My baby is growing up....

Harrison turned 2 years old on December 9. It's hard to believe he's already 2. It's fun to see his personality developing and become more talkative, but it's also sad to see him growing up so quickly. I love this red headed little man so much. He is so snuggly and such a sweet boy. I know you are out numbered by all your sisters Harrison, but they love you to pieces. You are so loved by many!! We are truly truly blessed to have you in our family. We love you sweet boy.

more birthday fun!!!

Addie had a fun birthday weekend! She had her cousins Mia and Jayna sleep over on Friday night.

And then on Saturday she had her friend party.  

She invited some kids from school and was so excited that they came.

The kids had fun watching Alvin and the Chipmunks and eating pizza and cupcakes and playing with lots of Polly Pockets. I had like 4 parents from her class tell me how brave I was when they dropped their kids off. The kids were really well behaved and they seemed

to have fun!!

The whole gang!!

She got so excited when she opened her presents...silly girl

She got a lot of fun presents! 

We finally got to meet her friend Zachary. She has talked about her friend

Zachary since the first day of school. As she opened his present he was 

telling her how he got the toy at Toys 'R' Us and their was a receipt taped on the back

just in case something was broke.  He was a funny kid.

the kids making silly faces

Addie was very excited about her "BIG" Minnie. She has been talking

about it for months. She sleeps by her every night. It's so cute!

Another year older....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADDIE

Can someone PLEASE slow down time. How does this happen??? It doesn't seem that long ago that I was snuggling this baby girl . Now my 5 lb. 18 inch baby girl is now 6 years old.   Yes, I know our children HAVE to grow up and every year they have a birthday and get older, but this is one of the hardest things (at least for me). Looking through pictures today made me realize how quickly they grow......These precious children are babies for such a short time.

Addie came running into our bedroom this morning and yelled "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY". I love how excited Addie gets about everything. She makes the little things seem so BIG because of how excited she gets. She is also such a good helper at home and also at school. Her teacher told me at parent teacher conferences that she is always so willing to help her friends at school with things and her teacher really appreciated that. I'm so happy that she loves school so much and loves to learn.  I also cherish our "cuddle time" that she always wants to have and hope she never grows out of that :)

We love you so much Addie . We are so grateful you are in our family!!
  Happy Birthday sweet girl!!!

sweet baby girl

 

All grown up!!

Halloween

I always loved Halloween as a kid but now as a mother it's so fun to see the smiles and excitement of my kids dressing up and getting candy. The kids had so much fun trick or treating with their friends at the neighborhood /ward trunk or treat.

 There is a house by us that goes all out for Halloween.  On Halloween night he has a hearse on his front lawn and decorates his whole yard and you can walk through it. The kids have been talking about going to it every time we drive by.  Well, we went over there with my friend and her family and Lexi and Addie were too scared and wouldn't go. They stayed in the car and missed out on full size candy bars.  It was amazing how much work he puts into it. The guy must love Halloween!

 After that it was pouring rain so we decided to take them to the mall and trick or treat. MISTAKE..... That place was insane!!! We didn't stay long but as we were walking out we saw a double rainbow.  The kids were so excited. I'm sad to see Halloween gone but I'm so excited about the upcoming holidays. I'm very excited about Christmas this year and just think soon we will be putting Christmas decorations up!

my cute little spider

field trips and more parties

Ellie had her preschool field trip at Black Island Farms on Friday. The girls didn't have school that day so they wanted to come too. My kids love this place. They had so much fun playing with each other! They buried each other in corn, went down the slides, watched pig races, fed lots of animals and they got to go on a hay ride and pick out a pumpkin!

I love this picture!

                                                                  

      
That night we had a Halloween party at Grandma's  house. The kids had fun carving pumpkins, eating soup, eating scary desserts and playing games. My mom got them glow in the dark bracelets and necklaces and they were dancing in the dark with them. It was pretty funny to watch. Addie had one request to my mom she didn't want the scary song from the party last year. Well.... the kids were busy dancing away to Halloween songs and we didn't even notice but the next disc started and the scary SONG came on and Addie freaked out!!!! Thanks mom and dad for a fun night!

the yummy dessert

                                                they loved the worms sticking out of it!
                                                            

                                              
                                        



school Halloween parties

I helped with the kids school Halloween parties on Thursday. They did a carnival for Addie's party. The kids went to each station and played a game and won lots of candy and prizes. They had tons of candy and toys donated by other parents so they got spoiled!!! It was fun to see Addie with all her little friends and to see how much she loves kindergarten. They played a game where you have to guess how many candy corns are in a container and Addie guessed 130 and there was 180 so she won. When they called her name she was so surprised  and it certainly made her day. She was all smiles!

