A Rare Moment of Peace!

Something caught all four of their fancy. It was so quiet, I had to peek around the corner and lucky my camera was close by. Even Brennen (in Skylar's lap) was hooked! It only lasted about a minute, but it sure melted my heart.

Brennen got some good news today. Hopefully his ear infections will be a thing of the past. He will be getting tubes placed in two weeks!

Kellen's Favorite pastime!

Kellen loves to play in the water. I have to tell him about 10 times a day to turn off the water. At daycare, his teachers have said to me, "boy, he sure is obsessed with water. He just plays at the sink all day."

I think my water bill will halve when he grows out of this phase.

Skylar's Party

Skylar was so excited for her party that she told me that she could not sleep the night before. She woke up rather early and asked me about every 10 min. if we could set up for the party. Finally, the time came to set up and she was so happy with how it turned out!

There is so much going on, it almost makes me sick, but Skylar loved it!

When the girls arrived, they all got a LPS (Littlest Pet Shop) tattoos.

Happy with her tattoo.

James wanted nothing to do with the "girlie" tattoo's, but Kellen was game for everything.

Skylar chats with the girls as they go through their party boxes!

Next we played Pin the Candle on the Cupcake.

Of course, Kellen wanted to play.

Next came the pinata. It was raining outside, so I had to get a little creative in hanging the pinata. This worked out well and I don't think anyone noticed the exercise machine it was hanging on.

Skylar did make the breaking hit and then I helped the rest of the candy out. As you can see, the girls all dove to the ground for the candy.

After the pinata came the Decorate your cat portion of the party. Last year, I made the mistake of getting paint your horse kits and the paints were not washable (which I did not know until after I bought them). That was a bit of a disaster, but this year the cats were great. The girls just loved them!

Brennen was not pleased with the amount of noise that 11 girls could make.

Party destruction.

Then came cake.


And presents.


I think Kellen had just as much fun as Skylar!

Poor little James got a little abused by the girls, so he mostly stayed out of the way.

Skylar turns 7!!

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Skylar, happy birthday to you!

What?! It started up again!

This should do it!

I love my new outfit! Thank you Annie!

Skylar has been begging for an Ipod for a couple of months now (in pink) and she finally got it! She was sooooo happy!

Have you seen that I have four teeth? Pretty cute, huh?

We are back!

On the day we were to leave for Nashville, Kellen woke up and still could not open his eye. So, I called first thing in the morning and they checked on his eye again. It was rush rush rush because we were suppose to leave for the airport at 9:00. Turns out he had a large piece of glitter in his eye and he had lots of scratches on his eyeball. They got the glitter out, but his eyes were really sensitive to light. He actually wore his sunglasses the whole day and here he finally crashed after a long flight with no nap. I felt like a hero flying down to Nashville with four kids by myself. However, I begged the kids to be on their best behavior and they were!

My mom got a couple of new games for the kids and here they are with Susanna playing on of the new games.

Gammelmormor lovingly watches her great grandkids.

Then the three oldest went and spent the next two nights with Auntie Lena and Big James. They did all kinds of fun things. They went to the zoo, bowling, played at parks. They had so much fun (of course I have no pictures since I was not there)! Then they came back to mom's house and Big James and Lena set up the volleyball net.

The kids waited patiently for the games to begin.

Finally, they got tired of sitting so they decided to play some baseball.

Skylar got a little carried away and fell on her butt!

James has a nice swing and a hit!

Lena and Big James finally get the net up, so it is time for a little Badminton.




The cheering section.

Byron came home from class and the kids attacked him!

Brennen finally woke up from his nap and he was burning up with fever and really in a lot of pain. (He had been feverish and not eating well for the past two days). So, we decided to take him into the ER and sure enough, another double ear infection. They gave him some IV fluids, IV antibiotics, stuff to make him stop throwing up and he seemed to perk right up.

On Monday we had a Nashville birthday for Skylar. She spent the day shopping with Mormor and Susanna and had a nice lunch and ice cream. This was her favorite outfit that she got during her shopping trip.


Then we spent the evening at Chucky Cheese. The kids all loved that!
Time for us to head home. The kids watch for the airplane that will take us back to papa!

Yeah!!! The last day of school!

Today was Skylar's last day of first grade. She is pretty excited for summer...

Two boys get a hair cut to start off the summer.

Kellen's eye was bothering him all morning. After his nap, he could not even open his eye and he just kept his head under his blanket. I took him to the eye doctor and they said he has irisitis. Basically, his iris is inflamed and so every time his eye would adjust to light by dilating, it would cause him a lot of pain. So they put some Novocain in his eye and they also paralyzed his iris so that it would not move. It should be cleared up in 24 hours.

Please meet Ryan and Susanna...

Skylar and James spend their first day of summer playing dress up. I don't know, James looks pretty good as a girl and Skylar, well, she looks more like a scarecrow to me. They had a lot of fun and that's what's important!

A Big Day!

Ten years ago today, JT and I got married. I can't believe it has been that long! We have done a lot in those ten years...4 kids, three moves, two dogs!

JT got a new wedding band from me for our anniversary. I got a trip to Italy: 4 days in Rome and 4 days in Venice! We are planning to go in Septemeber/October!

Mommy sneaking out of the house for a date!

Thank you Maria and Johan for thinking of us on our big day!

Also, Marilyn and Jim have finally move to Sioux Center. The house is done and the movers were here today!

Back patio

Craft Room

Library

Kitchen looking into dinning room

Kitchen

Home Theater