My Easter Bunnies

Do you know how hard it is getting 3 kids to smile? The worst part is, the baby is the easy one!

Anyway, here are my 3 Easter Bunnies. I was shocked that when I pulled these ears out the boys were excited to put them on and then agreed to get pics taken! In case you want some, $1 at Target!

Dad's Night

Tonight was Dad's Night at Josh's school. Justin and Josh went to his classroom from 6 to 7 to participate in all the fun.

Shown below is a "Biography" the kids filled out in class this week for their dads. The teacher reads the biography out loud and the dads have to guess which one of them it is. I just thought it was too cute to not put up. I like how he got the age right! And it should say Monster Jam!

p.s. click on the pic to enlarge it so you can read the form.

Poor PawPaw!

So you may have heard about the 'little' hailstorm they had in Austin yesterday. Well, it was huge and my poor Dad has the destroyed car to prove it. And that doesn't include all the water that came in while it was raining the whole time. I can't imagine the scene.

He was stuck on the freeway in traffic when it started and he said it was baseball to softball size. I believe him after seeing the pics below.


The windshield on his beemer.




The sunroof - shattered. It is only held up by the moonroof.




The back window. Or where it used to be...

The Hyland Family hits the Rodeo

We took our annual trip to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this year. The boys love going and always have a good time. This year we had to go without Dad who is swamped at work, but took along some other fun family members, Kiki, Owen, Courtney and GranDeb. Things went very smoothly, but then again having 1 adult per child will do that for you. We rode the ponies, learned about farming, rode a mechanical bull (see video below) and rode carnival rides. What more can you ask for? Oh yeah, I remember, cinnamon rolls! We had those, too! If you haven't had one, you can't even imagine what you are missing!



Courtney and Josh arrive at the Rodeo.




GranDeb and the grandsons pose for a pic.




Johnny Cash, aka Owen, rides Twinkie the pony.




Jill and Mom relax and watch the action.



The whole gang, Kiki, Owen, Courtney, Jill, Jennifer, Josh, GranDeb and Jake.

Jake, Josh and cousin Owen go to the Farm! It was actually a really neat exhibit demonstrating how farmers get the food from the farm to the market. The boys liked it a lot.

Jake planted and harvested tomatoes. Josh was onions, Owen was carrots.

Josh milks the cow.




Jake and Josh take a ride on the Ferris Wheel. I was with Owen, so the boys went alone. As you can see things started out tense.

But then they relaxed and had fun. You can see me and Owen above them. Owen had fun, too. Me? Not so much!

Josh rides the mechanical bull at the Rodeo!

Josh, not wanting to be outdone, decides to ride the bull also. He had a blast and really got into it as you can see! He also wanted to go again and again.

Jake Rides the Mechanical Bull at the Rodeo!

Jake decided he was ready to take on the bull this year and here is the result. He had a really great time and wanted to go again and again.

Wednesday Laugh

I thought this might give you a smile to make it through to the weekend. I couldn't stop laughing at this for some reason.

And I was going to apologize for the horrid spelling, but it kinda makes it funnier.

Jill is Irish!

Jill wore her super cute St. Patrick's Day dress today and I wanted to show everyone how adorable she looked in it. Man is she cute! Sorry for the picture overkill, but I thought they were too cute to pick just one!

Jill's First Food!

Jill is only 4 months old, but the doc said she can start solids any time now. I am not in any rush and probably won't start her for a while longer, maybe when she is 5 to 5 1/2 months, but the boys are dying to feed her, so we decided to whip up a batch of rice cereal and let her test the waters last night.

I am pretty sure the boys had more fun that she did, but she was a good sport. She can drink from the sippy cup with no drooling (yay!) but most of the food went down the front of her bib.



Josh feeds Jill a spoonful.



Jake feeds Jill a spoonful.



Everyone ready for the big moment!

Jill is 4 Months old!

Jill went in for her 4 month check up this week. She was 25 3/4 inches long and 14 lbs. 7 oz.



To put that in perspective, at the same age Jake was 27 inches, 17 lbs. 11 oz. and Josh was 27 1/2 inches and 19 lbs. 1 oz!

Josh's Class Trip to the Livestock Show

Josh's Pre-K class went on a field trip to the Livestock Show today. I couldn't chaperone since I had Jill, but we went along for fun to enjoy the animals.


Josh's class poses in front of the tractors for a group pic.



Cowboy Josh!



Cowgirl Jill! How cute is she?!?

Jill in the Jumper

Jill is getting so big now. She is 4 months old already. Here she is using her rainforest jumper. It is the new exersaucer I guess. She loves it in there but likes having her family nearby.

Jill and Daddy watch TV

Our sweet little Jill just LOVES watching TV. Here she is watching with her dad. She usually watches from her back on the floor, so she was very happy to watch like this.

Launch Day

On Sunday afternoon Jake assembled his baking soda/vinegar rocket and we invited our neighbors out to the greenbelt to launch it. That turned out to be a very good thing since Mr. Cole had to help us, a lot!


Jake sets the rocket up to launch.



Jake, our neighbor Jack, and his friend Andrew decide to get taped up. This was the culmination of a long day of hands taped behind backs and around the waist. Needless to say, I need to buy myself more duct tape.




Josh tries to knock the group down again. He succeeded earlier since their legs were taped together. It worked and it hurt!

Jill's New Swing

I got Jill a new swing. Pink, of course!

Jake's Square Dancing

Josh, Jill and I went up to Jake's school today to watch the 2nd grade square dance. It was fun and Jake did a great job.


Jake the bandito!



Jake allemande left's with his corner.



Jake promenades his partner.




Jake and his partner Kelsey.

Jill in the swing

This was Jill's first time in the swing in the backyard. She enjoyed it but kept looking right like that. Mommy is buying her a new one, though because the ropes on this one snowed all over her (they are several years old after all - 5 or so) and I don't want her eating it or getting it in her eyes.

Jake entertaining Jill Part 2

Actually, the caption is misleading, it makes it sound like this rarely happens, when in fact Jake LOVES entertaining Jill and often does it without me asking.


Here is Jill's first time in the Bumbo and Jake decided to show her all the blocks we have for her to play with. She actually enjoyed it a lot!

Jill being Cute

Can you tell I can't get enough of this kid?

Here is Jill in one of her super cute outfits that was a baby gift. Plus she is so dang happy I just had to share.

Jake and Josh Swimming!

Jake couldn't wait any longer and so, here we are in the pool. I signed the boys up for lessons at the Dads Club (it is just the same as when I was there - 15 years ago!) to get back into the swing of things for summer.

Jake begged me to sign him up last fall, but with the hurricane and a new baby, it just never happened. So, my compromise was to let him start early this spring. Josh wanted no part of swim lessons, but I knew I couldn't very well expect him to sit quietly on deck while Jake swam, so he was enrolled, too. After initially balking, he now loves going, too.

We planned on refreshing our skills with group lessons, but after the first lesson, they told me Jake was over-qualified, so they moved him up a group (to the highest group). After the second session, that teacher also told me he was over-qualified and should be on the swim team at Dads Club. I politely agreed, but since that wasn't really an option with summer league around the corner, could he please keep swimming with this group until this session of group lessons was over, that all he really wanted was to be in the water and swimming laps.

I know what you are thinking, 'what is wrong with this kid? Who in their right mind would want to swim laps all day long.' Ohhhhh, yeah, right, so never mind...

Here is Jake. Sorry the picture is kind of lame, but it is dark in there and the flash doesn't travel far.



Here is Josh learning backstroke.