Alexis 1st Gymnastics Meet

Warning:  There are a lot of pictures in this post!

We were so proud of Alexis at her first gymnastics meet a few weeks ago.  Her and her teammates all worked very hard in the last month to get ready.  They have been going over their routines at every practice.

We traveled to Mankato for her first meet.  We were able to watch them warm up on every event.  So I tried to take a lot of pictures(Which didn't turn out the best).  Here she is on the beam doing a cartwheel

 and doing her dismount an aerial

 Here she is waiting her turn for her mount on the beam

 The next event was the floor.  She does an awesome front tuck and I caught her midway through this one.

 This is during the competition doing her scale on beam

 waiting with her teammates

 Straddle Jump on Floor

 Vault-she has great form on this one

 Bars(she needs to work on straightening her legs:))

 The girls didn't receive awards for individual events but did win the team competition.  They were so excited!  They were not expecting it.

 Alexis with her coaches Heather and Erin

 First Place team ribbon, and a medal for competing, along with a certificate with her scores on it.

So proud of you Alexis:)  Keep up the hard work

Random Photos

Alexis reading while waiting for the dentist.  She recently finished the Harry Potter series and is now bummed that she is all done.  But now she is excited to watch all the movies

 Brayden reading and relaxing with Grandpa at the lake.  We have only caught a few baby fish at the lake.  Hopefully this week they will move in and we will be able to catch enough for dinner.

Nature Center

A few weeks ago the kids and I went to the Nature Center after school.  We walked around for an hour or so.  We were so excited to see for the first time a deer.  We were walking by the turtle pond and heard a little rustling in the trees(you can see it circled in the picture below) It was really close to us but I can't zoom with my cell phone so it looks far away.

 We walked along the river which is super low and Brayden decided to climb the tree

 The kids enjoyed the kids nature area on the teeter totter

Our Little Swimmers

Alexis and Brayden have both been swimming this year.  Alexis went back on the swim team from December to the middle of March and Brayden just finished up a Red Cross session that was 8 days throughout the month.  He seemed to enjoy that a lot better than the swim team.  The water was a lot warmer in the community center pool.

The videos are from my cell phone(so not the best) of Alexis doing a start and swimming the front crawl(she took off a early so she stopped when she got to the surface) and Brayden also doing the front crawl. 

Easter

For the first time we hosted a holiday, Easter.  It had been super warm all week but a cool front came through and chilled the air a bit.  It was in the 50's that day.  We started out the day going to our Easter service at church.  Learning about Love:)  We came home to the smell of Ham throughout the house, yummy!  We enjoyed our Easter dinner and jelly beans.  

After Dinner I had made up a scavenger hunt for the kids.  I hid the eggs around the yard with clues in them

 The kids thought the guys were hiding an egg but it had actually blown off the chair and into the garden below.

 In the end there was a prize for them.  Alexis had been begging for a fishing game for the Wii, anytime we would walk by it at the store.  When I was there looking for a gift I noticed it was on sale so that is what I bought.  As you can see by her reaction she was super excited.  We have been catching lots of different kinds of fish and are really having fun with it.

 After that we took some family pictures

 Aunt Jill and Uncle Chris

 Grandma and Grandpa with the kids

Spring Flowers

We had a very early spring with lots of nice warm weather.  Then a few weeks ago we got a wake up call and it was frosty a few mornings and my flowers looked pretty sad.  But when we came home at night they had always perked back up.  

The Daffodils popped up first and are already hibernating for next year.  They looked amazing when they were out.

 Then the tulips and hyacinth arrived.  And are still out today.

We have been busy cleaning up the yard and actually have mowed the lawn.  We have also watched the many birds coming to our feeders and have seen many wild turkeys and quite a few deer in the back yard also.

Minnesota Zoo

On the Thursday of spring break we took the kids to the zoo 

 Everyone enjoyed the cute baby monkeys

 We were excited to see the penguins.  They added this exhibit last year and sadly we haven't made our way to the zoo since before it opened.  We got there just in time to watch them feed them.

 We also got to watch the dolphins being trained

 One of Alexis favorite part of the zoo is this shark and stingray tank, where you can actually touch them as they swim past.  Here they all are trying(except Abby who is observing)

 We went to the new Bird Show and saw a lot of neat birds.  One of our favorites was this snowy owl.

 Alexis was excited to ask the bird keeper a question.

 Our Birds

 Alexis took a picture for us

 Wolf Pack

 Abby and Tami looking at a Gator

 These monkeys are so cool!  They are not camera shy! 

 The last place we went to was to see the Bears.  It had started to sprinkle when we were there and it was nap time so we made a quick go of it.

 Cheese

 Brayden checking out the Sleepy Bear

We enjoyed our day at the zoo!

Spring Break

The kids had spring break a few weeks ago.  We didn't venture to far away from home.  Jason stayed home with them Monday and Wednesday while I worked, grandma watched them on Friday.  Tuesday and Thursday were my days.

I created a tape balance beam on the floor for Alexis.  Shes getting a bit more flexible.

 Lucky Lou

 Brayden came in the house Tuesday with this itty bitty turtle.

 They all did a lot of bike riding and rollerblading

 Alexis started reading Harry Potter and is currently on book 5(2 more to go)

 Riley turned 6 on Wednesday and I had made cupcakes and Jason and the kids sang to him at lunch time.

Thursday we went to the zoo with my friends Tami, I will post those pictures next...

Farm Day

We recently spent the day at our friends farm

 Alexis of course was in heaven:)

 Brayden was also

We always have such a fun time, and everyone sleeps good at night.

Unbelievable Weather

We have had the most amazing weather around here!  And we have surely been enjoying it!  We dug out the kids bikes and found some shorts and t shirts and have spent our after school time outside.  I think we are going on a week of 70 degree weather:)

 The snow has been long gone and we have flowers sprouting up!  Its only March!  Just crazy.  I hope that this weather continues and it doesn't freeze because my early arrivals will be sad and gone.

 We have also turned off the heat in our house and pulled out the screens, and have been sleeping with our windows open at night:)

Definitely enjoying this weather!!!  The docks also went in the lake today.  The ice just went out yesterday, we enjoyed our first campfire with smores last night.  Looking forward to our longer summer.

An update on us and Flashback Pictures:)

I've been on my own since Thursday.  Jason went up north with a friend to snowmobile.  It finally snowed last week up there, so hopefully they are having a fun time and enjoying it.  

The kids and I have been on the go as usual.  Thanks to my parents the kids were taken care on Thursday while I worked.  I got home early to Brayden and Grandpa playing the Wii way past bed time:)  I just smiled and thought what great memories they share.  Grandma came home a little later with Alexis who was at gymnastics.  

Friday was work and then the kids and I came home and popped popcorn and watched Soul Surfer(love that movie).  Today we woke up made banana bread and got ready to go to town.  I dropped the kids off at open gym for gymnastics and I got a little me time at my gym.  Ahhh so refreshing:)  I stopped and picked up a pizza from papa murphy's quick and then picked up the kids.  They had lots of stories of the fun things they did.  We came home and read books and played with Alexis horses.  We also had another movie night, we watched Bolt.  

I started reading the book Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo, it is a real eye opener and makes you think.

I've also been scrapbooking and was going through these pictures from the past.  Look how much they have grown!  This first picture was the day after Brayden came home from Korea.  Alexis was 3 and Brayden was 9 months

 Snow Fun

I hope you are all having a fun weekend also!