Hannah's Cabin (from August 2012!)

One of the great things we got to do when we were in MN over the summer was going to Hannah's cabin! And to make it even better it was WITH Hannah and The Davis'! When Hannah first bought her place 7 years ago Matt, myself, Ryan, Andrea and Hannah would go up there for a weekend every winter and a weekend every summer to spend together. Our winter weekends would just be sitting around the house talking, watching movies, playing games and eating. Our summer weekends would be spent on the water. As lives got a bit busier, we haven't had the chance to spend as much time with all of us together. So last summer, we made the decision that we would make it work for us all to get up to Hannah's cabin together this summer and I am so glad we did!

Case and Coleman are only a few weeks apart and Jensen is only 6 months younger than Sadie, so we were pretty busy running around with them. But considering we had four kids under the age of four, they did great and had so much fun together!

 

The kids loved going on boat rides, and the older boys especially loved driving the boat!

Andrea and Jensen



 

Case loved the boat, but was very clear that he was not going to go on the tube. So Matt and I grabbed Sadie, who is always up for anything, and threw her on the tube with Matt. She HATED it, she screamed and cried the whole time!

This is her snuggling with me after going tubing, she would barely give a half smile... maybe they'll be more into it next year!

Hannah made these super cute capes for all of the kids - my kids weren't up for a picture at the time, but they have loved running around in them!

Jumping off the dock to the Daddys!

Case and Coleman clinging to Hannah so they wouldn't touch any weeds!

The one downside of the trip is it came when I was at my worst with being sick from the pregnancy. It was still so much fun, but I didn't get to be quite as active with the kids as I would have liked. Case loved Hannah's kayak, so I did get to take him out on that a couple of times!

We forgot Case's fishing pole, but thankfully the Davis' had two of them because the boys loved fishing off the dock!

We managed to get one quick pic of all four kids together!

Thanks again, Hannah! We had such a great time!

 

Halloween!

So all of a sudden it's hitting me that this baby is coming really soon - 7 weeks! So I figured I need to get caught up on this blog soon or it won't happen after the baby comes!

Matt and I got to go to the SGM Pastors Conference in Orlando this year, it was so great! The only downside was it was over Halloween so we didn't get to go trick or treating with the kids or see them dressed up in their costumes. My mom was here on Halloween so she took them trick or treating along with our neighbor, Darrell. The kids had a great time!

Sadie was a little ladybug and Case was Spiderman!

 

I was especially excited with Case's costume because it was only $2 on craigslist and then I ran across a matching spiderman bucket for 75 cents at a garage sale! The only problem was, he then thought he had two buckets for trick or treating - it took a little convincing to get him to let Sadie use his pumpkin bucket from last year. 

 

The kids and Darrell!

I was very surprised that Case wore his mask, I'm glad my mom was able to catch this picture without it on.

The kids had a great time handing out candy! My mom said if Case saw someone outside, he would yell, "We have treats here!!"

We were bummed to miss it, but so glad the kids had a great time!

Case's 4th Birthday Party!

Well Sunday was the day Case has been waiting for! He has been talking about wanting a Dalmatian Birthday Party ever since Sadie's birthday. He saw me researching puppy parties for her and saw a picture of a Dalmatian party and hasn't stopped talking about it since. I thought a Dalmatian party would be easy enough, assuming I could find at least a FEW dalmatian themed party things at walmart, target or somewhere. Or in the very least some black and white polka dot things... but I was wrong. There was not much out there, so I had to be pretty creative with this party. Which is not my strong suit! I always say I can copy people pretty well, but coming up with my own ideas does not exactly come easily! So the bummer is, I was actually pretty creative and didn't really get any pictures of it! But at least I got some pictures of the things Case helped me with!
He loved helping me with the cupcakes and the cookies, and it was nice that he really understood we were making these for him and his friends to have at his party. We made the cookies a couple days in advance and I thought he might bug me constantly to eat them, but anytime he saw them he said, 'these are for my friends at my party'.

 

In the background of the cookie picture, you can kind of see the puppy chow we made and put in a doggie bowl (thank you dollar store!).

