Cat food, anyone?

Have I ever mentioned that Josh has a huge mischievious streak? I know I talk about Tanner quite often, but I think he learns a lot from Josh. As Kaitlin was opening gifts for her birthday, she opens one that says "From Dad" and finds a little container of cat food inside. No, it wasn't from Dad, but from Josh, trying to get Dad in trouble. I think she saw through him. Maybe it was because he wrote it too clearly in his own handwriting.

Kaitlin's 14th Birthday

Yes, in just two years, my daughter will be dating and driving, as she was quick to point out. Kaitlin had her 14th birthday last Friday, and we spent part of her day in Portland at the zoo, and then driving home. After a dinner of Chinese (while her picky brothers had sandwiches) she got to unwrap her presents. (A few pictures are included.) Then we had her yummy, delicious, homemade cookie dough ice cream cake. It was scrumptious, and tasted way better than it looked. I think she had a good day. (Sorry the pictures are in a funny order. I can't get them to be the way I want them. I think you get the general idea. )

This is one of Tanner's gifts to Kaitlin - a picture of her as a ninja - reference the shirt above. She is the one with the swords. =>

As if she needed to be any taller -

Awesome Parents

I have awesome parents. I have always appreciated how willing they were to help any of their children with anything they needed. They have housed many of us while we didn't have a home. They are willing to have us come and stay any time. For Spring Break, I usually try and go spend time with them at their house, and all the cousins come and it's fun chaos. => The noise is loud, dinner time is even louder, and we all lose some of our sanity during that time, but still they say "We'd love to have you, please come."

But this year they came to me to help me with a project. I have a bedroom set that I have been wanting to refinish for some time now, but wasn't sure how to go about it, or sure when I'd have time to do it with a house full of kids. Enter Mom and Dad. Mom called and said, "We're coming to help you paint," and they did. I expected that Mom and I would paint, and Dad would play with the kids, but he got right in with us and painted, too. I forgot to take the before pictures, but the after pictures are soooo cool!!





I absolutely LOVE how these turned out. We painted them a cream color, and put a dark brown glaze on. It was a little more time intensive that I thought doing the glaze, but so worth it. Thank you, thank you, thank you Mom and Dad for coming and helping. I truly don't think I would have done it without you. Thanks, Mom, for passing on Grandma's spirit in the "You can do this." I love you and appreciate you coming so much.

And Dad, thanks for coming and watching the games with us. I have missed that, and it was fun to have you here and to watch all the basketball games with you. My kids loved that you watched with them, played with them, and spent time with them. They miss you both already.

Fun With Brothers

Little Drummer Boy

With a playdough bucket as a drum, and two aprons to hold it to his body, Parker was all set to drum around the house. And yes, it was loud!

5 months

Yep, the title says it all. It's been 5 months since I blogged last, and lots has happened. I won't try to put it all in, but we'll just put in the most important/fun stuff.

Gingerbread houses:

I got the stuff to do gingerbread houses for Christmas, but of course, we ran out of time to do them before Christmas. So, a month or so later, we finally got them done.

This is what everyone wanted to do the whole time we were making them:

Tanner eating more frosting than he used on his acutal house:


And what actually happened after we made the houses? Well, let's just say this video started a whole lot of destruction.

Parker's Birthday _ Parker had his 4th birthday in February, and for the next couple of days he kept asking if he was still 4. He loved his gifts from his grandparents, playing doctor and shooting people with his nerf gun for days. He just had to keep his older brothers from stealing his other nerf gun and shooting him back. Thank you grandmas and grandpa!

And one final contribution - As some of you know, Tanner is my little spitfire. His eyes light up with mischieviousness, and you can be sure that something crazy is coming. We can never quite be sure what thoughts are in that head of his. And sometimes, as this video shows, we don't want to.

And of course, monkey see, monkey do: