Suprise!!

On Saturday I thought I was just going to lunch with 2 friends and well those 2 friends had other plans. Tera had called me on Thursday and asked if I was up for lunch on Saturday. Of course I said yes!! A little girl time is always good to have. On Saturday she showed up and said that Melissa wanted to come so we walked over to her house to get her and well I was surprised. Instead of going to lunch they had planned a Surprise baby shower. I couldn't believe it!! The craziest part was that Ty knew all about it and kept it a secret from me for a whole month. Hmmm I wonder what other secrets he's keeping from me?? I had so much fun and it was so nice to be able to have lunch with lots of friends! Thanks to everyone that came!! Thanks especially to Melissa, Tera, and Holly I had such a great time and I am sure Hattie is very thankful she will be wearing pink instead of blue. (FYI... When Melissa heard me say that I was going to just put Hattie in some of the boys things she thought no way and decided to throw me a shower.)

Me walking into Melissa's house completely shocked by what I was seeing!! I didn't know what to say or do, because I wasn't expecting this at all.

We ate some delicious food and played some really fun games.


And then we ate more delicious food. Holly made the cake from scratch and she also made homemade laundry detergent. She is a women of many talents. I was so excited that I got a cake made by Holly!! (For those of you who don't know Holly she is the one cutting and serving the cake.) I got so much cute stuff. Hattie is going to be one well dressed little girl!! She also got a lot of very soft blankets that I am so excited to cuddle her up in. I also got something I know my boys will appreciate and that is a Hooter Hider. Yes that is really what it is called. Its a cover for when you are feeding and you can still see what the baby is doing. Oh the amazing things people have came up with.

Melissa, Me, and Tera after the party. Thanks so much for all you both did. I had so much fun and I am so grateful for such great friends!!!

Our Trip to Chicago!

We went to Chicago to visit my sister BreeAnne and Brother in-law Steve who just had their first baby. The whole Barker Family came out from Utah for Ammon's baby blessing. We had such a fun time together. Since everyone was there we did family pictures at a a cool old barn by Bree and Steve's house. We had just done family pictures last year, but since then we have added two new ones. Bree and Steve's little guy Ammon and Brooke and Cortney's little girl Mikyla. The sad thing is we are going to have to do them again, because we are expecting and the baby will be here soon!! Thats right baby number 3 is on the way!! We are so excited!! We are having a little girl and her name is going to be Hattie Rae. We are due September 22nd!! Thats right only ten more weeks. We have kept this a secret from both of our families until we went to Chicago and let them figure it out by themselves, which was a little bit harder then we thought it would be, since I am seven months pregnant, but with a little time they finally realized I was pregnant and not just a little heavier! It has been really hard to keep the secret, but it will also make the time pass a lot faster for everyone. Well here are some pictures from our vacation.

Our new family pictures! Brindee and Ty Porter Landen




Ty and Landen, Me and Porter riding the train into Chicago


The whole crew at Bubba Gumps Shrimp restraunt, Kenzi was really worn out!

4th of July Parade and fireworks. We went to Bree and Steve's cities parade and fireworks we had a lot of fun and the boys didn't seem to mind the fireworks, in fact Porter was clapping during them.

Our family at Navy Pier Looking out at Lake Michigan Port and Land at Shed Aquarium

Port sitting in a Frog Chair

Camping Fun!!!

We finally had a weekend we didn't have any other commitments and the weather decided to calm down for a night so we went to Lousiville State Rec. for some Loveless Family fun!! And we had some fun! We spent most the time fishing and hanging out as family! Two things our family really loves to do!!
Porter reeling in a big one!! Well for him it was a big one. He loved touching the fish after we caught them. I think Ty has raised another fishermen!

The boys had a lot of fun playing on the beach. We forgot to bring swimsuits and towels so they didn't get to go swimming, but Landen did hike up his shorts so he could go out into the water.

Can you tell what this was supposed to be?? We had so much fun catching fish that I forgot to keep an eye on dinner. Once we decided that the food was not going to be edible Ty decided to fire up the jeep and go into town to get hamburgers, hot dogs and some yummy shakes. I was pretty excited that I burnt dinner after he brought the shakes back. It was a really warm day.

We had a lot of fun fishing. We caught a lot of white bass and sun fish. We also caught a catfish.
Landen helping Porter reel in a fish.

The boys had so much fun crawling in and out of the tent and jumping on the air mattress.

Week in review!!

