My monkeys

All my boys are monkeys... including Tyler! He is often the ringleader... and since there aren't really any mountains around here, he climbs trees.  Oh, they will give me many grey hairs and headaches as they get bigger!

New wheels

The kids got some new bikes in the last few weeks... Ayla a birthday present from Grammie, and Colton used his birthday money to buy his (since he couldn't have a smaller bike than his sister!) They LOVE them! We go on bike rides every day, and then at night they ride around the neighborhood with the neighbor kids. Really cute, and I can't believe how easy they adjusted to the new bikes!
Kellen has a few bikes that he rides... yes, that is a pink one, but I am working on painting it!

The Balloon Festival

We had such a great time at the local Balloon Fest yesterday. To be honest, we didn't really know what to expect, but I looked up the info and it said a balloon glow was going to happen. And I thought, that sounds fun. And it was super cool.
The kids were in awe at the huge balloons, and when so many were being put up at once, it was like magic. Kellen just kept saying either "boon" or "wow". It was so cute!
Really it was the perfect night for it too. Not too hot and not too cold, and obviously not the night to have a baby! I thought that maybe if we planned something that it would happen, but alas, that did not work!!! (It was our due date)
We will keep you posted on when that baby decides to arrive. Ayla is still holding out it is a girl... I told her there is a slight chance (about 1%) but she is sure that she will get a sister!

Some things for the littles

These are a couple things I have been working on in the last few weeks... and there are even more to come, however crazy that sounds! Little babe has not made an appearance as of yet, but my parents are coming to stay with us, starting today, so maybe that peace of mind will send me into labor?

I found this pattern in what is quickly becoming one of my favorite books to get little people patterns from:: Meg McElwee's Growing Up Sew Liberated. I absolutely love how it turned out! It is in a 0-6 month size, and it looks a little big around the neck, but I think it will do just fine! The little pilot hats are from Meg's website, and were so easy to make (once I had all the necessary materials), and I made two for us and one for cousin Elin.

And these are the pants I made for baby Elin. The moment we found out she was a "she" I set to work on these.  I love them. And I hope Elin's mommy does too. (I know they are pink on one side, but it is a cute polka dotty pink!)

Hope everyone's Wednesday is going well.
Anything particularly inspiring out there?
Yesterday, during our science expedition on our walk, the kids had such a great time finding the differences in trees! They happily ran to each tree, and said how the bark was soft or rough, the leaves were big or small, pokey or flat, etc. It was a great "lesson" and I felt like we learned something, even it was just observations. (School is going great for now, by the way!)

Another Ayla one

My sweet girl. Here were her birthday presents from us. We tried to keep it simple this year, and I made her a cape (that will double as a Halloween prop for her) and I bought her a pair of Livie and Luca shoes, that I am absolutely in love with! Seriously these shoes are so cute. Kellen has a cute pair of them also. Today she received her bike from Grammy, and she is love with that also! It is a 16" bike as opposed to her 12" one, so it fits her a bit better. It is a mini cruiser, and oh, so, cute! I will post pictures later of that. Thanks Grammy! :)

Ayla's butterfly birthday party

Ayla decided on a butterfly birthday party... I admit I was trying to get her away from PRINCESS!

But we thought we would invite some of the little girls that we know over for a little butterfly fun... Coincidentally we had just done "B" in our homeschool curriculum, and had a fun little butterfly craft, so I bought extra stuff so the girls could make one too.
That was fun. It is super hard to keep 5 little girls, between the ages of 3 and 6, all doing the same thing... very hard.
But it was only for an hour and a half :)
We planned on the craft, playing dress up, and getting to know each other. That lasted all of about 10 minutes.... we managed to get them excited about the pinata that Tyler built (again, a great job!!) They had fun beating that and getting the candy.
Then it was open presents time... Ayla was very happy.
Then cake and ice cream... well DQ ice cream cake and some cupcakes that I had made that morning. We do miss our Baskin Robbins ice cream cake, but this one will do :)
It was a great birthday party, and now we have a big 4 year old. Now let's see if we can convince her that she can wipe herself!

9-11 in our lives

On 9-11-01, I remember being new to the Navy, and the way of the military. I shared a room with my good friend Kadie. We were getting ready in the morning for our language classes, and I turned on the radio, just like I always did. But this day was different.
There was no music, just news. News of the awful thing that happened that no one quite understood, and no one could explain.
We went to class just like usual, but classes were anything but usual that morning. All of us were in a daze, wondering what that meant for us as young Americans, and us, as military members.
I had just turned 21 two days prior.

Tyler was fishing, and heard two old men on the bridge talking about the planes that hit the building in New York. He had no idea they were talking about huge planes that took the building down.
It happened to be one of the last things that pushed him to join the Air Force.

9-11-07
We had just moved to Kalispell, Montana and were getting ready to welcome our second child into the world. Granna and Papa came to visit to help with little Colton. We scheduled an induction on the eve of September 11. And looking back, the only thing I was thinking about was having a baby. I was so excited to meet my little babe, that I don't remember really reflecting on the actual day. We had headed up to Glacier National Park that day to show the family the sites and were, as always, amazed with what we saw.
The next day, at 11:01am we welcomed little Ayla into the world.
The world.
Thinking small picture, we loved our world... we were so excited to be living in Northwest Montana.
Thinking big picture, the world was scary. To bring another little one into the world as it was, seemed almost wrong. But we wanted a family of our own. And we added another. (And another, and another!)

9-11-11 Yesterday, we celebrated Ayla's birthday one day early. Tyler is on twelve hour shifts during the week right now, so we figured a weekend party was the best option. Ayla invited 4 little girlfriends over and we had a great time making butterflies, playing dress up and of course, beating the daddy-made pinata. I think they all had fun. Then the moms came back with the littler siblings and we all had cake and ice cream. The celebration occurred because that is what we do. We get on with our lives. Admittedly, I did reflect on the 10 year anniversary of Sept. 11, and what it will always mean to the United States. But mostly, I celebrated my little girl's 4th birthday. And what a day we had.

His name

So, I decided I can't keep it a secret any longer (I really don't think it was, anyways!).

Soren will be our little one's name.

I will keep the middle name a surprise! Anyways, just thought I would share this AWESOME picture taken by Tia at Tia Colleen Photography (or on facebook). She came over early the other morning and I set up my favorite chair outside by the clothesline. Kellen was a ham, and was poking my belly button constantly, which made for a great picture. That kid (Kellen) is always walking around with his finger in his own belly button, so any chance he gets to poke someone else's, he takes!
Thank you, Jennifer, for the awesome henna design, too! Hopefully she will be starting up a little henna business here in Abilene!
Don't you just love the colors? Thanks Jaime for the beautiful birthday shirt (MY birthday is tomorrow!)! It comes from the wonderful Hip Mountain Mama Shop, and I just LOVE it (the henna kit is from here too). BTW, it is not a pregnancy shirt, but because of how it is cut, it works.
Anyways, let me know what you guys think of his name... I think it is perfect. Soren Gustafson; has a nice ring to it! Can't wait to meet him!

Pictures from our trip back to Oregon

We had a wonderful time visiting everyone in Oregon. Thank you to all who took us in and fed us! The kids had fun playing with cousins and friends. We actually got to see some friends from Montana, who happened to be vacationing on the Oregon coast! Can you guess where some of these pictures were taken?