A Wiggle Birthday Party

Our cousin, Kyndall, had her 2nd birthday party at the Wiggles Playland in Frisco. Pretty cute watching those kids run, jump, sing, dance, eat, and play!

John getting a hug from Dorothy the Dinosaur

Kailey liked Dorothy from here and no closer

Singing and dancing

Kailey with a ketchup face doing the Wiggles motions

John and his buddy, Noah, getting a picture together

The house that Daddy built - Kyndall thought it was cool!

Beep! Beep!

My son is currently downstairs playing with his cars and I keep hearing him say, "I like broccoli!" over and over. I really am not sure what that has to do with playing cars. Funny kid.

We Love Our Small Group!

Kailey has this picture with Ryder on her bulletin board in her room

Kailey and Miss Blake - Kailey loves the babies!

We have now had the blessing of being with the same small group weekly for a long time! It is a wonderful thing to have friends you are able to be with consistently as you try to grow together. An added blessing is how much we love each other's children. If I ever needed anything, I know that these five couples would do anything for my kids. We have had a population explosion over the last few years so there are a lot of babies to love! Between December 2007 and December 2008, each woman in our group will have had a baby! The oldest is John at 4 and then there will be 11 kids two and under. It's crazy but fun! We love you, small group buddies!

My Special Mother's Day

John and the kids worked hard to make sure that I was also celebrated this Mother's Day. They picked out the most wonderful cards and John V was so proud for me to see and read them. There was even one from Levi thanking me for lugging him around every day! : ) They took me to the Gaylord for a special brunch. It was incredible! I have never seen that much food in my life and it was all so good! Even Kailey and John love a beautiful buffet so everyone was happy. It was wonderful to be waited on and spend time with my little family. I felt very appreciated on my special day!

The sweet kiddos that make me a mom

Kailey started patting my mashed potatoes - not sure if she thought they were a bunny or just really fluffy potatoes that made her happy!

Love the obvious thrilled cooperation in this shot

It's always fun to see the train at the Gaylord

Sweet baby girl

Mother's Day with Family

We spent Mother's Day weekend celebrating with our families, of course, and got some pictures of some of the sweet moms in our lives. I am constantly in amazement at the women in my life. My grandmothers, our mothers, aunts, sisters and sisters-in-law, all incredible women who do a fabulous job mothering. Seeing all of their different strengths and the way God uses them is inspiring. I am blessed by their examples as they challenge me to be a better mom.

The Critz crew complete with growing twins and the sixth grandchild on the way!

The moms on my side of the family - my grandmothers, aunt, mom, and sister-in-law

The May birthdays - we celebrate in groups : )

I don't know if you can see it in the picture but the flames on the candles were colored like the candles! It was pretty cool!

Gymnastics Show

I'm just going to keep moving back now through all the things I've missed blogging about. I should have plenty for a while! : )

John V wrapped up his spring semester of Little Gym with his show. Daddy came to watch and John was a total ham, as usual, when anyone out of the ordinary is there. Little Gym is one of his favorite places and we recently found out that his teacher also goes to church with us! John thought that was cool. This spring he has started doing backwards somersaults and is doing really well with the bars. We're already rolling into our summer semester which will be a good thing for him to have going with the baby's arrival and all the change.

A big jump

Mr. Brian coaches on the bars

Getting his medal

Posing with Daddy

John's 4th Birthday

On the 19th, John V's actual birthday, we went to lunch at his favorite restaurant, Cracker Barrel. We ate with Uncle Cam, Aunt Carli, my sisters and mom. Aunt Carli has to miss the parties because Saturday is an important work day so it was fun to still get to celebrate with her.

That night, John got to pick an activity for our family to do together so we went for some mini golf. We saw a rabbit and Kailey loved walking around with a pink ball and little club. It was a fun day celebrating our favorite big boy!

One of John's favorite things about his birthday this year was getting cards, especially in the mail. He would look at them over and over and tell me who they were from. He had quite the collection that is now hanging on his bedroom wall. One of his favorites played a praise song and he loved to dance to it.

John's Birthday Party

Cupcakes with our small group

"What did Mom and Dad get me?"

Tigger and Pooh were the theme for the day

Yummy cupcakes!

"YUM!"

This is less than half of the obstacle course

This year we decided to scale down a little from our usual, "every-kid-John-knows-is-at-our-house" birthday party. He chose his five closest buddies (his age) and then we had the cousins and family, of course. He wanted to have it at home and he and his dad picked a huge inflatable obstacle course to rent. It was fun! The obstacle course was already set up when he got up that morning and he was so excited when he looked out the window and saw it! He and Dad had to make a few runs before the guests ever arrived. The next day we had cupcakes with all of our buddies in our small group and then Monday he got to pick a special activity with just our family, so he had quite the long weekend of celebration!

Progress and Transitions!

I feeling like I'm working my way out of the deep sea of undone things. We have made some huge progress the last few weeks on some things that I was really wanting finished. Pictures will be forthcoming on all the excitement. Two of the biggest were big, growing-up changes for both John and Kailey.

First, just in time for his birthday, John is officially potty trained! He is doing fantastic and needs very few reminders. Accidents pretty much don't happen. I knew when he got it, it would happen quickly because of being older, but it really seemed overnight! He is proud and we are thrilled and relieved! Now there won't be three in diapers! : ) Kailey seems determined to join John in his potty endeavors and likes to stand in front of the potty and try to go. It's hilarious. We'll have to work on sitting before the real training kicks in with her.

