Amy's Baby Shower and Baby Kacen visits

Last week we had a baby shower for my sister in law, Amy.

I found this fun idea for a center piece and the girls helped me sort all the jelly beans for it. It turned out cute!

We had LOTS of yummy food as usual...this picture was taken before the yummy salad and desert were out. As we were getting ready for the shower, Adrie says to me "Oh yeah I remember when we had a shower for Chaly...Chaly's shower was SO fun! It was the best shower in the whole town!!" I didn't know she was a shower conosiour.

My sister Chaly surprised us and showed up from Boise with her new baby! We were all thrilled to get to hang out with them for a few days! Kyra immediately wanted to hold him!

I love this look on Bree's face....

She REALLY liked Kacen and wanted to grab him

Kris met him for the first time since he couldn't go with us when we went to Boise to see him (I just realized I never blogged about that trip yet)

The girls enjoying some food

The two cute ladies in the right picture are my great aunts, Carol and Phyllis! They are soo adorable and sweet! Aunt Phyllis (in the purple) is almost 97 and she still looks so fashionable. We hadn't seen her in a really long time and we were so happy she came! Since my grandma passed away it makes me miss her when I see these two.

Mom, Lida, Kacen, chaly, me and Tate
Kacen slept at our house one night and the girls didn't leave his side! Kyra was really excited to give him a bath!They informed me that we need another baby at our house again.....Chaly you better come visit more often until we can fill that request!
Mom and Bree

Adrie was so proud that she got Kacen to sleep singing to him.

The girls LOVE to play the piano with uncle Bret at grandma's house.

We went to Cafe Rio one day and to spicy fries at eat a Burger....

The cousins!

No More SNOW!

What a difference a day makes! I am SOO done with the SNOW! Waking up to SNOW this morning was not a good way to start the week off. Last week we did a whole lot of this.......

I can't even tell you how exciting it is to see Bree doing this all around the park!!
This is Bree signing "baby"-she saw a baby at the park and kept doing the sign.

We played at the park and out back for hours-it was beautiful!

Bree LOVES being outside! She sits by the door looking out back until someone lets her out.

Kyra and Jaxon enjoying a snack at the park

Bree is trying So hard to be a big girl and go down the slide by herself and this it what she does--because she is so flexible she can bend her arms clear back without even blinking-it looks like it would hurt!

Adrie loves the balance beam

Ky loves the monkey bars

Halle looks a little squished!

This is what the little ones looked like by the end of the park outing. They enjoyed their chocolate chip cookies though! I am ready for a lot more of these days and no more Snow days!!

What?

Last night President Obama appeared on the Jay Leno show. Kris and I watched a few minutes of it and were even commenting that although we are not big fans of his, he did seem real and personable. Well than we turned it off and apparantly towards the end of the interview he made a self depreciating remark about his bowling skills at the expense of the Special Olympics. Here's the exchange:
LENO: Now, are they going to put a basketball -- I imagine the bowling alley has been just burned and closed down.
THE PRESIDENT: No, no. I have been practicing my bowling-- (laughter.)
LENO: Really? Really?
THE PRESIDENT: I bowled a 129. (Laughter and applause.)
LENO: No, that's very good. Yes. That's very good, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something. (Laughter.)
LENO: No, that's very good.
THE PRESIDENT: No, listen, I'm making progress on the bowling, yes.

I found these comments on Macey's mom's blog and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing them. She said just what I was thinking....

"I must say I am quite disappointed... In so many aspects of this simple exchange. I am confused as to why the President of the Free World, who has claimed discrimination himself, feels that it is OK to target the Special Olympics and by proxy those involved, as a joke. Would he think differently if one of his 2 daughters happened to have a disability of some sort (which they could acquire at any time)? While this would just seem a simple joke and no big deal to a lot of the population, including individuals in my own life, words like these really do hurt SO many people.How is the teenager proud of their hard earned Special Olympics accomplishments going to feel when they see the President they respect to lead the country degrade them? I can tell you how a mama of a precious baby girl feels to hear of this... hurt once again and worried about Macy's future interactions with others.The comments at the end of the article make things even worse and all I can do is hope and pray that the majority of the people we have daily contact do not think the way so many others do, those who express rage by this so-called imposed "political correctness" getting in the way of their free speech. While I am extremely grateful for the freedom of speech we enjoy I wish we all (including you Mr. President) would be a little more careful in the words we choose.To his credit, Mr. Obama did apologize to Tim Shriver, President of the Special Olympics. He realized the error of his ways (or his PR people did). I wonder if he was sincerely sorry for his words, or just sorry he said them on national television.One of the best responses I have read comes from a lovely young lady named Sarah please read it here.I also love the thoughts of the mother of Emma Sage."

I felt a little better that he made an apology so quickly, at least that was something. I guess we all make mistakes but I just would have thought that in his position and his platform of "equality" that he would have known better.

Words do hurt and we can all do better at being careful not to make jokes at other peoples expense!

When Tom Shriver, the president of the special Olympics was interviewed about it on the Good Morning show this morning one of his comments was this""This kind of language needs to be a teachable moment for our country, I think," Shriver said. I would help every parent that's at home this morning watching this show could turn to their children and say, 'this is a chance for us to recognize that when we talk about Special Olympics, when we talk about people with special needs, let's make sure we talk about it in an affirming way."

Happy GREEN Day!

We woke up this morning to find our house in disarray from those mischievious little green guys.... EVERY cupboard and drawer in the kitchen open.....

Chairs overturned....

and even the couch was turned upside down......(which was the girls favorite part)
Then the leprechauns had left them a scavenger hunt through the house

And at the end was the "pot of gold" or in this case a hat of gold..... (apparantley the leprechauns chose the same hat for Julie too)

We ate some GREEN donuts for breakfast...

I went to Ky's school to help in her class and it was so fun to see how excited all the kids were when they walked into their classroom to find the leprechauns had visited, making messes and leaving footprints on their desks! How great is it to be a kid?!!!While I went to the school Adrie and Bree got to play with Aiden adn Avery.. I LOVE this pic Julie took of the girls laughing with eachother..

The kids loved playing with the silly hat...

Bree liked to play peek a boo......

Fortunately, Adrie got one picture of me and Bree this morning before I caught the flu bug the leprechauns must have left me...not the meaning of GREEN I wanted to experience today..

Luckily for Adrie, Julie took her to the park with her kids instead of having to spend the rest of the day couped up on the couch with mom.