So as you can tell I am playing catch up once again. We have just had way to much fun to sit at the computer and blog about it, but today it is windy and looks like its going to rain so it has become a perfect day to write about our past week. Lets start with last night and then it goes backwards. (Sorry if you get confused. I know you just want to the see the pictures anyways.) We had an eventful night starting around 5:30 P.M. the tornado sirens went off. Oh the joys of living in Nebraska. We had just came in from playing in the swimming pool and it started to down poor. I looked at Ty asked if we should got to the Rocknak's (they have a basement we don't) he grabbed Landen and I grabbed Porter and away we ran in the rain. We got there and we were soaked. The Brooks came over and we had a little dinner party. One that Tera wasn't planning on hosting, but she did very well. Thanks so much for being so willing to help out our family!! We stayed there until the sirens went off and we checked the weather forecast. We had a 3 hour break in between storms. We came home started to get ready to give the boys a bath. (They were still in their swim suits) and Ty needed to go to the Church to make sure none of the boys showed up to Scouts and if they did to tell them it was canceled due to the weather. So instead of bathing the boys we all went to the church. We stayed for a little over an hour then came home bathed the boys and where getting ready for bed. Ty was doing homework and was watching the weather forecast (the only thing on T.V. when the weather gets bad here) and mentioned that round two was about to start. Just then Tera knocked on our door to let us know that it was about to start again. So once again we grabbed the boys this time we grabbed blankets and pillows and away we ran. Ty dropped Landen off and ran home again to get an air mattress and pack-n-play and we camped out in Rocknak's basement along with the Brooks family for a little while. I fell asleep so I don't know what time they left at. It rained so hard the road looked like a little river. Unfortunately in all this I didn't remember my camera, but it was a sight to see. Tera might post some pictures so check out her blog. I am so grateful for wonderful neighbors!! We are really going to miss you guys when you leave!!!

Monday night we went to the Rocknak's for Family Night. Once again a neighborhood party!! They bought this huge waterslide waterpark and we got to play on it. Landen wasn't the biggest fan of the slides in fact he told us he was scared of them. Porter thought it was fun until he hit the cold water then he would make a really funny face, but boy oh boy watch out Ty was in heaven. Running around chasing the kids, trying to get the adults wet. He was just like a little kid again. We all had so much fun!! Thanks so much for sharing with us!!!




Sunday night was such a nice night that all the neighbors came out and we all sat around and chatted while our kids got to play together. As you can tell from the pictures my boys are really out numbered here. I believe there was 8 girls and 3 boys, but that didn't seem to bother them they both had a lot of fun. And once again what is a party with out some treats?? We broke out the oreos, animal crackers, and pretzels and the kids went to town. It is so nice to have such great neighbors.

And of course no swimming party wouldn't be complete with out a treat after. Besides its family tradition right Grandma and Grandpa Barker!

Friday was a really nice day so we set up Porter's swimming pool that we got him for his Birthday and the whole family had a lot of fun in it all after noon.

Thursday we had a tornado watch all night. It rained really hard and that was the worst of it for us.

Wednesday we had the missionaries and some friends over for dinner. This is how much fun Porter had!! He didn't even make it through dinner.

Porter's turning 1!

We had Porter's Birthday party tonight! We had so much fun! We started the night off with letting the kids run loose for a while, then rounding them up to color paper sacks for their candy. We then went outside to break a pinata. We let each of them take a couple turns and the darn thing wouldn't break, so after trying for a while we thought it would be fun to make the dad's try to break it. Ty volunteered to do it. So he got nice a dizzy and kept his eyes closed and tried to break it. Oh you had to be there it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Well he got a really good shot at it, but ended up breaking it from its string, so the next best idea was to pitch it to another dad. So Ty and Shawn got to play a little baseball. After one swing the pinata finally broke and the kids went wild trying to pick up all the candy. After the pinata fun we went it for cake and ice cream. Porter wasn't to sure about the cake, but after a fun minutes and so help from other kids he got the hang of it. We opened presents after that and then decided that we would start a fire. Tera mentioned roasting starburst and I had never tried that before. Let me tell you they are really good. They taste like skittles. Just in case you are wondering how to do it here is the method. You put a starburst on a roasting stick, put it over the fire until it drips 3 times then hurry and put it in cold water. Try it sometime you'll be amazed at how good they are. We had such a fun time! Thanks to everyone that came and made the day special for Porter. It is so good to have such good friends to help us celebrate when our family isn't around!

Porter's Birthday Party!