Happy 6th Birthday...MAKENA!!!!

Happy Birthday to a sweet, caring, animal loving, fun and full of spirit Makena!!! Wow, these 6 years have gone so fast. It is has been so fun watching her grow! She brings out the best in people. She loves being the "second mom" in the house. She loves helping her brother and sisters in teaching and reading and playing with them. Makena has a HUGE heart. She genuinely cares for others. She puts all others before herself. Makena is a selfless person and loves everyone. Makena loves the color pink, loves dogs and cats, loves all the Disney princesses, playing with friends, wearing tank tops, playing with the sprinklers under the trampoline, loves riding her bike, loves eating pancakes, peaches, popsicles, pop tarts, fruity pebbles, watermelon, cantalope, waffles, scones with honey butter, hotdogs and chicken nuggets. She is almost done with Kindergarten and is sad to leave her teacher. She doesn't want to start first grade and be gone all day. She loves being off track (and I love having her home). She is a great kid and I am so glad I am her Mom!! She makes me proud and honored to have her in my life! We love you Makena.

For her birthday, she wanted to go to the jump n bounce place and she had a great time there playing and running all over. We then came home and had lunch and she picked out a movie to watch. That afternoon, it was warm so we put the sprinklers under the tramp. The kids got brave and laid down on their bellies in the water! We always let the birthday kid pick out what they want for dinner and Makena chose to go to Carl's Jr. She LOVES their star nuggets and playing on their play ground. Makena was laughing all day with a smile on her face...it was a fun day for her.
After dinner, Grandparents came over and we opened presents (that she had been waiting for all day) and got everything she wanted. This year I asked Makena what she wanted and she wanted us to surprise her. So she came away with a new lunch bag for school, hula hoop, art stuff (she loves painting and drawing), butterfingers, sweater for Missy, hoppy tah (sp), a princess helmet with bell for her bike from Grandma and Grandpa Hathaway, Guess Who game and princess bowl and plate from Grandma and Grandpa Boyack.
Then we sang Happy Birthday, and she made a wish and blew out her candles. She wanted "different colored cupcakes" this year for her birthday.
Love you sweet girl...Hope you had a great day!!

Collecting and First Taste

Today is a cool day and it made for a good potato bug catching morning. Makena was at Grandma Boyack's from sleeping over last night. My good little bug catchers were ready to go. Between Kali, Tyler and myself, I think we got about 150 bugs or more. They were everywhere and most of them were little things. We spent about an hour walking up and down the sidewalk catching these little creatures. I seriously love these times...simple things that bring us helping and playing with eachother. After we had enough bugs...we turned the cup over and let all the bugs crawl home. Some potato bugs, unfortunately didn't make it home. They died a tragic death from being squished by little fingers picking them up, they died from being stomped on my little monster feet (Tyler), and even one was a first taste for Hailey. Luckily that little bug didn't go all the way to Hailey's belly...Mom saved the day and got it out before she swallowed! Not that it would have hurt her...because all my other children have eaten potato bugs before...and look how they turned out!!! What a fun morning!
And you get lots of pictures of Hailey because she is just so darn cute and she was so interested in these little bugs!

Zoo

Today we went to Hogle Zoo. We met up with cousins there and had a great time. They had dinosaurs at the zoo and the kids were afraid of them! It was quite funny to watch them walk as far away from them as they could. Kali didn't like them one bit, Tyler and Makena didn't like them, but were finally okay with them as the day went on. I thought they were pretty cool. The kids enjoyed seeing all the animals, riding the carousel, playing on the play ground and being able to pet a turtle and a snake. Hailey was so excited about the carousel. She was smiling and moving all over, so excited the entire ride. With all the walking, running, playing, laughing, eating, warm weather, and just having a great time...3 out of my 4 (Makena stayed awake) were asleep before we even got onto the freeway to come home. So Makena and I made a stop at McDonald's for an ice-cream and a big thing of water! It was a fun outing for us!

"Me Pumping"

While updating this blog...I hear Tyler in the front room laughing. I go out to see him using my breast pump. I asked, "What are you doing, silly?" He replied, "Me Pumping!"

Cheetahs

With only 2 games left of the spring season...Makena's team came up with a team name. They are now called the Cheetahs!

After we got home from the feeding the ducks, the kids wanted to color some pictures for Grandma and Grandpa Boyack when they got home from taking Jacob and Katie to Kentucky. Kali didn't last long, the day out, did her in. She was sound asleep with crayons in hand. We want all this coughing and sickness to go away!!

Kali and Tyler along with Hailey have all been sick and so I needed to find something for us to do that they could go too and cough and nobody would look at us! So, we went to feed the ducks. There were 5 baby ducks there and the kids had a great time throwing them duck food. I had to keep telling them to stay back because they would get close to the edge and I didn't want them to fall into the water. It was a nice day to get out and see the ducks!

Sick and First Teeth

My little peanut has been sick these last couple of days. She has a nasty cough and runny nose. She isn't sleeping at night and wants to be held all night and day. She finally fell asleep about 4:00 this morning and was out until 9:00. The longest stretch these past 2 days. The only position comfortable for her was on her belly. On top of her cold, she also has 2 teeth coming in. Her first popped through yesterday and she got her second bottom tooth today.