tanner turns five

our little guy turned five!  it was really fun to celebrate his big day.  he's not a kid that has this long list of expectations on his birthday, so he is really easy to please.

i took him to the store a couple of days before and let him pick out his own cake.  he chose a camouflage cake with bright, bright blue frosting.

tanner loves transformers, so for his birthday he got a big, talking optimus prime.

tanner does not lack in the personality department, that's for sure.  he loves to be goofy and loves taking pictures of him being goofy even more.

we love this kid with all our hearts!  he is our active, energetic, intense, loving, sweet, caring boy.  

best buddies

this is one of tanner's best buds.  seriously, they are the best of friends.  they will see each other from across the way and will yell each other's names while running to on another. they want to show each one their favorite toys, t.v. shows, games and tell each other the cool thing they just got to do with their families.  it is an absolutely adorable relationship.  it will be a sad day for everyone when one of the families moves away.

dirty feet and some laughs

these three kids were out playing with no shoes on (typical for the boys-not reese), so i decided to get a picture of their dirty, outside feet.   once i sat them down i realized their feet weren't that dirty.  apparently they had just washed their feet off from an outside hose.  oh well.  

we didn't get the dirty feet, but we did get some cute laughs on camera.  my neighbor was outside as well with a whoopie cushion and was using it to get the kids to look and smile.  it worked really well-you can see the concentration on their faces while they are waiting for the whoopie cushion to make some noise. they loved it!

random outside pictures

if i remember correctly, this was katelyn's picture day outfit at school.  i just wanted to document how cute she looked that day.

our neighbor, gray, loves, loves, loves to play with the little babies.  her favorite thing is pushing the babies around in the stroller.  this time around she took a break, and i pushed them both around.

it was obviously spaghetti night, and i obviously didn't take the time to wipe reese's face off.

this little lady learned how to pedal this big bike this past summer.

reese also learned how to ride the scooter like a pro.  however taking it from your baby sister probably isn't the best idea.

katelyn's favorite thing to do for a while was to play school.  she would gather anyone who was willing. 

brynn didn't play school.  she just sat and watched for a bit.

wiggle cars

probably one of the most popular ride-on toys amongst the kids in our courtyard is the wiggle car.  it always gets pulled out and always has a kid (big and small) riding on it.  even brynn loves getting in on the action.  she can't actually move the wiggle car by herself, but she tries.  she sits on it and moves the steering wheel around.  as her mom, i think it's one of the cutest things.

katelyn was so nice on this particular day to take her around for a ride.

  g   ,  

i had to throw in this last one.  these boys look like this quite a bit, sitting close together working on some project, talking about their next adventure or just playing together in their own world.

a night out with neighbors

our neighbors pulled out their firepit again and invited all of the neighbors out to roast some smores and let the kids run around.  i just love these ladies.  great neighbors and great friends.

tyler made a giant smore.  

the kids had so much fun being outside in the chilly, dark weather running around like crazies.

at one point the kids had the wagon and cozy coupe hooked together.  the big kids pulled and pushed as fast as they could while the little kids sat inside screaming.  i'm sure the other neighbors loved us that night.

messy eater

want to meet one of the messiest babies?  she lives right here in our house, and her name is brindley jane.  seriously, this girl is always a mess.  she has ruined a number of outfits, made giant messes in her high chair, on the floor, in her hair and on my rugs.  it isn't just because she is a baby.  i fully realize baby's are messy eaters in general, especially when they begin eating all by themselves. but this is different!  this girl chews her food...then spits the majority of it out, pretty much every time.  and she doesn't always do it in her high chair.  sometimes she saves food in her mouth (and i don't notice) then spits it out later while she's crawling around the house.  i also think this habit contributes to the fact that she's such a tiny baby.  but we love this girl, weird habits and all.

this little one wanted her picture taken too, and she's just as cute/