What's this, a blog POST!?!?!

Yep, I've pretty much sucked at updating but life has just been CRAZY!!  So here is the high-lite reel of this year so far.  Ruby Jane Bown came into the family January 16, 2012 8lbs even, moms epidural stopped working and OUCH!!  But she was all worth it, the sweetest baby!!

 We had rodeo days at school for Lynlee and Regan, McKenna had to get all dressed up for the occasion too.  She kept saying "Yee-haw"

 Hmmm, what to do with my snack bowl when I'm done with it?

 Seems like we blinked and Ruby was 6 weeks old, Billy gave her a beautiful Blessing at church and we had tons of friends over after to celebrate with us.

 Lynlee had her 2nd grade play Dinostars.  She auditioned for a speaking part didn't get one but was in a dance number with a few other kids.

 Going through pictures I had to delete about 50 random pics the girls had just taken of the TV, their toys, but this one made me smile!

 This picture melts my heart, I just love them so much.

 Matching Easter dresses, thanks Grandma.

 Took the girls to Disney on Ice at the Reliant center, fun fun!!

 Lynlee and Regan's dance recital, love these days, so proud of all their hard work during the year, Regan did a tap number to Yankee Doodle and Lynlee had tap and ballet number.

 Why do they look so big, I miss my babies!?!?

 But I still have lots of fun with this crazy toddler, she keeps a smile on my face and me on my toes for sure.

Happy Halloween

Another successful Halloween, this year we had a Cowgirl, Supergirl and Dorothy from Wizard of Oz. She made sure I knew from Wizard of Oz and not the Wiggles, "Dorothy the Dinosaur." And Lynlee is the only one I made, Halloween just crept up on me, I was going to make McKenna a bee costume but we had a scary week right before Halloween, my doctor sent me to the hospital with pre-term labor at 28 weeks!! Everything is totally fine and they put me on "light" bed rest (not sure that sentence means anything to a mom of three small kids) but I've had to take it easy, so it was store bought this year!

Such cute girls, and a big thanks to my wonderful neighbors that helped take the girls around!! They are angels and helped carry McKenna when she started to lag, only because her bucket got so full and she was to preoccupied with all the candy and not running to keep up with all the other kids. No picture of her by herself, the were all blurry, she never stops moving.

Elders

Billy has been serving as the Ward Mission Leader for about a year now and has loved it, he loves working with the Elders. We have some great missionaries serve in our ward. This past weekend Elder Simons was transferred and Elder Shultz went home to cold ole Utah. Lynlee and Regan actually cried and so did Elder Simons, they will be missed!!

Elder Beeman was serving in our ward over the summer, him and Billy mastered the art of Skittle throwing and catching them in your mouth, it seemed like every time they were over it turned into a competition, we miss him too, we went on to serve in College Station.

Elder Esplin and Elder Nelson, by far two of my favorites, they are both still out and I think every time they have Zone Conference, Elder Esplin finds the missionaries serving in our ward and we get a note from him. Our family has been so blessed and I love seeing and helping with the Lord's work!!

Halloween Yumminess

In a effort to once again not carve pumpkins I distracted them them making sugar cookies, WORKED LIKE A CHARM!! Fun was had by all.

Until I decided to run upstairs, start the bath water and came back down to this child frosting her head, at least she used the plastic butter knife and kept her hands clean.

Can we camp outside Mom?

They actually never asked, just brought down their pillows and set up camp. They know they have free rein of the house when mom is returning e-mails!!

Brownie Ceremony?!?!

I actually have no idea what this was, but the leaders handed out awards and the girls sang songs. The other parents were all taking pictures and video so I just went along with it.

I love this picture of McKenna, I can tell exactly what she is thinking, "Why yes mom I am up to no good. As soon as you turn around to watch Lynlee I'm going to go back to playing with the bathroom door, or maybe I'll go play in the drinking fountain again." But I love her, and she is too cute.

"The Big Camp-Out!"

The end of September we went camping with 4 of the funniest families. My friend Mary quoted it as "the big campout" and it was. We headed out Thursday afternoon, and arrived at Brazos Bend National Park in a downpour. Lucky one of the families had a super new gigantic trailer, we all ate dinner and waited out the rain. We finally set up our tent by headlamp light at around 11. Some families had bailed and slept at home, which luckily was only 45 minutes away. After a night battling raccoons trying to get in our cooler, and tent, we set up all the comforts of home we could cram in 2 cars. Another family set up the hammock and we needed a parent manning it the entire time, and lots of "okay your time is up, get out and let the next kid swing in it."





We headed out to the lake for a bike ride and stopped at the nature center first, to see all the stuffed animals and pet some baby alligators.

DO NOT BE ALARMED, NOT A REAL RACCOON!!

Of course I didn't get my big butt on a bike, I only rode to the bathroom and back, so Billy took Lynlee and Regan around and they said they saw about 12 alligators, later on the night it seemed the number grew every time they talked about it so your guess is as good as mine. He only took a picture of this one!

The kids had a great time and we had great weather!! Texas is still dealing with this awful drought so we couldn't have any fires, which was a big bummer. We had to be creative at night, the campsites had power and water, so we strung up a bunch of Christmas lights, and about a million glowsticks. All the kids loved it, when I was putting the girls to bed, Regan asked me if Santa Claus was coming.:)

All the kids climbing this enormous oak tree, I love Texas trees!! We had a blast, I did here talk one night about a campout in November, just not sure these pregnancy hips can handle sleeping on an air mattress again, but we'll see. Thanks Glauser's, Long's and Archibald's for the fun!