Way Back When-esday

This "Way Back When-esday" photo is a picture of our old house. Our first house. The one that brought us to the Heights. The one that we loved so much that we couldn't leave, so we added on and remodeled to be just what we wanted. The one that we brought all of our babies home to.

The one that became too small when we had those last two babies. The one that we moved from over two years ago. And the one that we finally, today, no longer own!!!

Yes, we finally sold our house. It is bittersweet, definitely, but the fact that we made more in the sale than we paid for the house originally (pre-addition) is pretty awesome. And the fact that we no longer have two mortgages is really awesome.

We loved the house so much, though, that I couldn't stop with just one picture.


This is how the house looked when we bought it. A nice little Heights bungalow.

Then we did this, adding on a huge master suite, family room, carport and storage room, extra bathroom, pantry area, and storage closet. This is the upstairs master being built. We used to go up to the construction in the evenings with a glass of wine and watch the goings-on in the neighborhood below us.

This is where we lived while we did the construction. The dining room, with the dining room furniture pushed against the wall and the living room furniture squeezed into the remaining space. Pre-kids, obviously.

And here is the finished product, showing the addition in back.


This is the sidewalk where we brought all four of our babies home.

And this is our babies' first room. (Our first babies. Our second babies really never had a formally done room in this house, since we had moving plans when they came along.)

This is the new addition from the inside - family room with view to kitchen


And family room with view to stairs leading to master


Kitchen - the big kitchen is what first drew us for a second look at the house before we bought it


Our master bath

We definitely miss this place. Especially when we drop the boys off at school (did I mention that it is right across the street from their elementary school?). But goodness, it's nice to have it sold.

Math Whiz

What sort of things do mathematicians do, anyway? Because it is now official that Joseph is a math whiz. Here are a few examples of some things he has said to us in just the last few days.

Cort: "What is half of 1/4?"

Joe (without missing a beat): "1/8."

(Much later, we asked him what 1/4 of 1/2 was, and he correctly answered 1/8 for that as well.)

Joe: "How tall am I?"

Me: "46 inches."

Joe: "So, 3 feet 10 inches."

Joe: "3 times 4 plus 2. That's 14 right?"

Cort: "What is 1/2 plus 1/4?"

Joe: "3/4."

Me: "How did you know that?"

Joe: "Because. 1/2 is 2/4. So 2/4 + 1/4 is 3/4."

The kid is in kindergarten. How in the world does he know this stuff?

Happy Easter!

Easter weekend started out early with a parade at Cathedral House:


Helen marching in the parade with her class


Will enjoying himself at the parade

On Saturday, we dyed some Easter eggs.


Outside, in PJs, with hope of minimizing the mess!


Diligently dying the eggs


The finished products!

On Easter morning, the Easter bunny had come. It had also rained, so he hid all the eggs on the driveway instead of the grass. Smart bunny.


Ready for the hunt


Joseph hunted with vigor, and he found the most


Charlie enjoyed the hunt as well


Helen raced around and found many eggs


Will didn't like the ones that were wet


But he had fun anyway


Showing off their finds

We got dressed in our Easter finery and headed off to church.


But first we got a GREAT picture of all the kids together


It wasn't much trouble at all to get that picture (yeah, right)


We got a cute shot of the big kids together


And of the little kids together too

After Easter lunch, they also got to enjoy huge lollipops, courtesy of the Easter bunny.


Yum


Yum


Yum

Happy Easter!

And Epcot!

On our off day from baseball games, we once again spent a day at Disney. We've decided that this is how we are going to do Disney--one day each year. Unconventional, but it works for us.

This year, we took the boys to Epcot. We thought that they would like it, and they did. They even proclaimed it better than the Magic Kingdom. We agreed - the rides in Epcot are really, really cool. The all-around favorites were Soarin' and Test Track. They really liked the countries too. We didn't actually do much at most of the countries (just the small rides in Mexico and Norway). But the boys got passports that they could get stamped in each country, and they LOVED doing that. We knew that they would.

