Happy Birthday to My Baby!

I don't know how this happened but my baby turned 2 today!

Time goes by faster with each passing year!

Blake is such a joy to have in our family. I remember thinking for a while we were "done" having kids after #3. When we felt impressed to go for #4, I was so overwhelmed with the thought of having 4 kids. My pregnancy was good, the delivery was good (but crazy fast) and Blake has been such a good child since he was born. We have loved every minute of his little life! (well, most of them anyway!!)

Blake is really growing so fast! I guess he just watches all these other big kids in the house and wants to fit right in. In a way, it is really nice. In another way, not so nice because he is my last baby and I know these days are numbered and ticking away!

He is already sleeping in the bottom bunk bed. He does great staying in bed too! We haven't had to "lock" him in his room for coming out yet. (YET...) The only issue we have is when he decides it is okay to come out of his room at 5:30am. I have tried telling him that Mommy is still sleeping when it is dark outside and don't wake me up please. (yeah right) BUT a few days he has actually stayed out in the living room. One day last week I even saw him laying on the computer room floor by the dog crate - asleep! What a good listener!

He is also going to the potty pretty consistently. I have to admit that it is nice to not have to change so many stinky diapers!!! Oh yes!!!

Here is Blake trying to put up 2 fingers - which is harder than it looks!! We were so excited to get "Elmo Cupcakes" today at the store! He couldn't wait to get his hands on them!! We also found an adorable Elmo balloon! He loves it and came right in the door to show Bella. She growled at it for a while and then had fun playing with it today too!

Blake had to wait until everyone got home from work and school to open presents. He opened his Elmo doll, bubble blower, new coloring notebook (his "homework") and ball. Then Tyler went in the back room and rolled out on his new bike - a Hot Wheels big wheeler. He ran right to it and it was love at first sight!! He cried when we pried him off of it to go to dinner. I knew I should have made dinner at home!!!! Oh well. There's always tomorrow...
We had fun taking goofy pictures at the restaurant. We went to a new mexican restaurant close to our house - El Zarape. It was really good! He wasn't trying to stick his tongue out in this picture, we just were lucky to get the cute shot!!!

Another lucky and cute shot of our birthday boy!!

Daddy's boy - so cute!!!

Happy Birthday Blake - we love you!!

2nd Annual Cousin Campout

What a weekend we just had! When we finally were able to leave the house (3 hours after we planned) and get Blake out of the hot locked car (terrifying!!), we had a great weekend with our family! We had a Cousin's Campout on Friday night at Mom and Dad's. On Sunday, we had family pictures made (as you can see a glimpse below). We set up camp behind Mom and Dad's house in the field behind their big barn. It was perfect, quiet and great area for a big fire (I think Mom threatened to burn the barn down at one point to get rid of it...?? heehee). Here is Tyler getting the tent ready for the night - but don't let him fool you. He and Madison didn't even try to sleep outside. They were too scared. As Madison says, "we are not happy campers". Oh well.

Here are the older girls (Morgan, Jamie and Ashton) in their tent. And they did try to sleep outside but ended up coming in the house around 5am due to the down pour of rain! Jamie's pillows were soaked! Ewwwww!!! Still fun though.

These girls also got to experience their first "snipe hunt". Ethan and Jason took them out to catch snipes. They were super excited leaving but came back to camp crying their eyes out!! They got really scared being left out in the dark to "catch" their snipe. They have sworn revengence on those 2 guys!! Beware!

We all played a fun game of tag that Grandma calls "Ain't No Boogers Out Tonight - Papa Killed Them All Last Night!" It's pretty much a game of tag played in the dark! Very fun!

Grandma was a chaser :) and everyone had to get back to "base".

We had our very own "country drive-in" at the barn! My brother Danny projected a movie onto the barn for everyone's viewing pleasure! :) We ate popcorn balls and enjoyed the show (atleast 10 or 15 minutes of it anyway!!)

Movie time!

Here is Grace, ready to get it started!!! She couldn't have been more thrilled that we were watching a movie!!

And don't forget the s'mores!! After roasting hot dogs, we made s'mores. When I told the kids we were making s'mores, Lanie wanted to know "some more what"??

The kids all did really good cooking over the fire!

Just hanging out by the fire with Papa....

With 13 kids, 8 dogs and some mighty tired adults, we made some great memories!

We hope to have many more at future Cousin Campouts!!!

Conference Weekend

We had a wonderful General Conference weekend at our house AND I have discovered yet another reason why I LOVE our new playroom!!!! We decided to put up a "conference tent" for the kids to watch conference. We put it in the playroom. We explained to the kids that in the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin taught his people from a tower so everyone could hear. The people gathered around the tent with their families and put up tents with the door facing the tower to hear King Benjamin. Josh put the tent door facing the tv so they could hear the prophet (and other church leaders') words. They also had little "conference packets" with mazes, bingo, connect the dot, fill in the blank, etc. And their favorite tradition we have is the little bowl of candy we pass around.
Today was especially fun because our friends, the Millers, came over to enjoy conference with us. Amazingly, they were all quiet enough to hear and listen to most of the talks. I wish I would have remembered to get a picture of them all in the tent. Very fun!!! Josh and I were able to watch conference in peace and quiet in the living room while the kids did their conference activities in the playroom! It was great!! I love that room!

We look forward to doing this fun family tradition again next April!!!