Quinten's Half Birthday

My little man turned 4 1/2! I can't believe how big he's getting! I'm not ready for it! He keeps telling me how next year, he'll be in school too, and then it'll just be me with a baby at home. I can't believe they get so big so fast!! We love this little train lover in our house! For his 1/2 birthday, he wanted to go to Toys R Us and pick out a new train. He was in heaven!! Couldn't decide what train to pick at all! It took him about 45 minutes to finally decide on a new Gordon. 

Happy Birthday Bubba!

Still No Tricks...

Here we are, seven and a half months, and still no tricks...no full rollovers, no sitting up...nada

Brotherly Advice

Quinten likes to get up and have "talks" with Squish. He tells me that sometimes I can come in, but sometimes, I can't...

My Little Man

Love this little guy!!

No Job? Lots of Snuggle Time!

Two days after the birth of Collin, Shayne got notice that his entire groups' jobs were being migrated to India. It was quite a shock, but we were given a few months time before the actual layoff. It was definitely one of the more stressful times in our lives with having a newborn and no job, but there were also little blessings hidden in there as well, such as Shayne having more time to snuggle Collin and date our kids. Although we were SUPER HAPPY AND EXCITED when Shayne found a job at Chase, all the kids were a little sad to see Daddy head back out to work everyday again.

Taking the Family Out To Dinner

Izzy has been working VERY HARD at school, and has been getting LOTS of rewards. She got so many Peter Piper Pizza coupons that she took the entire family out for dinner. Each of the kids got their own pizza and 10 tokens to play with all courtesy to Izzy's great behavior at school! Way to go Izzy! She says now she's working on kids' meals to Macayo's next...

The kids all LOVED not having to share their pizza with each other!

I think everyone but Squish challenged Daddy to air hockey.  I think they all beat him too!!

Even Squishie got in on the fun!! He was so fat, we just wedged him in the seat and he couldn't move!

Surgery

Poor little guy. He didn't even know he had a surgery scheduled today. Yet the doctors in our house went to town without anesthesia, or clean hands, or proper tools.  When they gave him back to me, he was bandaged up head to toe, but apparently in MUCH BETTER working order...

Rockin' It!

Someone is totally rockin' his big sisters' sunglasses!!

SWAPS

The girls are attending a Girl Scout Camp this weekend, and they needed to create SWAPS that they share with the girls that they meet.

Izzy wanted to do a daisy because she is in Daisies.

Olivia wanted to do a camp checklist.

They both made over 50 each, and did a fantastic job!!

Such A Happy Boy!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these smiles!

Read To Me?

Whenever someone tries treading to Collin, he just steals the books and eats them...

Little Boy Entourage

All of my kids go through their "Entourage" phase where they feel it necessary to completely cover themselves with prized possessions/friends whenever they fall asleep. Quinten's entourage consists of: some diving toys, trains, stuffed puppy, piggy, cards, and an airplane.

Ready for the Haboob

Collin LOVES these lightweight blankets. In fact, I don't think that he is EVER without one. Even when he sleeps, he makes sure that he is seriously covered/twisted up in them!

Here I think he is ready for the famous dust storms that Arizona gets.

Junior Jumpstart Daycamp

Olivia's Girl Scout Troop does a daycamp each year, where the moms plan and run it. They do tons of fun stuff and earn LOTS of badges!

 This year, they did a fitness badge.

 A detective's Badge,

 A Healthy Meals Badge

 A Field Trip to Peter Piper Pizza

 And an International Culture's Badge.

They had a blast with their troop learning LOTS of different things!

SodaStream Party

Every once in a while, I'll apply to host a "HouseParty" where you get free product to showcase at a party. We got a free soda maker and lots of flavors!

 Since our party was adults and kids, we had some water balloons, visors to decorate, squirt guns with targets to shoot, etc. The kids all loved it!

 We had some yummy food, and LOTS and LOTS of different sodas!

I think my kids had the most fun!

Summer of Harry Potter

Olivia has fallen in love with the Harry Potter books this summer. Our deal was that every book she finishes, she and I will watch the movie together. She was going through the books so fast, we were watching at least a movie a week! We finally had to put her on a timer to make her NOT read so much! (for every hour that she "interacted" with the family, she could read). I think she's already read through most of them twice now!

My Favorite Mother's Day Gifts

This past Mother's Day, I was flooded with sweet gifts from my kids. They were so into making me cards and presents, I probably ended up with over 20 that day. These are a few of my favorites:

This one is from Izzy. I love those little hands!

Olivia made a sweet card at school that has her picture in it. I love it!!

Quinten drew me!

Isabelle drew me as a "Pink Ninja"...

Izzy wrote me a beautiful card.

Olivia made me nap coupons! So using these!...

Making Our Own Plates

This summer, we tried making a few of the crafts that I found on Pinterest. Making our own dinner plates was one of them.