Four Jingle Bells

I am determined to update this blog! I have been going for 6 years and I am not giving up on it.  That being said, I have done about 7 posts, so you're welcome Mom and Dad!  We see a lot of barges on the river.  Spencer is in heaven every time.  It really is pretty neat to see them go by. They are so big and it just reminds me of all the neat history of the Mississippi River!  William and I were caught in a seriously freaky torrential rainstorm!  We were at Target for about 45 minutes.  It was sunny when we went in and freakishly green sky when we came out.  I went to put the groceries in the car and in about 30 seconds, was soaked to the bone.  I ran back into the store with William totally freaked out!  We waited for an hour at Target with a bunch of random and friendly Iowans.  They were not the least bit worried, so I guess I have a lot to learn!  We finally got home and the power was out.  So, we went next do...

   We did some cooking this summer.  We made some jigglers once during naptime for the younger kids.  I don't know why Spencer has a mask on his face!  Brooke is a wild woman.  She is just too funny.  She is by far my most independent and mischievous child!  She is also a cereal fanatic!  She always says the funniest things and always wants to give "mouth kisses".  It is fun to get to know her personality better as she gets older.  She will always defend herself, so watch out!  Brooke is super social too.  I am so glad she was our third child because she just fits so awesomely in that spot.  She is good enough friends with Hailey without problems and can wrestle with Spencer and still be a big sister to William.  She is always on the move and busy all day long!  Hailey copying Brooke  Spencer's eating a banana.  (Blake is in his swimsuit, don't get any weird ideas!) ...

 As many of you know, a new baby will bring such joy and absolute craziness to any house!  Sadly, the craziness had transferred into a pretty messy bedroom for us and William.  We read a story in the Friend about a little girl who surprised her mom and helped out.  Hailey took that to heart and secretly made our bed and cleaned our room and the baby's room.  Sometimes I wonder if I am doing anything right when it comes to mothering, but then she does something like this and I know something must be going right!  She is a strong and independent spirit who can try me to the very last nerve and I am grateful for all the lessons I get to learn from mothering her.  Spencer did the same thing.  He totally cleaned off the table and washed it.  Spencer is always willing to jump in and help out with cleaning.  He usually has a clean room and does what I ask the first time.  He is such a blessing and a sweetheart.  He always ha...

 Made some corn starch paint.  The girls loved it.  Spencer was busy with Grandpa Darryl next store, so he missed this time.  This stuff was pretty cool though.  Goopy and fun!  Another project we made with tape and paint.  Kinda messed up so Hailey's was the only one who worked out.  Bubbles equal summer, don't you think?!  Keeps the kids busy for hours and it is so fun to watch their wonder and hear their screams of excitement!  I even love bubbles in my "old" age.  Amazing what kids will eat when it looks cool.  This is an octopus in seaweed.  Also, made banana "ice cream".  Really, it's just a blended banana but has the same consistency of ice cream.  Pretty tricky! Love the puffy cheeks!

 Spencer takes the wackiest pictures!  He is such a goofball and thank goodness for that!  I am too serious sometimes!  This salsa rocked.  I was pretty proud of myself!  Reading books to William.  We loved this book about Pancakes.  I think we read it about 20 different times.  There aren't any words, so the kids all made up their own version.  It was so fun.  Check out those cheeks!!  Eating lunch outside.  We did this all the time!  Pulling vegetables from our friend's garden.  Was wishing my dad were here to enjoy the bounty! I hope that my garden will be awesome when my parents come to visit next year after their mission.  Brooke can't go anywhere without her ponies!  Love the summer faces.  Nothing says summer like sun kissed and exhausted faces!  An adorable bridge at their house.  This was the only way I could get all four in the picture! William...

 On Mondays in the summer, different places had a free entrance day.  We tried to go to as many as we could. I was kind of nervous about going here since we hadn't been there and I wasn't sure if I could handle all 4 kids in such an open space, but it went well.  After getting pretty lost, we found the museum and met up with our friends, the Hodgens, who were our lifelines this summer!   Dressing up in the boat.  One of my favorites of Brooke!  No we were not supposed to pull on the kangaroo but he didn't get mad at all.  Hailey is an ocean girl at heart.  She even wants to be a marine biologist.  Spencer is the builder of our group.  He has an engineers brain!  Proof that William was there!  There was a neat area that was about caves and cave animals.  Learning lots of stuff  We stayed at the museum for a long time because I didn't want to waste all the time it took...