First artwork

Chloe and Taylor brought these drawings home from school on day 2. I love how different they are. And Taylor drew a face on hers, the 2nd time I've seen her draw a face. And Chloe's is so dramatic, just like her personality. I can just see them working really hard with their markers to create these masterpieces. Pretty cute! I figured I can't save every piece of artwork from here on out but I am going to try and take a photo of my favorite ones.
Taylor's......



Chloe's.....

updates, updates, updates!

We have had a crazy couple of weeks. I have TONS of cute bday party photos coming soon. Just a review of the last 2 weeks.

Stolen---We had been home for 2 days and the 2nd day of school Jake and I walk outside our front door to take the girls to school and we can't find our minivan. You know the only car we have that has the brand new Britax Marathon carseats I had just bought for the kids in it. Yep, some jerk stole our car. So I've spent the last 2 weeks on the phone with insurance companies etc. We have 1 more week to go and then the insurance company will declare it gone for good. Just what we need--to have to go car shopping with 3 little ones a baby about to pop out! The fun never ends.

Birthday Parties--Chloe and Taylor turned 3! We had a party with a few friends, they were SO excited and had a blast decorating, wearing party dresses and opening presents. Coby turned 2, we celebrated with a few family members. He was pretty grouchy at his party because he got woke up from his nap, but once we let him play outside he was fine. He had no interest at all in his presents or his cake. He opened up one present(a bag of balls) with help from Taylor and he played with that the whole time.

Construction--We finally moved back into our house! We've been in here for about a week and things are starting to get organized. We're still in boxes and the construction is still going on, but life is somewhat back to normal. They are just finishing up odd and ends and waiting for 2 more windows to come in. My guess is 2 more weeks. It's the never ending project, but at least we can stay here while they are finishing up the details. The main living area and kids rooms are lead free. Yeah! Poor kids are trying to nap right now with saws, loud compressors and several noisy workers going up and down the stairs and slamming doors. I hate construction.

School-The girls LOVE school and the teachers love them. They have about 8 students in their class and 4 teachers so the ratio is great. Today they came home with rain sticks they had made. They have the cutest art projects, alot of stuff I don't have time to do with them at home. The head teacher said it's like they've been in preschool their whole lives. She said they fit right in and are very cooperative and good listeners. Both Chloe and Taylor get very excited on school days. The love getting ready for school, putting bows their hair and carrying their own back packs.

Sleeping Issues- This started up again when we moved back in. I think it was combination of school starting, all the chaos at the house with the construction, moving back in with daddy and having Coby stay with Grandma for a week. Both Chloe and Taylor started waking up crying at night and Taylor would cry for over an hour each night before she would fall asleep. We tried everything and then after about a week of it we decided to put them in separate rooms. Taylor now likes to sleep with the closet light on and Chloe likes it off. Drama, drama. Anyway they've both slept great the last few nights so lets hope that continues. Coby is still our champion sleeper, so at least we have one solid sleeper we can count on. Taylor told me that she really loves her baby brother Coby and she's so happy he's home with us at our house. I think all of the kids are glad to be home and be with just our family once again after 4 months of being apart. So now that they are all back on napping/sleeping schedules we'll add #4 and mess it all up again! :)

Baby #4--Only 5 weeks till due date! Jake and I had our birthing class yesterday. It was a good refresher and I feel more prepared now for the labor and delivery. My birth plan is to do everything completely natural and drug free. So if there are no major complications I should be able to do that. We still haven't picked out a name, it's hard not knowing the gender of the baby. So I think for the first few weeks we'll just call it #4 or baby. Hopefully he or she will have a name before he/she turns 1. :)

So that's our last 2 weeks in a nutshell, that's why I'm a bit behind on my blogging. Photos to follow soon!

State Fair Photos

I wasn't even going to attempt to dress the kids up this year at the state fair. Luckily my mom was there with me and she insisted we at least try. Coby was NOT in a good mood and the girls weren't into either but I'm really glad we got their photograph taken. I'm going to do this every year. It's so fun to see how much they've changed.

2009


2008

First Day of School

I cried, I couldn't help it. But don't worry the girls did great. No tears at all! Chloe and Taylor were very excited about their fist day of school. They picked out matching shirts and packed their backpacks full of stuff. Taylor had her mommy chewy and a toy and the extra clothes and pull ups in her backpack. Chloe had a few chewies, her sunglasses and an extra change of clothes. Taylor asked me on the way if I put a diaper in her bag and if I had remembered to put her special big girl underpants in there too. I guess she just wanted to make sure she had the option to pee her pants. :) Jake and I took them together. They were a tad shy at first but they warmed up to one of the teachers and started to paint with her. So we made our get away at that time. We just said bye bye, we're going home we'll be back. I had to leave quickly because I of course started to cry and I didn't want then to see me. While I was crying in the bathroom Jake said his goodbye's and they said bye to him. Taylor told her teacher I was going bye-bye but I'd be back later. So sweet. Well they are there now, I leave in just an hour to pick them up, I can't wait to see how it went!

Happy 2nd Birthday Coby!!!

Our little baby is 2 today. We will celebrate on Friday night with a few family members. Party pics to come, for now here's a few photos from his first 2 years. We love this little guy and can't imagine life without him. He is so happy to finally have passed up both Taylor and Chloe, so he never has to wear pink again. :)

She fell asleep mid-fry

School starts Monday!!!

We were supposed to start school this week but the construction crew is putting our new windows in. So we're still at Grandmas. I'm going to take the girls up to Portland this week and start them in school on Monday. They will be going MTW from 9-11:15. They are SO ready for preschool and I think they will do really well once they get adjusted to being without mommy. I've never left them with anyone but Grandma so I'm really nervous about just dropping them off and leaving them with strangers for 2 hours. At least they have each other right? Anyway it will be good for Coby to get some one on one attention from me before the baby comes. Speaking of baby I'm due Nov. 5th and everything looks right on schedule! We better start thinking of names and dig out all those newborn clothes.

And here are the babies I'm sending off to school next week.......

Poor kids

The kids have been chickens for Halloween the past 2 years. I had to buy Coby a new one last year because he was so little first year. Jake and I are thinking we should try and squeeze one more year out of the chicken costumes. Our poor kids are going to think Halloween is a holiday where you dress up as a chicken and get candy. They'll find out the truth one day. :)

Papa's Birthday

Making a card for Papa




The after party...

Oregon Coast II

Last weekend my parents rented a big beach house out on the Oregon Coast. All my siblings and their families were able to make it so we had 6 kids ages 2 and under. It was really fun, but exhausting with all of those babies under one roof. We're looking forward to the vacations when everyone is 5 and up. :) It was windy the first few days and then the last day it was 65 with hardly any wind so we all had a great time at the beach. I didn't get any great shots because it was really foggy out, and my camera was on the wrong setting.

Oregon Coast

Here's a little preview of our family vacation out to the coast. The kids LOVED the beach!