Instagrams

 Instagrams!!!  I love them.  I just wish there was a way to link them directly to our blog.  Anyway some of the news from this week...Ender, Porter, and Miles are all still sick.  After completing a full course of antibiotics they were back into the dr. today and were each started on another set.  That means Maya is the only one who the antibiotics cured last time.  Bennett has remained healthy!  The house we were supposed to close on last week was burglarized and some low life stole all the copper piping from the house causing $8000 worth of damage so we walked away.  It's been a little stressful to say the lease (I think Casey is in the midst of writing a post on this so I wont give too much away).  Bennett has been learning his letters like a little pro.  We made him a really cute alphabet book, and had a great time working on a project together.  Porter Had the pinewood derby race and he and Casey made an awesome bus that came in last every race.  He's a super good sport, so he had a great time anyways.  My aunt Rhonda and her family came up for a dance competition and we got to spend some time with them.  It was great.  The kids had so much fun together.  They got a hotel so we got to go swimming with them one day.  It was so fun.  Miles didn't get out of the pool at all, not even for pizza.  We had the missionaries over for dinner.  They are always really great to think of activities for the kids.  This time they ran around the couch for ever!  The kids loved it and we loved it because it totally wore them out.  Even with the frustrations about the house it's been a pretty awesome week!

Columbus Metro Parks

 Columbus has these great Metro Parks all over, where you can go and explore nature.  Each park has different types of areas and we've thoroughly enjoyed ourselves every time we've gone to any of them.  The kids had a day off school a few weeks ago, so we got some house work done, packed a pick nick and headed off to one of the parks we had never tried before.  It was a little further away than I thought but thanks to the Garmin we arrived without any problems.   (note- check out Ender's new shoes.  Grammy got them for his birthday and I think they are so so cute!)

 It was a little chilly but the we all had a great time.  There were playground structures that entertained the kido's for a LONG time!

 Then we collected hiking sticks for our nature hike.  (are we tough or what?)

 The hiking trail we chose was really great.  It was probably a bit long, but I brought the stroller and since Miles was voted Best Hiker those with less endurance could rest in the stroller for a while.  Miles didn't ride at all.

 I think throwing rocks into the water was voted the best moment of the day.  Maya found a spider so they were all trying to throw rocks at the spider to knock him into the water (i know, kind of barbaric).  Miles is still talking about it.

 He did get tired enough to lay down in the middle of the trail for a bit but not tired enough to subject himself to being put into the stroller.

I think I'm a better mom when we are outside.  I love it, the kids love it, I just don't know why we don't do it more (oh, it might be the two napping babies who refuse to nap at the same time).  It was a great way to spend a day.  I've been dying for some nice weather so we can go again, but the past few weekends have been cruddy.  Hopefully soon...

Instagram Friday

I've gotten a little taste, and I'm totally HOOKED!!!  I'm absolutely addicted to INSTAGRAM!  It's like magic.  I snap a picture, experiment with the different filters, hit done and my beautiful image is shared with all my friends and family.  It's great, but not everyone I know has access to these gems so I'm dedicating this post to my instagram shots from the week (I saw a blog where they did Instagram Friday.  I don't know how long I'll stick with it, or how consistent I'll be with Fridays but we'll give it a try).  I'll even try to include some of the not so witty captions I included with them. 

 Bennett has learned to work buttons.  He has become Caseys little helper when it comes to getting ready for church.  Way too cute.  (I think I said something like "You are never too poor to afford a butler".)

 We all got strep throat (except me and Bennett).  So when I posted this picture of Maya I said "Is terrible fashion sense a side effect of strep throat?"  (I know, i'm a riot)

 Porter told me his friends at school call him the "Fruit Destroyer" because he eats fruit so quickly.  I think Ender is following in his footsteps.

 Casey was out of town for a few days this week, and Miles is lucky I didn't sell him to the gypsies.  He's adorable and provides us with tons of laughs, but he's a LOT of work! 

Ender is adorable as ever.  He's getting to be such a good walker.  He's been sick as well so he mostly follows me around crying to be held.  If only there weren't so many other people and things demanding my attention.  I'd like nothing better that to hold him and smell his sweet fluffy baby hair all day long. 

 Bennett has been loving his toys lately.  He'll get a toy and carry it around non stop.  Some of his favorites are his Ninjas, Lego men, and most recently his Shark and Killer Whale.  He's adorable.  He's been so fun also.  We're working on letter recognition with him.  I've told him I'll take him to United Dairy Farmer if he learns all his letters.  He's super excited about that!

 Bennett and I worked on making our own alphabet book this week.  I found some coloring pages someone pinned on pinterest so we printed them off (thanks to a great sister in my ward who GAVE me an awesome printer this week) and we colored them together and I cut them all our.  We still need to bind them, but while we were cutting I let Bennett use my stamps.  He loved them so much he decided to kiss the ink pad.  Bad idea.

 And to end on a disgusting note, I fished all three of these popcorn kernels out of one of Miles nostrils.  Weird-O!