Happy 3rd Birthday Hattie!!

Yep...Our little Hattie turned 3 today!! She started her day with our family tradition of your choice of Breakfast in bed. She chose to have french toast and she wanted to eat it in Landen's bed. (Smart girl! I don't think I would want to eat something with syrup on it in my own bed either:)

After she was finished with breakfast it was downstairs for presents. She got a "girly" scooter. This was something she really wanted. I guess she was sick of riding the buzz light year scooter.

She also got Tinkerbell slippers and...

Tinkerbell wings (really the whole Tinkerbell outfit, but she has specifically been asking for Tinkerbell wings.) This was her attempt to fly like Tinkerbell!

Hattie really wanted to go to the zoo on her Birthday so we took Landen out of school a little early and headed to the zoo.

Paisley is now walking and loves the fact that she can go where she pleases. She had a lot of fun climbing on the lion cubs.

Hattie watching the orangatans hanging upside down. Since it was Hattie Birthday she got to choose what we saw and the order we saw it in. This was her very first choice. She loves the monkeys.

I thought this picture was funny with their reflection inside the glass with the gorilla. Either inside the glass or out they would fit right in:)

Porter, Landen, and Hattie being the cute kids they are!!! I hope they always get along like this!

Landen helping Paisley walk down the Gorilla house building. The floor is slippery in their and he was so patient walking at her pace.

All our Gorillas!!!

Our next stop was the tigers and lions, but sorry no pictures, but we did get a few pictures of the next stop at the Butterfly house. Hattie used to be terrified of the Butterflies, but she has recently realized she is huge compared to them!

All the kids standing as still as they can so the butterflies would fly around them. When they would get near and almost land on them the kids would hurry and move. It was funny to watch them. Of course Paisley found the only place there was a little water she could reach and started putting her fingers in it.

What is Nebraska's State Insect you ask...Well it is the HoneyBee. The kids thought this was great to watch the honeybees come in and out of the hives.

After the Butterfly house is was a quick trip to the Aquarium. Here is Port and a friendly penguin.

I'm not quite sure what Landen was going for here, but here he is and a penguin that just dove in.

Landen and Hattie where racing the penguins back and forth. This is their favorite thing to do with the penguins so we love when the zoo isn't crowded and they can do this. I also love the fact they can go right next to the glass in the kids zone so we don't have to fight adults just so they can see the animals.

After all the racing they were ready for a quick rest in the tunnel.

Hattie pointing out the sharks.

Well after the zoo we had some pizza (Hattie's request for dinner and sorry no pictures to busy eating:) and we came home to have some cake. Hattie really wanted a monkey cake so here is what I came up with. She loved it and that was all that mattered!

Porter really wanted to blow the candles out, but no worries Landen took care of Porter. I guess I was to busy taking pictures to realize he was doing this so I thought it was pretty funny when I was looking through the pictures.

No worries Landen did finally take his hand off of his mouth after all the candles were blown out. (The other little boy is Ryder. He came over to play while his mom and dad had a date before his mom has a baby)

Paisley really enjoyed her cake!

I think the rest of them did also!

Porter caught in the act of needing just one more lick of frosting!

Family Night Fire:)

Monday night for Family we night we decided it was time for a little fire! The weather has been nice a cool so it was nice to sit around a fire. The kids were so excited. They helped gather sticks from around the yard. Paisley just sat back and enjoyed:)

Hattie and Paisley enjoying the warmth

Landen and Porter. Porter loves to wear his bicycle helmet around. We aren't quite sure why, but hey at least his head is always safe.

Mom and Hattie:) Hattie really loves to see herself in the camera after pictures and well I love to see her to so we took this picture together.

Paisley...not quite sure what is going on.

Have you ever tried to get 4 kids 7 and under to smile or even look at the camera at the same time. Well if you have let us know your secret. We sure love these kids and we can't wait for more campfires and s'mores:) No pictures of us eating s'mores we were all enjoying!

2 HOURS!

So I'll start the post with these cute pictures of Hattie! She thinks she is pretty tricky when she is swinging like this!!

Saturday morning I was gone for 2 HOURS doing some Church things and when I came home I noticed Ty's truck parked up the street...then I noticed this....

Yep...that is half of our tree missing. Ty decided it was time for it to go and so it went. We have been wanting/needing to cut this tree down and well Ty figured the time was now. (Well at least for those 2 branches. The other 2 are close to the house so he is waiting for some back-up before he gets to those.) I was just impressed to see that he strapped the ladder to the tree. I think maybe its because last weekend when he was trimming trees the neighbor came over to hold the ladder because he didn't want to take care of a single mom with 5 kids:)

Hattie was the biggest helper cleaning up all the mess. She loved sweeping and helping stack the wood.

