Catch Up

So we didn't have such a great week last week around here, but the bright side was that Jake got to come home for a few days. It happened to be good timing since Jake and I have birthdays next week, we got to celebrate a little this weekend. It was nice to see him close to his birthday since we didn't think we would-he's entering his 20's this year just as I'm about to exit them! He's having a tough time adjusting to his new life. Training isn't turning out to be what he thought and he's trying to find his way. It's harder to say goodbye to him knowing that he's heading back to something that isn't making him the happiest right now. Honestly, we're all still trying to adjust to Jake's new life in the Army. No one said it would be a walk in the park for any of us. I just hope he can find the confidence that he needs to believe he's doing the right thing soon.

Jake's visit

My dad and sister came over yesterday to celebrate our birthdays and my dad brought Jake's dog-Lucky-that he hadn't seen in many months. Spencer was quite intrigued with the huge, black dog!

Avery and Spencer showing everyone how neat their new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is:)

Her shirt seriously says it all!

Avery took a break to cuddle with Aunt Cimmy:)

Grandpa lending Spencer a relaxing spot to have a bit of a bottle-he's finally holding his own bottle!!

Jake and his dog:)

The Easter Bunny visited a bit early at our house!

A visit with Uncle Jake wouldn't be complete without playing some Rock Band or Guitar Hero!! Avery is getting really good at singing to the Taylor Swift songs!

Indy...

Last weekend we headed down to Indianapolis to visit Chad, Jamie and Garrett. Artie and I had our first night away from the kids. I had not spent a night without a child since before Avery was born! A big thank you to my in-laws for taking on 3 kids under 3:) And Avery and Spencer had a blast playing with their cousin Garrett:) On Sunday, before we headed back home, we took the kids to the Children's Museum.

So stinkin' cute! Avery was very excited for her first trip to the museum.

This is how the guys and Avery and Garrett got to exit the museum! They had this slide up for their spring break exhibit. For the record, Chad and Garrett won the race-though Artie claimed he didn't know they were racing (yeah right!).

Spencer Space
Spencer loved the area for kids under 2. He had a blast getting out of the stroller and getting to climb around and play with other little kids!

He even busted out his flirting skills:)

Hey, who is that handsome man in the mirror?!

Pulling himself up to look out at the bigger kids playing.

Enjoying some toys to himself and not having to share with Avery!

Big Kid Play
Garrett and Avery spending some time at the sand table.

Blurry because of all of the sunlight, but such a cute thing:)

Brothers and their kids.

Artie liked trying to show Avery all about Star Wars, but I think he's really holding out hope that Spencer will be more excited!

They have a pretty cool little collection of stuff like this and I'm not even a fan of Star Wars-at all.

Now this exhibit was really neat for Avery and I to look at together.

The black and white dress at the end was designed by Nicole Miller...I forget who the other ones were designed by.

Of course we had to try out Avery's makeup artistry skills. She shows promise!

For all my friends who love a great pair of shoes:)

These shoes were pretty great, maybe one day I'll have some Louboutins...

Water table fun...Avery was completely soaked despite wearing an apron-this girl loves water! Her brother wished he could have gotten in on the action too. Spencer has discovered the dog's water bowl and loves to splash in water too!

We had such a wonderful time! Can't wait to go back and check out all that we didn't have time for!