Hiking in Ha-Ha Tonka State Park
The start of our deck
Hiking
Another family photo
Gracie and Owen at Grandma and Grandpa's in Missouri
Wonderful Weather!
The past few weeks have gone by quickly and we have been so lucky with the nice weather. We made a trip to the Ozarks and I had spring break while Nick went to St. Louis for NCAA wrestling. We have started outside projects since the weather has been so nice and this will probably continue until next fall when it gets cold again. It has been great letting the kids go outside every day after school and on the weekends.
We had a great trip to the Ozarks. We spent some time at my parents' and my sister's, and also went to the state park for an afternoon. The kids did great hiking on the trails with us and they had a blast! They were climbing all over the rocks. We also took lunch to have a picnic. They love doing almost anything outside. Nick took them down by the water and Owen's reaction was "Brrr..."
While Nick was in St. Louis, the kids and found lots to do. We looked for rocks in the field behind us and brought them back to the house. Owen wasn't a big fan of finding rocks, but Gracie loved helping out. We also took a trip up to Manchester to see Steph and her kids. Ryleigh and Gracie had so much fun together. Nick's mom and I helped paint some of their house while the kids played. I also stopped in Waterloo on the way back to see one of my friends. The kids were exhausted after that day!
Nick's younger sister, Mary, also has set a date for her wedding, so we went wedding dress shopping and shopped for other related wedding items. Gracie and Owen did not go on that trip, but Gracie is very excited that she will get a pretty dress to wear as a flower girl in the wedding. We made a trip to Grandma Deb's as well. That was a big day for the kids and they always love going there.
Since then, Nick has returned home and has been busy doing stuff outside. We seeded our front yard, so hopefully we will have grass out there instead of mud soon. Nick also started our back deck last weekend. It is going to be great! We had friends to help with that over the weekend, so a lot of it gone done. We just need stairs and railing, now. Nick also started building a playset for the kids yesterday. His mom brought up some trees and plants that we have put in the ground. I'm sure it will be years before we have tall trees, but we have to start somewhere.
I have finished my fourth and fifth classes for grad school. I hope to never have to do two classes at the same time again. It was very demanding and time consuming, especially since most of it was during wrestling season. I start my next class in two weeks and then in June I have my first residency in Dallas for 6 days.
Other than that the kids and I have been taking walks when it is nice in the evenings and playing outside. I took them to the park yesterday after school. Nick had them outside by 8am I think on Saturday b/c I went running and he started working on the deck that early. Gracie runs around barefoot all day long and we have to scrub really hard at the end of the day to find her under all of the dirt that she collects. Owen is almost as bad. She is so independent, still, and can entertain herself for hours. It is also nice to have neighbors with young kids for her to play with.
Owen has a couple more teeth and has been without a pacifier for 5 days now. FINALLY! He has been doing great without it. He is starting to communicate with us much better and is trying really hard to use more words. We can tell when he is trying to say Gracie, socks, boots, outside, water, and of course, mama and dada. NO is a very popular word now, too. He says nay, nay for horse. He has also gone potty at home a few times. He went both last night before bed and this morning when he got up. He tries almost every day at school, too. I am looking forward to the day we no longer have to buy diapers, but realize that is probably still awhile.
We don't have a lot planned except working outside for the next couple weeks. I am hoping to take the kids to an Easter egg hunt here in town on Easter weekend. They will love that. We don't even have much planned for Easter except for church. Hopefully we can get a lot done at home.

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