catching up...as always!

4 kids had kept me BUSY!  So I am blogging at 11 at night when I should be sleeping.  Oh well.  Anyways I will try to catch up on everything as of late. 

Here is my cutie pie elephant.  Logan and Brooklyn were playing dress up and I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures! 

Brooklyn was being a cheerleader and not including Logan, so he went into the closet to pout!  Cutest pout I have ever seen!

Happy Birthday to my sweet Brooklyn!  She turned 4 this year.  What a sweet girl you are Brook!  You have the sweetest smile, one of my favorite things about you.  I love your imagination and your spunk.  We are so greatful you are a part of our family!  I promised her a birthday party with friends, and she wanted to do a cupcake theme.  All the girls got to decorate a few cupcakes, play games, and hit a pinata.  THANK GOODNESS Grandma Moyes was there to help because I was in labor all day.  I did a lot of sitting during contractions while my mom ran the show!

Decorating with Grandma's help

Blowing out the cake

More of that cute elephant

Ava had her dance recital and did such a great job.  I was so incredibly proud of her.  She has been invited to an advanced ballet class this fall and is starting jazz classes as well.  Way to go Ava!

Both of the girls LOVE to hold baby Blake.  It is actually really nice for me because I will feed him, get him to sleep and the girls will then cuddle him.  That gives me time to pick up the house or do dinner, etc....

so sweet

After this young man's first bath.  More to come!

He's here!

Baby Blake is here!  Blake David Parkinson was born June 8 after a LONG LONG LONG 18 hours of hard labor.  He was 7 lb 8 oz.  His brother and sisters absolutely adore him, as well as mommy and daddy.  I will post more about the details later.  I am headed to bed to catch a few minutes of sleep before he wakes up!

Toothless!

Ava lost her first tooth!  She was eating a strawberry when she got home from school and it popped out.  She was so excited for the tooth fairy to come.  Thank goodness the tooth fairy wakes up ALOT (because she has to go to the bathroom) during the night and remembered in the wee hours of the morning!

Brooklyn and Logan wanted in on the picture action as well.  I love these kiddos.

Water Balloons

I am doing yet another 1:30 am post.  This time Blake decided he didn't like all the crappy things Mommy ate at the Memorial Day BBQ and wanted them OUT.  So I puked my brains out and despite the loud wretching sounds coming from the bathroon, Rob is fast asleep...snoring.  No one to feel sorry for me.....

The other night it was pretty nice outside so we (as in Rob did all the work, I took pictures) blew up a bunch of water balloons for the kids.  They had SO much fun! 

This is Logan's face after he popped one...Imagine him saying "whoaaa"

Here is a set of pics of Ava dropping a balloon...

Logan really got into it....

Did you see that Mom?  Cool huh!

And finally Brooklyn gettting in on the action.

Happy Birthday to my little man.

My little man turned 2!  Oh how I love this little guy.  He is all boy, with a soft heart.  Rob calls him our cowardly lion which is fine by me.  That soft heart requires lots of loves from mommy during the day!  He absolutely adores his sisters.  The first thing he calls for after naps are his "gurs" (girls) to see what he has been missing.  He is also mastered the art of bothering his sisters and enjoys making them scream!  He loves Cars, balls, and anything to do with outside and dirt.  We love you Logan!

He got this toy for his birthday and LOVES it!  Now he just needs a pile of dirt to put it in!

Happy Birthday Ava

As usual, a way overdue blog.   It's 1:30 in the morning and I can't sleep because I am so uncomfortable with this baby...3 more weeks. I can do it...right?  Anyways I figure I can spend these next few sleepless nights maybe catching up!

Anyways we celebrated Ava's 6th birthday in April.  This girl is such a sweet addition to our family.  She is loving school and doing very well in it.  She is such a big helper at home with both Logan and Brooklyn.  We love you Ava and are so glad you are apart of this family!

Logan devouring his cake.....(which was actually pretty gross...oh well)

Ava got to have her first birthday party this year.  She wanted a butterfly theme, so one of the games we split up the kids into teams.  One person was the "catapillar" and the rest of the team members had to race against each other to wrap their catapillar in a cocoon (toilet paper).  Here is Ava's team wrapping up Brooklyn.

The finished result...

What's a party without a pinata?

The aftermath of the cocoon game.  They probably had more fun doing this!!!!

Happenings lately

My beautiful 6 year old...wish she would stop growing up so fast!

This was a few weeks ago when the weather was pretty rainy.  We had one "good" day and took advantage of it at the park. I love this picture with everything out of focus except Logan. 

Silly boys on the slide

Brooklyn trying her hardest to catch up to the merry go round.

I love these next few pictures...they are crappy quality and lighting but I love the pure joy on the girls' faces.  They were having so much fun swinging in their own little world. 

My sweet Brooklyn....this kid is the sweetest most determined spirited kid I know!

I'm pretty sure in this picture Brooklyn was demanding something in her usual screaming manner and Rob decided to have a little fun.

hahaha it's funny unless your the one who looks like this for reals.....(notice Logans little bump as well!)

Just the three of us

I Love northern Idaho. It's beautiful with lots of fun things to do.  But springtime is very very VERY wet so we have spent the last 2 springs racking our brains with fun things to do indoors.  Thankfully now that the girls are getting older they are coming up with some fun stuff to do on their own.  Now I just have to convince them to invite brother along.  Here they are in the garage (please don't mind the mess!)  having a campfire (the shredded newspaper on the floor) and singing songs.  I believe this song was the "wheels on the bus."

Snowboarding

Our friends parents have a condo at a ski resort and they invited us up to hang out.  They have been teaching their kids to snowboard so Ava and Brooklyn got to try it out for the first time.  They both loved it, and Rob said they did pretty good!  (Log and I were hanging out at the condo while they went on the "magic carpet".)  Here is a video of them trying out their skills (my favorite is Brooklyn at the end.)

Posing with their friend

Playin in the snow

Taking a nap while the older kids played

fun pictures

Since we live so far away from family, I like to post videos and pictures to keep Grandma's and Grandpa's entertained!  Brooklyn has rediscovered this toy and loves pounding away at it.  Last night she practiced safety first and put on Logan's safety glasses.  

She just looked at this pictures and said "Mom I look dumb."  Well I think she looked hilarious and it made me laugh!

We are doing binkies only at naptime and bedtime with Logan.  So he thought he would outsmart me and told me he wanted to go "night night" in the middle of the day.  He got in his crib, found his binkie, and sat there sucking it till he was content. 

At the girl's gymnastics there is a room for the younger kids who are waiting with parents.  Logan loves to go in there and play, especially on the rollar coster!

Sleeping and videos

If you notice, this post is being done at 2:30 in the morning because I have been up with ear aches all night! Both Ava and Log are FINALLY asleep but my bed is being taken up by a 5 year (see two pics down) and Rob is sleeping on the floor in Log's room.  The joys of parenthood right?  Anyway I thought I would post some pics.  We are VERY strict about kiddos in our bed.  It's a flat out NO!  The only exception is if they are sick.  So with this exception in mind here are some pictures of our last few nights.  Here is Rob sound asleep in a twin size bed. (this was a few nights ago)  I woke him up taking this picture but I couldn't resist capturing him hanging on to the edge!

And here is my current situation.  I am not moving this kid seeing as it as taken 6 hours to get her asleep. 

And here is just a cute video of my future rockstar.