Baird Happenings

The other day we went for a drive with out friends the Johnsons and found this place "where birds walk on fish" . There are so many fish in this one spot that birds can literally walk on them. It is actually a quite disgusting site as all these fish pil on top of each other with their mouths opened, begging for bread from the tourists.. You can see by Cole's face that even he thought it was a little gross.
We also have been able to go to the beach as the weather has been getting better. It was still too cold to swim, but not to cold to play in the sand, throw rocks and find treasures.
And finally, we have this little treat in one of the trees in our front yard. I had been watching this sweet little mommy robin for the past couple of weeks build a little nest. Then one day I saw a blue egg in it, the next day two, then three and today 4 eggs. She is quite a diligent little mama sitting on these eggs. I'm sure she doesn't like it much as I make my daily visit to the nest to see what is going on. The kids enjoy it too. I can't wait to see the babies and will post pictures when they arrive!

Easter 2009

Easter was fabulous at the Baird's we had Mimi with us and the kids had a fun time. On Saturday we dyed eggs. This year I used real food coloring and vinegar instead of one of those kits, and we got the brightest colored eggs. It was a lot of fun, but now my kids won't eat them!


On Sunday morning, the kids came down the stairs and noticed the Easter bunny had hid eggs and surprises all over the house. The Easter bunny was very kind this year.
Finally, we got ready for church. The weather was beautiful, but cold, so we didn't get a lot of outside pictures. I love Easter Sunday at church. It is the first year Jack and Cole kind of understood the resurrection, and they were able to come home and explain it to us during dinner.
What is Easter without an Easter ham. Honey Baked Ham, funeral potatoes and asparagus is our traditional Easter dinner. It was YUMMY!

I know, I know...I'm a bad blogger!

It has been a a long time since my last post. As a matter of fact I think this is the longest I have gone without posting since I started this blog. Not sure if it's because we have been busy or if we just haven't done much worth blogging about, or a little of both. We really have been busy. In the past few weeks, Lily has started swimming lessons, continues with Daisy Scouts, goes to school everyday, all day, and is looking forward to starting soccer and piano lessons. Jack and Cole have started Mighty Mights (a program with multiple ball sports), started a nature class, started swimming lessons, and go to pre-school 3 days a week. If I were a better mom, I'd have more pictures to show for all our activities.
Shabby Creations is doing incredibly well. More than I would ever have imagined. There is definitely NOT a recession when it comes to wanting a custom blog design. If I am not busy with the kids and their activities, I am working on custom orders. In addition, I try to fit in a run here and there for our upcoming 100 miler relay in the Keys next month, and I decided to sign up for the St. George marathon again. It's a lottery, so we'll see if I get in. I am still in the Relief Society presidency and work at the hospital a few times a month. And with all that, I still find time to watch my favorite reality shows. Wew, my head is spinning.
So there you have, life is busy, but wonderful. And that is my excuse for being a blog slacker. Here is a cute picture of Lily. We went to the zoo a couple of weekends, and I love this picture of her.

Bikes and Scooters

Today Jack decided he wanted to take off his training wheels and give his bike try with only two wheels. After about 15 minutes, a few falls, and a determined attitude, HE DID IT!! He just turned four, 5 days ago. Lily, who we have been begging to take off her training wheels since last summer, decided she could not let her 2 year younger brother out do her, decided to give it a try too. Her bike broke late last year, so she had to try it out on Jack's bike. One minute later she was off. Literally, it took her one minute and no falls....yet. I guess if you wait long enough, things become easy. We are so proud of the two of them. I guess we need to buy Lily her own bike so that she doesn't have her knees to her ears. Cole gave it a try, but after a minute or two he decided it wasn't as fun as his new Razor scooter , which he is very good at. Maybe in the summer.

Look Who's {4}

Happy Birthday Cole and Jack

Yesterday our boys turned 4. I can hardly believe it. Where does the time go? In 4 short years, they have learned to walk, talk, feed themselves, dress themselves, entertain themselves, and play by themselves. What am I to do with my time? They have blessed our home unbelievably, made us laugh, made us grow, made us happy, made us proud, and made ME freak out a time or two. I love them more than anyone could ever imagine. We had a combined birthday party a week ago for all 3 of the kids. But on their special day they took Batman and Spider-Man cupcakes to school, rode their new scooters, played with their new Imaginex toys, took a trip to Toys-R-Us and ate at Kentucky Fried Chicken (their choice). I hope they had a great day and will have an even better year being 4.

~ likes plain cheese burgers and steak
~ not a big dessert fan
~ kind of a mama's boy
~ loves sports
~ likes to sing and has memorized all the words to many songs, including Single Ladies by
Beyonce
~ loves to visit the zoo
~ is a little conservative
~ is a Sunbeam at church
~ starting Mighty Mights (mixed ball sports) in a couple of weeks
~ is the smaller brother, but older by 9 minutes

~ likes steak and apples
~ likes all desserts
~ very artistic
~ loves sports
~ is a dare devil
~ has a great memory and can beat everyone in the family at the Memory Game
~ like Batman
~ independent
~ loves to visit the zoo
~ is a Sunbeam at church
~ starting Mighty Mights (mixed ball sports) in a couple of weeks
~ is the bigger brother, but younger by 9 minutes

Here are just a couple of pictures at the big birthday bash. We had about 18-20 of Lily's friend and Jack and Cole's friends. We went to this big place where there are a bunch of those big blown up jumping trampolines. As you can see by Lily's hair, they had a blast.