And now here is what is left of those 2 big branches plus 2 more garbage cans full of leaves and limbs. Anyone need some fire wood??

Finally!!

It has been over 2 years since the death of my Canon Rebel. What a sad day that was...For those of you who may have not heard the story here it is in a nutshell. Sprinklers + Camera = Camera death. I was so sad when I found it in the bottom of the stroller soaked in water. We decided we would just buy a regular old camera and see if I could be responsible with it. (Not really, but maybe a little:) Well I guess I have proven that I can be a responsible camera owner once again and I finally have another Canon Rebel. YEAH!!! I love taking pictures with it so I am sure there will be lots of posts coming with lots of pictures. Here are a few from today. Above are my loyal subjects posing around the yard for me so I could figure the new camera all out. It is a little more high-tech then the last canon I had (Maybe it being 2 years newer has something to do with it.) Enjoy!!

Paisley walking around the front room trying to keep her boots on. She is really into shoes lately and was very excited when I pulled these out of the closet. (Notice the pony tail on top. We are very excited to have a little hair to do something with:)

Look mom I can do it!!!

Oh yeah I can turn around to:)

Mom and Pais

If you can't find Landen in the house look for an electronic device and he is usually somewhere very close! He is a technical genius! (Notice the bottom tooth missing. He has been working so hard on getting that thing to come out and on the 12th it finally did. The tooth fairy decided not to come that night, but made a surprise visit to Landen's school and left a note in his lunchbox with a dollar, saying she wanted to see where he spent his days:) He was pretty excited that she didn't forget about him:)

Ty and the girls going for a walk. The girls were really excited to be walking they just weren't to excited when mom came running out with camera to take a picture. I think I may have over done it today with the camera:)

Many Surprises!

So I know you are all (and by "all" I mean my mom and the few others who still check our blog) surprised to see all the new posts.

Well here is even a bigger surprise baby number 5 is cookin'! Yep thats right come December 17th we will be parents to 5 kiddos. Yes I know, believe me I know! I said we were done after Paisley. So much so we gave our extra crib away and all the baby clothes away. Well we've learned now that we don't EVER say we are done! Thanks to great friends who gave us back our crib:) Maybe we will learn to just keep things around forever!!

So to go along with this surprise we've decided to not find out what we are having. We figure what a great surprise for our surprise baby. It hasn't been hard to not know. It actually has been really nice, because I am not stressed out by trying to get things done. My family plans on coming when the baby is due so I figure I will have some help getting things (like clothes) together when the baby does decide to come. Don't worry we will take a boy and girl outfit to the hospital. We won't be bringing a naked baby home:)

So that is all the surprises I have for now and really all the surprises this mommy can handle for a while:)

Pictures to come! Just think of any ultrasound picture you have seen at 6 months and that is pretty much what our baby looks like to!

Happy 7th Birthday Landen!!

I can't believe our oldest is already 7!!! He had a great Birthday! To start off the Birthday celebrations he decided that he wanted to make his own Birthday cake. Tuesday night, the night before his birthday, he went to work making his cake. All he wanted was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and 3 bags of Peanut Butter M&Ms. So that is almost exactly what he got. The commissary only had 2 bags of colorful Peanut Butter M&Ms the rest were fall colors. So he only got 2, but it was plenty! He had a blast, as did Porter and Hattie, putting the M&Ms on his cake.

Opening the loot on Birthday morning. All he wanted was "real" legos. We have duplo legos but have never ventured to small legos. He really wanted the cars set. He also got a 2 wheeled scooter. Oh he is growing to fast!

So our tradition is to eat a breakfast of your choice in bed. This year all he wanted was Chocolate Fudge Pop Tarts. Thanks to his Grandma Barker who spoiled him with these this summer! He was excited to get them and I was excited I didn't have to wake up early to cook:)

Even though it was his Birthday he still had to go to school, but right after school we picked him up, headed over to his friends Slade's house picked him, then picked Ty up and headed to The Amazing Pizza Machine. All the kids had a blast!!! This place is like a Chuckie Cheeses times 10! Its also a lot cleaner so I liked it a lot better:)

Porter, Slade, and Landen getting ready to go on the Frog Hopper. Porter wasn't as big fan, but after we were leaving he said it was his favorite.

Hattie and Porter playing a mean game of air hockey.

Landen, Slade, and Ty driving like mad men! They loved the bumper cars.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Paisley loved crawling around while the kids were trying to golf. Just another obstacle to get by.

Getting ready for some fun mini golf.

Landen playing a mean game of mini bowling. The kids thought this was great!

Landen and Slade riding the Wild Ride! It was an insanely fast ride that just went around in circles and then backwards in circles. They thought it was great! It made me sick even watching them.

After all the playing was done at the Amazing Pizza Machine we headed back home to enjoy the delicious cake ! Landen said it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!