For me, the new year starts between the end of March and the middle of April. I guess that's the stay at home mom in me that I don't have to be concerned with what the outside world and my husband considers the new year. Nope, our new year starts with Dylan's birthday and finishes with Joshua's. Needless to say, it's a new year in our house.

This past year has been a tough one for us. Between Joshua's illness, broken collar bone and misc other ailments; Dylan's "terrible" twos and potty training; my 8 months of kidney stones before I gave up the fight and got the surgery; Colin's additional work responsibilities; and the daily hubbub that comes from having two wonderfully wild little boys, we've been full of stress and changes.

Here's to our new year.

Dylan and I, though we still have conflict between us, have been getting along much better of late. All of a sudden, he's all snuggles and kisses and wanting to snuggle before bed. Today, Colin got free tickets to a motocross event at his work for me to take Dylan. I don't know if I've ever seen him so excited. He was in AWE of those guys and I have to say that I was too. I don't understand the desire to do stunts like that but I guess that's just part of the difference between men and women. Dylan has also calmed down a lot. Very rarely does he play race cars and run around my house like a wild banshee.

Joshua is just a little love but he's got a temper on him... I wonder where he gets that from? He's finally starting to gain weight or at least look a bit more filled out. That was a big worry for us. Joshua loves to play with his brother and, in fact, Dylan was one of his first words. His favorite word is "again." I always think it's so funny that he never misses me when I'm gone until I get back. Joshua's favorite game is helping mommy sweep or mop the floor. He's also got the Skidmore musicality. Let's face it, that didn't come from my side of the family.

The Lord has blessed us so much in the past year. After Joshua's birth, Colin gave his life to Christ. When Joshua got sick in October, we both became a bit backslidden but in the past few months both of us have been blessed with the thirst for the Lord again. Since we moved it's been hard to go to church on Sundays with Colin's schedule and the fact that we only have one car but my inlaws have been so loving as to agree to pick Colin up from work on Wednesday nights so I can go to church again.

That's all for now, as I have to get the boys into the car so we can go pick Colin up from work. Tomorrow we are doing an early morning beach cleanup with Harrah's and then will probably head over to Em's for lunch so we don't stop at McDonald's and spend money on empty calories. Yesterday was the boy's family birthday party. I'll be uploading pictures from that and from Dylan's birthday with his friends as soon as I upload them.

This picture is so flipping cute! They look all grown up!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, filled with the joys God intends for us and gratitude for the Resurrection. While we were unable to go to church due to Colin's work schedule and the timing of our church's service, we spent a lot of time remembering all that Jesus did for us. We had a little Easter egg hunt for Dylan in the back yard and Grandma and Grandpa got him what he considered an awesome Easter basket with three little cars and one giant car. Needless to say, Mommy is hating the giant car because he runs it in to everything. Here are some pictures.

We planned Dylan's birthday party really early in the month so we could avoid the potential of canceling it just in case Baby decided to come that particular day. It was a bit of a bummer because it was BEAUTIFUL all week, rained the day of his party and then was sunny and beautiful again the next day. So instead of putting up all his tents and tunnels in the backyard, we pulled out his train table and let the kids go crazy. Emily made cupcakes instead of birthday cake for Dylan and covered them with orange frosting and gummy worms. All in all, it was a great day. The gift of the afternoon was the sand and water table the Jacky got for Dylan. You can see it in the pictures below since Dylan and Ava decided to climb in it and nap when they came down off their sugar highs.

So we don't have many pictures of the animals since Dylan and Ava weren't all that into the animals but here are some really cute pictures of the kids holding hands, Dylan being scared of the deer (or antelope or whatever it was) in the petting zoo, and Dylan and Daddy.