Shiner

 It was bound to happen at some point, and I guess going unscathed until the age of 3 isn't too bad. Tate is an avid horse rider, stick horse rider. He loves racing, and lately chasing his sisters and bumping them with the horse. Yesterday morning as I was doing McKenna's hair, Tate began chasing Tyler while on his horse and I heard them heading downstairs. I'm not sure if he fell down the stairs or when he got to the bottom of the stairs he tripped, but I found a line along his right eye where he'd been hit.

For the remainder of the day I was instructed, "no touch my owie Mommy." Although it must not have been hurting too badly because he got into my makeup drawer and tried to put on eyeliner-the marks above his eyebrow.

This morning his eye was a bit puffier and beginning to color. Now when we go places people just think I beat him, although no one wonders why, they're still telling me I have my hands full with this one.

Tooth #5-McKenna

For the past couple of weeks McKenna's top two teeth have gotten a bit loose and grow looser everyday. It must have made her nervous and hurt because she stopped eating. At times when she'd try one of the top teeth would twist a lil and freak  her out. It wasn't loose enough to pull so we continued to wait...and then while we were in Utah it was ready, no one was allowed to touch it except her Dad who was in Washington. Sure enough the morning he got back he calmed her down with promises to only try once and asking her to be brave. McKenna describes the episode with he pulled and it cracked and then it came out. Sounds awful, but she's thrilled to have it out and is back to eating.

37 and Still Counting

37 years old...my that sounds old. And being pregnant most days it feels pretty old.

 I have much to be thankful for my family, especially my fun, forgiving, fantastic 3 kids who teach me to continue to try and be better. My husband who not only tells me but shows me how much he loves me everyday.

 My wonderful friends from near and far who spoiled me with roses, pie, lunch (fruit pizza) both of which were DELICIOUS!!! I was also Showered with texts, phone calls and well wishes all day which I love.

It was a great birthday and looking forward to a great year!

Tyler's Fieldtrips

Tyler's preschool has been on quite a few fieldtrips- There was one in Feb to Top Foods where they got a tour of the store. Each dept had a lil contribution for the kids to put in their bag and then at the end they were given a cupcake to decorate. The kids had a blast and loved it!

A couple of Tyler's friends Maliya & Makenzie.

 In March they went and visited the local Fire Dept in Sumner. Both Tate and Tyler were a lil leary and nervous of the firefighters.

 Nothing like a good choke hold to get your brother to hold still and look at the camera.

 Tate however was not shy when it came to getting in the Fire Engine.

(Too bad I couldn't get a better picture)

 Mrs Witham even got up and check it out.

1. Another fun trip-Thanks SCNS for setting this up.

St Patricks Day

With a little help from the Leprachaun's we got a lot of work done on St. Patrick's Day.  We made the Leprachaun traps, minus the ladders and the Leprachaun's did not disappoint. They watched and rewarded for Jobs well done. Beds made, rooms cleaned, and of course horses stalls mucked.

 Tate not sure of what was going on apprecciated and Loved the chocolate coins.

 Some got more than others but everyone got a little something.

Thank you Leprachaun's, look forward to another visit next year.

Living the Dream

It's been a much longer process than anyone had imagined - but we have finally signed on our new house and although we've been living there a month, it is NOW, finally ours. It's just under 8 acres, comes with (what is left) a barn/stable, an outbuilding (aka carriage house) and a large house that we love to live in and hate to clean. It's only 5 miles from our other house-therefore we are able to stay in the same ward. Unfortunately it is a different school-although McKenna is finishing out the 1st grade with Mrs Larson (whom we LOVE & adore). On the plus side, Maple Lawn's current location is only a few minutes away so instead of catching the bus at 7:50 am, I drop her off at 8:35 am. Which has been nice for everyone. It's a wonderful place that we feel very blessed to have been able to move here. It's also nice to have the former owners (Clifton's) living next door in case we have any questions. Larry is very knowledgable and a great resource-it's amazing the stuff he knows-especially about birds.

