Chelsee's Baby Shower Part 2: The Celebration

Chelsee, Camee (in her poor braces on both feet) & Lexie

Aunt LaVee, Grandma Bateman, Lou, Tara, Theresa, Jocelyn

I didn't get a picture that included all the guests . . . sorry Chelsee.  What was I thinking?  Oh well.

Here are a bunch of the mom to be opening up her gifts! :)

Chelsee's Baby Shower Part 1: The Decor

This weekend, I had a shower for my super cute cousin Chelsee.  I couldn't be more happy for her to welcome her little baby boy into the world next month!  What a great reason to celebrate.

I decided to do an airplane theme . . . and here is what I came up with!

The Invite:

Little clouds for guests to write advice and hang from the tree:

The Tags for the Food:

The Cupcake Toppers:

The Game:

 The Gifts:

The tag for the parting treats (chocolate covered pretzels in bags):  I didn't get a very good picture of these.  The bags of pretzels are in this super cute vintage suitcase that I got to borrow from Miss Chelsee.

Ethan's First Fishing Trip on the Boat

Andy certainly LOVES his new boat, and has been able to go out quite a bit, but hasn't had the chance to take the little man.  This weekend, the weather was perfect, and the boys decided to go fishing.  Ethan was beyond thrilled to have his very own spiderman lifejacket, and go fishing with his spiderman pole out on the boat with dad and uncle Gary.  He caught quite a few fish, got to drive the boat, and had a fantastic time!

Mr. GQ

The other day, my little man found this outfit in his closet and asked if he could wear it to school.  I told him he had to wait for church, so he was BEYOND THRILLED when I told him it was Sunday and we were going to church.  The suit and shirt are his Uncle Colby's suit from back in the day . . . we just added the tie.  He looks pretty stinkin' cute in it if I do say so myself.  He just beamed all day long, because everyone kept telling him how handsome he looked. He is quite the character, so I didn't get his attention long enough to take a fantastic shot, but it's pretty stinkin cute anyway huh?

Nerf Gun Forts & Wars

My little guy is all about guns!  And if I'm being honest, so is my big guy! :)  These big nerf guns that Grandma & Grandpa A gave to the boys last Christmas have been used a bunch!  On this particular night, the boys set up forts and had quite the war.  You can see that Andy stole the best fort location!  It didn't matter too much since Ethan was laughing so hard I don't think he could think about hiding out behind a fort anyway.  He certainly has a ball with his dad!

Easter Morning

I don't know how I missed posting our Easter morning this year, but better late than never I guess.  Ethan is LOVING the holiday business this year, and always asks what we are celebrating next.  He was thrilled that the Easter bunny was going to come to his house and leave him presents.  It felt just like Christmas again.  Ethan woke up on Easter morning and came and woke Andy and I up so we could go see what the Easter bunny left them.

The Easter Bunny left them:

Addy:  A little candy, a tinkerbell four wheeler, sidewalk chalk, and an outfit.

Ethan:  A little candy, sidewalk chalk, a spiderman t-shirt, and a bike.

It was a fun day!  The kids enjoyed riding their new toys!

T-ball Part 2

The t-ball season is in full swing now, and Ethan is starting to get the hang of it . . . at least knowing where to run after he hits the ball etc.  This doesn't keep him from sitting down on 2nd base while waiting for his teammate to hit, or looking everywhere but at the ball when the coach is pitching to him. . . . but I think he's having a good time with his friends, and he certainly likes to get his league provided treat at the end of the games.

A few funny stories . . . 

At his first game, Ethan was playing 2nd base.  So, Ethan did as he was told, and went to 2nd base.  I didn't pay much attention until there was a little scuffle when the first runner approached 2nd base, and Ethan made sure that the runner was not allowed anywhere near the base.  We had a good little chat letting him know that the runner had to touch the bases, and that his job was to stand by the base not on it! :)

Ethan LOVES to chit chat with everyone and anyone who will listen.  He was at first base, and a dad from the other team was kneeling down by 1st base telling the kids where to go.  Ethan knelt down right beside him, propped his little elbow up on the guys knee, and just chatted away with some total stranger.  

Today's funny story . . . Like I said earlier the league provides the kids with a treat after the games.  So, we went to the treat window, and Ethan told the lady he wanted licorice.  So, I bought Addy a piece of licorice too and opened it up and handed it to her to eat.  In this short amount of time, Ethan changed his mind and asked for a sucker instead.  Well, when Addy saw he had a sucker, she threw down her licorice and decided she wanted a sucker too.  Ethan looked at her and said . . . "Addy, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit" just as serious as could be.  I laughed so hard I thought I might pee my pants.  Anyway, I asked him where he'd heard that before, and he let me know that he heard it from Ms. Sheena, who is the director at his day care center.  Super cute huh????

I'm sure proud of this little guy.  He has a great sense of humor, he's willing to be social and have fun with all the other kids, and even befriend the adults, and he is learning how to be a team player, which is an important part of life. We love our little t-ball player! 

