Ian's preschool graduation

Ian recently had his preschool graduation. He was the only one that would wear his hat, but also the only one that wouldn't participate in the rest of the ceremony. It was so funny after the first song he froze! He wouldn't even move his head. You'll see from the videos how terrified he looked.

Portland for Easter

I know this is late, but that happens when your computer crashes and you lose everything. Luckily the geek squad recovered our photos.
For Easter, Dustin's parents came to town and we headed over to Portland. On the drive to and from Portland we had to stop multiple time for Ian to go potty. He learned quickly to go pee standing up, and decided it was fun as well! Every time we stopped we had to grab a rock for Ava off the side of the road. Will she ever get over her rock fetish? We started out in downtown, then Ian decided he needed to go pee again and started to pull his pants down right in the middle of the sidewalk. Dustin quickly stopped him and led him to a bathroom to find a toilet. Now when he is outside in our yard he will just let it rip outside, What have we done to ourselves by letting him go standing up?
Back to the trip, Saturday morning we took the kids to Alpenrose Dairy where they had an Easter Egg Hunt. It was extremely crowded but the kids still had a good time. We also headed out to Tillamook cheese factory and to the beach. The kids loved the beach, Ava was dying to get in the water. It was a bit too cold for me, though.
We also went to the Portland Zoo, the kids loved that as well. Here are a few photos of the trip, (sorry they are out of order).

Thanks Sandy and Gary for coming out and spending this time with us. We love you guys!

Ian's first T-ball game

Ian had his first T-ball game today. He did great batting. Ian and the rest of the team aren't so good a fielding yet. They all just dive after the ball. It was pretty hillarious. There are two innings and they don't keep score, because nobody gets out. Everyone gets to bat and field two times. Here are a few videos of him batting.

Spring Break

I guess you can call it Spring Break when your 3 year old is off for Pre-school, right? Anyway we had a ton of fun going exploring while Ian was out of school. We started off the week having Ian practice T-ball, since the season is starting soon. We tried to go somewhere new everyday last week. Monday was freezing cold, so we didn't stay out too long. Ava wasn't too happy about me making her sit on this bench so I could get a photo of them.

She was much happier running around with Ian...

Wednesday ended up being much warmer as we went to a secret walking trail at Columbia Park.

Thursday we stopped by the Temple, where spring has sprung and....

Popcorn is popping on all the trees. Ian keeps shouting "there's popcorn on that tree", every time he sees a tree in bloom.

Friday we went kite flying.

Ava loved flying Ian's car kite. Then she calmly let it go when she was done flying it. I looked away for a split second, then realized the kite was soaring away. I chased it all across the soccer fields until it flew over the wall and into a neighborhood. It was too fast for me. We went searching for it in the car, but to no avail! Ian got to use his kite a grand total of 1 time before it was lost with the wind. Saturday we went for a walk on this little island on the Columbia River, there is a little land bridge that takes you to it.

Dustin and Ian had fun poking at a poor stink bug. Ava had to stop every 3 seconds to pick up a rock. She is obessed! It took us so long to get back to the car because she kept stopping.

If you'll notice her pockets are stuffed with rocks. She was very picky about the rocks she picked up. She only picked the ugly grey or brown ones for some reason. I would show her a colorful or interesting one and she wanted no part of it. This girl cracks me up.

Random Photos

I took some random photos of the kids the other day. These are the one's we liked the best.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Today I realized Ian doesn't have one green shirt, so I had to find 1 of the 2 shirts he owns that has green on it so he could wear it to school. So here they are in the only green I could find for them.

Visitors, Yay!

On February 22nd my parents drove all the way from Panguitch, Utah to visit us. I was so excited to have them come. My mom has been up here 2 times so far, but this was my dad's first time. I loved showing them around, playing board games, and just hanging out. Although, we did have some pretty crappy weather, so most of our outings had to be indoors. I think they brought the cold weather with them, then took it home when they left, because it warmed up again the very next week. It was so nice to have them drive up because I was able to order some food from Sysco and have them bring it up. They also brought us a case of steaks, which was Amazing! We are so grateful for them. Unfortunatly I didn't get many photos because my camera battery ran out and I kept forgetting to charge it. Here are the few I did capture.
My Mom and Ava

On Thursday of that week my brother Michael and his family came to our house from Portland on their way back to Sacramento, CA. I must say it is a little bit crazy having 11 people stay with us in our 3 bedroom house, but it was well worth it. Ian and Ava enjoyed playing with their cousins, and it is always nice to have other adults around to talk with. Since the weather was SO cold the only outside thing we did was quickly stop by a park so the kids could see the birds. We stayed for maybe 15 minutes, then left since we were all frozen.

In this photo we have (Left to Right) Lisa, Joseph, Michael,

Jonathan, Dustin, and Ian

Rebekah, Hannah, Jonathan, and Joseph
Michael, Nicole, and Rebekah.

Other good news we found out was that Michael and Lisa may be moving back to Portland, which would be so nice to have family that close.

We are so grateful to our families for coming to visit us. We look forward to our next visitors in April!