 There is a small orchard of apple & pear trees and a couple rows of Grape Vines begging to be pruned back. All in due time...It's a great place for the kids to play and they call it the "Fairy Forest" and have spent hours in there playing, the trees are small and perfect for climbing.

 The wildlife is fantastic! Tons of huge frogs that croak all night long. We haven't caught any but we do scaring them back into the water. There is a ton of birds: ducks, geese, and a large variety of small birds I haven't identified yet. We've also seen Opossum, a beaver, a blue herring that drops in occassionally, and a large number of pigeons who live in the roof of the barn. Tyler loves them, prays for them, and the rest of us just deal with them. McKenna has been pooped on and is not a fan.

Taking care of the horses by far is the biggest highlight. Letting them out in the morning, putting them in their stalls in the evenings, feeding, even mucking the stalls-which Tyler loves doing and its actually catching on with the other two. The horses are beautiful and well mannered, their owners are very nice. They even let the kids come and hang out and watch as they groom and train them.
I had a friend mention, "you're living the dream." Some days I look around at all the work that needs to be done to get this place back in the beautiful state it was in shortly before buying it and I feel a bit overwhelmed. Overall we feel very blessed to live here. The opportunities, the challenges, and the fun are all to attest we agree, we feel as though at this moment we are living the dream.

Baby #4 is a....

We got the whole family together and headed to the ob office to find out what this little baby is going to be. The girls were really excited, although McKenna was a bit nervous. Tate didn't know what was going on-and once we got there I'm sure he was wishing we had left him home. It was a longer wait than usual-and once we got into the ultrasound office it was a bit crowded.

We were finally ushered into a small room that with the extra 4 guests seemed especially small and McKenna immediately freaked out when I had to pull my shirt up. She turned around and found entertainment in the blinds. I was pretty confident we were having a girl, especially when the gender didn't come up right away. It's the little girls who are usually shy about sharing their gender. After a thorough ultrasound of measuring everything this kid had, and Tate had explored any form of entertainment-it was finally announced it was a ....BOY?!

I was shocked and speechless, the kids excited, and John seemed pleased. He'd been pretty confident since December and the level of sickness that another boy was coming.

We are ALL very excited for this little boy to come, and that it is a boy. Even numbers all the way around, and at some point in time-Tate will hopefully have someone to play with him.

Grandma & Grandpa H come to help

As the Final days For packing and preparation oF the big move to Sumner came Help arrived in a car packed From Utah. Grandma and Grandpa Harris came to the rescue, only to Find that things had been put on hold. They think we've gone to extreme measures Fabricating a story about moving just to get them to come visit. A girls got to do what a girls got to do...although this was not the case the help was more than appreciated. They came and stayed an extra week and a half, packing boxes, cleaning house, and even painting the new bedrooms and making sure we got moved into the new place beFore heading home.

It was pretty wet and rainy the whole time they were here, so we did take a break from moving heading to the city for a little fun at the Pacific Science Center

Toddler world with Grandpa Harris

Light Maze

Tate the Music Man?

We still LOVE the Butterfly House

Although Big Bully Tate was scared of the Butterflies

Look closely and you'll see a Butterfly in Grandma's hair.

(top right)

3D Dinosaur Movie

Ring around the Rosies with a lot of McKenna's and Tyler's.

On the Way out we discovered the Anti-Gravity Mirrors

It was a great afternoon-and as always we found lots of new things we hadn't discovered before.

We Love our Grandmas and Grandpas and spending time with them!

Happy Valentine's Day 2012

Things have been busy as we try and wrap things up. As we cleaned out drawers we came across our box of broken crayons and so we put together Valentine's for Tyler's class. Loving Pinterest and the ideas you can find on there.

Valentine's was pretty quiet otherwise. I think we did get our pink heart pancakes in for dinner.