Gingerbread house

One new traditon I wanted to start doing with the boys is a gingerbread house. I wasn't even going to attempt making the gingerbread from scratch I just bought the kit and it was worth every dollar. The boys had a lot of fun doing the house. They really did do most of the decorating except for the icing. I did that. But even Colton got into the fun putting things on the house, in between him eating some of the gum drops. I think this is something new we are going to do every Christmas now. These pictures show our work from start to finish.


This is a before shot, and as you can see I had to hot glue a lot of pieces together because Colton dropped our kit off the counter and broke a lot of pieces.


Colton helping out.


You can see they were all in on the fun and decorating.


More help from Colton.


Nate, Josh and Colton adding their touches.


Josh decorates the roof.


Again all of them working together. I love Colton's look of interest and awe.


The finished house. Colton really did not want to be in the picture this time. He was finished! It was really fun putting it together. And the boys enjoy looking at it each day!

Crown Center

As a family we headed out to Crown Center to see the lights and decorations. But first we decided to have some dinner. I have been wanting to go to Fritz's diner ever since we moved here and I heard about it. So, we had some hamburgers and fries before going outside. The food was just average but the atmosphere was really fun for kids.



The boys sitting in the railroad cart.


Josh is pointing and looking at the train that whiz's by your table.


You order by picking up the phone and this is one of the trains that drops your basket of food off right to your table. Cool thing is, the train doesn't even stop, it's just releases it as it goes.


The boys with their conducters hat waiting for the train to go by.



Now on the the lights and festivities of Crown Center.


I love this one of Nate's arm around Colton. (we needed Josh for it to be complete)


Josh is cheesing it, he asked for his picture to be taken.


Riding the horse backwards.


Going for a ride.


Little construction workers.


Colton loves rocking horses, even if his face doesn't show it.


Riding together.


My 3 guys in the wagon.


Don't really know why he looks so surprised.


Having lots of fun.


They enjoyed the fountain alot. It was fun watching it as it was synchronized to music.


Inside Crown center there was this ginger bread display that they had fun looking at.

Christmas Tree 2009

Danny works with someone that has a tree farm that you are able to find and cut down your own tree so we decided that's what we wanted to do this year. We bundled all up and this is us just starting out on our trek.


Danny is showing the boys some deer tracks that he found in the snow.


This tree was full of pine cones so they had fun pulling them off and playing with them. And of course Nate is just being his silly self.


My mostly sweet boy Josh. I wanted a picture of all 3 of them in front of the pine cone tree but he refused and just wanted a picture by himself.


This was one of our possible tree choices but we didn't get this one. And Colton was not cooperating. He was cold and just wanted to be held so he refused to stand up.


The boys waiting for Danny to cut our Christmas tree down. I think they had fun. Although as we were heading down there, Nate kept asking if we were there yet. It was only like a 20-30 minute drive but he thought it was too long and even told us that it would be faster and easier to just buy it at Lowe's. Then he kept asking if we were done, I will admit that it did take us an 1 1/2 to find one that we liked. Alot of them were really huge and then some had dead pine needles that we didn't like. But next year it won't take us as long because we didn't realized they shake the tree and remove all the yucky and dead off. Now that Danny knows that it won't take us as long next year. So, below is our final pick, all decorated.


So, this tree isn't perfect but it was one that we liked. It has personality that we like cause we don't like the fake, perfectly triangular tree's, those are just so boring. We know it leans and the star is leaning but I don't even care. It actually makes laugh and smile each time because I was on the ground with my big belly trying to get it screwed into the trunk and Danny was asking me if it was straight and he was getting mad cause when he let go and stood back it was nothing near straight. And the decorations were done by the boys. We let them do it, of course I helped put some up high. There were more candy canes on the bottom but they keep eating them. It doesn't have any kind of theme or style but that's ok because I have 3 small boys that I want them to experience the joy of putting decorations on a tree and getting into the spirit of Christmas. So, I have no desire to have nice, expensive decorations yet. So, this is the Fritz's tree, and though it's not a gorgeous thing I actually really like it because it was chosen and decorated completely by the entire family and so because of that I think it's perfect.

First Snow

We finally got our fist storm of the year. It actually left us with some snow and some good snow flakes. I opened the curtains for the boys to look at the falling snow and they were mesmerized by the storm. Colton really loved the falling snow. He was so amazed by the whole thing! He loved it! He stood there for a long time just staring out the window. It was so cute!


I loved this picture of all 3 of my boys staring at the snow!

Happy Birthday Nate

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY NATE!!!!!!

