update

So anyways here is a little update on what has been going on in the last few months. We just celebrated Halloween last night. Liz was Cleopatra (actually she was the  Cleo denial). Kayla was a  werewolf. Blake was Batman and Zander was Batman's sidekick Robin.

After trick or treating down our street Blake and Kayla decided they were done. So I ended up taking them home and took Liz and her friends out for another hour.

Jared just got back from his deer hunt. He and Liz were drawn this year. Jared got his buck opening morning.

Zander turned 1 last week. Jared just started taking a metal working class and his first class was on Zander's birthday. So Jared hurried home from work and we woke up Zander and had a little party. You can tell from the photos Zander is just waking up.

A few weeks ago we headed to Greer Arizona. We stayed in a really nice cabin and were able to go fishing. We caught 7 fish total. Blake caught the most with 3. We ate them for dinner and Blake made sure he ate the biggest fish.

On our way home we stopped and launched Jared's rocket. It went really well until the last launch when the rocket flew away and was never found. I just thought this picture of Liz was funny. Check out those glasses.

And here is our new puppy Shotzy (German for sweetheart). Jared and I picked her up on the way home from our romantic 13 year anniversary getaway. The kids were really surprised. We need to take more pictures apparently since this is the only one we have.
She is doing well on her potty training and has lots and lots of energy. Hopefully when the baby gets here in May she will be more calm like our Cleo dog.

Alright here is my recap of the last few months.

Zander was blessed with his cousin Kent.

Blake had his 4th birthday, which included a super hero themed party with all his friends. We played super hero basket (fruit basket tip over), we made spiders and spider webs, we tied up bad guys, and we had super hero cake and homemade root beer.

We had an Easter weekend with both sides of the family which included a trip to the mall for new Sunday dresses, playing in the splash pad, egg dying, 2 Easter Egg hunts, a BBQ of crumbled Belk burgers (lets just say we all ate a lot of chips and pie), and Sunday dinner with the Great Grandparents.

The girls have been taking music lessons this year. Elizabeth plays the violin and Kayla plays the piano. They had a recital which only lasted 10 minutes. Best recital ever! Oh and they played great.

Zander is getting bigger. He is 6 months old now. He can sit up, roll across the room, and get on his knees and rock back and forth. He has a jumping horse he loves to sit in and bounce. I wanted to upload a movie of him in it but it was taking to long to upload and I don't feel like waiting around all day. He started teething a few weeks ago and loves his rice cereal! I have never had a kid eat rice cereal. The first time I tried feeding him he did so well I asked Jared how many bites he thought Zander had taken. He figured around 6 (that would have been good for any of our other kids) he really ate around 30 bites! At his 6 month check up the Dr asked if he was sleeping through the night. Yeah right. He said he was old enough to do it, no need to say that again. That very night he was moved upstairs into Blake's room. I have no idea if he sleeps through the night but I can't hear him downstairs so I am sleeping good. :)

Blake and Jared went on their first Father's in Sons Camp out. When they got home Jared set up the tent in the backyard. We had a fire and roasted marshmallows and told "scary" stories like how dad went to the store and spent all the money. I like to tell that scary story alot. :) The kids then slept in the backyard. Well not the baby.

This weekend was my grandmothers birthday and she had recently told me she wanted some pictures of the kids. Saturday morning Jared and I thought it would be fun to hold a "photo shoot" in the backyard. It was actually really fun and after promising Blake he would get a star if he participated everything went smoothly. We even got a few smiles from Zander, of course those were usually in the same pictures Blake had his eyes closed! We were able to get a few pictures made for my grandma and were able to have a nice visit with her. It was also a nice surprise when we got to her house only to have the door be opened by my brother Richard! It was great to be able to see his family and see how big Kenton and Wesley are getting.









I think my favorite is the one with all four of them laying on the grass. What do you think? Anyways we had a great time as a family this weekend. After our mock photo shoot we went to the music store to get new strings for my/Elizabeth's violin and a new piano book for Kayla. Jared was inspired while we were there and has been getting out his old trumpet the last few days (even at 9pm when all the kids were asleep!) and yes he did wake up Zander and no he did not go right back to sleep!

So after not posting awhile I was asked to put up some pictures of my little ones. Sometimes I find blogging is like a chore for me,( if you have ever been to my house before you would see how much I hate doing chores.:)) probably why I don't blog very often. So anywho here are a few pictures of the family over the last month. The first few are of Zander who is still not sleeping well in the middle of the night and who at this very moment is screaming at the top of his lungs. I still think he is pretty cute though. :)







Here is a few random pictures of Jared getting a pressure washer for Christmas. I accidentally added these pictures to the blog and thought oh well might as well keep them up. As I am sure most of you already know Jared was really sick this month. Within a few days of the new year Jared ended up getting the flu 10 days later he still was not better and having a fever of 104 we thought hey maybe we should go to the ER. Well a few hours later and and x-ray revealed the problem. Pneumonia in 2/3 of his right lung. He was admitted to the hospital and was released 5 days later! Luckily he is doing much better and is looking forward to his strength coming back.

This past weekend with Jared feeling a lot better he took our three oldest children to the Monster Truck Rally. The kids had a great time! They got to go down in to the pit before the show and meet a few of the drivers and Jared even won T-shirts and hats for the kids by winning a contest of taking out spark plugs the fastest. ( He even did it with his eyes closed! No joke)

Jared is a little obsessed with having us take pictures with duck faces. Here is Blake and Elizabeth satisfying his love of water fowl. :)


Blake is in his super hero phase and is obsessed with all things super hero. His absolute favorite is Batman. Everyday I am instructed to be Robin while he is Batman and we fight bad guys together. I knew there was going to be a Batman truck so I had Blake wear his Batman shirt, he was really excited to go and me the driver until he got there and realized the driver was real, he is really shy.

It sounded like they had a ton of fun and I can't wait to go another time when Zander is a bit older.