My Little Super Hero's

It's no secret that Ethan LOVES to dress up like a superhero on a daily basis.  His favorite is Spiderman, but he likes to dress up in his black spiderman, ironman, transformer, superman costumes as well.  Now, he's even started to dress up his little sister in his t-shirts and have her pretend to be a "girl superhero" as well.  

It first started with a "batgirl" shirt.  

 and of course, you can't have a superhero without a cape . . .

 She ended up taking off batman, so he decided that he'd try to dress her up as green lantern.  

Boy, these pictures are precious!  It's not often that you see them playing together without hitting or pinching one another! :)   But in all reality, I think they are precious pictures of a big brother playing with his little sister.

Annual Easter Picnic

Today, we had our annual Easter picnic!  We started off with an Easter Egg hunt!  The kids had a ball.  Grandma Bateman buys them each a present, and oodles of candy.  

Addy really didn't care too much about picking up lots of candy, she just wanted to pick one up, eat it, and then find another to eat.  

Ethan had found Cayman's wolverine hand, and wouldn't put it down long enough to hunt for candy, so he didn't pick up too much either!

Grandma & Grandpa Great gave Addy a cute little stuffed Easter bunny!

 Grandma & Grandpa Great gave Ethan this cute little Cars golf set.

After the candy hunt, we had our annual roasted hot dog lunch, played some bingo, and watched a really cute slide show with pictures of past Easter parties!  It was a super fun day! 

Thanks to Grandma & Grandpa Great for the party and the goodies, and thanks to Janet & Marty for letting us come to their house each year to celebrate, and for all the fun bingo goodies! :)

The Fishermen get a New Boat

Andy, and his brother Gary purchased a boat together a few weeks ago.  They have been like two little kids on Christmas night waiting to get it.  Well, it finally was ready to be picked up.  The next day, the boys took it to deer creek.

Andy with the boat!
 

Gary with the boat!

 Catching some nice fish!

 Enjoying their favorite hobby together.

Ready for the Easter picnic

I'm so excited for the annual family Easter picnic tomorrow, even if it will be a little cold.  :)  The treats are all ready to go.

I made a bunch of "carrots" for those who need something salty!

 I made some bird nests for those who like it sweet!

 And, I made these buckets for Grandparents and Great-Grandparents!

My moment on TV!

A few weeks ago, our PR director Jeff cornered me in my office and basically informed me that I'd be on the news in a few days.  He told me they wanted a segment on how to help your kids with their science fair projects.  I. FREAKED. OUT.  In fact, I was a nervous wreck for days.  WHY??????  I'm not sure, because science fair is something I have participated in for YEARS.  I guess it came down to the fact that I was going to be on the news, and it was LIVE, yes LIVE, so if I screwed it up, everyone would see it.

All I have to say is that it's a good thing they didn't show my hands or feet on the news because I was shaking SOOOOO badly.  It was only like 1 minute, and I'm not sure why I worked myself up so much, but as soon as I was done and they took my microphone off, I didn't breathe a sigh of relief, I got physically sick.  I had worked myself up so much for this that I thought I might throw up.  Luckily that didn't happen, but I was sick for the entire drive home.  I'm hoping that I NEVER have to do that again. 

  If you want to hear about how to help your kiddo with their science fair project, here you go . . . 

My News Segment

T-ball

This year we signed little man up for T-ball.  His first practice was literally his first experience with the game, and it left me thinking we should have done a little more prep with our little man.  

His team is filled with kiddos from our neighborhood, which makes it super fun. He's especially thrilled with Spencer, who also came to practice last week in a spiderman shirt! :)  Their coach, our friend Craig, is doing a great job with them, and is super patient considering they have a 3 minute attention span.  

 Here is Ethan ready for batting practice.  This year they changed the rules for T-ball.  In my opinion they should have advertised this differently, because it really isn't t-ball at all.  The coach pitches 3 times to the kids, and if they can't hit any of the pitches, then they get to hit off a t.  I think this is a super dumb rule for 4 year olds.  Oh well.

 He was pretty excited that he got a special hat.  In fact, he was so excited about his special "Pirates" hat that he even slept in it that night!

 Little Miss is loving t-ball practice.  She is having fun running around the park, and watching the kids play ball.  In fact, she's wanting to play a little ball herself and has learned a lot from watching her big brother.

Who knows, maybe she'll be a little sports star too!

Cassidee on Price Is Right

Check out this clip of my cousin Cassidee on the Price is Right! 

Fishing in "the boat"

Lately Ethan has been climbing into Addy's crib, or "the boat" as he refers to it, to do some fishing.  Yesterday, I was in the laundry room folding clothes while they were "fishing."  I heard Ethan say to Addy, "move over little lady and I'll get you that blanket."  How stinkin' cute is that.  My heart just melted. Little man Ethan . . . I hope and pray that you will always be kind and respectful to women, just like you were to Addy today!  Love you both.