family visit

we were all so proud to witness Alexander catch his very first fish!

mom eventually won the battle w/ the fish hook

Alexander telling his dad he caught a fish

the Bit's not quite sure

My childhood came rushing back to me as I fearlessly worked to get that hook out of that fish's lip

Susan was ok w/ Abigail feeding Madeline the left over fish bait, luckily it was just bread. She was.....very into it!

my poor mother getting absolutely and wonderfully worn out w/ these two

it's Sue and mini-Sue!

For some odd yet obvious reason all the kids (minus mine thank goodness) prefer to pick the nastiest blue ice cream at Maggie Moo's

the proof is in the tongue

ultimate joy there Mi-Mi

Abigail wanted so badly to do everything Caroline did. Half the time Caroline didn't even notice she was following her around. :)

is it just me or do they really look related in this pic!?

Sweet Ben enjoying his birthday treat which he later shared w/ anyone who wanted a bite, I love that kid!!!

me and my Ham

raisin these boys up right, you'd never know thier mom's were bloggers.

Pa-Pa was the sport of all sports to work so hard out there on a cold June day to catch something for his grandkids. :)

She could eat up baby Madeline!

Only Mi-Mi will let these toddlers get hard core into paints. Sue and I agree we don't dare attempt this in our dining rooms!

Well it was a wild but fun week last week. My sister Sue was in town so you know we ran like crazy to keep up w/ her and her crew for 3 days. We had a blast and the Tate gang joined in as well for a trip downtown to the science museum. The kids had a ball together as always.

Thanks everyone for an awesome visit!

whew, sorry for the delay

I know it's kinda hard to see but this is our first photos of little Chloe at 17wks. My brother in law said it looked like she was trying to tell her loud family to quiet down a little w/ her finger over her mouth like that. :)

Abigail enjoying her buddy Elle, but I'm not sure if Elle was enjoying her at this moment. :)

she loves playing her "tar"

beautiful sunset made for some sweet pictures

It was a beautiful Memorial day weekend down there

Our bellies full of grilled burgers Dad and Brian got into discussing who knows what.

Well it took my hubby Master Yoda computer guru some time to fix our jacked up computer. We got something funky in it and it wouldn't read my pictures from my camera card among other problems. Needless to say this DiDN'T make for a happy Alli. So he backed our photos and important docs onto an external hard drive and striped this thing down to nothing on the hard drive and reformated the whole thing from scratch. Now she's working like a charm and back to normal. Go Brian! So I have some fun new lake pictures I've been wanting to share and even a new one of our sweet little 2nd girl miss Chloe Brianne (named the girly version of Brian after her sweet daddy......we will forever remember this big year for the both of them). :)

So, quick update, we are doing great. A good nibble on the house this week, time will tell. Trust me a breaking news report blog will go out if this woman who's seen it now 3 times will actually come through with a proposed offer. Please pray that would be so fabulous. And little Chloe is getting bigger, doing good. Brian is doing wonderful, less dizziness, more energy and sleeping better. The Bit is our joy as always and getting more brilliant and beautiful every day. She is thrilled with the onset of the summer (as I am!) so she can hit the lake and the pool. She is even more fearless then last summer and will be swimming w/o a life jacket for sure by the end of the summer. I had to just watch her and let her walk right down the stairs to our pool yesterday (w/in arms reach) she hadn't put her swim ring on yet and she just went on in the pool w/o hesitation. Of course her little body just sunk to the bottom and I promptly fished her out w/ a big fat reminder "sweetie, you WILL sink if you don't wait to put on your swim gear". An "Oh, yeah mommy where is it" followed.

Well I'll do better now posting the cuteness and ok, some of the mommy chubbyness I am undergoing now. God bless the summertime!!!

Happy mommy's day to me!

could be wrong but I think that little girl loves her mommy and daddy! :)

just hanging out being precious in the warm spring time.

Abigail at her favorite park

We had such a great mothers day weekend together. Brian's getting out and even made it for a few hours at work some this week. Here are some park pics from getting the Bit out of the house w/ some ice cream the other night. On mother's day Brian got Abigail and I matching pajama gram PJ's (not photoed but we look pretty cute) :) and we had a good day back to our sweet church w/ a million babies being dedicated and a great burger lunch w/ Christine at Red Robin. But the truth is my best mother's day present ever is just my babies themselves. Abigail is truely my joy of all joys and this #2 already has such a special place in my heart I can't wait for the grand arrival in November. I love my sister Ame's post w/ all those touching stories and photos of her kids growing up and the crazy things they've done. Maybe next year I'll have the energy for a sweet long post about it all. Not this year. This year Im just too chubby and pooped. But go read Amy's cause it's just darlin!! I Love my fam and thanks for an awesome mothers day!!

a morning out...

Little Katie being the perfect hostest to helping Abigail and I have some playtime and fun in the sun. Although Abigail wasn't quite as into the mud bath as little Katie was she still looked adorable all messy and muddy.

The Bit helping to entertain and amuse little Anabelle while she dried off in her birthday suit. The cute little dance had that baby giggling!

I mean....she got into it didn't she!?

Abigail's been ready since January to put her bathing suit back on, she's such a summer bunny

She didn't look that happy in these pics but she really was having fun.....until mommy and Mr. Chris chased her down w/ the hose. :)

Well we've had a good week. Brian's doing well, still taking it slow and having some trouble w/ vision and tasting. His energy is slowly improving but we have a way's to go. He's not in any pain which is wonderful! No more head aches!! And off the percocet, which had been entertaining and made for some....interesting conversations let me tell you!! My boy's a wee bit of a cheap date. :) Abigail and I are still just trying to help him w/ the little things and keeping the house quiet so he can rest and relax. Soooo, er go the out side pictures at "Kayyydee's house" to get us out into some sunshine and playtime this past Sunday. Chris and Natalie let us come up and relax on the old porch for a few hours which just felt good to us both.