One of my favorite things......

about Evan learning to crawl..............

is being in a room and here he comes with that big beautiful smile that I love soooo much!

It's a bird....It's a plane....

It's Owen and Katelin!!!

I should feel pretty safe with a power ranger and supergirl in the house. I love Katelin in the third pic, she looks like she is posing for a Kiss album!

Maybe........

it's because it is a sad tragedy no matter how you look at it.

Maybe........
it's because I have young kids and a wonderful husband.

Maybe.......
it's because it happened to a family I respect and admire so much and have since I was a kid.

Maybe.......
it's because it happend to a family that has never shown me anything but genuine kindness.

Maybe.......
it's because there are 2 kids who will never see there dad again and a baby who will never even know him.

Maybe......
it's because my husband is in a line of work where tragic accidents can happen.

Maybe......
it's because a husband is supposed to help you through the hard times and I don't know how you get through losing that person your supposed to be relying on.

Maybe.....
it just hits a little too close to home.

Maybe, just maybe......
this is why I can't get this tragedy our of my mind and out of my heart.

When I was little my dad became friends with the one of the nicest familys I have ever known. They lived in the country, had horses, dogs, cats and lots of other critters. They also had 2 daughters and then adopted a third. They are the kind of people who would do anything for you in a drop of a hat and expect nothing in return. This week one of their daughters lost her husband, they have 3 kids(the same ages of 3 of my kids) one of whom is just a baby. He died very unexpectedly and very tragically in an accident. While I have only met her husband briefly, I know he was a hardworking family man. Due to the situation with my dad, I have not seen this incredible family since Rylie was small but I am devastated for them. I have been on the verge of tears so many times since hearing the news, I just can't get it out of my mind. What she must be going through. What their children must be going through. My heart just aches for her, for her kids and for all who knew him.Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers, they are most certainly in mine.

Ironically, I heard about this yesterday just after making an appointment with my insurance agent regarding life insurance. Today my husband and I purchased life insurance, if definitely gives us a little peace of mind just knowing we will have that if God forbid the worst would happen. I just pray it never does at least not until we've raised all of our kids and hopefully are well into old age.

What do you do when..........

your ready to put away the bassinet in storage and your cute little 2 year old has other ideas???

Well, if your me and you have to look at those beautiful baby blues all day then you leave it out for a few days, hope the fun wears off and put it away after she goes to bed one night.

 Yep......there are those beautiful baby blues I was referring to and the funny little girl they belong to!

Oh and a pic of the little man who previously occupied that bassinet that I am finally putting away 3 months after he's outgrown it!

And it is spring or so they say......................

 

I mean seriously???? It is the end of March and still snowing! WHY????  And of course my kids had to go out in it......they weren't out there too long. Please Spring get here and stay, quit teasing us!

Owen the Orangutan!

Owen's kindgergaten class did a little rainforest program at school today. It was very cute. The kids had their faces painted like a certain animal from the rainforest. Then they stood up with their group and recited a little poem about the animal that they were. Then the whole group sang a little song. It was very cute.

Owen the Orangutan!

Mrs. Hanson's Class.

Everytime we go to Owen's classroom, Katelin heads straigt to the corner where there are some toys. Everytime she gets the baby, the stroller, the carseat and the diaper bag and plays with them the entire time we are there. At least she has something to look foward to when we go.

Red Robin........Yum!

Whenever Red Robin is mentioned Rylie sings the theme song....."Red Robin.........YUM!" It's pretty funny.

Also, you know Robin from Batman and Robin......well since Owen could talk he has always referred to Robin as Red Robin and now Katelin does the same thing. He has a Robin figurine and it's always "i'm playing with red robin" ......too cute!

So those are my happy Red Robin stories, now I will share a very unhappy Red Robin story.............

Tuesday night Chet, I and the kids went to Red Robin. We didn't realize it was kids night so just a bonus right? Free milkshakes, a lifesize Red Robin walking around and balloon animals! Fun, right?

Red Robin was nice enough, even got a picture..............

Not the best pic, it was taken with a cell phone. You can see Katelin not wanting to get too close, i'm actually surprised she got that close.

Milkshakes were yummy! I asked if Evan got one and the waiter said "Yes".....so score for Mommy because Evan can't have it and it was definitely Yummy!

