More Lego creations!

Oliver has, as usual, been spending a lot of time building with his Legos. I love how much he focuses on what he's doing, and he will literally sit in one place and build for over an hour. It's crazy, since he usually doesn't stop moving. :-)

What's really neat is that lately he's been using this book as a guide to build the models inside. He'll study a picture in the book, choose from the Legos scattered out on the table, and will spend a very short time -- around 5 minutes -- putting them together into different space ships (or whatever they're called) or speeder bikes. I just love seeing his creativity blossom!!



He calls this one an "X 35 Maintenance Death Cruiser":



This one is an "ATT Walker":


This is "Count Dooku's Speeder Bike":


And he named this last one "A1-17 Clone Spaceship":


He's just such a smart, creative little guy! I know that God has great and wonderful things in store for him!

Sprinkler fun!

Pictures from the museum

We visited the children's museum in New Braunfels (aka the "far away museum", as the kids call it) again last week, for probably the last time until after the baby is born. It's such a fun museum, and I love that it's all one level, so Oliver can go and do his thing while I keep track of the 2 year old, who is more prone to picking fights with other kids. ;-) It's at least an hour drive for us, so I try to stay as long as possible to make sure the kids can have as much fun as they want. This visit, we stayed until 2:00pm -- well into naptime! -- and ended up getting stuck in afternoon traffic on the way home, which made for a really long day. But the kids held it together well and had a great time, as usual.

Here are some pictures! (Sorry for the poor quality, I only had my phone with me.)

Hey, little baby

I had an ultrasound this week, and got to see baby boy again before we finally (finally!) get to meet face-to-face! So much fun getting another look at the little one who's been kicking me all this time. :-)

Here's his little foot:


And here's a profile shot, with his toes right up next to his face:


Sweet little boy, I can't wait to look at you, hold you, and snuggle with you!! I know I'm not the only one, either. :-) We are so excited about welcoming you into our family!

Star Wars finger puppets

This is another cute idea from our Star Wars craft book. I made these on my own time since there was really nothing that the kids could help with, and I forgot how relaxing it is to sew! I kind of want to make the kids an army of finger puppets, just because I enjoyed it so much. :-)

Oliver wanted a "bad guy" puppet. He asked me to make General Grievous, but I vetoed it (too many arms and weird shapes to cut out!), so I made him Darth Vader instead.

Buttercup likes Yoda and "R222" (R2D2), but she wanted her guy to have a purple light saber. So I chose Mace Windu for hers, since he's the only Jedi I knew of with a purple light saber. :-)



I'm going to toot my own horn here -- I think they came out really cute. :-) And they were an instant hit with the kids!

Easter pictures

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday celebrating our risen King! We had a lovely, relaxing weekend. Here are some cute pics!

Moving up!

It's been almost 1 month since Oliver started swim lessons, and I can't believe how far he's come already! Of course he's used to being in the water, since we swim/play so often in the family pool, but I wasn't expecting him to do so well this quickly!

He started Level 2 on Monday, and after watching him swim for the first time, his teacher looked at me with her mouth open and said, "He can swim! Are you sure he's supposed to be in this class??" Ha ha! She also said that he's ready for Level 3 right now. There are no Level 3 classes currently being taught, so he'll stay in Level 2 and his teacher will challenge him each lesson with new skills.

Wednesday was his 2nd day in Level 2, and he was the only one in his class who didn't use a flotation belt! He also: 1) swam freestyle from one end of the pool and back without assistance -- twice!, 2) used a kickboard for the first time, 3) swam halfway across the pool underwater, 4) floated on his back without assistance for almost 1 minute, and 5) floated on his tummy without assistance for about 20 seconds.

He is just doing amazingly well. It's hard to believe that a little over a year ago, he was afraid to get in water over 1 or 2 feet deep. I guess he partly has his sister's fearlessness to thank for him getting over his fear, ha ha! Hubby and I are just so proud of our big boy!!!

Here are some pictures of him using the kickboard and hanging on the edge of the pool: