Easter/Spring Break

I know that it's been a long time since I have posted anything. Life happend and I stopped writing. But this past week has been a big one. It started off with the kids starting their Spring Break. We were then able to celebrate Easter at our house this year....it was nice to have it hear so that I was able to put Hunter and Hailey down for naps after lunch. It was a great time with family and just being able to relax.

Spring Break didn't start off so well, it rained for the first few days. Thursday it finally started to turn around, just in time to celebrate Hailey's birthday. Friday was another beautiful day and we took the kids to go bowling in the morning, it's a tradition, the kids love to go bowling on Spring Break. Friday was also a big day for Spencer because he lost his first tooth! He had been waiting for a while now to lose his tooth and friday night it was finally lose enough that he let me pull it out. His new tooth is already coming in!

Saturday was a beautiful day. I couldn't have asked for a better day that this. We were able to celebrate Hailey's birthday with family and have a cookout. Hailey had a great time opening her presents and playing with her brothers and her cousin Ruby. I just can't believe that Hailey is now 2...where has the time gone? She is such a big girl now and I love the fact that we are now entering a new stage of our lives - no more Babies!

Our First Family Vacation of 6!

This morning we left at 9:00 am for Nashville, TN. I am not so sure of how this trip will go. This is the first time that we are driving with the kids in the car for this amount of time. This could be a great trip or a nightmare.

Everything was great for the first 3 hours...

then we hit a traffic jam! The boys are telling us that they are hungry and Hailey is starting to scream! We finally get out of the traffic jam, 30 min later, and Hailey has fallen asleep. We stop off at McDonalds, of course, for lunch and to let the kids run around and play. Thank goodness that the McDonalds that we stopped off has a playground set.

2:00 - Back on the road again! Hailey is not happy to be back in her seat again. As we are going through Cinncinati we have to go through the long tunnel wiht lights and Spencer calls over to Tyler "Hey Tyler, look at this pretty place!" I just started to laugh. Jason says "Did he just call this place 'pretty'? It's great sometimes when the kids det to see things for the first time and to hear their comments and to see their reactions!

3:00 - Nap Time - This was a nice part of the trip. I don't have to entertain anyone anymore!

Well, we are almost here. I am surprised as to how well everything is going. The 3 boys are watching movies and Tyler is multitasking and playing his DS. I can't believe the batteries haven't died yet. Hailey and I played catch with the little soccer ball. We are going to meet up with our friend Matt for dinner. It's funny, but coming down here almost feels like we are coming home!

As we are pulling off the exit Spencer asks "Are we in TN?", "Yes Spencer, we are in TN". Then Spencer says "Look it's TN! It even has a gas station, Car Wash, Shopping Stores and a Wendy's. It even has a post office." I am not sure but I think that he thinks we are in a different country.

It was great to be able to see Matt again and to catch up with him. The kids even had a great time with Matt.

We let the kids run around the parking lot for awhile to stretch their legs. Spencer looked at Tyler and said "let's roll down the hill". So Hunter and Tyler laid down to roll down the hill. Matt pipes up and says "how about we roll down a hill that DOESN'T end up in a 4 lane road. Thanks Matt for watching out for our kids!

After dinner we had to run to Toys R Us because I left Cate's present hat home. The kids are all quiet and ready for bed...to bad we aren't at Angela's mom's house yet. It's been a very long day but the kids did great. I am so pround of them!!!

Tyler's 7th Birthday - July 20th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER!!!!!

Wow, I can't believe that Tyler, our oldest, has turned 7. Where has the time gone? After church today we met at Chili's for lunch to celebrate Tyler's birthday. My parents were able to join us,

along with Jason's parents, they are the ones that provided the cake for us!

Here is Tyler with his 2 grandmas.

It was a great time to also hang out with the rest of the family that we hadn't seen in a little while. Here is Hunter with his Uncle Eric and cousin Ruby.

My sister Shannon was able to join us also. The kids all call her Aunt Pokie, Tyler started it when he was little and it just kind of stuck.

Spencer with Uncle Eric.
Hailey made the rounds and was hanging out with Aunt Suzanne (Eric's wife) and was playing with Ruby. They were really cute together.

Hunter hanging out with Papa Friesner and making music while we were waiting for cake!
Mommy and the birthday boy....
Hailey and Ruby were playing while Tyler was opening his gifts.

All Tyler wanted for his birthday was a Nintendo DS....so for his birthday we were able to get him one....I think that this was the best birthday for him yet. I think that he got everything that he wanted.

Papa was sneaking bites of cake to Hailey. She of course didn't mind at all.

Eric and Suzanne Brooks.

