Awana Olympics

This past Saturday Rachel and Luke participated in the Awana Olympics. They attend Awana Club every Wednesday at church. They memorize bible verses and play games during their meetings. The Awana Olympics is a time when kids from neighboring clubs all get together and compete against each other. They play the games they play each week with the other clubs. Luke and Rachel had a lot of fun.

Bean Bag Toss
Three Legged Race
Sparkie Train
I don't know why but Luke having to walk around a circle balancing a bean bag on his head just makes me laugh!

Easter Weekend

We had a great Easter holiday weekend!! We dyed Easter eggs, went to a birthday party, a family reunion, and had more egg hunts than I can count.

The kids had a lot of fun dying their eggs. It was a great project for them. This was Kate's first year to help. She took to it like she knew exactly what to do. She liked checking on the eggs while they were in the dye.

This was before we started....Luke was mad that he had to wait for me to get a picture.
My Grandma turned 92 on April 2nd. The kids were out of school so we got to go to her party. Doesn't she look great for 92?!?!
On Saturday was the Stansell Easter Family Reunion. Every year we get together at the Fluvanna Community Center for lunch, visiting, and a big Easter egg hunt for the kids. There was really a big crowd there this year.
Our cousin Mark had a new little tractor and trailer to take the kids for a ride in. I think Kate would have rode all day....she rode until the rides were over.
Luke and Kate had a time on the teeter totter.
Rachel and Luke are professional egg hunters. They were all business.
Kate really enjoyed hunting eggs too. She loved finding all the candy. She even decided the eggs were a waste because she would take the candy out of the eggs and throw the eggs back down on the ground. I think the eggs were taking up too much room in her basket.
Rachel with her loot. Do Rachel's legs look really long to you??
Luke with his basket.


My parents came to the reunion too. This was the best picture we could get of the group. Kate did not want her picture taken though.
Chris's grandparents, Bill and Wanda Stansell.
Easter Sunday pictures...

I threw this one in because the pictures I post are always full of smiles, but there is a lot of fighting happening around here too. They were fighting over who gets to sit on the rock.
Then Luke decided to help Kate find eggs. He can be nice when he wants to.

The Makings of a Good Big Sister

Kate has two new baby cousins to practice being a big sister with. When they were first born she really did not pay much attention to them. Over the past few weeks we have seen baby Sydney several times, and Kate's mothering instincts have kicked in. She tries to give Sydney her pacifier in every time she cries, even when she does not want it. Kate has also woke Sydney up a couple of times. This past weekend she said, "I want to hold that baby." She did a great job holding Sydney and really enjoyed her cousin. I know she is going to be a BIG help with her baby brother in a few months.

Kate was teaching Sydney to give high fives.

We're Having a Heat Wave

I checked the weather forecast on Tuesday morning and could not believe my eyes. It said highs in the mid nineties for Tues, Wed, and Thurs! I even turned on the TV in case the computer was wrong. Nope they were saying the same thing. Ninety degrees in March is high even for Texas! We still have the usual March wind though. With the weather so warm we decided to go ahead and set up the waterslide for the kids. They had a good time and plan to get back on the slide after school today.

It's a ........

Today was a big day at our house. We went to have an ultrasound of our newest addition. I am twenty weeks today.....already half way!! The kids and Memaw Linda went with us to find out if we were having a boy or girl. Here are a few pictures from the ultrasound...

The arrow is pointing to the sex of the baby....it is a pretty definitive picture.
We are having a little BOY!!!!! We are just thrilled!!!!! Everybody was in agreement we needed to have another boy. Luke said, "It has to be a boy or I will be surrounded by girls."

Luke and Rachel enjoyed the ultrasound and really understood what they were looking at. They talked about the skeleton and spine. Rachel said "It looked like a real skeleton, and Luke said, "Of course it is a real skeleton because it is a real baby." They could see the heart, head, hands, and feet. They even listened to the heart beat. The baby measures about the length of my hand from head to bottom and weighs .8 pounds. Kate did not really have a clue about what was going on, but we were glad she was there to get the news.

We had waited to tell the kids about the baby until this Monday at dinner. Rachel has been on cloud nine since. The ultrasound tech said the baby measured 20weeks and 3 days. Rachel said, "Twenty weeks!! You just got it on Monday!!" I explained we had waited to tell them about the baby, but it had been growing for twenty weeks.

Rachel's First Swim Meet

The Friday before Spring Break our swim club had a little swim meet between the Pre-team and Splash Team. Rachel is on the Pre-team. She had only been back for four lessons before this little meet. She did really well considering. There were seven competitors in her age group. She placed second in one race and fourth in all(3 I think) but two of the others. She had a good time and we were very proud of her!

Ready, set, go....

Rachel's cheering section...snack time was the only time they sat still.
Rachel is in the pink goggles.

Beautiful Spring Sunday

It was such a beautiful Sunday!! Before church I snapped some pictures of the kids in their church clothes. I think I got a couple of good ones.

Rachel and Kate like to coordinate their dresses....I am sure they will grow out of that soon, but I am enjoying it for now.
So sweet....

After church Kate and I took a nap. After nap time we all went for a walk then played some baseball in the back yard. I even did a little bit of yard work with Kate and Luke's help. They were actually good help! I could not ask for a better Sunday!