March

So this is how March has been going down...

We had a visit from Bryan's sister Amanda and her husband Ryan while he competed in the body-building competition at the Arnold Convention. His enormous muscles would CRUSH you and his professional spray tan looks totally natural. Okay, okay he didn't actually compete in the Arnold, but he was here on business for the Arnold Convention and lucky for us that convention is in our neck of the woods. It was great to have them come and visit. My only regret is lack of pictures. I do not know why I never seemed to have my camera.

We did celebrate little Alli's fourth birthday with some cupcakes. The girls loved playing with Alli and got along with her so well. Cousins are so much fun.

The three girls together. I didn't even get a picture of their little Ilene. She is such a cutie. They are welcoming a little boy in July and we are excited for them.

The month of March has also brought a lot of hanging around. Here's Audrey and Lily chilling on the couch. Audrey had her parent teacher conference this past week. She did great in all areas and her teachers really enjoy her. Apparently though, she doesn't know her full name and cannot sing the ABC's past D. First of all I didn't realize knowing the ABC song was requisite for preschoolers. If it is, we are obviously in trouble. Then on the way out the door I asked her, "Audrey, what is your full name?" She thought for a minute and answered, "Audrey Jones." Jones?! Where did that come from? I guess she picked the most common last name and went with it. So when she gets lost in the shopping mall and someone asks her for her name I hope that there is a nice Jones family around to help her out. (Don't stress out too much. I made sure she knew her last name by the end of the day.)

Julia also had parent teacher conferences here recently and is doing great with school. Her favorite part of school is writing stories in writer's workshop.

A group of us get together in the mornings or an aerobics class a few times a week at our church. Since Julia is afternoon kindergarten she gets to go with me and enjoys playing with the other kids while we get our sweat on. On one particular day we were doing some side kicks and Julia ran in front of me at the very precise moment allowing me to kick her directly in the face. I obviously apologized profusely and assessed the damage which was a big red welt on the side of her little noggin. I explained to her that it was an accident and that she didn't need to go telling everyone at school that her mom kicked her in the face because that sounded horrible. She agreed and headed to school. So what to my wondering surprise when at parent teacher conferences I see that she has written a story entitled, "When My Mom Kicked Me In the Face." And the mom of the year award goes to......

She would lay like this by Lily all day long.

And this Lily girl. She keeps growing and growing and growing.

She just hit the four month mark and I took her to the doctor this week. She's tipping the scales at a bit over 17lbs and is >97% on height and weight and is 90% on head circumference. My bicep is getting huge lugging this big ol' baby around. I actually have broken blood vessels on the inside of my elbow. Well a growing healthy baby is a tremendous blessing in my eyes and we just adore this one.

She is so mellow and happy. We all love it when she giggles. It is the cutest thing in the world.

It has been crazy warm here the past week and will continue for the next little while. I am so happy our last winter here has been so pleasant. We headed to a metro park on Sunday for a walk and it was fantastic. I think these parks are one of the things I'm going to miss most about Ohio.

She is looking so grown up to me.

This meadow is so pretty. I wish those ladies would have had the courtesy to get out of the picture I was taking. I punished them by taking an unflattering backside picture of them.