Kids Photos

We had the kids photos taken last week. It is so much fun having friends in photography. I love to see all of their different styles and how they work a little different. And they are all so good at what they do. Here is the product of our most recent adventure:

Happy Birthday Cody

Sweet (and wild) Cody turned 4 on Wednesday. He was so excited about it. Here is the first birthday card he got in the mail.And here is the mess he made as he shook the card until each piece of confetti fell out.
The boys raced cars the other day. They were so cute having their races.
We took the Kids to the rodeo, and they all had to wear their "cowboy" hats.
Cody got "Super Hero Squat" balloons. Yes, he calls them squat instead of squad.
He got a dog from build-a-bear and named it Robin, like batman and robin.
For dinner he wanted grilled cheese sandwiches and meats (which is salami) and to eat outside. Cody wanted to open, "just one" present while we ate dinner, so we let him go pick one out off the table inside. And, of course, after that was opened, he would quickly run in for another one.

Until he opened his goggles. Then he disappeared as we were cleaning up dinner. He came down all dressed in his swim gear and ready to go. So we took him swimming before he opened the rest of his presents.
He had a Batman themed party. He is kind of obsessed with Batman if you can't tell.



He got this awesome chalk top-spinning thing. The kids all love it.

Happy 8th Birthday Kathleen

I can't believe my baby girl is 8, but I guess I am getting old, so it was bound to happen. She really wanted breakfast in bed. So she got it.Then we went to the discovery center for the day to play. Cody was so excited when Kathleen asked him to hold her purse.





Tons of presents. Can anyone say, "SPOILED!"
We took her to Sizzler for dinner, which is kind of weird, but if you know Kathleen then you know her obsession with shrimp. All-you-can-eat shrimp is a dream. She also had shrimp cocktail for lunch, so I think she was set. (She wanted to go to Tucano's for dinner and have chicken hearts, but decided to wait until Aunt Lissa came to visit for that. She doesn't have a normal kid's sense of taste).
Brandon got some tattoos from McDonald's and is now an Air Bender.
Kathleen wanted to have a horse-themed birthday.

We let her stay up late on her birthday to make hair bows. It was a bit of an experiment, but she had a blast.


Instead of a big birthday party, Kathleen wanted to go ride horses this year. Look at that cowgirl sass.
Cody LOVES animals and couldn't keep away from the dogs.



The kids love "Uncle Dan". He was so nice to allow us to party with him and his horses for Kathleen's day.




Happy Birthday Kathleen!

Kathleen's Ears Pierced

Last Saturday Kathleen got her ears pierced. It is something we have occasionally talked about, but she has never shown interest in. A couple of weeks ago, she finally started to seem interested. So I told her she could do it for her 8th birthday if she wanted to. But I made her dad take her for a little "recon" to go check it out and see if it was something she would really want to do. I gave him strict instructions to have them do it right then if she wanted it done since she really wanted to, but I think she would chicken out if she waited. She decided she wanted it done right then, so they did it.

Here she is before:
During:
After:
She was so brave and takes such good care of her ears. She said it didn't hurt, but that it felt warm. She is so cute. My baby is growing up.
Brandon hit his first home-run a couple weeks ago. A home run at our house is when you hit it from one side of the yard and it goes over the fence into the common area. I can't believe he can hit that far. He was pretty excited.
Ryan had a work party where we played whiffle ball and ate homemade ice cream. It was really fun. Here is the one picture I decided to post from it.
Cody was so cute at dinner the other day wearing his Thomas hat and drinking from his straw from Grandma.