Where has the time gone? Another year has gone by and now my baby Nate is celebrating another birthday! I can't believe he's 6 years old. He is getting so big! I can't believe that he's in kindergarten already! He loves school so much! He is doing so great! He is so smart, of course every parent says that about their own children but he really is. Almost too smart because it gets him in trouble some days. His teacher is really impressed with how well he is doing and the fact that he is reading all by himself is awesome. And I take no credit for that, he picked it up himself. He is such a really good boy, always willing to help his brothers out or mom and dad. We can always count on him. He is so excited to have a baby sister soon. We are very lucky to have him in our family. I've been trying to think of what to say about my Nate for his birthday and I decided to list 6 fun and unique things about him!

1: He loves to tell jokes all the time. Especially jokes about "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

2: He likes to sit down the the piano and play the piano keys and sing out of the children's songbook and occasionally he just makes up his own words.

3: Right now he really loves watching Scooby Doo, Batman, Superman and Transformers movies. He likes the super hero movies.

4: One of his favorite shirts to wear right now is a Mario Kart Wii shirt. He would wear it several times a week if we let him. However, we made it a rule that he can wear it once a week but then he has to choose a different shirt the rest of the week.

5: Nate LOVES corn on the cob!!! He can eat 4-5+ at one meal. So, of course during the summer it's readily available everywhere. But we don't always have it so we buy frozen corn, well, you'd think that would be almost as good. No, not for Nate! He refused to eat it for the longest time because it doesn't taste the same, in his words: "It's too juicy!" Whatever! We'll we finally got him to eat it but only if we put it in the middle of his mashed potatoes and gravy or in a casserole. It has to be mixed with other foods.

6: He has a really good sense of direction. He can tell us how to get home from all sorts of different locations. He knows the different cities that we happen to be in when running around. He has know his left and right for a long time now. He has tried figuring out a compass. He really tries hard to know his north, south, east and west. Sometimes he's right but other times I think he's gotten some help from the overhead car directional thingy. But even that being said, he still knows how to get around.

So, that's some little tidbits about our "little" Nate. We love that kid and love having him in our home. He's a great boy and we hope that he has an awesome 6th Birthday!!!!!

Well, we did it again!

The day FINALLY arrived for our ultrasound! I was so stinking nervous and, honestly scared. I have had so many dreams about baby girls. The boys all wanted a girl, Danny is petrified to have a girl. He told me to stop getting my hopes up about a girl and just admit that the odds were that we would have a boy. So, I agreed that he was right and I needed to prepare myself for the outcome of a boy. My hands were sweaty when we pulled up to the clinic. I had to pee so bad it hurt, I DESPISE having to drink 32oz of water on my tiny, pregnant bladder. I couldn't stop my feet from dancing while I waited to be called back. I tried looking at a magazine but all I could think about was having to pee and whether I'd be leaving with happy or sad tears. I didn't have to wait long, they called me back I slowly walked to the room so I wouldn't wet myself. Well, I told Danny I didn't want him to tell me yet if he saw a little boy. Well, this child is a mover, and I mean big mover! It never would stop wiggling. It took her an hour to get the stuff she needed. I had to stop and pee twice during the exam. And from what we saw in that hour I never saw a 3rd leg. It appears that we are having another girl. We are finally getting another little girl. I'm in shock right now. It still feels like I shouldn't get too excited yet. And maybe it's because it seems unreal or because the last time I got excited about a girl, my dreams were crushed. So, I'm very much thrilled that it is a girl. She won't have a chance with 3 big brothers and one controlling father. I'll have to be the one to stand up for her. But here's a few shot of her and a small pink onesie because I have waited so long to buy something girly, I just had to get something!

Halloween 2009

This is going to be lots of pictures since I didn't post about our pumpkin carving and it's also of Halloween night!




This is the first year that Nate actually stuck his hand into the pumpkin and pulled out the seeds. He did do a pretty good job cleaning his out.


A shot of all the boys on the table.


Colton peeks into the pumpkin but never dares stick his hand into it!


Josh didn't like putting his hand in the pumpkin so he tried scooping it out. He didn't last long!


Nate posing with his pumpkin! He drew his picture on a paper and then Danny carved it out. (I forgot to take a picture of the finished project the night we did it.)


Josh is with his pumpkin that he created!


Colton is just checking things out!


So, he was suppose to be a doggy this year but refused to wear his costume. So, at the last moment I had to create something with the things we had at home. I looked online and this is what I came up with. He was Interstate 35. This is the best picture I could get of him because he kept ripping off all the cars and the yellow dots. I think we lost a few cars at the church.


One more shot of him and as you can see he's already pulled off a car.


Nate is Leonardo the turtle again- for the 3rd year in a row.


This is our little firefighter! Doesn't he look cute?!


Trying to get a picture of the 3 of them is not easy. This is the best I got from them.


Sitting in the truck, waiting to go after the ward's trunk or treat!


Colton is satisfied with a sucker and a glow stick but he is also super tired.


Finding himself a candy.


Josh is also getting a treat.


All of them dumped their buckets out so that they could examine their loot! They had a fun time and wore themselves out! Another fun Halloween has come and gone!