Happy Birthday Jace!

Jace turns 3!!! Wooohooo!! 

Jace pretty much raked it in on his birthday.

This is his new cap gun, courtesy of Grandpa Sim.  It was a big hit.  With all my children.

Abby and Brooklyn made sure that Jace didn't need any help with opening his presents and then again with playing with his presents.  And then they helped out anyway:)

This is the whole party - I made a special trip to Las Animas (a 45 min. drive) just to pick up a Dairy Queen ice cream cake.  It was worth it. 

Jace loved his cake and I lucked out without having to make one!

And then, Jace had another birthday party!  Our first party was actually a week and half early since we were leaving to UT and wanted to get it in.

This party was also early.  I think in the end we confused Jace and he's not sure how many times he gets to turn three! 

But we were able to celebrate with an older cousin, Tyler, and I think Jace loved it!

He definitely loved his 2nd store bought cake, and I was living it up without needing to pull out my cake pans yet  again!

A little bit about Jace at 3:

He is all boy!

                  -He loves to be outside - swimming, boating, riding bikes, running around, just everything!

-He is loud - especially when baby Colby is trying to sleep!

-He loves to play with trains and cars and holds a special spot in his heart for his hand-me down bowling ball game. Thank you Will Durst.

-His favorite color is blue.

-He loves going to Pa's house for milkshakes.  In fact, if he comes home without getting his milkshake he has been known to wake up in the middle of the night and start crying for the missed milkshake.

-He loves everything fruit but especially peaches.

-He loves mac and cheese - but only if it's the microwave kind.

-He loves playing (and fighting) with his sisters and can't wait for Colby to get bigger to wrestle with!

Happy Birthday Jacer!  We love you!



Little Boys

We are officially potty trained here folks!!  And with that comes the ability to relieve ourselves on anything and everything outside - including dad's explorer.   Hey, no complaining here:) To be honest, something tells me the explorer is accustomed to this kind of treatment...

Oh, the joys of being a boy in the great outdoors.

Bring On The Heat

It's been 110 degrees.  For 2 weeks straight.  Need I say more?

Our water bill is gonna be a doozy.

Wedding Bells

Last month we were lucky enough to get to go to my brother Travis' wedding and be with all our family for a few days.  We had loads of fun and the I'd venture to say the kids had even more fun than we did!  I'm just warning you now that there a lot of pictures in this post (when you have so many great ones how can you narrow it down?)!

The girls get their modeling from their mother.  Obviously.




Lexi, Abby , Kendri, Brooklyn

 



Brooklyn

 



Pa and Colby

   It took some work to get a picture of all these kids.  As you can see we had lots of help from the dads:)  Part of the reason was all those cameras to look at - we had at least 4 flashing!



Jace, Kyson, Kendri with Shayli, Brookyn with Colby, Abby, Lexi with Pippa

  As soon as Jessica hit the scenes at the reception those girls were all over her!  I saw them all following after her up to the "Brides Room" and went to chase them away but got distracted by a photo op:)

Aren't they cute?  I can hardly stand it!  And talk about a gorgeous bride!

                                          You handsome little devil you!

Here's the entire family - wait, Ryan, where are you? Ryan?!!  Oh, there you are behind Heather's head.  Somebody probably should have told the photographer (oh, wait, someone did - I'm sure her angle was much better:) 

Check out all those nieces and nephews!  I hadn't noticed how happy the couple looks until now.  And no, I'm not talking about Brooklyn and Kendri. Although they do make a nice couple.....

That cake was just sooooo beautiful and delicious looking.  It was hard to walk away from.

 And here are the two trouble makers.  But I must say, the trouble they caused on this trip was minimal.  I think it was thanks to all those uncles to keep them in line!

                 I decided we needed an all girls picture and so here we have it. 

It was a great wedding and we're so happy to have Jessica join our family!

Pre-school Graduation

I can't believe that Brooklyn has graduated from Pre-school!  Here she is filing in.

Getting her diploma from Mrs. Buffalo (whose son I went to Prom with my senior year.  Just a fun fact:)

 And the ceremony is over!  We officially have a kindergartner!  Yay!! (Wiping a few tears as well) 

 Abby was lucky enough to be asked to hand out programs with one other little girl.  They did a great job and had a good time helping out.  And for their work they were given a gift.  How fun!  It was a Webkinz.  And now we have Polka Dots as part of our family!

 The boys hung in there.  Mostly because of the BJ's bribery.  That's where we go to get ice cream and Jace loves it.  He takes after his Pa.

We're so proud of you Brooklyn!  Way to go!

Stars: poem by Abby

The school year has come to an end and Abby has loved being a 1st grader.  I decided to post a poem that Abby wrote this year.  When she brought it home and showed it to me I thought she had copied it from a book she had been reading but she informed that she made it up all on her own.  So just to be sure, when we met with her teacher a while later I asked her if they had been reading a book in class that Abby would have jumped off from to write her poem.  The answer was no, and I was officially impressed.  Her teacher was even hoping to try to get it published but it looks like this is as "published" as it's going to be! Anyways, here it is (just like Abby wrote it)-

Stars are twinkeling in the sky.
I can see them in my eye.
Twinkeling, twinkeling.
I can see them sourouding me.
Twinkeling, twinkeling star so bright.
I can see them every night.
When I go to bed at night you leave in the morning light.
Once again I see you  in the night so bright.
I love to see the stars at night from young to old.
Twinkeling, twinkeling stars so bright.
I like to see the stars at night.

By:
Abby Robbins

I'm one proud mama!

Happy Mother's Day ( with 4!! kids:)