It's a Girl!!!

We are excited to welcome our 4th little baby due Sept 16!

 

 

We kept the secret from the kids until I was about 12 weeks because we know how excited they would be and we didn't want to spill the beans.  We are really looking forward to meeting this little sweetheart!

Christmas and a really long winter break

Our family had a really nice Christmas and break together.  The first couple of days together were an adjustment, but then we really enjoyed just slowing down to watch movies, play, cook our favorite treats, and reconnect as a family.

 

 

 

Madelynn performed in her preschool holiday program.

 

 

My mom sent over sized gingerbread cookies to decorate.

 

 

 

The kids loved our annual reenactment of the nativity.

 

 

My man carving up the turkey.  I bought a turkey way bigger than we needed.  So I had to get creative in the left over department.  After a couple days, Madelynn got really tired of turkey.  So I magically turned all of our dinners into Chicken and then she ate it up.  Sometimes a name is all you need to sell something.

 

 

Love this little cutie!

 

It was a long break, so the kids got creative with paper...

 

And feet.

 

This little one really enjoyed having everyone around all the time.

We enjoyed renewing our membership to the Children's museum.

And rediscovering old favorites.

Zoie is almost 2 and really mimicking Grant and Maddie.  She is talking so much more and really showing interest in coloring, painting, and play dough.

 

 

  I made Grant a superhero cape for Christmas and my mom bought him two pairs of super jammies, so he shared one with Maddie so they can save the world together.

 

 

 

We had record low temperatures the day school was supposed to start back up.  The High temp was -13, so school was cancelled two additional days.  We loved spending time together, but everyone was happy to get back to school.  Happy New year!

September- November

So I thought I would have a ton of extra time because Grant started school full day. But for some reason I feel like I have less time.  So here's to another quarterly update.

 

We finally bought a annual pass to the zoo and the kids love it! In the kid's area there is free face painting.  We can't wait to go when the weather warms up a bit.

 

 

 Fall is our kids' favorite season!  Lots of pumpkin patches, festivals, and family traditions.

 

Trunk or treating is their very favorite!

 

 

 

My favorite activity is trying to find a couple costume idea that Chris will agree to.

The winner this year was... Google Maps. 

 

Maddie let me finally do something other than a pony tail.  We had to figure something out to go under a hat for her preschool fall festival.

Baking pumpkin cookies

 

Enjoying our special visitors and carving pumpkins- Grandma and Grandpa Anderson

 

 

Tractor rides

 

 

Bounce houses

 

 

and or course Madelynn's 4th birthday!  We love this sweet and silly little girl.  She really is a bucket filler!  Happy Birthday sweetie!

 

Now onto November.  I was asked to plan our Ward Christmas party, so not a lot of pics of the kids or doing laundry this month... sorry Chris.  But I was excited because for Thanksgiving we had some special visitors!  My sister and her family came and Chris' brother and his family came!

 

 

I hadn't seen Kristen in almost 3 years! It was so nice to catch up and meet her newest sweet baby.

 

My crazies mixed with her crazies!

 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends and are very grateful for them!

 

New Do for this little sweetie!  I cut it after her bath because we couldn't get the brush through it- hopefully this will cut down on tangles.

 

She loves it!

 

Summer Vacation and Starting School

We have had a really nice summer.  The weather was surprisingly comfortable and it rained about once or twice a week so I never had to water anything and it was always cool enough to eat dinner outside.  Loved the summer weather and loved all the fun activities we did as a family.

 

 

This was the start to our garden in May.  Our kids love tending the garden and I'll miss the grocery store in the backyard.

 

 

You know its a good summer when kids practically live in their swim suits.

 

 In Mid July we went to the Michigan beach cities on the coast of Lake Michigan.  We spent most of our time on the beach and in between we went blueberry picking and exploring the different coast cities!  Sweetest blueberries I've ever tasted!

 

We also loved visiting the beautiful Lighthouses. 

 

 

Maddie and Grant were brave enough to hike up to the top of the lighthouse.

 

 

After we climbed to the top of the lighthouse, we spent the afternoon swimming. 

 

Love the Illinois summer flowers.

  Since we've had so much rain, I had to mow 2x a week, so I enlisted some cute help.

 

The summer went by way too fast, but I know Grant will have a great year starting 1st grade.  He started school on Aug 20th and Maddie doesn't start until Sept 9, so I still get to celebrate summer with her for a little longer.

 

 

 

 In Miss McGrath's class.