Making Grandpa Bob proud

Our neighbors gave Matthew an old pair of rollerblades today. They no longer fit their little boy. Matthew was thrilled. He put them and all the gear on right away. At first I was sure that it would not last long. He was...well not graceful at all. However, after wearing them non stop for a few hours he has actually improved quite a bit. I still flinch at every stumble...more so than he does. He can actually skate a little bit now. I keep thinking as I watch him about how much fun it would be to see him and Grandpa Bob skate together. I wish he was here to give him some lessons. Maybe by the time we see them this summer he will be able to keep up a little bit.

What is better than the shirt he is wearing. Too cute.

Easter morning fun

The Easter Basket....Funny, I always wanted the Easter Bunny to bring me a pre-made basket too. Now that I am older I see that they are not that great. However, this one came with a full size basketball, football, and soccer ball! I don't think the bunny paid that much for it either.

Yes....his socks are over his pajama pants. Mike tried to talk him out of this but he refused. He wanted to stay warm. Minnesota does strange things to people.

Mike watching on

I love that it has become the norm for me to not only take pictures now but lay on the ground, stand on the furniture, hang off of any ledge...etc to get a good shot.

This is my favorite picture of the day(so far)

I like this shot even though the composition is not good. I am working on getting them right straight out of the camera though so I did not crop it.

I love this shot too.

There is a sneak peak into our Easter morning....fashion statements and all.

Happy Easter!

Here is a picture of my way cute arrangment that I made for Easter. It cost me all of $6.00 too.(granted I had the vases, there is a little one inside the big one). Love the colors.

Have a Hoppy Easter! The Willits Family:-)

one last picture from the egg hunt

I had to post this one too. Talk about telling a story.

Hunting for eggs in the hood

Jenny, Missy and I had an Easter egg hunt for our little ones today. Don't mind the order, I can never get it right. I will say that I am on my second week of class and right now it is composition. I am very open to any constructive criticism if you have any. I know some of my colors seem a little washed out but I did not want to edit before posting.
This is one of my favorite shots of the day. Jenny looks so cute.

Fellow photographer!

Pals.

Luke and Selah opted out of this shot.

I love this shot too. How cute is that face!

This is my favorite shot of the day. Okay...give my your feedback!

The worst advice I ever got....

Someone told me once upon a time that when your kids start first grade time really flies. I remember thinking "how can it possibly go any faster than it already is". Well as it turns out they were not joking. Looking back through old photos for my class I keep finding pictures stop my heart. This pictures was taken by Jenny last year on the last day of Kindergarten. Here we are just a little over a month away from the end of first grade. They really are only little once. Boy do I wish I could freeze time.

Love this!

I found this video while looking for photos for class. It just melts me. It is from last valentines day. Matthew made me a....creative necklace and he was trying to take my picture wearing it. However, it was on the video mode. Thank Goodness! It is one of my favorite things in the world. I bet it will be his someday too.

I finally found it.

Here is the picture that we were going to use on our Christmas cards but then they turned out too dark. With time being impossible I was not able to redo them. I just now finally found the picture. Make sure you click on it to enlarge it to get the full effect of how funny it is.

A four letter word I never wanted to see

Alright, I knew it was coming. I knew it was going to happen. I even knew that it was sold. However, there was something so heart stopping and reality checking about looking out my window and seeing this today. It appeared out of nowhere....."SOLD". In today's market I know several of my friends are praying for these four letters to appear and I know that this is the best possible thing for the Wilcox family. It does appear to make things much more real. Missy thank you for praying for Matthew before you even knew him. I know your prayers were answered when you prayed that you would buy a house where your kids would have good friends. I know that having you next door has been beyond a blessing. My heart has melted every single time Jack has knocked on our door. Until the day I die I will think of Luke every time I see a Thomas train. Then there is Selah...a girly girl who can keep up with any boy! It does not help that we are even in love with your dog. I know it is going to be a while until you actually move(Thank God!!!) But I wanted you to know we already miss you:-(
In the mean time...I am so happy for you and your new stage of your life. You have waited and worked very hard to get to this!!! Yeah you! No more school! No more moving! No more traveling to see family! No more missing out on nieces and nephew's birthdays!

Digging up bones

Matthew has found a great world of wonder in out backyard. He studied dinosaurs and archeology in school and now he is convinced that there are bones in our backyard. I have told him that the only place he can dig is under our deck but that did not stop him. He has been out there for two days in a row digging and searching. He has even convinced himself that if he finds a bone his name will be in the newspaper:-) He did find something...look for that on his blog.
Have you heard the saying "Mothers of little boys work from son up to son down" this would be why.

