A happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day 2011.

I love being a mom. I love looking at these two little mugs every day of my life. They are perfect. They are my happiness.

I had my first "mothers day tear" when Chloe brought this home from Home Depot project day. She walked up behind Brad with her arms behind her back and then produced this. I was so pleased. She told me she chose the flowers herself. So so sweet.
And Ezra..just playing all day, every day, in the dirt in the back yard. Tonight he gave me kisses and a high five and hugs his little body right into my arms.
I'm lucky to have my sweet mom here this year. We're packing up for our move. I lost my voice, again, and have been kind of sick and she's just been a helper bee and so wonderful. I love her.

And i'm glad to have a sweet sweet Mother in law who is such a support

to us.
And this little mother at our local zoo. This is the first time i've ever seen her towing her babe around.
Happy Mother's Day to you all. Love, Mel

Some Easter tonsils.

This picture makes me laugh. Alot of times we give EZ things to keep him happy till the next destination or activity and so here he is. Can you tell he'd been eating m and m's. Such a sweet boy.

We went to an Easter Egg hunt...in a parking lot. Not what we'd expected but fun to pick up eggs in exchange for a huge bag of yummy candy. See picture above!
I love how you can see her bright yellow.
And Chloe. She loved Easter. She loved every single thing about Easter. We took her to the doctor because we were referred there because of her large tonsils. After about 2 hours we left with a surgery date. Chloe has to have her tonsils out. While we were there they discovered she has some fluid issues in her ears and so why not put tubes in too and heck, take the adnoids out while you're at it. She's being very brave and kind of excited about the whole thing. Surgery is set for when we get back from Utah and her dad is officially a doctor!

At home.

My Brad and little EZ are in Utah for a funeral of a very amazing grandpa (Brad's grandpa) Chambers.

So...it's a girls weekend plus a couple days. We went to the zoo in St. Louis. My attention was 100% devoted to this little girl and have i mentioned she really likes my attention:)

I'm glad we have this time together. She wanted to take breaks at all the benches and for me to take pictures of her. We just wandered the zoo and laughed and had a great day. We also took pictures of the animals.

She took this picture and then I thought to myself, don't let her take pictures with your nice camera. So, this was the one and only picture she took but I really like it.

This was Chloe's requested birthday cake. I tried "the Barbie cake". We went to the store, picked out the barbie (I steered her to one that was in plastic clothes thankfully), she helped me mix the batter (and then she and EZ ate the batter. Mmmmm...) Then she supervised the decorating of the cake.

Note: this cake is possible to make without the actual "Barbie cake" pan. I used a 9 inch round, topped with a small bowl used as a pan and then a small bowl used as a pan and topped with an inverted cupcake (Barbie has those hips!) We all liked how it turned out.

More pictures of the zoo.

We are having so much fun with the "girls and the girls and the boys and the boys" as Chloe says. We've got a McDonald's visit, some cuddling, some movie watching and projects to do plus games and books and fingernail painting and conference watching. We miss our Brad and EZmice but know they are having a great time with family in Utah.

4!

We welcomed this beautiful girl into our lives 4 years ago today.

She fills my heart with happiness. She loves for me to read her books and then nap right next to her daily. Today, we went swimming and she just started swimming next to me and taking breaths and swimming some more. She's fearless but still so sensitive and wants confirmation that she's doing the right thing or doing a good job.

She is so inquisitive. We talked about not saying "why?" when someone asks her to do something. She said, "okay mom." Later that day she said, "but if you ask me to build a bird house then could I say 'why' because I don't know what you mean?" She is so smart and constantly leaves us looking at each other in amazement. She is the best big sister. She loves Friday night movie night. She loves attention. She loves family night (and really gets on us if we don't have an activity or treat:) And...and...and...and...! We love this girl forever. More birthday pics to come.

Who wouldn't love waking up to a room full of balloons. Credit for balloon blowing to Brad. I had to get that 4 shirt done and wrap some gifts. We started this at 9:45 pm!

Lately, well for a while now, Chloe is obsessed with dance. She takes a free zumba class at our gym and did gymnastics but she has this concept of "ballet" really in her head. So I am teaching her (Thanks Barbie for teaching me the ballet positions and terms) some sweet moves and she teaches me. This day was so funny I had to video it. Somehow she conveyed to me that she wanted to learn a dance and then she kept practicing the dance. She even told me to show it to her a couple of times and then she would do it by herself. See for yourself. I love the curtsey and kisses at the end.

