4 months

Watch out rice cereal, here I come!

Kenadi kept looking back and forth between the two boxes of cereal - Cole said she was trying to decide which one she wanted :)

I think Cole was way more excited about the whole thing than she was (so cute!)

Happy Father's Day

First, Happy Father's Day to my Dad! This was the only picture I had in my computer of me and my dad when I was little and it's probably the very first one we took together (labor and delivery rooms have come a long was since then). Some of my best childhood memories are of me with my dad. I think if I had to describe our relationship in one word it would have to be of him being my comforter. We would have so much fun together, playing steamroller, him being the tickle monster; I remember him letting go of my bike the first time I rode without training wheels, I remember him running outside to save me after I rode my bike straight up a curb and flipped it backwards with the handlebars around my neck (awww, poor me :). But it was the times when I snuggled up to him that gave me the best feeling. He was always so warm and I could fall asleep on his chest listening to his calm breathing. Thanks Dad for always being such a big part of my life growing up!

Now to Brandon, I have loved watching you through the years with all of our children. You've fallen in love with each of them, taken your time to teach them, play with them, comfort them, discipline them and love them. I've loved watching them make you so happy and fill your heart with joy. I've especially loved watching our baby girl just melt your heart. I pray that God will keep you strong and that He will bless us with close relationships with all four of our munchkins as they grow up. I love you babe!

50 Things

I was going to post this a couple weeks ago but it got erased before I could save it :( So I worked on it again today so I could pull it up whenever I get that "Uggggh, what can I do with you children!" feeling. So here it is my "50 Fun Things to do With Your Kids This Summer on a Budget".

1. Play at the pool (our community center has an awesome water park for super cheap)
2. Create your own water fun in the backyard with squirt guns, water balloons, slip n’ slide, running through the sprinklers, etc.
3. Check out the summer reading program at your local library
4. Go to the library for story time
5. Check out the summer reading program at Barnes & Noble:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/index.asp
(check out their story times too!)
6. check out amc’s summer movie camp. They have $1.00 movies every wednesday
http://www.amctheatres.com/smc/
or check out Regal Cinema
http://www.regmovies.com/
7. Check out your local bowling alley. They may have free bowling for kids all summer.
8. Check out local inflatable party center like Pump It Up or Boomerangs. Many of them have open bounce times.
9. Check out local museums. Most have a certain day of the week that they have discounted/no admission.
10. Go to the zoo (check out discounted admission days)
11. Go to the park. Map out all your local parks and make it to every one this summer.
12. Go on a bug hunt – bring along bug catchers.
13. Go on a nature hike. Bring Ziploc baggies for them to collect their favorite leaves, flowers, rocks, etc.
14. Check out your nearest nature center
15. Go to the beach or lake
16. Play in the sand
17. Play with sidewalk chalk
18. Blow bubbles
19. Fly a kite
20. Pack a picnic lunch
21. Go kayaking together
22. Find some new trails and go on a bike ride
23. Pick up some terra cotta pots to paint
24. Plant some flowers together. Planting seeds are best so they can water it every day and watch it grow 
25. Put on puppet shows (even make your own sock puppets)
http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10674
26. Build a fort using cardboard boxes or blankets
27. Build Lego’s together
28. Play board games/card games
29. Play hide & seek, tag, freeze tag
30. Teach your child a new sport: soccer, football, basketball, hockey, etc.
31. Rollerblade together
32. Paint or draw together
33. Pick up some $1.00 coloring books
34. Write stories together (if your child is too young to write then ask them to make up a story for you to write – it will be fun to keep and read a few years from now )
35. Play games on the computer. Some good sites for kids:
http://pbskids.org/
http://www.thomasandfriends.com/usa/index.asp?origref=
http://www.nickjr.com/
http://www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/index.asp
Also check out:
http://krisabel.ctv.ca/blog/_archives/2008/3/10/3571527.html
36. Play with Play-Doh together or make your own.
37. Pick up a new workbook
38. Kids love to take pictures. Pick up a kids digital camera at Target or I’ve seen them at TJ Max for as little as $10.
39. Build paper airplanes
40. Fingerpaint
41. Bake cookies together
42. Make home-made popsicles
43. Let your kids cook with you (pick up a kids cook book)
44. Write letters (draw pictures) to family (Cole likes to make books about what he wants to do the next time he visits Oma and Papa)
45. Turn on some music and dance or play freeze dance
46. Rent a DVD together, get out the sleeping bags and pop popcorn for a movie night
47. Camp out in your backyard. Study some constellations beforehand then look for them.
48. Visit a Planetarium, Aquarium or Arboretum (most have a lot of kid activities)
49. Let them have a bubblebath
50. One word: Flashlights

Houston & Surfside City

We took another little trip with Brandon this week. This time we traveled down to Houston for three days/two nights. Here's a few pics from our stay:

The boys' main attraction wherever we go: the pool!

Look at how well Cy is swimming!!!

Chase started swimming all by himself about a month ago

Hanging out by the pool in the shade


Caught a big smile but she blinked!

Playing with Daddy in the pool

The boys were crawling through this bike rack at a shopping center we went walking around at.
Kenadi had three firsts while on our trip: 1. We bobbed her under the water at the pool - she did great! 2. She took a little ride on daddy's shoulders :) 3. She took her first trip to the beach! Since we were already so close to the beach we decided to make the drive down to the coast before we were on our way home. This time, instead of going to Galveston, we went to Surfside City. The boys were so excited to be at the beach and to try to ride some waves although I wouldn't recommend trying to surf them :)The boys had a blast using these little blow up boards that Brandon's mom gave us right before we left (they use to be Brandon's when he was little :) They all rode a couple waves in whether they wanted to or not (a couple times all we saw were hands and feet flying :), but they LOVED it.

Can't wait for California!

Is it already June??!

This is a little random but did you know it's only 195 days till Christmas?!! I saw that posted on someones blog today and thought it was kind of funny. It actually made me think of how fast the year has already flown by. Here it is June and we're already enjoying our summer vacation.

To catch up on the last week and a half I have a couple pictures to post. First my friend Brandi had her precious little miracle baby Myer, June 3rd and we went up to the hospital for a visit that evening. Brandi had some complications after delivery and had to have a blood transfusion but is recovering well. Her family of four is beautiful! Congratulations Brandi!!!

June 3rd was also Kate's 3rd birthday (my cousin Heidi's little girl). HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATE! I can't wait to see her and her little brother Everett (whom I haven't even been able to meet yet) when we go to CA this summer.

Cole had his last day of Kindergarten last Friday. He's our big first grader now!

This week I've been watching Savannah - here's a couple of cute pictures I got when we were out and about.

At the Flower Mound community center.

AMF has "Bowl one free game every day this summer" for kids. We're in! Chase was such a good big brother to Cy.He'd cheer him on and put his hand on his shoulder every time waiting to see how many pins he'd knock down.

Kenadi is just full of smiles; whenever you talk to her you can get her to make the cutest smile ever. But you point a camera at her and she just won't do it - not even a little.

She's very active right now and likes to be on her tummy. In fact if you put her on her back she'll roll right over.
Lastly, we had a huge storm last night. Since we have two lakes on either side of us we usually don't have to worry about tornados but last night we did. There was cloud rotation but no touchdown. There were 80 mph winds though and half of Flower Mounds (the town right next door to us) trees got knocked over and so did our play set :(

We had to hide out in the bathroom while the sirens went off which apparently scared Cy because he didn't want to go anyplace that was dark because he said, "There's a tornado in there." I love some of the things he says :)