Lexi's party was a Harry Potter theme. My friend Monica planned most of it and it was awesome. They did broomstick races, made magic potions with food coloring, made capes out of garbage bags,and broomsticks out of pencils and raffia.

I was pretty sad because I took my camera out of my purse after Addie's party and I realized 1/2 way through her party I didn't have it. I got a few pictures on my phone but they didn't turn out very well. I did get a picture when she got home in her cape and holding her broomstick so she was pretty happy.

Lexi and her friend Hailey were very excited at the party. Apparently they have been wanting to play with each other for a while so they found out that we were both going to be helping at their class party so they planned that I could meet her mom and we could set up a play date. Her mom came over and introduced herself and said that we were suppose to set up a play date so we did for this Friday and they were both so excited. It was pretty cute.

 Lexi before school

 Addie before school

silly Addie bobbing for balloons

cheeeeez!

 Addie was so surprised she won the candy corns

 Her friend Tavynn had asked me to take their picture. It was pretty funny!

Lexi after her Harry Potter party

Surprise...an update!

It's been a little or shall I say a long while since I've updated. I'm not going to sit here and make excuses I just didn't do it! The kids have been enjoying their summer so far. Lexi has been doing a program at the city park called Arts in the park. She gets to go 3 times a week for two hours and play water games and do crafts. Her friend Emma signed up with her also so they have been having fun together. Addie and Ellie are in a neighborhood playschool group 1 day a week on Wednesdays and they are also having lots of fun doing that.

We are getting really really excited for our trip to the Oregon coast and the Redwoods! We are going with Matt's brothers family. We are leaving on Thurdsay and I really wish the house was clean and the car was all packed and we could just hop in the car and go... but in the real world it just doesn't work that way.

Here are some pics from the past couple of months....


My baby Harrison is now almost 19 mos. old and well it just really really stinks that they grow up so quickly. He is so cute and so much fun . Even though he is ALWAYS looking for some cupboard to open or slightly obsessed with dragging my vacuum and brooms around and down my stairs. I really like this age and I'm really enjoying watching him learn and grow. I'm really trying to slow down and soak in everything because it goes by so quickly and before you know it they are starting kindergarten . He is starting to get really shy and sad around strangers. He is a total momma's boy and I'm totally ok with this. I love his little snuggles and kisses he gives before bed. I love my sweet little red headed boy! Here are a few recent pics of Harrison.

up Adams Canyon hiking

first haircut

ALL DONE!!!

Our little Ellie turned 4 in June. She had a little party with the neighborhood play school kids. She was just happy that her little friend Carson came. She really likes my friend's little boy Carson and is ALWAYS talking about him and how she is going to marry him when he gets home from his mission. She drives her sister crazy talking about him :)


Here are some pics of her birthday..

birthday girl!

say CHEEEEESE!

Carson and Ellie being silly

opening presents

getting ready to eat cupcakes!

Lexi's class had been studying about the rain forest most of the school year. Seriously, I think this child knows more about the rain forest than me :). Each year her teacher picks a subject and they learn about it and do a huge project/display at the end of the year. Usually the display is the library but her teacher had to do it on a smaller scale this year because of health reasons so they just did their display in the class room. They turned their class room into a rain forest. They made all of the items in the class room. The children were the tour guides. Lexi was our tour guide and had a visor, name tag and binoculars. She took us around and taught us about the rain forest. She did a very good job and Matt and I were surprised how much she had learned and knew about the rain forest. I guess they rotated all the class rooms at the school and the students were the tour guides. Lexi was really sad that she isn't going to have her as a teacher anymore. She loved her! She said on the last day her teacher read them a story about the last day of school and Mrs. Porter started crying and all the kids did too. I also think Lexi was a little sad about leaving some of her friends that she has made from her class but they have kept in touch and played with each other this summer so that has made her happy. Here are some pics of the rain forest.

THE RAIN FOREST

our little your guide

Addie is now a preschool graduate and is heading into kindergarten next year. She is so excited to go to school next year she can hardly stand it. I really can't believe our "little Addie" will be in kindergarten next year. she really did have a great time at Barneck preschool. She sang her little heart out at her program. Here are a few pics of her preschool graduation.

Graduation Day!

the graduate!

YAY!

my cutie pie