Graduation Celebration Continued...

Our Graduation Celebration continued with the arrival of Cole's family, complete with a surprise visit from Grandpa and Grandma Leigh.  As you can see, we all had a GREAT time :)

 Playing Rock Band

And of course .....Varsity Donuts

AND....the "Purple Store" as we so lovingly call it

Sure glad to have these two here!

Always got to have a family baseball game when we get together.  Surprisingly, nobody has been injured too bad during our crazy festivities.  Walker did get hit with a ball this time and had a HUGE bruise on his leg, but he took it like a champ!

Family water balloon fight.  It sure took FOREVER to fill all those balloons up, and it was over in a matter of minutes...hahaha :)

Surprise visit from Cole and the water hose while they were taking a picture

A wet hug for my favorite mother-in-law :)  She's so lucky to have me in her life...HAHAHA...

One of our many trips to WAL-MART...the kids had SO much fun with Walker.  They just adore him, probably because he takes good care of them...I asked Ryan if I could keep him...and was told no...hehehe  Could have something to do with the fact that he and Walker have to go stick together in a house full of girls :)...cute girls at that :)  

Please note the soft-football helmet Brett acquired at the Purple Store..he wore it ALL day

A visit from Grandma Piggy and Grandpa Tex to begin our Graduation festivities

We started off our graduation celebration with a visit from Grandma Piggy and Grandpa Tex.  We had a great time decorating the house and purchasing all of Cole's favorite treats and a new tailgating grill as part of his last day of clinic gift (unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of it all).  Just picture a TON of junk food, balloons and graduation signs :)  AND of course, we had to go to varsity donuts....Brett and Allison (and everyone else) had to go back for seconds!  We also got to celebrate Mother's day with them.  We ate ribs and Allison helped Grandma make worms and dirt cake in a plastic sand bucket...it was SUPER yummy :)

A girl and her dad...

These two....there isn't much to say about them.  Cole is quite popular, there is usually a fight between me, Allison and Brett to see who gets to sit next to him...especially if there are his coveted snacks involved. (Because I'm mom, I usually win) This is a rare occasion where Allison was sitting in his spot, and Cole accommodated. 

House/farm sitting :)

So we've been housing/farm sitting for the last few days and will be here for a couple of weeks.  There are cats, dogs, horses and kids.  Let's just say the horses are the least amount of maintenance...and the kids and dogs require the most maintenance.  It snowed the first day here, and Brett locked Allison and I out of the house.  Good thing I love that little boy :)  THEN, I thought it would be totally functional to put up a baby gate to trap them in their room so I could go do the early morning feedings....WRONG-O...  I came in from feeding the horses and went upstairs to check on the kids who were still in the room.  I thought, man...my baby-gate planned worked.  Then I saw Brett's water bottle on the floor....  Then I thought to myself, "Self...you didn't put his water bottle in here."  So I asked him, "Brett, how did your water bottle get in here??"  Feeling rather proud of himself....  he and Allison proceeded to tell me that Brett climbed the gate, walked downstairs, got the water bottle, walked upstairs, and climbed BACK over the gate.  SHEESH.....on to plan Z as to how I'm going to manage 3 horses, 3 dogs, a pony, and 2 kids during feeding time in a house that isn't ours.  Did I mention Tinkerbell and the other dogs DON'T get along?  So it is like the changing of the guards everytime I have to move or rearrange the dogs :)  hehehe....despite the frustrations, the kids are loving it...as you can see...

Brett kept trying to hide from me when I was trying to take his picture.  I caught him a few times :)  He has a little smudge of dirt on his cute nose that I didn't have the heart to photoshop out :)

Trying to convince Tink to fetch a stick.....

 which actually didn't take much convincing at all.  Good ol' dog :)

She is the only one to cooperate during pictures (I have to confess that I took the stick she was chewing and held it up to my face to get her to look at me...because she too was ignoring me.)

LOVE these :)

Brett was pouting because I wouldn't push him on the swing.  Silly boy doesn't want to do anything that even remotely resembles work.  Should be fun in the next few years :)

Happy Early Easter

Let me tell you...I am just SO on top of things....  I'm actually early with these pictures.  Here's the secret, I pretty much had nothing to do with the process except snapping the picture and editing it.  During the week Cole had off, we went to the mall and he helped them pick out their Easter outfits.  Brett was sure that he wanted a "green shirt."  So that was easy.  Allison's decision consisted of looking through several stores with her very patient daddy.  Not gonna lie, I wasn't a huge fan of the dress she picked, until she put it on.  I've since changed my thinking :)  Cole insisted on a picture, and because he was in the room, the children pleasantly posed on their own, smiled, and looked right at me.  Sometimes it's REALLY disgusting/frustrating/annoying/you get the point... living with "The Child Whisperer."  I kid you not, I took TWO pictures...yes TWO.  Remember the fiasco of the valentines pictures?  I have not yet forgotten.......Without further delay, my cute Easter babies!

Loving us some baseball :)

So the ONE day this month with decent weather (by decent I mean not snowing...hehehe), we went out and tried our new T-ball equipment (and soccer...but I got in trouble to taking too many pictures and not helping, so there are not soccer pictures this time).  The kids LOVED it.  We even got to eat at I-HOP after.

(There are notably more pictures of Allison in this post due to her HILARIOUS facial expressions)