So what could have gone wrong? The balloon guy! He kept walking towards our table and the kids would get excited and he would walk on by, very intentionally looking away as he walked by. OK, no big deal.....he had other tables who had been waiting longer, we would get our turn. Well after quite a few times of skipping over us, we started to get a little irritated. Our food was gone, check was paid and we were about ready to go. Then he walks past us, to a table with 2 adult women with no kids and starts making balloon animals for them. OK, now my blood is boiling! It's not like my kids were misbehaving or being loud or anything. They were sitting calmly and quietly in the booth patiently waiting for their turn.

Now neither Chet or I are confrontational people, we usually let things go and don't make a big deal out of them. We had been here one other time when this same balloon guy was there and while he did make balloons for us, we found him to not be too friendly. So we said something to the people up front but chose not to speak to the manager. They assured us that they would let him know. Now 3 days later.....I am still so mad about the whole deal and wish I had spoken to the manager and may even call back up there. I feel it was complete and total disrespect to my kids. To skip over a table with 4 kids to make balloons for 2 women.
So now I have vented. I don't know if we will go back there on a Tuesday night again. I think I would almost prefer to drive out to the one on 135th street.

Wanna see my little diva?

How cute is she??? She was singing her little heart out too!

Any guesses on who's responsible for this adorable look???

That would be my RyRy, she has quite the fashion sense, those leapord print pants you see.....they are actually pajama bottoms, Rylie even did the cute little hair do.

How do you like her new hair cut??? I love it! She is so pretty no matter what but I thought a new do would be fun for summer. She wasn't too sure at first, her Daddy likes his girls to keep their hair long and he tries to imbed that in their brains but he still likes it.

See this little mess???  This is the same mess that I clean up many many times everyday, guess who is responsible for this???

Yes, that sweet boy of mine would be the culprit, he just loves to pull out the container of wii stuff and spread it all around. But it's only going to get worse because as of today my boy is officially crawling! Oh Boy, better watch out world because here he comes!

Do you know what is so special about this picture???

To look at it.....well nothing too special (except for the 3 incredibly special kiddos of mine), but what is so special is my kids were playing and laughing and having such genuine fun with each other it just made me smile and made me want to capture the moment.

I consider myself lucky because my kids all get along really really well.... most of the time but they are siblings and they do fight. But tonight they were really just having so much fun, it was great! I don't really have much of a relationship with my brother and it is so important to me that my kids grow up close and are always there for each other. I don't think that will be a problem.

And here is my sweet Evan this morning after Daddy turned on the light.....seriously, Daddy.....let a baby sleep in peace!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday.....The final days of Spring Break!

Really didn't do a lot for the end of Spring Break. Hung out at home Friday, got a few things done around the house, went out to dinner, then sent Chet home with 3 of the 4 kiddos and Grammy, Evan and I went shopping. Got some summer clothes for all the kids!

Saturday went to Costco and Sam's and spent a wee bit of money but have enough groceries for at least 3 weeks which I love because I hate going to the grocery store every week. Got home and unloaded groceries in the pouring down rain.

Then Sunday was BEAUTIFUL, Got hair cuts (pic of Rylie coming soon), went to a birthday party for Austin and played outside the rest of the day.

 Daddy was cutting down the prairie grass around our flagpole and...........

Katelin helped him load it all into the trailer that.............

Rylie was pulling with the riding mower, Katelin and Owen went along for the ride!

Notice how relaxed Katelin is in the bottom left picture?!?!

And one last picture of my sweet baby boy cuddling with his mama............

My "mom" brain is working overtime.....I thought the kids had Monday off of school also but double checked the calendar at about 9:30 Sunday night to realize they did have school so......it was rush rush rush to take showers, bedtime snack, brush teeth and get into bed. At least I double checked!!! Needless to say the kids weren't to happy that they thought they had another day off but didn't.

Thursday----Zoo Day!!!

Chet, myself and the kiddos went to the zoo and it was an absolutely beautiful day for it.

Here are the monkeys we took to the zoo with us...........pretty cute bunch, huh???

 Our first stop was to see the zoo's new polar bear......beautiful animal!

At the polar bear tank.

 Standing with the Gigantic Polar bear.

Some of the other animals we saw at the zoo................

My baby boy all zonked out after about an hour at the zoo, it sure is a rough life huh???

 Some old car at the zoo.

Katelin.

                                                            

My silly monkeys!



Now let me tell you about the birds and the bees and the flower and the trees and the camels at the zoo....

Ok, so maybe the song doesn't have a line about camels but let me tell you about the camels we saw!!!!

They almost had me explaining the birds and the bees to my precious little innocent children, i'll just show you what i'm talking about...............



Nature at it's finest?!?! No need to enlarge this photo, huh?

Fortunately, my kids just kind of laughed at it and asked no further questions.....whew!!!

