Nashville

Since Chris has been so creative with the big surprises for holidays and bdays, I thought I'd plan a little surprise for him for his bday. His birthday was Thursday but on Saturday morning I told him to pack his bag we were leaving at 11:00! I was so excited because he had no clue about any of it and we had pulled it off! It was SO hard for me to keep it a secret becasue when you talk as much as I do, you almost slip a 100 times!! ha! So he packed and my mom and nephew came to watch the boys and we were on our way. Our super fun friends the Vaughns and Thomas' came too! We had so much fun. We got to shop a bit, see the sights, do some dancing and a lot, A LOT of eating!! Thanks to our friends for being able to come with us and making it a special weekend for Chris! Thank you so much to my mom, nephew and Papa T and Mimi for watching the boys for us!!! My birthday guy! Me, Christy & Jen

The whole gang

We had to pose in front of the big guitar. ha!

On the way out, we stopped at the Grand Ole Opry hotel...it was beautiful and definitely a sight to see! We might have to stay there next time. :)

Chris' bday

Last Thursdy, the 30th was Chris' 37th bday! I really can't believe he is 37!!! I started dating him when he was 29 and I was in my mid 20's so it just seems crazy that he is nearing the 40 mark!! Whoa!!!! Anyways, age doesn't bother him a bit which is a good thing. :) We had Chris' family over for some dinner, cake and icecream and presents. We were SO excited (me especially) to eat his cookie cake. Yummo! Chris' mom brought a cake too so we were full of sweets by bedtime. A little help with the candles My handsome guys! Ethan with some chocolate on his face before we've cut the cake...hmmmm :) Chris with Jeremy & Craig Checking out the card Braden made him :) Ethan was really into the "bawoons"

We always shake and feel and try to guess our presents. ha! This was a new air pump for the boat to blow up the tubes.

* Happy birthday Chris!! We sure love you!!!

Costume time

Braden's buddy Jackson gave him his old spiderman costume and Braden has been wearing it daily ever since! He is obsessed!!! So tonight after dinner he suggested that we put Ethan's spider costume on him from Halloween so they could both be spiders. ha! I thought that was a pretty clever idea so we got out Ethan's and we did it. Ethan was loving the costume too...now I just hope they'll let me take them off for baths. :)

Papa John's 10 Miler

Saturday was the last leg of the triple crown of running. It was the 10 miler! Although I was scared to death I would be completely broken and have to walk a lot of it, it ended up being kind of enjoyable! :) The last 2-3 miles were pretty painful for me because I have had so much knee trouble but I just kept thinking, "you're almost there." Chris ran with me the whole way so that made it nice because there's always someone to talk to and it seems like there is so much to look around and see-from reading people's shirts, to the people cheering to the DJ stations, there was always something to occupy your time. :) I ran a 1:46:22 which is actually better than I thought I would do...it was about a 10:30 pace so I was really happy with that. Considering I've only been running for 3 months now, it's amazing what the body can do if you work at it! So for now, my races are over for awhile and I'm going to recover my knees so I can hopefully walk without a limp and get down stairs again soon. ha!

Amber, Christy & me before the race :)

Cooks in the Kitchen

On Thursday Braden and I met some friends at Adrienne's in Jeffersonville for a little cooking class. I left Ethan at home because I knew it's be a bit much for him...I'm pretty sure he would have been tearing down the baking racks. ha! Anyways, we had so much fun! It was adorable! For $8.00 Braden got to fully decorate a huge bunny cookie and two yummy cupcakes. Grammy (who led our class) was too cute and had it so well organized. After the decorating, she even led us in a few songs. :) Thanks so much to Missy for organizing for us!!

Decorating his bunny

"Grammy" helping

The finished bunny-too cute!

Yummo!

Adding the sprinkles

Then Grammy led us in head, shoulders, knees and toes

She also had them slap their knee when she did something funny-they thought that was a hoot!

Ahhhh, what a group of cuties!

Big 'O Boys!

I forgot to post last week about the boys' checkups. I had Ethan's 18 month checkup and Braden's 4 year at the same time which was rather chaotic but we made it. :) I just had to post how completely gigantic my children are in case I ever forget....well I probably won't ever forget because this seems to be the trend with these two, but anyways, here are the stats :)
Ethan
Weight: 31.5 lbs (off the percentile chart)
Height 35.5" (completely off the chart too)....Ethan is bigger than Braden was at the same age in both height and weight.