Happy Birthday Lily Ruth

How can it be? Today Lily turned 6. I want her to know how much I love her. And how proud I am of her. Lily, I hope you had a wonderful birthday. Today she took High Musical cupcakes to school, ate her favorite meal for dinner (pizza), and then went to Disney On Ice with the family. But the fun is NOT over. She'll be having a birthday party in a week and presents still to come.

• loves High School Musical (all of them)
• takes ice skating lessons
• is a daisy in the girl scouts
• has a lot of friends
• is good at math
• learning to read
• entertains her brothers
  
• and fights with them too
• loves animals, especially cats and dogs
• loves stuff...pads of paper, little containers, pencils, little gadgets, etc.
• loves pizza and junk food
• is funny
• a little bossy
• is in the CTR 6 class at church
  
• is in kindergarten
• is good at computer games and wii
• makes me happy
  
• is the BEST daughter I could ever ask for

HAPPY BIRTHDAY.
I LOVE YOU!

St. George

We just got back from a fabulous trip to St. George. We went to celebrate my grandma's 82nd birthday. Her birthday just happens to be on Valentine's Day. That holiday represents her so well. She is the kindest, most loving person I know. We enjoyed being with her on her special day.

HapPy BIrThdAy GraNDma!

When you have a Valentine birthday, you get Valentine cupcakes!

My grandpa lives in an assisted living. He cracks me up and we love him so much. He pretty much is...well old, and doesn't even remember who I am anymore. We went to the Chuck-a-rama (always a St. George treat!). I sat next to him, and he leaned over to my grandma and said, "who is that lady sitting next to me". He was serious, but it made me laugh. We went to the park. (Sorry Haley, we went at the last minute or I would have called)Even I joined in the fun.Went out to eat with our great friends from Cleveland.Swam in Omi's pool.
Played in my mom's hot tub.And tortured my mom's cat. Seriously, this poor cat was mauled all weekend long, but I think he likes it. My kids love this cat. I don't even know it's real name, but my kids call him meow meow (original.)
It really was a nice get away. The weather was great, family and friends to be with, and great food.

Jack and Cole have been wanting a tie for a while, so they can be like dad at church. Mimi and papa were kind enough to get the boys their very first ties. On Sunday they strutted their stuff around the house and thought they were pretty cool at church.


It's been DANG cold here in the lovely state of PA. But today we finally had a day that we could to go outside and play in the snow without freezing our buns off. So after lunch the boys and I bundled up for some snow play. It has snowed so much in the past few weeks that we have our very own sledding hill in our yard, courtesy the snow plow truck. It is seriously about 15 feet high. I was able to build stairs in it so the boys could climb to the top and slide down. I even went down a few times. And of course we built a snow man, AKA our new brother.

Europe

We are back from a fabulous trip to Europe. Our itinerary consisted of Prague, Rothenburg, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, and a 5 hour layover in Amsterdam. The weather was cold, but the the sunshine was out, so we were able to dress warm and enjoy the sites. My two favorite cities were Prague, Czech Rebublic and Rothenburg, Germany. All the cities were amazing with beautiful cathedral churches, cobblestone streets, unbelievable architecture buildings, and of course shopping and dining out. We rented a car to travel from city to city and had to drive on the autobahn. It is SCARY. We were driving 80 mph which is fast for me, and cars were passing us like we were standing still. It was so nice have Matt all to myself for a week, but I think towards the end of the week we were both really missing the kids. We are already dying to go back and visit some other cities such as Rome and Paris, but for now we are happy to be back with the kiddos who I missed soooooo much. Thanks Mimi for watching the kids!

Here are just a few pictures of our trip. I took almost 300 pictures. Gotta love digital cameras!

Is It Really 2009?

Where does the time go? Life has been busy, and I don't see it letting up any time soon. I feel like a blog slacker and wanted to post a few pictures and write about a few things we have been doing.
Christmas was FABULOUS. Mimi and Papa were here to enjoy the holiday. For Christmas Eve we always enjoy all sorts of yummy h'orderves while we watch Christmas shows, sing (see the kids below), ice cookies and enjoy our family together.



















As you can see Santa didn't disappoint. This isn't even all of it, the camera doesn't do very well with panoramics. Here is a picture of the boys playing with their new race car tracks down in the basement.



















Lily had a 'Hannah Montana' and 'High Scool Musical' Christmas. She got her very own CD player with 2 HSM cds that are played 24/7 in our house.
She also got ice skating lesson and is having so much fun.



















On New Years day we went t0 Pittsburg and stopped in at IKEA where we picked up Lily some new "big girl bedding" and a new bed frame. I love how it all looks together.
Jack and Cole have started showing interest in the computer, so on any given day, they can look like this all sitting around with their laptops. No time to get dressed. SPOILED! (ignore my cluttery kitchen.)


















Today the boys start sunbeams at church. Oh, bless the sunbeam teacher. She'll have 6 boys in the class. Have fun trying to make them sit for any amount of time. There was a time when all 3 of my kids were in nursery at the same time, and now none of them are there. I'm
kind of sad.
It's been nice having the kids out of school for the holidays, but I'm ready for them to go back...TOMORROW!

HAPPY NEW YEAR