Proof that Tyler still exists

You may have noticed that Tyler is missing from just about all of our pictures lately. So today, I caught him in his "natural habitat", which is generally in front of the computer (while texting--and often also listening to his iPod...) or playing video games if he's home at all. Just wanted to let everyone know he does, indeed, still live with us and is just busy being a teenager. =)

Sunday fun

The final weekend of April was sunny and beautiful, so after breakfast at Beach Hut, we threw on our suits and headed to the beach (which we admittedly don't do very often). Katie collected countless shells and Ben spent the entire time shoveling sand from one bucket to the other then dumping it out again. After we got cleaned up and Ben had his nap, we made pizza for dinner. What a wonderful way to spend a Sunday!

Packing for NY

This is what happens when I leave the house for an hour to go get groceries. The kids were packing for New York (no, we aren't going anywhere...it's just their newest game) and this is the result. Ever since we brought the dog home, we've really had to stay on top of the kids about leaving their toys on the floor. I guess this was their solution.

Two-fisted drinker?

Mom and Aunt Karen couldn't resist the "Wicked-tinis" in collectors glasses.

Our "Wicked" Date Night

Susan & Marvin

Uncle Rich & Aunt Karen

Chris and Krista

Greg & Cara (with two weeks until her due date!)
We all got together for dinner at Ruth's Chris steakhouse on the Riverfront, then went to see the opening night of Wicked. It was a nice treat to eat out without the kids. No one even came close to rubbing mac and cheese on us!

Fat Cat

We took Dexter in for her annual check-up and when the vet was finished checking her out, he asked me to stay behind for a minute. He then sent in the "Fat Cat Counselor" who instructed me to put my cat on a diet immediately. Apparently, cats aren't supposed to weigh 19 pounds! I should have placed something (like one of the kids??) next to her for reference, but she really is huge. These are her before pictures. In a few months, we'll weigh her again and take some after pictures for comparrison. Wonder if we should invest in a kitty treadmill?

Jackson @ 4.5 months

Our "puppy" Jackson is turning in to quite a beautiful dog. He gets along wonderfully with the kids and is very eager to please us. Now if we could only get him to sleep in past 6:30 a.m......

Land lubber

Katie wasn't allowed to get her face wet because of the dermabond, so we encouraged her to play away from the pool as much as possible. She didn't seem to mind it, and I have to say Ben did extraordinarily well controlling his urge to splash her.

Pool season

I just adore this sequence of pics, and also have to point out the "Beutel tongue" on Ben. His father has a habit of sticking his tongue out when he is concentrating on a project, and it's definitely been passed on to Ben.

Easter is for dogs, too

The Easter Bunny was kind enough to bring Jackson this new chew toy (the kids were quick to point out that the EB neglected to bring anything for the cat, Dexter...). Jackson chew through this thing in under a day and it promptly went into the trash.

Easter morning

Ben checks out his basket of goodies (notice his buddy panther by his knees--he rarely goes anywhere without him!)

Katie was most interested in the candy. =)

Ben was so excited about the egg hunt this year. We had to slow Katie down a bit, as she was a bit more adept at spotting them than he was and we wanted to make sure he got some too.

I'll admit we had to stage this picture. She found them all so fast that we didn't get a good one of her the first time around, so we asked her to put one back on the ground and find it again. No, that's not chocolate on her face. We had a bit of an incident with the dog the Friday before Easter, resulting in a trip to the ER and dermabond (liquid stiches). The stuff works great, but it turned a lovely shade of lavender and is in all of our Easter pics.

Future fireman?

On Easter weekend, the city of Jax Beach held a public Easter egg hunt for the kids. Katie was at Grans' house that day, but Ben and Daddy went to the park to check out the Easter fun. Ben was most interested in the fire trucks, which they had on display for the kids to check out up close. To this day, every time we drive by the fire station, Ben tells me all about how Daddy took him on a fire truck.

Goofing around

Ben wearing his Easter bucket from Grama and Grampa Beutel on his head.

Mr. Fix-It, indeed. (Honestly, his strength seems to be in taking things apart...)

Katie can almost always be found close to the dog. Really, we don't keep her locked up in here, she just keeps going in!

61 and still sassy

We celebrated Grans' 61st birthday early in April. You'd think that cake would have lasted us at least a week, but we managed to polish off the leftovers quite quickly. Gotta love the chocolate ganache--and I REALLY love that Katie knew exactly what kind it was! That's my girl!