Happy Birthday Ethan!

We celebrated Ethan's birthday on Christmas evening, at Grandma and Grandpa Durtschi's house.  I brought the cake.  Ethan thought it was awesome, even though I can (and I'm sure most of you can) see all of my mistakes. 

Somehow, I didn't even manage to get a picture of Ethan with his eyes open.  Sorry Ethan!  We love you!

Ethan, we love that you are a part of our family and you add so much life and excitement to our lives. 

Ethan opted to get his big present this spring, instead of on his birthday.  This may be something we continue.  We'll have to see, I guess.

Christmas morning

We actually had a really great Christmas morning. The kids opened their stockings and we got some ziploc bags for them to put their loot into.

And apparently I forgot to take any other pictures.  It was a really nice morning, though.  It's so fun to see how excited the kids get.  It's hard not to get excited right along with them.

Whitney came up with her boyfriend, Joe.  It was so nice that they were able to celebrate Christmas with us.  We loved having them visit.

Sasha's birthday

Sasha had a couple of her girl friends over to celebrate her birthday, the day before her birthday.  They were pretty cute.

Here's also my attempt at building a princess castle.  Luckily, she really likes pink and princesses, so this satisfied her. 

Presents are awesome!

On her birthday, we celebrated her birthday as a family. 

Thank you for the gifts were given to her!  She loves them all.

November???

Here are some random pictures. They may be from November, though the first is from December.

This is a picture that Ethan and Grandma Diane drew together.  They had a lot of fun!

Gotta love it when the kids get the camera . . .

Family pictures

One of my friends decided to take pictures of our family for a birthday present. Awesome present! Here are some of the pictures.

October 2011

Our October post is basically just Halloween, which is really exciting around here.

This picture is of Grant's class singing some songs.  Grant is in the very bottom left (as you look at him). 

Mr. Grant (Mario)

Mr. Ethan (Luigi)

These guys LOVE trick or treating.  Our neighborhood is AWESOME, as far as trick or treating goes. 

This is how Lily spent her time trick or treating.

I'm sure you can tell, we have a Super Mario Bros theme here.  Ethan is Luigi, Grant is Mario, Sasha is Princess Peach, and Lily is a bumblebee (from Super Mario Galaxy).

September 2011

In September, Lily learned how to walk.  (I hope the video works.  I'm so sorry if it doesn't.)

The kids had fun running in the sprinklers.

Brian spent a lot of time building a cider press that attaches to our picnic table . . .

and then he pressed apples to make some really yummy cider.

We learned that you can heat up the cider and pour it into old beer bottles and cap them, and they keep quite well.  There has been one exception, unfortunately . . .

I ran a 5k.  I really enjoyed it, but do wish that I had been able to run with Angie, like we had planned.  I'm so sorry that Angie got sick . . . bummer!

We went out for my birthday.  When we came home, the kids and our babysitter had a couple of signs up and suprised me . . . it was really fun.

August 2011

Some friends that we made in South Carolina came to visit us in August.  Our kids had a lot of fun playing with their kids.  It was really great having them.  One day, we took them to Yellowstone. 

Here we are, waiting for Old Faithful.

 

There was a little activity at Reed's dairy as well.  The boys enjoyed their rides on the horses. 

Sasha wanted a little company.  I went with my friend, Rachel, and her kids.   

I really wish that I had taken pictures of the kids with their ice cream cones.  The cones were discounted for this activity, so I decided to get the kids big waffle cones.  They were HUGE!  I don't think anyone actually finished their waffle cones.  I shared mine with Lily and it was still way too big!

July 2011 - Part 2

In July, we had a family reunion on the Jenkins side in Colorado. We all settled in the car with the TV and the Wii and drove there. My parents rented a condo in a mountain town and we stayed there one night. It was so nice to see everyone.

My mom brought a lot of candy so the kids could play a game with them (and of course, eat them). This is my mom with Sasha and Sasha's cousin, Camden.

Here's Grant playing the same game with my cousin's daughter.

And Ethan, Camden, my cousin's daughter, with my Dad and beautiful pregnant sister in the background. She's definitely amazing. She was very close to her due date, yet she still traveled all the way from Arkansas to Colorado. Everything turned out just great, she had her little Aiden when she was back home in Arkansas.
Lily was a little sick of the car by the end. Here, we are taking a bathroom break, breather while she enjoys a bit of freedom in the car.

There was all sorts of fun stuff going on at the reunion. The boys loved making foam visors.

So did Sasha.

It was a lot of fun going to the reunion and seeing all of my family. Thankfully, next time, our kids will be a bit older. It's so much easier traveling with older children . . .