So when all the kids arrived, if they were up for it, we used face paint to put a "spot" around their eye and drew them a litte nose and spots on their cheeks. We also gave Case his present from us - Lucky the Dalmatian.

We then lined all the kids up (can't you see how well 3 and 4 year olds stand in a line!) to play a little game.

 

We had them hold a doggie treat in their hand and crawl like a puppy across the lawn to put the treat in a doggie bowl and then race back. A lot of the kids Sadie's age just ran, but some of the kids got it!

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 All the kids got a little treat (black and white jelly beans) for participating in the game, here's Sadie enjoying hers!

 Then we opened presents and had some hot dogs and other food for dinner, played for a bit and then it was time for the cupcakes and to sing happy birthday to Case! For some reason, he thought he needed to close his eyes like it was a surprise. I love these next set of pictures...

 

 

 

We had a great time celebrating with all of our friends who came! And it was fun to have Case really relish in being the birthday boy!

 

A couple things about our 4 year old...

When he grows up he wants to be a... Firefighter (and own a dalmatian)

Favorite Food... pb & j

Favorite color... orange

Favorite toy... woody

Favorite sport... football

Favorite book... Going on a Bear hunt

Favorite Song... Jesus Loves Me

 



 



It's a...

 

Case could not be more excited that the baby is a boy! He was positive from the beginning that it was a boy, so it was fun to tell him last night that he was right. And Sadie is so cute saying, "Baby brotter". The kids came to the ultrasound with us and Case especially loved seeing the baby, he said his favorite part was hearing the heartbeat. It was so hard to keep from laughing the whole time because Case said at one point that it looked like a turtle and another time that it looked like a cow! Sadie just kept saying the whole time, "Oh wooooow... oooooooh" over and over again. It's funny how I don't even think she knew what was going on but figured out the right things to say! She was also very concerned about me, I guess because I was laying on the table. She kept asking me if I was ok.

 

I love the ultrasound, it really helps everything to seem real. I am not even quite 17 weeks so it was incredible how much the baby already looked like a baby even though he is only 6 ounces! So tiny and so cute! The tech even switched it to 3D for us so then we could really see him with his hands by his face and moving all around. God is so good! We couldn't be more excited! Now the real name game begins... I think we have it narrowed down to three different names!

Too cute not to have her own post!

 

I tried to pick a few pictures of Sadie from Case's party to add to the last post, but she was in rare form that night and was hitting a ton of adoreable poses:) Not to mention my sister was the one taking the pictures and she always gets great shots, so I just couldn't help but let Sadie have her own posts. I'm not super great at updating the blog, so I figured there's nothing wrong with a whole bunch of pictures of her from one day! Plus, it's probably mostly family that still checks this blog and I know they can't get enough of her... so here they come!

 

I love this one below of the two kids together, Sadie just loves Case so much!

 

Below, she is a little bummed that none of the presents are for her!

 

Early Birthday Party

In August, we got to take a vacation up to MN. It was great to escape the heat here in KS for a little bit and spend time with family and friends. We got to do a lot of fun things, the state fair, Hannah's cabin, boat rides, hanging out at my parents house, being with cousins, visit friends from our old church, etc! Maybe (hey, I'm saying MAYBE) I'll get around to blogging about that, but I had to get some of these pictures up. Since we were up in MN, we thought we'd do a little early "spiderman" birthday party for Case with our family. Everyone from my family and Matt's family was able to be there! We had a BEAUTIFUL day together at a park where we sat in the shade and visited while the kids played on the playground.

 

Here are all the cousins "hiding" together!


Then we told Case it was time to open presents! He was so excited!

He got some great presents he was very excited about, some spiderman figurines, a batman with a cape, nerf guns, this baseball T and bumblebee mask!

And then it was time to get one more gift! A friend of ours called a while back and said she found this at about 80% off because it had been on display at the store, so my parents and matt's parents and Matt and I went in together to get this gift...



As the pictures show, he was pretty excited about this gift and has since gotten TONS of use out of it! The kids had a blast taking turns driving around the path at the park and chasing each other!



 

 

We grilled in the park and enjoyed some cupcakes, but mostly just loved the opportunity to be together with our families, it was great!

Getting Ready for the Olympics!!