A proud guy in his big boy underwear

Next, Kailey moved upstairs to her big girl bed in her new room and has done absolutely perfect!!! We have not lost a bit of sleep, she stays there, still goes to sleep on her own, and I am in total shock that she could do it this easily. I knew it would go well with her because she loves to sleep and doesn't seem as thrown by changes as her older brother, but this was beyond my wildest dreams. She seems to welcome the challenge of something being different and new and loves to talk about her "bed upstairs." Thank you, Lord, and bless you, Kailey!

A happy girl in her big bed

Working Away

The Johns putting Kailey's new bed together

We're working away over here at the Critz' house. The last weeks could not have contained any more events, fun, and friends. After having my whole family sick, being on vacation, hosting bachelor and bachelorette parties, and being in one of the most precious weddings I have ever seen, I feel like I've been hit by a truck. :) I know. . . a little dramatic. I have been struggling with first trimester symptoms like exhaustion and nausea. My midwife says this is common for some women when they hit their third trimester. Hooray. ;) Anyway, we're plugging through it and my kids, while making enormous messes that I am tempted to leave on the floor, have been precious about playing together for hours and hours. Their relationship is blowing me away already. Kailey hugs and loves on her brother and John tells Kailey that she is his beautiful, favorite sister. I tear up every time they do it!!! Sure, the playing often turns to squabbling, but they're learning to resolve it and that love far surpasses insignificant irritations or inconveniences. I thank God for how He is already working in their hearts turning them towards each other!

When we finally get a project finished around here, I'll post some pictures. I'll also try to get some beach trip pictures up this week. We had such a blast!!!

Taking a Snack Break

Kailey sat like this for thirty minutes one day while I was working in the kitchen. It cracked me up to see her with her snack and Fisher Price catalog. Funny girl!

Style Show '08

Caitlin (she made her dress), Kailey, me, John V, Carissa & John's mom, Sandy (better known to my readers as Nonnie) Don't you just love a full-on shot when you're pregnant? It has a nice blimp effect!

When I get posting, there's just no stopping me! : ) Until I run out of new pictures, that is. As I've mentioned before, I took sewing from ages 5 to 17. My sisters have also taken from my teacher and she's had one of us in classes for 23 years this summer! That's a lot of relationship! She is my mentor, friend, and additional grandmother, and all of us love her dearly. Every year she has a style show at her church where the girls are able to model a dress they've made that year for their family and friends. It started out with us modeling for her Sunday school class and wearing both dresses we had made (with a super quick change between modeling, just like a real model!). Now there are always around 60-75 girls modeling, I'm not exactly sure of my numbers, so it takes a little while just to get everyone out there once! My mother-in-law always teaches the girls to model before the show and then gets them on and off the stage. John's sister was my teacher's first student all those years ago. Caitlin looked beautiful in her gorgeous dress and it was another fun style show night to add to the memories!

Easter - Part Two

Our second Easter celebration was at Marmee and Grandpa's with my mom's side of the family. Our gatherings get bigger and bigger! We love it! We had a wonderful time of celebration with my dad reminding us all of what we were rejoicing in and John V having the opportunity to say his verse to everyone. The prize eggs at my house have always been empty to remind us that the empty tomb is the biggest gift of all! This year all the eggs were empty and then the kids turned in their eggs for prizes. This worked great so that we didn't have candy everywhere and whiny, sugared-up kids! My sister hid almost four hundred eggs for four kids - they got their fill of hunting! It was too fun to watch them get so serious about filling their baskets!

We celebrated the March (and Feb. 28th) birthdays - Da, Cameron and Caitlin. It's hard to believe my baby sister is fourteen!

This girl was serious about gathering eggs!

"Here's another one. My basket is overflowing!"

"I found MORE!"

Sweet Easter girl

Some of those eggs were hidden!

Cousins playing in the bin of eggs after the hunt

Easter

Finally I am getting around to getting some Easter pictures posted. I just downloaded all the photos from our camera and had 187. I'm a little behind. I'll start with Easter at Nonnie and Poppie's. With several music ministers in the family, we do our celebrating a little early because Resurrection Sunday is a very full one for the people behind those beautiful church services!!! It's a good reminder to be grateful to all the people who make it possible for us to worship and enjoy those wonderful holiday celebrations at church. Easter was very special for us this year because of John V beginning to understand what it means. We spent very little time talking about egg hunts or Easter bunnies while trying to make sure we focused on the gift of everlasting life. I was teary many times as I heard myself telling the old, old story and realizing how fresh it is through a child's eyes. Both kids loved the resurrection eggs and John V learned one of his first verses that he would quote to anyone who asked him, "Jesus is not here. He is alive!" I don't think I will ever forget this first "understood" Easter with my oldest child.

Knocking on Nonnie's door - when she opened it, John greeted her with, "Jesus is alive!"

I see an orange egg!

Don't know what this face was about but it cracks me up!

Kailey was seriously into hunting eggs - I think it's that put stuff into other stuff stage

Checking out the sibling basket

"Yeah, sure we'll all sit down and take a picture with our Easter baskets!" (Right, Mom.)

The kids blew bubbles in the backyard with Nonnie and Kristen

The twins weren't big on participation this year. Next year will be crazy!

The cousins popping bubbles

John and Caden are best buddies

"If you wait for the men to do it, it will never get done!"

Playing piano with Uncle Jordan - I love this picture!