our life

park time

After being cooped up in the house for a few days with sickness we all needed a little fresh air, so we headed to the park yesterday after school.

Tate loves to swing.

Skipping rocks

This is the closest we have let Tate get to the water.  He will probably spend all of his time at the park near the water from now on.  Thankfully it is very shallow right by the edge, so if he falls in, he will just get wet and probably really startled!

Danika loved skipping rocks, but didn't like getting her hands dirty.

Silly  kid

Fun time at the park.

bag lady

I was in the kitchen this morning when Danika came in and said, "Mom I'm going to Florida."  I turned around to see that she had definitely packed a few things for her trip.  A few minutes later she told me that Florida was right beside the book shelf.  That girl is too cute!

This is why we sometimes refer to her as the bag lady.

when daddy's away.....

the kids sleep just fine, but mommy, not so much.

Tyler left for a work trip early Monday morning, so it's just the kids and I for a few nights.  Gage had some kind of a stomach bug Monday night and was throwing up in the early morning hours. He spent the rest of the "night" in my bed. Oh my, he is not fun to sleep with, feet and legs everywhere! So, last night I made a comfy bed on the floor next to mine just in case he got sick again.

I made a bed for Jaden with the couch cushions on Danika's floor so he wouldn't have to be downstairs alone.

Love Danika's mismatched jammies.

Sweet buddy Tate.

We all ended up sleeping very well last night, once I finally fell asleep!

danika's braids

I decided to braid Danika's hair one night so that it would be really wavy the next morning.  My good friend, Mo was here and did most of the braiding, it took longer than expect so I helped finish up the last few braids.  The next morning Danika did not want to take the braids out.  She loved how they looked and felt.  She said she wanted to keep the braids in like her cousin Yemi.  She wore the braids Friday and Saturday.

What her hair looked like on Friday with the braids...

...and what her hair looked like for church on Sunday when the braids came out.

That's alot of hair for a little girl!

happy birthday tate

2 years old

1 year old

5 days old

....and I had to share these.

christmas at our house

We celebrate Christmas really early at our house.  Since we travel to Kansas for Christmas we open up our gifts at our house a week or so before Christmas.  Our kids don't mind, seems like they get to celebrate all month long.

Stockings

Tate trying to put his stocking on.

Flarp

More flarp

Super excited to open presents.

The barbie car she wanted.

Tate got a janitor's cart and started cleaning immediately.

family photos

Last year around Christmas time I mentioned to my good friend, Melana, that I would like to have some family pictures taken in the fall so that I would have more picture options for our Christmas card.  In the past it seems that we get pictures taken in May and then the kids have changed so much that I don't use those pictures for our Christmas card and end up scrambling at the last minute trying to get just one good family picture for our card.  She is a great photographer and said she would take pictures of us.  Well, a year went by and she remembered and offered to take our pictures.  Yeah!  We met her Saturday at a park in Everett overlooking the water.  It was very cold out and we knew the kids wouldn't last long.  Well, in less than 30 minutes our pictures were taken and everyone was still happy.  I love the way they all turned out!

 This one is definately a favorite.

You can see our kid's personalities more in this picture.

I must say that this is our 1st picture of all 4 kids together and all looking at the camera.

Tate was having fun!

We had a picture like this taken last year, so I've decided that this pose may be a tradition for us.

Had to do a jumping picture.  Had trouble getting Tate off the ground, so Gage and I kind of launched him.

Jaden ~ 8 years old

Gage ~ 6 1/2 years old

Danika ~ 4 years old

Tate ~ almost 2 years old

Tyler trying to make Tate smile.

Of course Tyler had to have a picture of him throwing Tate in the air.

Gage wanted a turn.  He doesn't realize that he is too big to throw high!

Just the 2 of us.

decorating our tree

It didn't take long to decorate our tree this year.  I bought a pre-lit artificial tree and loved every minute of not having to string lights around the tree.  I could hardly get the Christmas decorations out the box fast enough for kids to put them on the tree. 

Thankful that Tyler snapped these two pictures on his phone.

company

As everyone knows, I love company!  Keith, Chrisann, Kiki, Jake, Brady & Yemi came to visit for a long weekend.  We had so much fun!  The kids played nonstop.  Chrisanna & I were able to get away for some girl time shopping, which included a trip to IKEA.

The boyz

Pretend Cafe at the Children's Museum

Rooftop Playground at Children's Museum

The Veterinarians

So much fun!  Come back soon!

tate's 1st dentist appointment

We took the older three kids to the dentist for their routine cleaning.  Since Tate was with us the dentist checked out his teeth too.  We layed him on the chair and put the sunglasses on him.  Sorry for the pink shades Tate, they were already there because your sister just wore them.  He laid very still, probably a little unsure of what was going on, until the dentist tried to get him to open his mouth, then it was a battle.  Tyler then held him on his lap while the dentist took a quick look in his mouth to make sure everything looked good. 

So cute!  He's watching a movie on the ceiling.