What's Growing in my Yard!?!

Today is 70+ degrees, so Tyler and I just went for a walk around the house to take pictures of the pretties we have in our yard.

This tree is in our backyard... this was what it looked like a couple days ago in the strong winds...
And this is what the flowers look like today... in the beautiful sun all opened up!
My lovely smelling hyacinths. These are scattered around my front flower beds. (Keep in mind, this is all what popped up on its own from the owners.) The neighbors say 'my' yard will be so beautiful!

This looks like what I think is called a "Cone Flower?" Correct me if I'm wrong. Which I can very easily be (when it comes to flowers).

This tree is also in my front yard... with pretty little clusters of white flowers. The bees love these!
This tree is also in the front. It has thick shiny waxy leaves, and this one crazy little cone looking thing sprouting in the middle of it. And I checked... there is only one of these things in the whole tree.Then (also in the front) I have these little cuties popping up all over the flower beds.
And, something that I actually planted on my own... my little herbs in my kitchen window. The kids helped plant these the first week of March. We have Parsley, Chives & Basil. And that healthy photo hog of a plant peeking from the right side is the parsley plant I bought at the store the other day. I needed fresh parsley... so I bought an actual plant for the same price of a little package of fresh parsley sprigs! Hope it lasts a while!
So for an overview, this is the flower bed I have in front of our front porch.
This is the little flower bed in the front just below the dining room window.
And this is the flower bed in the backyard with all the daffodils, and soon, tulips! YAY!
This weekend is supposed to be near 80, and sunny. I plan to spend most of it outside. AND, with spring break next week for the kids, I think McKenzie and I will rake up the leftover leaves and old mulch and have Nick help us lay down new mulch to make the flower beds all pretty! And maybe plant some annuals!

Ooh! And I have big plans for a fun flower arrangement out front. Standby...

Funny Outtakes...

As if it wasn't hard enough JUST to get Addison to look at me... try getting 2 little ones to look AND have a smile, or at least a cute expression....

This one just didn't work.

Honestly, I think Tyler was getting annoyed with Addison PURPOSEFULLY NOT looking at the camera.

This little guy is such a ham. When Trevor's personality started showing, we thought he was so funny, and oh how we laughed at the cute little things he did and said. We thought we had a little comedian on our hands (well, we still do) BUT, when our sweet little Addison came along. Sorry Trevor, but her sense of humor and comedian skills blew you out of the water. And just when we thought no one could top Addison... I don't know. We think Tyler might give her a run for her money. Only 8 months old and he's starting to show us that he KNOWS he is a funny man!

Addison thought it was only fair if we took some pictures with HER on TYLER'S LAP. But as you can see by his expression, he wasn't havin' it.
So then Addison thought she would take 5 and teach him patty cakes.
Not sure what part of patty cake this is... but it made him laugh!

Roll it, and pat it... and shove it in your mouth...

Tyler's face is just priceless.

This is Addison leaping at me, wanting to see her previous picture on the camera display screen.

Totally cheesin' it.

UPDATE ON TYLER:
He is 8 months!!! I KNOW! Where has the time gone!?!?! He just sprouted tooth #5 so he has two little teeth on the bottom, his two front top teeth, and one next to those.

He's sitting up on his own, rolling all over and spinning on his belly in all directions. He hasn't quite mastered the crawling yet but tends to backward scoot unintentionally. I feel like he isn't quite where he should be as far as mobility just because he had such bad reflux that I could never give him the tummy time he needed to build up his strength. He just ended up spitting up all his stomach contents. Poor baby. Thank goodness all that mess is over! Yay!

AND, in the last couple days, despite my repetitive "mommy" brainwashing... Tyler now has arguments with me.

Me: Ma-Ma... Ma-Ma
Tyler: Da Da Da Da
Me: No, Ma MMmmmma MMMMma
Tyler: (grinning) Da Da Da Da DAAAAAAAAAAA

Then just pretty much repeat that a few hundred times and add some giggles and grins because Tyler knows he's being silly. But no matter how many times I do it. Or what he is mumbling at the time. Whenever I throw out a mama.... he responds with dada. And I'm sure you know who just LOVES THAT ONE!!!!! But thats okay. Whatever makes them happy!

He also has learned to growl and zerbert. So we also have growling conversations. But no zerbert-ing contests. (zerberting = raspberries)

And on a sad note. With teeth, comes biting (and just a general loss of interest)....so, he's 100% bottle fed now. Which equals 10x more poopy diapers. Ick. And I know you all are having a much better day now knowing that little detail! hee hee

Back to the doctor

We got the okay to be seen out in town now for medical care (and not on base). AMEN!

So I took Addison and Trevor to the doctor to follow up on their ear infections/allergies. Trevor got the all clear. (Just has a little residual fluid in his ear that will hopefully dry out with some over the counter meds.)

Addison, however, still had an ear infection and I talked to the doctor about new medication options for her 'allergies'. The ones the previous doc had her on weren't helping much.

So, with new allergy meds and stronger antibiotics, I'm hoping to get Addison back on her feet. If these new medications don't help her improve, we'll be seeing an ENT soon and most likely the OR in December when she turns 3 to get her tonsils out.

