Visit to Cara (or Auntie Cara as Jackson and Max call her)

My best friend Cara and her husband Alex had their first baby, Miranda Claire Goodrich on March 12th.  Of course, I knew she was having a baby so I made plans to go to Michigan to be with her shortly after her due date.  I figured that way, even if she was late, there was a good possibility that I would meet Baby Goodrich.  They did not know she was a girl until birth!  Surprise!  

Mike was so wonderful.  He took leave from work so that he could stay home with Jackson and Max while I went to Michigan.  He even did school with them all week and drove them where they needed to go!  I took Thomas with me, which worked out for our families as well, as no one had been able to meet him until that trip.  

Mama and baby

Totally in love with Daddy!

And Daddy is totally in love with her!

Super sweet

I took like 500+ pictures of Miranda while I was at Cara's house.  New babies are so much fun!

Little feet

I didn't get in on very many pictures, but we have at least this one:)

Sweet face and big blue eyes.  Not sure if Miranda's will stay blue.  Mom's eyes are green and Daddy's are brown, but there are blue in the family, so it is possible.  

I sure hope she grows up to love me!!

AWWW...

Cara saw a picture of a baby curled up on her back being held in the parents' hands.  Miranda is a stretcher though and she would NOT curl up.  Stubborn from the get go, this one. 

Besties and babies.

I left the day Miranda turned two weeks old and snapped a few pictures that morning.  It was sad to go, as I know that I will not be able to see all the changing and growing she is going to be doing.  I am so excited for Cara and Alex to be on this journey of parenthood though.  It is by far, one of the most rewarding and joyful things I have ever done with my life.  I did miss the big boys, of course:)  We skyped every day and they kept me updated on life in Hawaii.  They had fun with Mike and he more than proved how much he loves all of us.  What a blessing to be able to make this trip!!

Thomas, 11 weeks

This is Thomas at 11 weeks, although he is 16 weeks at the time I am actually getting around to making this post.  This mama is a sorry excuse for a blogger I guess.  

He looks like he has bat wings, lol.  But that is just his swaddler unwrapped.

We left for a visit to my best friend Cara's house in Michigan the day Thomas turned 11 weeks.  I forgot to take his photo at our house with his blocks, so I just took the picture at Cara's house, along with some others:)  Mike always wants diaper pictures and this is one of the few times so far that he has been in disposables.  He wore them all week while we were at Cara's. 

He is a pretty happy little guy

He was actually in some fleece jammies, which he never needs in Hawaii!  They were cozy in the Michigan cold though.

Mom's favorite things:  that hat, that jacket (which came from Mary Mandell:), and that fleece outfit he was wearing.  That was Jackson's when he was a babe.  

Cara had her first baby, Miranda Claire.  Pictures of two babies are not so easy.  Miranda would not open her eyes and Thomas kept looking at Cara, lol.  They are about 2 1/2 months apart in age.

My other best friend, Auntie Rachael came to visit for the day.  She left her little Grace (6 months old at the time) home with her dad, but we had a lot of fun hanging out with just her.

Auntie Cara and Thomas:)

Pinterest Fail, ha ha!!

We were studying our bodies, specifically bones.  The boys love a good craft more frequently than I can come up with one I am willing to commit to.  But this looked fun and involved food, so I thought we might get into it.  

It involved making bones out of pretzel sticks, mini marshmallows, and white chocolate.  Who doesn't want to eat bones like that?

This is Jackson, munching as we started the project.

Max joins us.

This is how you are supposed to start:  put mini marshmallows on the ends of the pretzel sticks.  This is a lot harder than it looks like it should be. The marshmallows did not have much staying power.

Then, you melt your white chocolate (we used white chocolate almond bark) on a double boiler and dip the pretzel/marshmallow bones in there.  The problem was that the chocolate was too hot and the marshmallows were too small, which led to marshmallow melting.  Also, there was not really a good place to hold onto the pretzel stick and still have it be completely chocolate covered when you laid it on the wax paper to dry.  

Ideally, they were supposed to look like mini bones when finished.  Obviously, they just looked like a mess. 

This is my main helper.  He loves anything to do with being in the kitchen and baking or cooking.  He has also recently developed a love of sweeping the floor and he always wants to help me mop when it is that time. 

The boys decided that they wanted to get out the peanut butter and chocolate to dip their pretzels into after we had tried out our little project.  I think they had the most fun snacking on the kitchen floor!

Jackson's first flag football practice

Jackson really got into football this year, watching it on TV with Mike.  The kid already knows how the game goes better than I do, and I have gone through spurts of attempting to learn many times since college.  Nothing ever stuck for me, but my six year old, yeah, he knows what he is talking about.  Mike and I joke that he should be an announcer when he grows up, the way he drives us crazy narrating the games.

We found out they have an "NFL" flag football league through base and offered for Jackson to play.  Of course he wanted to.  Here are the photos from his first practice.  

I am just glad we made it there.  I got an email saying where the practice would be, and for some reason, in my head I was familiar with the name of the place but I pictured somewhere different.  We went somewhere different.  Then, when we go to the right place, I did not see Mike there and we walked around the whole field, which made us even later.  Yes, I got this from Jackson, "Mom, I wish I would have just waited for Daddy to take me."  Thank you son, I didn't feel bad enough about this already.

He made it there though and met the team and his coach.  He stretched and tossed the ball and practiced with the flags. 

Running drills.  Learning to run backwards

Running through the crowd so they could practice getting the flag and he could practice defending it.

Stay tuned for pictures from the season!!

Water play fun!!

We have been so blessed to meet and become friends with our neighbors.  Elisha has become my friend and her daughter Evangeline (Evie for short) and Jackson and Max just love each other.  She also has baby Genevieve (Genny for short).  

Elisha is a better lady than me.  She gets out the water play stuff for the kids once or twice a week.  They love it!!  Just one of the nice things about living in Hawaiian weather!

Yes, Jackson is wearing his goggles to jump and splash in the mini pool. 

And to run through the sprinkler.

And here is Evie. already taller than Max, just going on three years old in this picture.