the girls...

The kids wanted to get their daddy an ice cream cake from Cold Stone Creamery for his birthday this year and I must say it was incredible!

Emma and Elise dancing and singing with the tierra's they made from a kit their grandma mailed them. Elise is quite a fan of Emma. And Emma having the big heart that she does is very patient with her. Being an only child myself it is such a blessing to see them so close, true sister bond.

Emma our little ballet dancer.

Elise kept begging Emma to pick her up, I think we have another ballet dancer in the works.

Elise getting directions from Emma. Elise takes everything Emma says to heart.

We have decided on an 'E' name...

Eve Angeline

So we almost broke the 'E' tradition, but we now have a name for our sweet baby girl. Her name Eve means life. And her middle name, Angeline is French and means messenger. We are now at 26 weeks which Sept. will be here so very soon! We have so much to do switching rooms out and painting walls.  I'll share pictures when we are finished. Emma, Elise and baby Eve will share our old room and Ethan will now have his very own room! And we are moving downstairs!:) Lots to do!

Vintage finds and freebies...

This old warehouse locker from the 1920's was an awesome find for
the price.
I found it setting outside on a porch of a junk store.

And yes those are old records a friend gave to us left over
from her neighbor's garage sale
that didn't sell for them.

I feel like I'm on an episode of American Pickers when we go junk shopping anymore. Paying full price for anything except food and basic living necessities with the cost of gas and our growing family feels like a splurge. But that doesn't stop us from having a little fun every now and then. This locker I saw and knew it would go perfect in our sun/craft/school room. BUT I didn't want to pay the asking price of 45 dollars. Even though it wasn't a bad price it just wasn't in our budget. So I waited until it sat outside for about a month on the shops front porch with no buyers and we made an offer for it after pointing out all the flaws and they accepted our offer! Just like on American Pickers.:) It smelled a little musty but after a wash down outside with a sponge and bleach then again with vinegar it smells better. We will eventually paint it black and install shelving inside. It could easily be used to store scrapbooking materials, craft supplies, or home schooling workbooks.

As for the records there were a handful or so of really good albums Mario was excited about and for free you can't beat it! We also now have a great electric piano which we also got for free!

Catch up!

Emma at her ballet recital!

Emma is in the front on the end.

Elise can't get enough of ice cream.:)

Ethan showing off his book he made for Writing class!

Elise looking cute in her pink dress her grandma bought her!

Ethan has his sisters wrapped around his fingers. I think he will be just fine having 3 sisters. :)
He does give her rides and she loves it!

My front urns this year were done on the cheap but I think they still look pretty!

Our free weighted keys electric piano! The kids love to jam on it!

Ethan with his friends!

It's all about Emma on her big 7th birthday...

At the park with her friends...

Emma eating her birthday snowcone, cotton candy!

 the Tangled birthday cake...

The kids playing Mario Kart at Fun City in Burlinton, Iowa. Emma wanted to go and stay the night there ride the Go Karts, go to the indoor water park, and play a few video games. It turned out to be a fun cheap trip!

Since it was Emma's birthday she got to go into the birthday box and get a chance to put money in this box and she got 1000 points to use towards little toys. The lady that helped us said Emma did awseome! Not very many people get that much. leave it to our Emma to figure out the trick.;)

It was so funny to watch her, she had to put these cool glasses on!

They loved driving the Go Karts.

The kids at the top of Snake Alley.

This was taken at the top of Snake Alley you can see the kids running down it!

The kids in front of Snake Alley in Burlington, Iowa. This was a really cool place to check out. The kids thought it was cool to walk down. It was built in the late 1800's. It is known as one of the crookedest streets in the world. The kids wanted me to drive down it in my cool mini van but I was afraid I would get stuck on a curve!;)

Ethan's 8th Birthday...




This is what we woke up to on the day of Ethan's party, snow. I have lived in
Iowa long enough now that it honestly
 didn't shock me.

And it was beautiful and any other day would have been great but we had 9
boys coming for
 Ethan's party. I think it all worked out. They ate pizza, cake, and played video games.
And seemed to have a good time!

 


Ethan and Emma opening up grandma's present.





Ethan giving Emma a hug after he opened her gift, a Star Wars Bounty Hunter.

 



The big present from us, Boba Fett Lego Set. It's kinda sad because as the kids get older
the number of gifts we can give them gets smaller and smaller. A couple of books,
new bike, and a
Lego set and we called it good!:) But he said this was his favorite birthday!





I was going to bake a cake and realized I would have to bake 2 cakes to make sure we had
enough cake for everyone so I splurged and we bought this at Target and it was yummy. I thought
it was pretty cute too better than what I was going to do for sure.:)




I still can't believe their are 8 candles on that cake, it really makes me stop and think how fast
our kids are growing up.




Ethan getting a little shy while we are singing to him!





And Elise she LOVES chocolate cake! Can you tell?:)