Spring Break in Ohio

In April (yes, almost 3 months ago) we headed to Ohio for a few days over spring break. The car trip went smoothly this time, unlike in December, although they always seem quite long with 3 children in tow. Here are some of the pictures from our trip.
A trip to Chuck E Cheese....air hockey...Daddy and Madison against...
Mommy and Carson.

Jason's a happy boy when perched on Mommy's lap.

Great Grandma Helbert with Madison and Carson at her apartment.

Carson being such a "little man."

Carson loves Grandpa.

Carson enjoying another ride at Chuck E Cheese.

But a little cautious of Chuck E Cheese.

Madison was the only one of the three that enjoyed this ride.

Dying eggs with Grammy.

Carson has put himself in the cage with Sarge and he's loving it...not sure about Sarge. :)

Great Grandpa Helbert and Great Grandma Helbert visit to celebrate her birthday.

Watch out Jason...Sarge is about to eat your lunch.

Carson demonstrating the art of making anything a hat.

Madison enjoying some coloring time as Carson is trying to escape.

Carson has now taken a handle from something and made it into a nice headband. Hmmm.

Climbing on Everything and Into Everything

As I mentioned in Jason's 15 month update, the boy is climbing on everything. Once he learned to pull the chairs out and climb up on them he soon learned to.....
...climb onto the table and play with all the napkins. Boy does he need to be watched carefully!

And bold...just yesterday at a care group picnic he turned himself around at the edge of the pool and proceeded to go in...feet first into an area that was 4 to 5 feet deep....fortuneately daddy was close by to rescue him! He hasn't made it out of his crib yet and I'm not sure what the plan is when that happens. I have found him trying to put his leg up on the side of the crib. Yikes!

Easter 2009

Yes, sad but true...I'm just now getting around to posting Easter pictures. But here they are...not our best Easter pictures but at least we tried!

Our family picture...we may not all be happy but at least we're all looking at the camera.

Transitions

Springtime brought about a transition here in the Pier home. Carson moved from a crib to a toddler bed (what used to be Madison's). He had become quite an expert at climbing out of his crib and while he wasn't doing so in rebellion we decided it was time to make the change. I dreaded it a little as I thought it would be a difficult transition. Praise the Lord...it wasn't. He did remarkable...similar to Madison's transition. There have been a few times when he's collected various toys and taken them to his bed, but most of the time he goes right to bed. His wake up times have gotten a little earlier since the change, but I hoping in time he'll go back to sleeping in till 7 or so. Even though he and Jason shares a room, he really does leave Jason alone. Occasionally the two can laugh and carry on before going to sleep or upon waking up, but nothing of great concern. Sometimes Jason is making a lot of noise and we can hear Carson over the monitor saying, "NO!" This only brings about more laughter and noise from Jason as he finds it extremely funny. At times they can go and on and on!
Here he is sleeping peacefully in his new bed.

Grammy and Grandpa's February 2009 Visit

In February Grammy and Grandpa came for a visit over Valentines Day weekend. It was a great time and here are some of the pictures from their visit.

Carson showed off on his new bike that they got him for his birthday. For some reason this picture seems a little off...the girl pushing the two boys on the bike? And that's Target at the bottom watching shadows on the ceiling.

A little reading time with Grammy.

Madison...3 1/2 and the Mother of the Bunch

Yes, this post is well over due....

Well Madison is now officially 3 1/2 but can sometimes act as if she's 13...boy are we going to have our hands full. I think I'm now considering it a blessing that we just have 1 girl out of the bunch! She definitely is the mother of the bunch. When she is told to clean up toys she immediately dictates to Carson what he needs to do and she is clear about what his discipline will be if he doesn't obey. Much to her dismay Carson (and Jason) are fully aware that they don't really need to obey Madison. At times she is a great helper to the boys. She is doing so much better at going to discovery land at church and having others watch her. Sometimes she'll put on a "show" right before I leave but that's just really a lot of drama.

Here she is "reading" one of their many Dora books to Carson. She is a great storyteller. After hearing the story just once or twice she can tell it very well by herself.

Here is one of her first people pictures. I actually drew the face with eyes, nose, hair, etc and then asked Madison to put the arms and legs on. She did exactly what most children at this stage do (I remember this from my college human development courses). But she was very proud of herself. Now she regularly is drawing her own people with faces and all.

In the spring all the children came down with a 24 hour stomach flu. I captured this moment as Madison slept peacefully on the couch. Dress up is still a favorite. Besides picking out her dress up clothes, Madison has become quite insistant on picking out her own clothes in the morning. She actually does quite well with matching, but doesn't always understand that she needs to consider the weather in picking out her clothes. She also doesn't understand that typically we only wear one outfit a day. It hasn't been uncommon for her to appear downstairs after naptime with a new look.

She loves to help in the kitchen, but with the boys this becomes very difficult if I don't have someone else here to distract them because they want to be wherever Madison and I are. Here Madison is enjoying frosting some Valentines cookies.

Another favorite...reading to Carson.

Just enjoying some arts and crafts.

And a little video for you to enjoy.

Here are some other cute things she's done or said that I just want to hold onto.

*One day she came to me saying, "I just can't stop leaking." I finally found out after much questioning that her eyes were watering.

*When we're in the car, she'll ask me, "Mom, are you on the phone?" before proceeding to talk to me.

*When watching a TV or video program, she'll say, "pause it, I have to go potty."

*I have done a lot of talking about who Jesus is and who God is and what they have done for us. I will frequently ask her questions like, "who helps us when we are tempted?" to which she'll respond "Jesus." One day I asked Madison, "Who are you?" to which she responded with much enthusiasm, "Jesus."

*One day we were all in the car heading out to run errands. Madison asked, "where are we going?" I replied, "Sam's Club." She looked at Sam and said as both a statement and a question, "Sam we're going to your club?"

*She loves to pretend and she loves to sing...she now is able to make up songs to the tunes of other songs she knows. Recently I heard her in her room singing, "I'm going to put my music on, music on, music on..." to the tune of London Bridge as she put a new CD in her CD player.

*Unfortuneatley all of my children have become wonderful back seat drivers. They all (even Jason) regularly tell me to "go" when I'm stopped at a red light...I try to explain why I can't go. Madison at times will say "cmon, beep, beep" as she urges drivers to get out of our way....I don't think she's picking this up from me???

Well that's all for now....more updates to come Easter, Time Outside, Ballet Camp, Hershey Park, and many more.