Later that night, after dinner at home, we sang one last time to Tyler and let him have one last slice of cake. The kids love it when everyone sings "Happy Birthday" to them. We shall see how long this lasts. But for now, since they let us, I will enjoy it while I can.

Soak City 2008

Well, we spent the day (July 11th) at Soak city. Sheri had planned a "family fun day" outting. It turned out to be a very beautiful day. Jason took the boys into the big wave pool.

All was going well until the waves were turned on. Spencer did not like it at all and I ended up getting the lifeguard to hand him over the fence to me while Jason stayed in the pool with Tyler.

Here are Jason and the boys climbing up to the top of the big slide. The first time I had to carry Tyler up the entire way...he did not want to go. But after he went down the first time he wanted to go down again and again and again.

I really was proud of Tyler for going down the big slide. Only thing was that I caught up with them at the top so that we could all go down as a family (Jason and I and the older boys). Only problem was that when we got to the top, Spencer was 2" to short and then made him get off. So Jason walked him down the stairs and I rode down with Tyler. All Spencer wanted to know was, "when will I be big enough?" and "I'm never going to be big enough". He was one unhappy little boy.

Hunter and Hailey had fun playing in the kiddie pond. I think that Hunter could have stayed there all day playing with the water spouts. He thought it was cool to sit on them.

Jason took Hunter down one of the lazy rivers...this one, however, was the one that had water falls in it and He did not like it at all. He couldn't wait to get off and didn't want to go back on!

We took a litle break for a snack and I was able to lay down and relax for a few minutes. I tried to get Hailey take a nap so that I could take a nap but it didn't work.

I think that everyone had a great time and we all got to have a little fun in the wave pool. Sheri had a few moments where the waves got the best of her. But overall she survived!!!!

Even Shannon got in on the fun and helped the boys on the lazy river.

In the end I think that we managed to wear out all of the children and it was a very quite drive home. We did have to stop and wake them up for dinner but it didn't stop them from falling back to sleep again.

Plans are already in the works for next year. I just hope that Spencer will have grown the 2" needed to ride the other rides...or I will have one very, very upset little boy on my hands!

Spencer's 5th birthday - Part 2

Well, Monday was Spencer's birthday. I can't believe that he is 5 years old...where has the time gone? He is turning into such a little man. We had a little birthday party for him with some of his friends and then we finished the night off with celebrating his birthday with the family. My parents and older sister were able to join us. We had planned to go the the park for a cook-out but the rain, yet again, forced us to stay home and inside.

Here is Spencer on his "new" bike. This was Tyler's old bike, but since Spencer was getting to big for his old bike we needed to move Tyler to a bigger bike (and his last new bike for a long while), and give Spencer Tyler's bike.

The boys looked so cute all riding their bikes together. Tyler on his new bike, Spencer on his bike and Hunter on Spencer's old bike. We had to put the training wheels on for Hunter and he just took off like he had been doing this for a long time.

They were able to ride for about 30 min until the rain came pouring down.

Since the rain kept coming Spencer's party on Monday was moved indoors...to bad I didn't have anything planned for and indoor party. I guess I am glad that we had the Wii for the kids to play.

They took turns racing each other on Mario Kart.

Spencer's first present was a new lawn mower. Hunter always took Spencer's other mower so his friends got him a new one. Spencer loves to help mow the grass....I think he wishes he was old enough to have a real mower.

Happy Birthday Spencer! (again)

Present time (again)!

Spencer had a great time and many great gifts from his friends.

Now it's time to celebrate Spencer's birthday with the family. Happy Birthday (again) Spencer...."is it possible to have too much cake in one day?"

Spencer making a birthday wish...."looks painful"

Spencer has gotten really good at blowing out the candles.

Again, it was present time. Tyler was being a great helper by helping Spencer read the birthday cards.

Spencer was excited to get his own big boy scooter.

But the big hit was the rocket launcher from Aunt Pokie (Shannon). She always manages to pick out the perfect gift.

Hailey even had a good time going through Spencer's gifts.

Jason helping Spencer put batteries in his new digital camera.

Specner had fun taking pictures of everyone and everything. It was great to look at the pictures later that night and see the pictures from the view of a 5 year old.

Dad getting ready to help Spencer open his new scooter.

The sun finally came out for a brief moment, long enough for us to take an after dinner birthday walk.

Grandma Friesner off and running (walking) with Hailey.

Papa Friesner with Tyler,

and Hailey chasing down Hunter in his jeep!

Before the night was over Spencer was able to get his rocket put together, with the help of Papa.

Spencer was so happy to be able to shoot off is rocket...and no one got hit!

After the kids were in bed...it was time to play some Wii. Jason and my dad were having a fun time playing Mario Kart. The two of them really got into the game. We were able to share in many laughs before the night was over.