Yes...my son is the scientist. All the other kids organize baseball games, and football games. My son digs for bones and stops playing ball because he noticed a grasshopper fly by the court. Lets not forget that he can spell better than I can.

Yo Yo Yo....check it out dawg...

Sorry, this is my Randy from American Idol impression.

I wanted to share this awesome photo archive site with all of you. It was recommended by Karen that is teaching my class. It is fantastic. It is more of an archive site than a printing site(they do print great stuff too) This makes it easy to retrive your photos, unlike snapfish and shutterfly type sites.
www.scrapbookpictures.com

Lisa, I tried putting a link to that collage thing but it did not work. I will see if I can email the link to you.

Random thoughts...and pictures

I am super excited about a photography class I am signed up for that starts the end of March. The class gets rave reviews and is very hard to get into. The registration for my class filled up in under 4 minutes!! I received the binder for the class in the mail on Monday and it was like my birthday all over again. I am so blessed that my husband has embraced my new love and encouraged me to take this class.
Here is a photo of the card attached to the binder with my handwritten name on it. Such a sweet touch.

This binder is 3" and the instructor, Karen Russell, assures us that it will be full after the 9 week class.

I always forget and post my pictures backwards. This should have been the first one to show the package arriving.

When I was outside the other day I happened to look down and see that there was actually growth under the yucky snow mold. I hate snow mold. I really wish it would rain right now to clean off the earth.

I told you this was a random blog entry. I also wanted to include this picture of Matthew and Mike as they rough housed tonight. Matthew looked so darn cute in his boxer briefes. He always cracks me up when he is wearing them. He and Mike laughed and wrestled around for hours tonight. I bet Matthew is going to sleep like a rock.

Like I need another blog to follow

I already have so many great blogs that I love and at least I can tell if they have updated by just checking my own right? Well I have stubbled across two more that I just love. One is a photography one just with faces. It is www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com the other I found through that site and here is a link to the food blog that is linked to it. How cute are the chocolate mug cakes. Pretty fun for an easy family treat right! Her is that link: http://1momof5-recipes.blogspot.com/

The New Bike!

Finally~ The new bike~ Mike took Matthew shopping the past weekend to pick out his birthday bike. They found the perfect one that was equiped with both hand breaks and pedal breaks. Matthew is thrilled. I however am a little sad to see him on such a big bike.

Giving mom the thumbs up on his new ride.

I am not sure that any of these pictures capture how cool his new bike really is. I will have to keep trying. Thanks grandma and grandpa for pitching in on this.

When the lion meets the lamb...

After being trapped inside for the past week the sun finally broke today. The weather is actually forecasting sun for as many days as they possibly can. Matthew took the opportunity to ride his bike for a few minutes outside and I grabbed my camera. He hated that I was documenting the event. I loved it! The sun was perfect. How great is it that he is able to ride his bike through the snow:-)
Boys and water. This is a magnetic attraction.

I love that his coat matches the fire hydrant.

I don't know why but I love this picture. Mike plans to take Matt to get a new bike on Saturday. I will miss his old bike. Just another hint that he is getting older. hmmmm....so sad.

Bye bye to the boots! This is the last winter hurrah for them......hopefully.

This is my favorite picture of the shoot. I just love this. Mike was not that impressed. What do you all think?

Please tell me that this the last snow that I have to see for a while. Some of the photography blogs I follow are posting shots of green grass and budding trees and normal clothes..(large sigh) I really want that to be me.

Well my photography class starts in 17 days so stay tuned for many more posts.

The last video of Hannah's solo!

Here is Hannah playing the rainstick. She was such a little star.

Finally the other videos

Here are two of the songs from the night. Were Nuts and Big Bad Squirels.

More concert photos

Here are the pictures from Matthew's concert last night. Matthew and Hannah both had speaking parts and Hannah even had a rain stick solo. I had an opportunity to use my zoom lens and get some great shots of the both of them.
This is Matthew making faces at us after his saying his line.

waiting....

still waiting...

This is my favorite picture of Hannah. She was quite the actress up there.

I thought this shot was pretty funny.

Matthew is being a big bad squirrel.

I love that both Matthew and Hannah are in this shot.

This is a good one to click on and enlarge. It is a pretty cute shot of the both of them.

I will try and post more videos in the next few days.