Anyway, moving on............

Chet was determined to get some good pics of these cute little squirrel monkeys and he did.

My kids......Owen wanted to get to the playground so he wouldn't smile, still love that sweet face, I love Katelin hamming it up with Rylies headband on!

It's not a complete trip to the zoo without a train ride and of course a kiss for daddy from his sweet little girl!



My sweet boy and me!

We made one final stop at the polar bear before we left hoping to see him in the water and he was!

Those hands do not belong to my kids but still pretty cool to see the size differance.






I like how you can see Owen's reflection in this picture, pretty cool.

We have a Friend Of The Zoo membership so this was a free trip to the zoo so we let each of the kids pick something from the gift shop.

Evan got a cute little t'shirt, Katelin 2 little polar bears, Rylie a snowglobe and Owen got a little zoo keeper set with a motorcycle but it was open and being played with before I got a pic of it.

It was a super great day with my favorite people EVER! Can't wait to do it again.


Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday!

Well....Monday it snowed. I know, right??? First official day of Spring Break and it snows. But fortunately it was all melted and spring was in the air by Tuesday. Chet was working, so it was just me and the kiddos. After getting woke up, I made us a late breakfast.

This was after I did Katelins hair, pretty huh? She brought me 2 pony tails and like 5 clips and she told me I had to use them all.....so I did.

Then Evan took his first bath in the "big" tub. Then after he was all clean, all the kids got in with him. I would have taken a pic but Rylie is to old to have bath pics taken so I didn't.

And well....this was just too cute not to share.........

Owen already teaching Evan how to play Xbox.

After Chet got home, we went to the doctor to have the younger two checked out, still just an icky old cold!

And Wednesday was absolutely gorgeous, I had windows open, kids played outside, got some cleaning done.....just a day around the house! Then I cooked hamburgers on the grill for dinner, so excited for the nice weather!

Thursday we went to the zoo so I will have pictures to share tomorrow!!!

Saturday and Sunday!

Well we were all very excited on Saturday because we were going to see the "big" kids! We got ready Saturday morning and went to Independence and picked up Cheston and Jakee and went to Chili's for lunch. Unfortunately, we either had to wait or sit at a couple of tall tables and since Jakee had to be to work we didn't have time to wait. Which wouldn't have been a big deal except for the fact that a highchair was too short to be at the table so Chet and I had to hold Evan the whole time. Didn't make for a most relaxing lunch experience but still fun.

After lunch we took Jakee to work and got to see where she works.....she is an assisstant manager at a clothing store. She's really doing an awesome job, we are proud of her. Rylie absolutely worships her big sister and was super excited when she bought her a headband and some make up from her store. She bought Owen and Katelin candy.

Rylie wearing her new headband.

After that we headed home, Cheston came with us to spend the night. Owen was pretty stoked to get to play Xbox with his big bro. I took some pics but Cheston didn't want his picture taken so I had to respect that. Him and Jakee were supposed to come out next weekend too so I thought I would get some then but it looks like he may not come now. Matthew will be in Ca. doing army stuff. Hopefully someday soon all 7 kids will be together for a group picture and one with Chet and all of his kids.

Sunday we had a lazy day.......kept our pj's on all day, played some wii, got barbeque take out and just did a lot of nothing and it was sooooo nice. I did, however, catch up on laundry which was also nice. Then later Chet took Cheston home and that pretty much sums up our weekend. By the way, Cheston is still working really hard at his rap music and while it's not my usual genre of music he does awesome at it and has some real talent.

Lazy Sunday watching some cartoons.

Playing Wii.....Owen seems to be the one to beat.

Wii spectators.

Katelin just hanging out!

Evan Wade 7 months

Yes, it is that time of the month again......my sweet boy hit another month old! He is so close to crawling, he can get into crawling position, he rocks, and turns himself around but just hasn't quite made a crawling move. He will scoot himself a little while in position and can go from crawling position to sitting. It is so funny to watch him, it won't be long now!


He's got the right moves just isn't quite ready to go!

He will sit...well...I shouldn't say sit, I should say he will roll and scoot all over the living room just as content as can be playing with his toys and I can just sit and watch him and also be perfectly content because he is just that darn cute. Any guesses on one of his favorite toys???

He loves this thing and can pull himself up to his knees on it, i'm telling you...he is ready to be mobile.

He has been sick for nearly 2 months with upper respiratory virus'......hopefully with spring here all this yuck will go away. I don't like seeing him sick but he is still just as happy as ever.

I, of course, have his bear pics.......

And then his picture taken tonight..................