We can't wait for next year. We're considering Animal Kingdom. Then in 2012, when Will and Helen join us, we'll make our way back to Magic Kingdom and start all over.

Ready to take on Epcot (oh, they loved the park maps too)

Joseph waiting to go on Mission Space (a pretty cool ride too)

Charlie in his 3D glass waiting for Honey I Shrunk the Audience

It was a neat show, but freaked them out a bit

Mom and Dad got to ride a Segway

Once we got the hang of it, it was really fun

The boys with a viking in Norway

But perhaps the favorite attraction of all -- the whirlpool bath in the hotel, complete with multicolored lights (!) and bar soap (which they used to play hockey games in the tub -- they loved how slippery it was)

Second Annual Spring Training Trip

A couple of weeks ago we took the boys on our second annual spring training trip. Boy, do these guys love baseball. And their dad is in hog heaven to have an excuse to make his dream of an annual spring training trip a reality.

We really had a wonderful time. Having a little one-on-one (well, two-on-two) time with the big kids--no annoying 2-year-olds to disrupt things--is really special. And the boys are really just a lot of fun. Plus, there is the added benefit of Uncle Rick (Cort's brother) living in Florida, and he drives over to meet us. The boys love Uncle Rick.

Once again we had great seats -- right behind the bullpen for the first game and right behind the dugout for the second game. The boys got tossed a few balls by the players. And this year they really got into the autograph-seeking. Last year and this year when we first arrived, Cort had to direct them and prod them a little. But by the second day they left Cort far behind and were taking it upon themselves to talk to the players. Charlie even got Roy Oswalt after everyone around said he was not signing autographs. How could he resist such a cute little guy in a Roy O. jersey? Of course, after he signed Charlie's ball the floodgates opened and the poor guy had to sign for everyone else in the stands. On a related note, my two new favorite players are catchers J.R. Towles and Jason Castro. They were both so nice to the boys. I hope at least one of them ends up with the team!

The boys with Uncle Rick and Dad outside the stadium

Hanging out watching the game from left field

Charlie enjoying the day

Joseph and Mom

Getting J.R. Towles's autograph

Charlie with Jose Cruz

See how close we were to the bullpen?

Silly baseball boys

Happy birthday Daddy!

Skiing - third day's the charm

We went to Ruidoso skiing again this year. The first day the boys went to the Kiddie Corral again (this is the last year they'll be eligible--next year they'll be too old). And the next day, for the boys' birthday, Gransan got them private lessons!

For an hour. Which is not enough time to learn how to ski. Meaning that Mom and Dad had to spend the rest of the day skiing with two 6-year-olds who cannot ski. On a mountain that was overly crowded for spring break.

We would spend 15 minutes on the bunny slope working up a huge sweat, then over an hour in the lift line in the sun letting that sweat drip down our backs while the boys whined.

It was so exhausting that when we got up on the third day (which was to be our last day skiing), Cort was ready to give up and pack it in. I argued that we were here, and we should just go. Cort disagreed. He kept saying, what are the chances that this will be the day that they actually get it?

Well, it was! Obviously, I won that battle and we headed up the mountain mid-morning. I'm not sure how it happened, but on a trip up the chairlift with Charlie I started trying to explain to him about keeping weight on the downhill ski, shifting your weight to turn, etc. He really is a good listener and takes instruction well. On that run, he suddenly got it! After a few more, he had it down. (By "had it down," I don't really mean that he was a great skiier, but at least he got it, and was more or less in control.)

Joe took a few trips longer, and didn't get quite as independent, but by the end of the day, he was unquestionably skiing as well.

Thank goodness. Because these guys really need to be able to ski by themselves before we add another two trainees to the bunch!

The skiiers of the family


Skiing brothers


Enjoying a hot chocolate break


I may need to work on my suncreen application technique


Ski trainees in waiting - they didn't get to come up the mountain, but there was plenty of snow to play in anyway