Spring has Sprung...

And the pollen down here is outta control!  The kids and I are suffering from some pretty intense allergies! The winter was tough in general, sickness after sickness.... I think Austin was throwing up off and on for 2 months straight?!  Still don't know what that was all about?!  The kids were camping out in the living room on airbeds with buckets because there's only so many times you can clean a mattress, carpet and bed.  The bedding on this last one, I litterally just bagged up and tossed!  It was very liberating!  I was just done, cleaning puke!  So our "phasing" I hope is complete and we are hopefully now immune to all the southern stuff we've never been exposed to before!

Luckily, by the grace of God the kids were all well enough for Easter and we were able to have an Easter Egg Hunt, eat too much sugar and spend the day at Don and Angie's house jumping on the trampoline, we had a nummy dinner, and a camp fire to cap off the evening.  It was a really nice day!  For some reason, Blogger isn't letting me load up videos today... rats!

Wreck it Ralph and Angry Birds were the main theme this year!

Even Sam the cat got in on the fun... laying an egg!  :)

Easter Egg hunt was a big success!

All dressed up for dinner at the Kern's...

Since our last post, a few major things have taken place!

First and foremost, Jeff has been promoted to General Manager!  Woohoo!
After only 8 months with the company, it's reassuring to see they do what they say they will... which is not at all what we were used to with his previous employer!  We are so excited and we are very proud of our Daddy!  Most importantly though, he LOVES his job and loves gettting up to go to work!  I'm seeing a return of the man I met and married, spirits renewed and vision in tact... something his previous employer completely drained out of him!
Jeff is the type of man who is married to his work, so I'm glad to see... for his sake at least, that this current "marriage" is a healthy, happy and nurturing union based on respect!  I've never seen him happier!

Madison, is potty training and doing a really great job!  This is a huge milestone for us as we have literally had at least one child in diapers for the last 7 and 1/2 years straight!  She is very proud of herself and we are very proud of her... so when she requested a cake to celebrate, we said why not!?!  :)  She is enrolled in Tap, Ballet and Tumbling and we can't wait to see her moves!  She's a natural and has a great rhythm so I'm sure she'll do great!

YAY!  Maddie is all potty trained!  Good Job Maddie!

Maddie and I get a lot of alone time now that both boys are in school all day... so it's becoming increasingly clear when I load up my photos that she has been my main subject and the one I have the most time with these days.  Caught some cute shots of her exploring a sand dollar and star fish the other day.

The boys are doing really great at school!  Austin has gotten control of his anxiety and his confidence is improving.  He tests as a 2nd grader while he's only in 1st grade... so he's smart, no doubt... it's just the emotional stuff that holds him back!  Poor kid was doomed... both his parents are worry warts!  But he's made huge strides and we're very proud of him!

Jack, doesn't worry about anything!  At least not when it comes to academics.  But he does get picked on a lot for whatever reason.  He towers over the other kids in his class, so I think the boys like the challenge of  him or they are intimidated and want to bully him before he has the chance to bully them!?  I don't know... your guess is as good as mine... but he's a big teddy bear and we can barely get him to defend himself!

He gets "purple" almost every day which means he's doing a really good job of doing all that's expected of him and probably a good amount of brown nosing to his teacher!  HAhaaa, I think he might be infatuated with his teacher... he wants to eat lunch with her every day and bring her tangerines because they're her favorite.  He's a ladies man, what can I say?!  Or maybe he's "Teacher's Pet?!"  That could make him an easy target... who knows?!

My hand still hurts although it is much better and since I have no interest in surgery or MRI's, I'm ignoring it and living with it for now.  Maybe not the best idea, but it would need to be completely unbareable for me to do something about most anything... so it is what it is.  I've been enjoying the occassional girls night out with Angie, her Mom/my Mom, and her friend up to the casino!  I'm not much for gambling but they have a fun country bar there with live music! 

It's definitely a different world down here, this last outing I was offered fried Steer Testicals.  Yep, you read right... cow balls, "calf fries" or "Rocky Mountain Oysters".... whatever you want to call them, I ate three!  They told me they were fried shrimp and I thought they were too salty!  Although the texture was very similar to a shrimp.  They weren't that bad... I guess anything can be edible when fried?!  In any event, I can cross "eating steer testicals" off my bucket list now... it wasn't on it, but I may pencil it in just to cross it off! ;)

On the way out, I put $25 in a high limit slot machine and played it in one pull.... also something I've never done before, but it paid off... at 5X my bet!  Yay!  Breakfast was on me since I won, and it was 4:30 am when we came home... Good times!

Angie and I

And last but not least... Let me introduce you to our newest member of the family... Sophie!!
Maddie named her and I think she may be naming her after her old buddy in IL. whom she misses....but in any event, she's a Springer Spaniel, 6 weeks old and so stink'n cute!  We love her so much already!!

That's the latest in the Sugden household.... oh, MOM, P.S. the apple trees are blossoming!  :)  YAY!  So beautiful!  Thanks again! 

AND yesterday was Papa's Birthday!!  Happy Birthday, Papa!!  We hope you were feeling well enough to celebrate!!  Wish we could be there to celebrate with you!  We love you lots and miss you every day! XOXO