Braden
Weight: 46 lbs. (95 percentile)
Height: 46" (off the percentile chart)
* Braden grew 9.5 inches from age 3 to 4 but only gained 4 pounds. Isn't that crazy?!?!

Dr. Lane said they are both healthy growing boys and are just going to be very tall like their Daddy. :) Thank you God for two healthy boys!

Big splash water park

Yesterday we headed over to French Lick to their water park just to have a fun day trip while on spring break. My dad drove down to meet us since it's only about an hour from home so that worked out well. We had a great time! Braden absolutely LOVED everything about the park. He loved the water gushing on his head from buckets and squirters, he loved going down the slides and loved going around the lazy river but not particularly on a tube-just swimming. :) He was a fish all day!! Ethan on the other hand...poor baby. He was not having it. When we first walked him out to the little spouts squirting up, he was already starting to whine like he didn't like it which surprised me because he's a flopping fish in the tub. So Chris thought he'd take him around on the lazy river to "get him used to the water." Well that plan kind of backfired because as Chris was trying to jump backwards into the tube, he and Ethan both flipped right over and went completely under water and then some! :( Ethan was terrified of course and I'm pretty sure at that point he was done. So he ended up just eating snacks and drinking juice and people watching most of the day. He did finally get in the baby swing by the end of the day and enjoyed that. Hopefully it was just this particular day because boating season is right around the corner and he's going to be seeing a lot of water this summer. :)

Ethan taking a break for some snacks.

Braden loving the slides

Papa Scott coming down right into Braden. :)

Ethan and Papa Scott played these kind of games off and on all day. :) My dad always lets the grandkids beat him up.

Finally, he gets in the babyswing with his paci and all!

And we saw a lot of this...poor fella. It was naptime pretty much the whole time we were there so that didn't help either.

Love this picture. Braden would wait under buckets until they dumped. He loved it!

So after the water park, we ate a yummy pizza buffet at Chicago's Pizza (my favorite from growing up!) and then did a little sight seeing in French Lick. Chris wanted to show me the house Larry Bird lived at when he was in the NBA-not sure how long he lived here but it's for sale if anyone's interested :) It had a sign that said "The Legend of Fench Lick."

It had a fullcourt for basketball of course

Check out the specs...not the most extravangant looking house but it had a lot of perks and only cost $1,950,000!! :)

Outdoor time

Today was another beautiful day so we spent the day outside. The boys love to drag evey single toy we own all over the front yard...I'm sure people driving by think we are either the biggest rednecks ever (all but the couch) or we are having a yard sale. :) It's fun though to see what they get into...

Crack me up! Chris dressed Ethan today and I could not stop laughing at those white chunky legs poking out of the shorts and that belly hanging over the top. I could just eat him up!

These boys and their "rides." Chris brought the mower home yesterday so they are loving getting on and off of all the riding contraptions in the garage...could we shove anymore stuff in this garage? Poor Chris-he really needs a pole barn! Maybe one day. :)

Ethan saw me sitting on the basketball so he gave it a try

Every time he would sit, it would roll...too funny!

Then I watched him use his sippy cup as a baseball on the tee. Good swing buddy!

Then it was playground time. Chris made Braden take his shirt off and told him he needed a little sun. We have so many friends' kids that love to strip and run around with no clothes, but not this child. He did not want to go without his shirt until we convinced him that's what we do in the summer. ha!

A little drum session

Last but not least, popsicle time. Popsicles go hand in hand with any warm day around here.

Oh, and I had to capture this! Surely a sign of summer for boys!

Fun outside and yardsale time!

Ethan is in the "ball stage" just like Braden was at this age where he is completely obsessed with any and all balls. He actually has some pretty good dribbling skills. Go Ethan!

Ethan is also struggling to share these days. Hee hee! This is his car but when he gets out Ava takes a turn and he just doesn't want to allow that to happen so he just scoots on in and sits right on her.

Chris hit the jackpot at a yardsale a few days ago. He just happened to be driving by one and found this bike, the perfect size for Braden with training wheels for $8! I was just getting ready to go buy him one because he didn't have one big enough...what a find! Don't you love the rain boots by the way? He'd wear them everyday if we let him. :)

Another great find....I think (yikes). This great set of drums of $5! The boys love it!

He's really jammin' here-check out that look! :)