P's first haircut

He did great! It was clear he was relaxed but that what she did around his neck was tickling him. It was pretty cute.

it's not over until it's over

Well, this post will lack pictures and probably a lot of sense but this blog is not finished. I am not done blogging. This past season has just been out of control busy with life. Good life. We are working on a "remodel," I got an iphone and therefore use instagram for most updates, we found out we are having a number four baby and I have been busy rushing around between four locations to complete my third and final internship as a counselor. I have two classes left and plan to graduate in May, finally! I love what I am learning and I love counseling but between childcare and everything else it is stressful to say the least! In addition to seeing clients and doing paperwork/documentation, we are also required to meet weekly with an approved and licensed supervisor for one hour, plus an hour and a half with our staff supervisor in a group setting and complete related assignments.

About the baby, we were not trying- of course- we never are but after the initial shock we welcome the blessing and thank the Lord for allowing us the privilege. As far as the future, we like the number four and feel that it is a great place to stop but not sure what that looks like right now. We are praying about what the Lord might have us do and not sure we need to be taking permanent precautions into our own hands just yet.

The girls are pretty excited but, like me, have some anxiety about another boy! We like the idea of Porter having a buddy so close in age and keeping things even but Porter gives us a run for our money between climbing the table and making messes.

The next post just may turn out to be a photo dump because frankly that is about all of an update I can muster right now...

Our Little Monster Turned ONE!

Porter's 1st birthday was Saturday and we had our family over to celebrate. We went with a monster theme even though there is nothing about him that is like a monster! He is just a ball of precious. He makes us smile and laugh all the time. He was happy to have all of the attention on him too.

He dove into lunch and then dove into that cake. The girls thought it was hilarious and could not stop giggling. As for the presents, he was happy to play in the "ball pit" and we had to really work to get him to open anything. He mostly just wanted to climb onto the boxes and push them around. He got a lot of cute stuff though (and it was time he had his own boy toys!). He got a 4 in 1 tricycle, a water table, a toy chainsaw and a toy leaf/bubble blower, a big toy dumptruck, a toy car and a little toy puppy to walk. It took all of an hour to get them all opened, ha! Randy and I worked together to make him a miniature "busy board" which is right up his alley but he hasn't been able to look past the ball pit in two days. It would be nice to eventually make him a much larger one but we were on a bit of a time crunch.

It was a great day and I think he had a lot of fun. His 12 month check up is right around the corner so I will be interested to find out his stats. I also plan to post an update on other milestones from this month.

Without further ado, here are A LOT of pictures:

Bella's First Field Day

Bella's school had field day last week and I had been looking forward to going for a while. That morning turned out to be a rough one with the littles and Ava never made it to preschool. I took them with me and rushed to the school to catch the last two events. The kids were still full of energy and having a blast after three hours of being out there!

Picnic at the Park & a Playdate

Last week we had so much rain it was getting depressing. On the one sunny day I had to get out so I decided to take the littles to the park for a picnic. Porter hasn't been to the park since he was old enough to know where he was and so he took his first ride on a swing. He loved it... for a minute. He really cared more about people watching and whatnot. I will have to try again one day when he isn't so tired I guess. He would smile a little but then just reached for me to get him out...



Another day last week we had the privilege of hosting our friend and her son for a little playdate, mostly for me and her but also for the boys. The girls were a great help but next time if we want to have a conversation, we may have to go to the Y and utilize the childcare! Everyone was interested in the basket. The boys wanted to dump it and the girls used it to play baby when we weren't looking :)

Porter & Max

Bella's Sixth Birthday Celebrations

It seems like we spend 11 months out of the year talking and planning Bella's parties and then we spend a month counting down and preparing for them. This year this was the case even more so. It drives us crazy at times. Anyway, we decided on a glow party theme. I was worried about the time and if it would be dark enough but it turned out great. We had it at 6 and used blankets to black out the windows in the den. We had glow in the dark balloons, games and decorations. I got some glow in dark paint to make her banner and table runner and then used neon colors when glow in the dark wasn't possible. We attached glow sticks to hula hoops and those were the favors. We also had glow earrings, glasses and rings. We had bowling with water bottles and light up balls and a glow in the dark ring toss and even glow in the dark bubbles. The kids she invited ended up being a great group. We had pizza (of course), cupcakes and they made their own sundaes. Sadly, I forgot to take any pictures of the games but that room was pretty cool- mostly dark with lots of balloons and glow sticks!



The next day we went to McDonald's after church to celebrate her birthday with cousins and grandparents. She asks us every Sunday if we can go to McDonald's and we always say no way but this time it was her birthday choice! She got a lot great gifts that made her a very happy girl. They were mostly things for her American Girl doll, Julie. After that she requested that she and I go shopping for more stuff for Julie and so we did.



Later Randy and I realized that we were supposed to paint the rock at her school on Sunday rather than Monday evening like we thought- it turns out that you get two days not just one. Sooooooo since we had not planned ahead, we packed up all three kids and paint and headed to the school in the dark and well, we did the best we could. Looking back I would have done it very differently. We thought we may go fix the next day if need be but the floodgates opened up and that wasn't possible.



On her actual birthday, Tuesday, Ava, Porter and I ate lunch with her at school and brought donuts to share in the class. She was in heaven. That afternoon we went to my mom's and celebrated again with dinner, cookie cake and more presents (again for Julie!). She was one happy camper and kept saying this was the best birthday ever. And I am glad because I was WIPED and I don't want to have to do this again for a long time. Randy has already told her we aren't going to talk about her birthday again until next March and even suggested that we go to the beach next year and skip the parties! She is not amused.