It's Official...

We're a mini-van family.

Wait, no... we got a mini-van in our first 6 months of marriage, long before we had any children.  We liked our mini-van.  Can you tell, I've been very amused in the past year or so as many of our friends have reluctantly become mini-van families with the arrival of their 3rd baby?  At any rate, we've had ours for awhile and with the amount of long distance travel we do, we'd rather have a vehicle with fewer miles on it.  Plus, it was looking like it would be quite a challenge to fit 3 carseats across the back seat.  So...

It's official we're a full-size passenger van family!  We traded in the Caravan for a 12-passenger on Monday.  The boys love it.  It's a truck!  Definitely more spacious.  Cullen, is just not thrilled with the white, which is apparently pretty much all you can find slightly used.  He's taking ideas for how to enhance the paint job.  A couple of Tiger Paws will be added as soon as possible.

Other news in pictures...

We celebrated Easter, not sure why the camera was blurry. 

Scott- 6 yrs old

Blaise, the camera "shy" goofball- almost 5 yrs old

Michael- 2 1/2 yrs old

Daniel- 17 months

All of us, even a noticeable Baby El.

The hunt is on...

They were so fast it was hard to get pictures at all.

He stopped to eat some beans.

"Michael, go get the last one."  He goes to the wall and looks blankly everywhere except where the egg is, so Scott and Blaise helped by pointing it out.  It took quite a bit of pointing!

Easter dinner with my sister... who was in (early) labor!

My newest niece Temperance and my sister, who heroically delivered med-free after many hours of labor (19 in the hospital, including some pitocin, plus essentially a whole day before that.)  

Interestingly enough, and not so much surprising... I seem to be able to take fewer pictures than I used to.

So even though there are only pictures from Sunday, we did do a lot of Easter celebrating over the weekend, including turning off the lights Friday afternoon to better "experience" the Easter story.  That was in addition to the same Easter basket devotion we do during Holy Week every year- the big boys were very excited about it... Daniel just wanted to grab everything out of everyone else's hands, and we also made the same "Resurrection" Cookies we make every year to put in the oven overnight (we had to lock the oven this year, they've never noticed that part of the directions before... but now we have a reader, hopefully I'll post about that in a couple of days.)

While I did bring the camera with me to meet baby Temperance, I also brought 4 little boys who were through the roof excited to meet their new baby cousin.  They each took 2 turns holding her during our 20 minute visit- somehow I can't help a 2 yr old hold a newborn and take a picture of them at the same time!   Even Daniel wanted to hold her and he somehow intuitively knew to be gentle... leaning his head close to hers to give her hugs (he mostly head bangs us, and is very into smacking and throwing things lately... we spend a lot of time lately reminding him to be "gentle".)  Blaise is totally captivated by her- they came by to visit yesterday and he would just sit and watch her and wait patiently, after being sent off to wash his hands, to hold her.  Scott was more aloof, but would suddenly stop what he was doing to come check on her and hug her.  Fortunately, Jessica had her video camera at the hospital, so somewhere there is video of them meeting her.

It's That Time of Year

Well, really it isn't quite that time of year yet.  A little bit of odd winter weather and the season is happening nearly a month early.  Strawberries are ready!  

Michael was very excited and Scott did a great job picking this year too.

Blaise is still a masterful strawberry picker.

He looks a little big for this, but I figured that was going to be the easiest way to keep track of everyone and actually pick berries.

Wow, a good shot of the boy who hides from cameras, just because he's a tease.

Thankfully, my friend Tina spotted our red shirts in the field on her way home and stopped to help take pictures :)

Another one at home... they were a bit silly.  

The reward for letting me take pictures of them.  Yes, I bribed them.  

He likes.

Strawberry shortcake for dinner.

Why can't we eat this every night?  Who needs meat anyway?

Ocean City

This past weekend we made a quick trip up to Ocean City to visit Cullen's Grandma, and parents.  It was fun as usual... except for that one afternoon, when Daniel was sick.

We did something different this time and took the boys to Assateague Island.  That's the Island with the wild horses... there's both a MD State Park and a National Park there (http://www.nps.gov/asis/index.htm).  It was fun and delightful... and I forgot the camera!  After some wandering we did spot many wild horses grazing in the marsh.  We also enjoyed a walk on a nature trail and a boardwalk on the beach side of the island.  All in all a very fun morning.  We had peaked the boys interest in this particular island with a library book that one of them pulled off the shelf one week, "My Chincoteague Pony."  It was a cute book and boy were they excited to look for the horses.  Before the bridge to cross over onto the island there was a Visitor's Center with a really great mini-museum in it, which we enjoyed as well.

Here are some pictures...  

Grandpa reading to lots of boys.

No idea why Daniel wanted to stand on the vent, nor how he managed to by himself,  but he seems pleased.

Daniel coloring with Great Grandma- she informed me that she doesn't like her picture taken.   That reminded me of Trisha!

A few more words... to go with the pictures.  While Daniel was sick, we sent the rest of the guys off to the Boardwalk to check out Papapa's bench.  Cullen's grandfather, who passed away last winter loved the beach.  Grandma placed a bench in his memory.  I think he would be quite pleased.  If you are ever in Ocean City, MD, it's close to 24th street- in memory of William W Scott- enjoy.  Blaise came home and told me, "We saw the bench for the person who died that used to live here."  The next day, when Daniel was feeling better we all went out to see it again, but it was way too cold for my spoiled by a really warm winter self to last more than 10 minutes on the Boardwalk.

Really, they were happy, I promise.  Scott is in fact, actually smiling.

See, told you he was happy.  Rarely is he any happier than this!

Check out his stride.  Notice, also, that he's almost escaped the camera.  Boy is tall and fast.

Daddy has been having fun with the burst shooting feature on our camera.   I think Blaise likes it too.