Just Dandy!

We don't know if it was the warm weather early or the cold weather late or something else entirely, but things are apparently quite favorable for the dandilions around here. Daddy usually pays the kids a penny a flower to pull them, but this year he may have to pay buy the pound! A busy week again all around, Daddy got put on 12 hour days at work, so not a lot of time for blogging, but he'll try to keep it up! Here's the weekly dose of the kids...

Darin!

Been getting complaints that there's not enough pictures of Darin on here, so here's some more tubbie pictures!
While you're enjoying the pictures I might as well let you know that we had a gorgeous day here today. Malin and Darin spent the day with Mommy at her crop. Malin worked hard on a scrap book of her very own for almost the whole day. She is very proud of it, I am sure it will show up on the blog sooner or later. Daddy and Gavin had a good day at the house - Gavin helped take the recycling to the recycling center, beat Daddy at some games; and even managed to 'help' wash the Burby. This evening we all went to Aunt Charshe's surprise 'Happy Retirement' party. There were several dozen friends and family there to celebrate. Aunt Charshe was very surprised.

Here we go again...

Another week without Daddy working on the blog. Let's see...we made it through Easter pretty uneventfully. This year, THe Easter Bunny knew that Malin could read, so he sent her on a wild scavenger hunt through the house. Malin found an egg with a riddle inside it in her bedroom. The answer to the riddle was the hiding place of the next egg. a dozen or so eggs and clues (and three trips back upstairs) later, she found her basket under a chair in the den. The Easter Bunny also knew that Gavin is getting really good with his counting, so each of his eggs had a number written on the outside. He had to find them in order, which led him on a trail to the playroom where he found his basket under his trampoline. Since Darin can't read or count yet, Malin and Gavin helped him find eggs in all his favorite places (car seat, stroller, etc) and found his basket in his pack-and-play. All three got clothes, some toys, some money, and of course, plenty of candy. Here are the girls in their Easter best at Mam-Maws, where the family gathered after church for dinner and an egg hunt.
	Here is Darin getting his first 'tubbie' this week.
The outside pipe that drains our sump pump has been clogged (for a year or more - there are other pictures of Gavin playing in the puddle it leaves in the yard), so one of Daddy's weekend projects was to dig it out and fill it with gravel. It went down about two feet, and of course Gavin couldn't resist the mud. Unfortunately for him, it was too deep and narrow for him to crawl back out of! Luckily, Daddy was there to rescue him, but not without snapping a picture first!
	And finally, one of Daddy's favorite past-times -- Oreo Double-Stuf's and milk (Oh yeah, and sharing them with his kids!)

EGGZ!

Might as well go for three days in a row! This morning we took the kids to an egg hunt at the grade school that was sponsored by the Masons. We didn't see it advertised anywhere, but they ALWAYS have one the Saturday before Easter, so we loaded up and went. It turns out that the reason that we didn't see it advertised anywhere is because it WASN'T advertised anywhere. That, combined with the 40 degree weather, meant that there was enough eggs for hundreds of kids, but only twenty or so showed up. Till all was said and done, the organizers were even asking the parents to help pick some of the eggs up - the kids were getting too tired! Marina counted her eggs - she got 59. We didn't count any of the other kids, but Briley got two grocery bags full, and Malin a whole grocery bag full. Gavin was more interested in opening eggs than finding them, so he didn't get as many, but still he got plenty. The camera was near Gavin the whole time, so most of the pictures are of him, but hopefully you can get an idea of how many eggs there were compared to kids...

Trying...

...to see if I can make up for missed blogging by posting pictures two days in a row!

Blur!

Once again, life seems to have kept Daddy away from the computer for longer than he'd like to keep the blog updated. Things have been pretty busy around here, so the days are all blurred together here the past couple of weeks, but Daddy will try to remember what all's been going on... Wednesday last week we had 'Stanley Steemer' come and do our carpets. They were pretty bad, especially in the kitchen, what with two pre-schoolers in the house, and Mommy and Daddy were pretty skeptical that it would do any good. It was a bit on the expensive side, and we debated just putting the money towards new carpet, but in the end it was worth it. The only stains they couldn't get out was some 'washable' paint that Gavin had spilled in the play room last year. It was a two man crew, and they had a good system. They moved all the furniture and put it back. What a difference it made! Way better than we've ever done with a rental shampooer. The only downside was that it took nearly three days for things to dry out. Thursday we had our cleaning lady come to get the house in shape for our annual Final Four party. So with the floors scrubbed and the carpet clean, we were lucky to have a few days of warm weather so as to keep the kids out of the house for a few days. Also on Thursday, Darin had his one-month checkup. At this point neither Daddy nor Mommy remembers his numbers, but I think he was 10 lbs, 6 oz, and in the 80-ish percentile in height, and in the 60's somewhere for head circumference. He is growing normally, starting to make some facial expressions, and his cries are getting different enough for Mommy (and sometimes Daddy) to identify the problem. His umbilical stump fell off over the weekend, so he is ready for his first real bath this week sometime. Daddy took off Friday and spent most of the day with the older two while Mommy, Mam-Maw and Darin went to Harrisburg for a day of shopping. Friday evening and most of the day Saturday were spent preparing for the party, and then people started showing up around 3:30. Had a good crew here - 25 or so, the last of which left about 12:30 am Sunday. Then, up early on Sunday for Darin's baptism, and then we hosted lunch at the church for 40 or so family and friends afterwards. We were all exhausted by the time we got home, so we tried to all lie down for naps, but none of us got much of one. Early to bed Sunday night, and then back to the grind on Monday. Then Monday night the five of us met Nana and Pappy Tom and Dan and Grandma Jean at Hoss's to celebrate Nana's birthday, so that was another long night for the kids. Tuesday we thought we would get ahead of the game and put the kids to bed early...well, that didn't work out so well. We had everyone bathed and in their jammies by 6:30, and we don't know if it was the warm weather (75, despite the snow today!), them being out of their routine, or what, but neither of them got settled until after 9:00! Darin has been a real trooper through all of this, snoozing away and allowing Mommy and Daddy to deal with the other two! Here are a couple of pictures from the past week or so (CW from top right - A good snapshot of all 3 kids; Gavin practicing his 'washers' skills in the nice weather; Malin taking some time to 'smell the ... daffodils'; and Gavin helping Mommy with Darin: