Free Zoo Day

Monday was my birthday. It was such a nice day. Mostly because the kids were so excited about it being my birthday. On Sunday Jackson kept trying to take me to look at my presents he and Ty got at the store the night before. He was pretty determined I should see what I was getting the next day. Sydney made little signs and colored pictures of balloons. She woke Tyler up early on Monday morning and told him they had to decorate the house before I woke up. She is such a sweetheart. So I woke up to see little sayings and pictures of balloons taped to the walls, She also taped a sign on a chair at the table for me that said" birthday girl!" I got such a kick out of it. What a thoughtful girl! Tyler and the kids made me a special birthday breakfast and yummy ice cream birthday cake.
Then we went to the zoo, Ty and the kids were off for the holiday and it was 65 degrees, so we went down to the Zoo it was fun to get out an enjoy some nice weather and walk around a bit. I really don't get out as much as I use to, and I really enjoyed just walking around, and it was fun to see the kids get out and enjoy it too. Even Kins and Maddy seemed to enjoy getting out in the fresh air.




Layton posing his sweet kung fu moves for the camera!



They loved watching these black bears. They would walk right up next the glass, it was funny to watch the kids flinch a little when the bear came right up next to them.


Kinsley and Maddy getting their wiggle out before we buckled them back in the car for the long ride home. Its harder on them when they don't have a place to crawl around.

Christmas Time Fun!

November Catch up

I had to post some random pictures we had from November so I can blog about our December fun.
some of the fun things we did and learned in November include:
* Kinsley and Maddy moo learned to pull themselves up to stand. They love being so big!! Mom still thinks they are growing too fast
* Had a fun Thanksgiving dinner in our home with our good friends the Shallenbergers and Torgersens. It was a beautiful day outside so all the kids spent most all their time jumping on the tramp, and Thanks to Natalie planning a play of the first thanksgiving including making costumes out of paper sacks. I could just kick myself for not taking a picture of them.
* Got 2nd round of H1N1 shots which meant waiting in a crowded room with all 5 kids. Lucky for us we seem to always find some sweet "grandma and grandpa" or two that have pity on us. Thanks to them we made it through okay. One of the older ladys was trying to talk to Jack and he would have nothing to do with her. SO she asked if he was onery. He said "I not onery I Jackson."
* Hung up Christmas lights a first for us! The kids loved it!
*Had our first experience finding kids hiding in the closet cutting hair, luckily it was only the horses hair, We really got a kick out of this!
* The twins discover their new favorite thing, The dishwasher! They can hear me doing dishes anywhere and come quickly to help me "unload".
* I discovered that 2 babies can unload one dishwasher faster than 1 mom can load it.
*We've been growing lots of teeth around here. Sydney's 1st permanent is popping through, Madsion now has 5 teeth! 2 on top 3 on bottom. Kinsley has 4! 2 on on top 2 on bottom.

Seven years of our Sweet Sydney!

Seven years have flown by so fast. I feel so blessed to be the mother of this sweet, fun, and such a good girl. She is mother #2 aorund here. She is so good to her little brothers and sisters. And she still reminds me when I need to take a minute to cuddle up with her and read a book, play a game, or just chat which I love and need those moments with her.
For here birthday she decided to plan her won birthday party, she wrote up the invitations, planned all the activites and pretty much kept everything rolling.
Normally we have alot of fun making a really cool cake decorated how the kids choose, but this year things are a little busy around the house so Sydney that it would be fun to make cupcakes and decorate them with her friends. It worked out great and they all had lots of fun!

More to catch up on

Sydney was thrilled when she FINALLY lost her first tooth. That tooth was wiggly for a long time. I think Ty offer to pull it our for Syd at least a dozen times, when finnaly it just fell out on its own the day before Halloween!




I just might be crazy and decided to go to the corn maze with all the kids and Sydneys school class. I told her teacher I would be coming but not to plan on me helping out too much since I would be bringing the whole crew. It all went okay except for at the end when the babies were hungry and we were a long ways from the car. I had no where to feed them, so I did my best to hide behind a tractor in the middle of the open field and lean up next to the big tire. Luckily I had my hooter hider. Although I'm sure the other moms there thought I was crazy.






My trick-or treaters. I was not good at taking pics on Halloween. We had soccer games and events all day long so were in a rush, Iput the girls halloween costumes on again later so at least I'd have some pics. Sydney was a witch, we made her costume out of an old one we made for her when she was 3. I bought a yard of purple fabric for the cape and used a little of it got her skirt, I think it turned out pretty good, Layton was batman again,(same as last year), Jack was the hand me down spiderman, and the baby girls were strawberries I found their costumed for $1 each. The best part is they were all thrilled with the costumes they had.

Twin Catch Up

I have not been very good at keeping up with the blogging lately. I have tried writing this post but Kinsley is trying to help me type, so just enjoy the pics and hopefully I can fill in the details later.

I realized I didn't have any pics of me with my baby girls so Sydney took one for me. I am in my pajamas and look tired but I guess we should remember things as they are. If you notice int he pic Maddy (on the right) has a little smile on her face. She almost always is wearing this little smile of contentment. I love it! She especially does when she is looking something over or curiously watching something. I think she is just so happy to be learning and taking it all in.

Kinsley has just started climbing up on things and trying to stand up, mostly she stands up on her knees but sometimes she gets up to her feet. she is quite the climber and climbs on top of Maddy daily which Madison does not like at all. Can't say I blame her. However Maddy climbed on Kinsley tonight which she doesn't do very often and Kinsley couldn't have cared less. She was just happy as could be and evern kept trying to crawl around dragging Maddy with her.

Knsley again,she climbed under the crib while Syndey was getting ready for school, then all the kids thought it looked like fun under there and joined her.

This is how I handed out candy for the trunk or treat on Halloween. Tyler took the other kiddos around and I just laid the girls in the back of our van to play. They loved it and loved smiling for all the passers by. I had several requests to trade candy for my two little strawberrys.

You guessed it, Kinsley climbing on Maddy. This picture was taken a little over a month ago.

Playing together, they really spend most of their time just playing on the floor together. Sometimes I feel like I am neglecting them because I feel like I don't hold them very much.


Kinsley checking out Maddy I love when they look at each other and smile. They do this quite often in the morning or when one wakes up after the other and the one awake is so excited to see her sister. It really is something special!

Kinsley is in the pink , Maddy is in the white.


I really can't believe how fast these girls have grown at the 6 month check up Kins was 17lb7oz, Maddy was 17lb4oz, and they were both 26 1/2 inches long. Unfortnately we have been to the Dr. quite a bit over the past 2 months since then for ear infections, but they have gotten weighed alot which is fun to se how they've grown. They are now each 19lbs. That is alomst 40 lbs I pack around. I better start lifting weights.
Oh ya and they both have 1 tooth on the bottom opposite sides though. Maddy's grew in first and Kinsley was about 1 week behind. This past week Maddy grew in a top tooth too. I am just expeting Kinsley's to grow the top one on the opposite side this week. It will be interesting to see if it happens that way. I swear these girls are growing up faster than any of my other kiddos. It really isn't fair!