Soccer Tournament Champs

Brinley scored the winning goal in her soccer tournament. What a great way to end the soccer season.

Bridger

So I've been thinking about the joys of being a parent. Some days I think my 3 year old is trying to torture me. His latest helpful thing to do is to put his peed in underwear in the dryer so it can get "dried." When you have 5 children, you do a lot of laundry. So usually there is always a load of clean laundry waiting for me to fold in the dryer. I don't like to take it out unless I can fold it(the wrinkle release cycle is great). So you can imagine how thrilled I am to find peed underwear mixed in with the clean laundry. Thank-you Bridger.

Now that Bridger is 3 1/2 his communication skills have increased. He has developed a "potty" mouth. When he's mad at me, I'm a poo poo. And if he's really really mad--I'm a PENIS. I've tried to explain to him that the word PENIS is not a bad word but a body part. I'm going to give the credit for that lovely vocabulary term to his friend Blaine. We were in church when Blaine got his toys taken away during the sacrament by his grandmother--he was quite angry and called her a penis--like it was the worst ever insult you could possibly give anyone. Now Blaine isn't entirely to blame--the great reactions by his sisters and others have only made the term more exciting to use. We have been trying the naughty step to try to "modify" his behavior. I just wanted to warn those of you with sensitive ears that if the behavior modification fails--hopefully Brooklyn and Breyton won't start calling their loved ones a PENIS. If they do, you know who to blame--Blaine--I'll give you his mother's number.

Brinley's Birthday

Brinley got an extreme green (pink) machine for her birthday. We had a spa birthday party with 10 of her friends. Here they are relaxing with their face masks on.

First Day of School

The kids were excited for their first day of school. We had some big changes this year. Tanner has moved to the intermediate school and is no longer a Yostie. Paige will be in school all day and is thrilled to have lunch and recess. I'm going to be with two crazy little boys all day! Bridger will be in pre-school on Mondays and Fridays for 3 hours. Life keeps changing.

Six Flags

We went to Six Flags with the Reyes Family. The kids had a great time even though some of the lines were an hour long.

Libby Lu

Paige and Brinley saved up their allowance to go to Libby Lu's. They had their hair, nails and make-up done. Afterwards, we went to see Kit Kiteridge, the American Girl movie. It was a fun girl's night.

Christmas

Christmas in Louisiana!

I looked at our exchange list for last year--and decided now with 2 more married we could exchange as couples. This way you can buy a combined gift for the couple. For this purpose Rebecca and Rosalia will be put together as a couple. Price range to stick to should be $25-35 for the couple. Here is what I came up with:

Bethany & Rich: T.J & Michelle
Kimberly & Trevin: Mark & Tracy
T.J & Michelle: Kimberly & Trevin
Mark & Tracy: Jessica & Skyler
Stephen & Desirae: Bethany & Rich
David & Jana: Eric & Cindy
Eric & Cindy: Rosalia & Rebecca
Jessica & Skyler: David & Jana
Rebecca & Rosalia: Stephen & Desirae

Since we are going to all be together this year, I thought it would be fun for the cousins to exchange pajamas and a book on Christmas Eve. For the cousin exchange I put names into a cup and came up with the following:

Hayden: Drew
Maddison: Baby Badger
Max: Brandon
Hunter: Alyssa
Mckay: Brooklyn
Halli: Mason

Tanner: Maddison
Brinley: Max
Paige: Hayden
Bridger: Breyton
Cooper: McKay

Brandon: Tanner size 10-12
Mason: Brinley size 8-10

Alyssa: Halli
Drew: Hunter

Brooklyn: Paige Size 6
Baby Badger: Cooper 18-24 month

Breyton: Bridger size 4T

If you have any questions or concerns, let me know. Please post your child's size PJ's! Thanks, Kimberly

Lame blogger

I'd like to apologize for being a lame blogger.

Excuse #1 Five children

Excuse #2 Lack of technical skills

I know these excuses are lame so I will try to improve and update my blog so that Tracy doesn't delete me. Thanks for your patience.

The following are new posts although not in chronological order.

Camping with Grumpa Fowler

The kids had a fun time fishing and camping with Grumpa Fowler in Utah. Look at those fish!

Birthday picnic in Utah

The kids could only hold off so long from getting soaked in the fountain. The water was way too tempting!

It was wonderful to have Nana and Grandpa with us for the wedding activities. Here they are with all their great grand children and their favorite grand daughter.

Memorial Day

We spent part of Memorial weekend at the beach with our good friends the Reyes family. Cooper loves to eat sand. Yummy.

Snuggle Bugs

Here's Paige and Bridger being snuggle bugs and watching morning cartoons. It was great to have Paige home in the morning to help with the little boys. I am sure going to miss her now that she is moving to all day 1st grade.

Soccer

Both Paige and Brinley had a great Soccer season. Trevin coached Paige's team. Here she is with her friend Morgan. Brinley had her last season playing with her good friend Jenna. They only had 2 losses over the last 4 seasons. They were definitely the team to beat. We will definitely miss the coaches and the other Soccer families we have gotten to know. Brinley is moving on to play with the Lady Vikings in Valpo. The Duneland girls travel team plays on Sundays. After recieving much pressure to play on Sunday, (the coach even suggested we change religions) we found a girls league that does not have Sunday games--it's just a little further to drive. Thanks Mom and Dad for instilling the importance of keeping the Sabbath day even when the world tries to justify breaking it.

Easter

We had a beautiful but still chilly Easter. Spring does not come fast enough in Indiana.

Clean up time

Trying to multi-task by washing the baby and the dishes at the same time. Cooper was such a big help. Definitely a time saver.

Tanner's 10th Birthday Party

Tanner with his friends Michael, Lyle and Luke for his 10th birthday party. They ate pizza and then went to the theater to see the new Narnia movie.

Birthday Party at the Park

We were all together in Utah for Eric & Cindy's wedding. That Sunday we had three birthdays to celebrate. Paige, Maddi, and Cooper all took turns blowing out their candles on their individual yummy chocolate cakes.

Trevin took both girls to their Girl Scout Daddy daughter dance. He bought the girls flowers and took them out to dinner. They had a great time dancing the night away.

Children's Museum

Bridger trying to catch some magnetic fish
at the children's museum in Chicago.

Cooper swimming in the babies only pond.

Cooper

Cooper getting changed into his jammies. Lots of smiles!

DeRidder

The Cousins had a fun time playing together!

The Park in DeRidder got some cool new playground equipment. The weather was even warm enough to play without our winter coats!