Chicago

What a birthday to remember forever. On Wednesday we went to the airport to pick my mom up for the weekend. Brad and I drove seperate cars because he said he had to go run some errands after we went to dinner and I didn't think anything of it. We got to Steak and Shake and were just ordering when I turned around and saw these two pretty faces. I shrieked with delight, i'm sure. My two cute sisters (wish our Mandy could've come too) came with my mom to give me the ultimate surprise and then during dinner they surprised me again. I was told we would be spending two nights in Chicago together. This was quite the shocker and pleaser to me. I haven't been away from Ezra since he was born and only been away from Chloe once since she was born. Pure awesomeness.

So we spent a couple of days in Bloomington. I think Chloe would've died if she didn't get some Grandma Ruthie time. This way she was the center of attention for two days and then she got all of her dad's attention for the whole weekend.

I really think Chicago is such a fun place to go. And the people are really friendly.

We had to experience a subway ride. And I think I laughed a little too hard when we took a cab and 3 of us jumped in the back and emily had to ride in the front seat. I'm so immature.
We walked and shopped and didn't have a schedule at all.
The view of us and the city in the Bean.
Weber Grill.
We saw a show. This show was awesome. I've been listening to the music on itunes.Another fun restaurant.

I'm glad we got to go to the art museum. Art History was one of my favorite classes I've ever taken.

Love this VanGogh.
I've always loved this painting. And now I have been inspired to start reading Agony and the Ecstacy. It's a big big book about Michelangelo one of my favs.
And then they had to go home and I drove the 2 hours back to Bloomington alone. It was so fun to be with my mom and two wonderful sisters. It meant soooooooooooooo much to me that they would come all this way to spend some time with us. I love when people get to see "our life over here" for a day or a week. Thanks again guys. And my Brad. What a guy. They were walking up the path holding hands when I came home. I met them and saw them holding hands and Chloe skipping and laughing. When she saw me she ran, fast, straight into my hugs.

I picked Chloe up from school on picture day and this is how she looked. You may notice the bow on the side of her head. I asked her if that's how she had it during the pictures and she said, "yes, mom." I forgot about it until I picked these up from her school today. i think I laughed for about 5 minutes straight and then when I imagined it throughout the day I laughed too. Really? Now come on. I know for a fact that she had to have passed atleast 3 people before her picture was taken that maybe could've fixed the bow. Even now I am kind of chucking as I type and look at the picture. Oh my Chloe.

And more.
She really is one of a kind.

In the car today she told me about all the things she'd get "new" when we moved.

"mom, i get to have a new doctor and a new school and new friends and a new pool to go to and a new church and new teachers and a new park and new grass...it's okay mom." The 31/2 year old is reassuring me about the move:)

The other day she told me that dinosaurs died because the hot lava from the volcanos covered all of their food. I may have flipped if she actually used the word "extinct". Instead she told me that she would learn more about volcanoes when they covered the word "v" in Ms. Barb's class.

She loves to ride the bikes at walmart and I have her convinced that the red generic bike is the fastest and the best (so sad that we can't get her the pink barbie princess bike that she loves but she thinks that she gets that one when she's 6 and Ezra grows into the fast red one)

The other day she told Brad she was "nervous about getting a minivan". Brad asked her why and she explained that she didn't know where our "unborn-not-even-thought-of-new-sister-who-she's-named-already" would sit.

When I told her she'd be getting some shots when she turned 4 she told me "that's okay mom, I'll be brave and I won't cry. 4 year olds don't cry."

She wrestles with Brad and is getting pretty rough. She does this cartwheel/pummel Brad in the chest move she thought of on her own. Once she jumped off her bed into a cartwheel. She finished and looked up at me and I kind of stunned, said, "are you hurt? Please don't do cartwheels off the bed ever again."
And to the nice people out there. I mentioned that we left "scratchy" monkey in Ohio and called to have him returned. He was returned about 3 weeks later with this note. Chloe had almost gotten over him but when he returned it was like 500 christmases. There are so many good people out there. Thank you West Inn and Suites in Cincinnati. (read the note)
And I have a birthday coming up. Sunday starts "birthday week".

What it looks like here.

We had a blizzzzzzzard!! Which meant: Lots of snow. Brad has 2 days off work! No pre-school. Playing in the snow. Shoveling the snow. Admiring the beauty of the snow.

Pink cheeks. Hot cocoa. Movies.
Lots more shoveling. This guy is a work horse.
The Balloon game. Try it. It's surprisingly addicting to stand around and hit balloons.
Our house in the snow.
Our street with 2 feet of snow.
Our sidewalk with the snow total. 55 mph winds the day and night before. When we took these pics I think it was negative temperatures.

Brad's car. Mine was stuck in the garage at this point. We got it out though. Brad had the day off the paper route but had to do double duty this freezing negative temps morning.

Add to our "when-Brad-gets-a-job-luxury-items-list": snowblower and fourwheeler with plow.

I LOVE the snow.