A day at the Zoo

With our tax return this year, I decided to get a couple of memberships to some family fun places in town. Of course, the zoo had to be one of them. We tried our new membership out yesterday and the kids were out of control with happiness. We spent three hours at the zoo and didn't even see it all. We're going back in a couple of weeks (during spring break) to see the rest. Sad that two visits to the zoo (with our whole family) pays for the yearly membership! I bought a double stroller the day before we went but Zoey and Kaia were so excited to be there they didn't even sit in it until the end when they were exhausted. It was a great day!!


(My four girls.....they are so dang cute! I think the elephants were one of the family favorites to watch! )


















(My son.....what a great boy! Jaed is doing a report about elephants for a Boy Scout badge.)
























(what a bunch of handsome guys......even the elephant!)


















(Jaed really like the penguins too. They were fun to watch!)
























(The bears were out and about and the girls saying, "WOW, look how big they are!)























(Us girls LOVED the flamingos. They were gorgeous!)














































(Here's Kaia and Zoey are in the stroller relaxing from a long day at the zoo! Josie was taking a turn pushing them around.)























(The zoo has a huge Carousel and of course we couldn't pass it up.)








































































We had a lot of fun together and everyone arrive and left with smiles!!

Face Painter

We decided to hire a professional face painter for Josie's party and were please with how it turned out. The theme for the party was butterflies so the face painter painted butterflies on everyone's face. The girls LOVED it and told Josie that it was the best Birthday Party they had ever been to. Whether it was true or not, Josie was thrilled. Here's some pics of the party:

(The face painter was very good with the girls and made each face different.)



















(Here's the Birthday girl. I don't think she came off cloud 9 the whole day!)
























(Here's Josie and three of the six girls she invited from school. She didn't seem upset that the other three couldn't come.....thank goodness!)


















(With her two her sisters invited to the party as well, it was a full house!)


















(Here's Indi with her beautiful butterfly face!)
























(Kaia did a lot of flapping of her arms after her face was painted. I think she really felt like a butterfly!)

Josie TURNED 8

Well Josie's Birthday finally made her and passed. By the time her birthday came I thought I would scream if I heard another word about it. She was so stinkin excited and made sure we all knew what a great day it was. We celebrated it as a family on her special day and then she had a party for a few friends. By the end of the two parties she was singing..."THIS IS MY BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!". So I felt pretty successful and relieved that her expectations were met and exceeded.

One of the great things about having siblings is that you are pretty much guaranteed at least as many presents as you have siblings. They are all so excited to give the presents to the birthday girl (or boy) that it makes it fun for everyone.

Here's some pics from her special day:

(Here's Jaed and Josie. Jaed's not really in to hugging his sisters but when it's their birthday he lets down his guard a bit.)


















(Here's Indi and Josie....they are such sweet sisters......most of the time.)


















(Little Kaia was more excited to play with Josie's new toys then Josie was, I think.)


















(Little Zoey didn't want to hand over the toy she got Josie. She thought the toy was hers for sure!)




















(Here's the best present of all! Josie asked for this doll house for Christmas but we didn't get it for her then so we decided to surprise her with it on her birthday!)


















HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSIE!!!

Extra eyes

Kaia has been squinting a lot lately so I decided to go and get her eyes checked. They had to dilate her eyes so she was pretty excited to be able to wear these sunglasses:

























After all the tests they did they said that Kaia had a horrible astigmatism in her left eye and a small astigmatism in her right eye, so glasses were a necessity. Here's our little Kaia with the glasses she picked out:

Kaia turns 4

Wow, I can't believe our little Kai turned 4. She is such a little sweetie!! She loves to joke around though. Here is an example of something that happened about a week ago:

I was sewing on my machine and Kai was down by my foot watching me push on the sewing machine peddle. Well a couple of times she pushed down on the peddle and I told her to get out from under there. After telling her about three times she finally said:

"Kaia's not home, please leave a message after the beep. BEEP!"

I laughed so hard. She was pretty proud of herself that she made mom laugh!!

Here's some pics of her birthday:

(Kaia and her big brother, Jaed)


















(Kaia with big sister, Josie. Zoey on the side checking out the some of the gifts Kaia got)


















(Kaia and her big sister, Indi...oh...and Zoey still checking out the gifts)


















(Zoey giving Kaia one of her great hugs!!)


















(Kaia with mom and dad!)

Present from Grams!!

My mom is in the Philippines on a church mission and we miss her so much!! Thank goodness for SKYPE. The kids get to see her and when our camera is working on our computer, she gets to see them! Well, Kaia's 4th birthday is next week and she got a letter in the mail from her Gram (my mom). Inside the cute card was a necklace that my mom sent her. She jumped up and down and clapped her hands when she saw it. We had told our kids that they wouldn't get any presents from Gram while she was gone but my mom proved us wrong! Here's a picture of Kaia with her necklace and a special message to my mom!

























The necklace is a coin from the Philippines with a hole in it and a necklace put through the middle of it. Kaia calls it her "money necklace" from Grams!

Scripture bags

My oldest daughters have been asking for a "church" bag that they can carry their books in so while I was at the dollar store I found some polka dot place mats and made them some scripture bags. They thought they were WONDERFUL. Indi said, "Momma you're the best sewer EVER!". I wish I were but she doesn't have to know I'm not.

























Here's a picture Zoey, just cuz she's so dang cute!

Christmas pictures

I have been so bad about blogging which means I'm very behind. Here's some pics from Christmas morning. Everyone had a great Christmas and enjoyed all their presents!


Zoey got some new sunglasses that she wore all morning:


















Jaed is checking out his toys from Santa:























Kaia didn't know which toy to look at first when she came down the stairs and saw her chair that Santa put her presents on:
























Zoey was sooooo excited to see her Dora Kitchen. She giggled and giggled while she touched it and played:
























Indi got several chapter books for Christmas. She has become quite the little reader and loves to read at night before bed:


















Josie is showing off another pair of warm pajamas she got from Mom and Dad:
























Here's the girls showing each other what they got:


















Zoey is determined to get more candy out of her stocking:


















Josie is showing off the clothes I made for her new doll:
























Here are the girls modeling the crowns and capes that I made each of them:



















My girls really wanted American Dolls but buying each a doll for $100 or more wasn't really an option for us so I found these dolls at Costco and the girls loved them. The girls call them their American Dolls and we don't correct them. Here's Josie holding her doll and while they are both listening to their new mp3 players (oh, and notice her make up job with her new make up):
























Here's Indi with her new doll:

Christmas Dresses

I have been so bad about posting and I'm hoping to be better! I wanted to post some pictures of the Christmas dresses my sister bought my girls. They are so beautiful and they are dresses they can wear throughout the year! She even bought them necklaces and helped me make bows for their hair to match.

I have no idea what's going on with Jaedons face. He looks so mad in all this pics. He really wasn't.....that I knew of. Oh well! I was so worried about making sure the dresses were straight and looking nice that I didn't even pay attention to what faces were being made. Lesson learned!!