*And thinking about that just makes me cringe. Especially since she won't even stand on the scale at the clinic without having a complete traumatic meltdown. Which leads to me holding a screaming kicking 2 year old on the scale, then laying her on the ground (still screaming and kicking) while I weigh myself and subtract! Ugh! And can I just say that she weighed EXACTLY what I told the nurse she weighed 3 weeks ago when we were at the doctor last, after going through the same thing...

whatever.

Surgery. Will. Not. Be. Fun.

Addison & Tyler

My mom was in need of some pictures of Addison and Tyler. She had the older 2 kiddos school pictures, which, honestly, I'd be glad to replace too. (Remember the dreadful splatter paint background... my blood still boils when I think about those)

Anyways, I attempted a quick photo shoot today after Tyler's morning nap. Be aware, there are lots of pictures... I loved so many of them (and some just made me laugh)!!!

Starting with my favorite...

It took me forever to get these because when you tell Addison to do something like "look at mommy" she will purposefully look away and not look at you.... and almost convince you that she didn't hear you.

He's my happy boy!

He loves his tootsies!

"Yo ma, how many pictures are you gonna take already?"

"smoochies"
(Does it make it any less cute knowing that it was prompted?... I didn't think so either!)

My little tickle bug...

Hellooooo Gorgeous {weather}

It's hit 70 degrees today! And, it should be 75 all weekend!! It's fabulous, I love it! And so do the kids! They have been outside since they came home from school.

Yesterday, I left to go get some groceries, and when I came home, Nick had hung the hammock AND the baby swing AND Tyler was already in it, AND sleeping, while Nick lounged in the sun.
With the snow gone, and the sun out, the flowers are starting to pop up, and we are seeing lots of green stuff! Addison and I cleaned up the flower beds (well, not the one pictured below). I have lots of leaves to clear out of the one you see here:
I've got daffodils...
and tons of tulips on the way, as well as several other unknown bushes/flowers. I'd list them but I have no idea what they are...

Here is Tyler after his nap in the swing.

When to Work Out?

When Nick and I started the P90X workout program, we decided that the best time to do the hour+ workouts was after the kids were in bed. But that meant we didn't start working out until after 9PM sometimes... getting us to bed at a VERY late hour....

And early morning workouts were out because Nick gets up early enough as it is to get to work before 7... plus, I'm not much of a morning person.

So the last couple days we tried working out a little earlier. I even had the great idea (or so it seemed at the time) to throw Trevor and Addison in our giant bathtub for a huge bubble bath so that they would play (and get clean) for a while. Then McKenzie could entertain Tyler. Well, it just so happened that just as we started working out, Addison realized her horrible fear of bubbles, and baled out just minutes into her bath.... and joined us in our workout.

Now, when you are in the middle of doing several hundred lunges and squats, and your muscles are burning and you are trying so hard to hang in there without crying, or cursing at the perky little instructor in the video who has like 2% body fat.... having your 2 year old lunging and squatting and doing jumping jacks naked as a jay bird right next to you does a little number on your concentration. Now throw in a little of Addison's "Look at me I'm funny" attitude, and your workout is pretty much over.

So, we are back to working out AFTER bedtime again.

Zum Rheingarten

Nick took me out to dinner Friday night to Zum Rheingarten. It's a cute little German restaurant just outside the back gate.When he called for reservations, he mentioned it was my birthday, so when we sat down at our table by the fireplace... there was a cute little message for me on a plate!

"Happy Birthday Kim"

We ordered a fruit and cheese appetizer to go with our wine. YUM! Which by the way, we now have a new favorite wine!!! See below.The food was so good we dug right in and forgot to take pictures of our entrees. Oops! Afterward, they even brought me a piece of white cake with homemade whipped topping and crunchy pecans with a yummy raspberry sauce. Oh yes, they sang too! The cake was so light it was like we weren't even eating anything. O....M.....G! (shhh don't tell P90X)

And here is the wine we had.
(Yes, the bottle is empty!) I may just be buying a crate of this stuff!

After dinner we went to see the movie Green Zone. Very action packed. It was fun to have a nice evening together without the little ones! We decided we needed to go out together more often!

Birthday Fun

Yesterday I turned 29! My husband surprised me with 29 beautiful roses! They smell and look amazing!! I love them!
Our neighbors, the Vila's, wanted to help celebrate by bringing over pizza for dinner.... (totally against our P90X diet, but how could be say no?) So, the least I could do was make cupcakes, right? After all, it was my birthday, might as well blow the diet and go all out?!?!

So, of course, with the mention of mommy's making cupcakes, I had instant helpers. And I honestly can't tell why they love to help me mix up the cupcake batter.... can you?

What? Is there something on my face?

So, after pizza, the kids seemed to gravitate toward Nick...

After some snuggle time with Uncle Doober, it was time for candles and singing and a super fabulous cake that Steph surprised me with. It was a sinful spice cake with a layer of cheesecake between the layers, nuts and raisins... heaven! (Did I mention TOTALLY against our P90X diet...shhhh)

Uncle Poncho led us all in the birthday song, only to stop everyone halfway through to start over and not make it sound so funeral procession-like. So it was a very upbeat, crazy fun birthday song TAKE TWO!

And yes, there was ponytail whipping!

Then there was candle licking...

And the rest is history! It was a great day! Thanks to you all for the birthday wishes!!!! Tonight Nick is taking me out to eat at a nice restaurant and a movie. This weekend, I get to enjoy a day to myself and go shopping! Yay! I have the best husband in the world!