table for a while:

I have the perfect spot in mind for it in our living room.  The downside - the cost.  BUT, I have finally convinced Brian we need it and we've made room for it in our budget.  It should be here the week before Howard's birthday and I can't wait!!!!

The Lego Video

Darn blog spot.  I have tried several times to upload Howard's how-to video and I think it's just too long.  8 minuutes worth of video can't be handled by the blogosphere - oh well.  I included a picture of Howard with his newest Lego's received over the Easter weekend, from the Easter bunny, of course.

Speaking of Easter, we had a great weekend.  The weather was AMAZING!  Saturday morning we aerated and power raked our yard.  We left the mess to clean up until after 2 of Howard's soccer games and soccer pictures.  When we got home, the clean-up began and holy smokes, it took a lot!  We filled up several yard garbage bags of power-raked grass (almost 300 lbs worth according to the Waste to Energy people who kindly took it off our hands).  We filled up the back of the pick-up.  The work was worth it - our yard is looking GREAT!  Now begins the dubious task of deciding what we are going to do with the over-grown edges around our yard.

Sunday (Easter), the weather was even more beautiful than Saturday!  We decided to take the kids out for a bike ride on the Centennial Trail after hunting eggs and checking out the goods from the Easter Bunny.  Howard LOVES riding bikes, so we took his too and Hazel in the bike trailer.  Howard rode all 4 miles and was pooped out after the ride.  He slept so well last night.  :)  We couldn't have asked for nicer riding weather. Our hour long ride was perfect!  Hazel seemed to enjoy the bike trailer, she slept for the last half of the trip.  We tried to find a small enough helmet for her, but ended up letting her ride without one, as the smallest one we had was too big as you may be able to see in the pictures.  We are hoping for many  more weekends of weather like we had last weekend!