Christmas Day

Christmas morning was fun the kids tore through their santa gifts and made a huge mess, even piglet got in on the action. The girls big hit was their ride on toys, and for Riley it was his cowboy boots and his action rescue toys. Allie had a few favorites, she finally got a brown baby doll that is like her, she cries real tears, and burps when she is fed (yippee!!) She also got a remote control robot and a magna doodle for her computer. It was really sad the girls were up but we had to wake the older two I think that they maybe came out and peeked during the night so they were exhausted this morning.

Christmas Eve

Here is our christmas eve, we made a small charlie brown tree. One of my favorite memories of christmas was when we spent christmas eve in the old white house on the ranch. We didn't bring all the fancy ornaments or garland, but Mom and Grandma Bean helped us make ornaments out of christmas cards and we made our garland out of popcorn. I think I was only about 8 or 9 but it was so much fun, so we did that this year with the kids on christmas eve. Allie had so much fun making the snowflakes to glue the chirstmas cards to. And she helped make the chain garland to around the tree. Riley helped put a couple of the cards together but he did best hanging up the few little christmas light ornaments we used and then he cleaned and vacummed the floor from the mess of making snowflakes. The kids had a blast and I think even though the tree is really small and it isn't in christmas colors that it the best tree we have had in our home for christmas. It was so much fun and the kids really had a great time decorating it. We had a fun time using Grandma Walker's christmas Eye Spy book, Riley even found a few. The ones that Papa couldn't find must have been misprints. We talked about the christmas story and what christmas was really about, I think that went over Riley's head, but Allie
seems to understand it a little more now, we made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and had a couple of those with a nice hot cup of Hot Chocolate and then we opened up the family presents, all of which were great, I'm not sure about the ant farm, that one might get loaded up with ants and shipped back to grandma and grandpa for their itchy enjoyment!!!!!! It sure is amazing how presents pile up with 4 kids, it felt like christmas morning just doing the family presents.

school pictures

Here are the school pictures for the older two, both kids are actually smiling which is rare. They seemed to turn out ok.

Here is Allie practicing her round-off back hand spring. I think it is a little harder to do on the grass than on the spring loaded floor of her gym, she doesn't have quite the same spring, but I guess if she can do it well on the grass, then when she works it on the floor it is even higher and faster.

Halloween 2008

Halloween was fun the kids had a great time, we only had the 3 as sierra was able to spend the night with her mom. Allie and Riley had a great time running from house to house, thank goodness with Allie's prompting, Riley remembered to say thankyou most of the time. Surprisingly we didn't have nearly as many trick or treaters as we have in years past and that was good, it seemed to be just the kids from the neighborhood instead of the carloads of kids and teenagers that we have had the last few years. Our kids made a haul they were able to easily fill their jack o' lanterns with candy......(I hope it's good). Riley of course was a pirate, and told everyone in the neighborhood he was Jack Sparrow, Allie was a good witch and our little piglet went as piglet! She had a great time riding around in the stroller and getting all kinds of attention from the other parents out with kids, almost everyone we ran into made a point of talking to her and telling how cute she was. It was a lot of fun.

Allie on her practice bar

Allie is really getting the hang of her bar routine, she has a practice bar in the back yard, where she can work on her strength and flexibility along with parts of her routine, because it is metal and doesn't have the same finish as the bar at the gym it is not as easy, but by doing them on here when she gets to the gym she flys through the elements, this is her front hip circle and back hip circle dismount.

Allie didn't like her other picture

Allie didn't like the picture we put on here last night so we got another one this morning of her in her school clothes. She liked this one better

Here is Allie with her hair all done

Here is Allie with her hair all done, she is very excited.....hopefully it will stay a little straight for school in the morning she wants to wear it like that but as long as it takes I'm not sure that we will do that in the morning until she is old enough to do it without our help!

Working on Allie's hair

Here is Allie getting her hair blown dry after highlights and a trim

the girls are getting big

Hair Day

Here are the kids getting their hair done. Allie finally got her roundoff back handspring so we are giving her highlights as promised, she is super excited to get them. Riley needed a trim really bad as he was starting to have an afro like one of the Jackson 5, so while we cut it we tried a few hair styles. First we puffed it up and then I shaved him 2 stripes unfortunately I then had to talk him into letting me finish cutting his hair because he thought this was really cool and didn't want to get rid of them! But finally now he looks like my Riley with his hair cut nice and short. Allie is still waiting for her trim, but once she has had her trim and is all blown out I will upload a picture of her new hair color.

Riley's 4th birthday

Riley turned 4 today, he had a great birthday. He isn't one for parties as he doesn't like to have that much attention put on him. We took a cupcake cake to school for snack time, and he was able to handle the class singing happy birthday, and then he sat with his friends Jonah, Elise, and of course Savannah (his girlfriend). He is really into the Kung Fu Panda so he had a Poe cake with Master and Tigress he was really happy and loved having his family show up at school he showed of his baby sister and introduced everyone to his big sister (allie cut school today to do some school shopping)! All of his teachers raved about how much they loved him and how everyone of the kids in his class just think the world revolves around him. Who knows maybe he is going to turn out just fine, he sure can show a sweet and tender spirit at times (usually when he thinks no one is looking)!

Allie's 6th Birthday

Here are a couple of pictures from Allie's 6th birthday party earlier this month. She invited her 3 best friends, Maya, Kendal, and Karly to go to the build a bear workshop they each made their own stuffed animal and they all put High School Musical sound boxes in them. She had a great time, Kendal gave her a target gift card, Maya gave her the new Miley Cyrus CD and a digital camera, and Karly gave her a pool chair and towel and a webkin horse that she plays an online game with. They all had a blast!!! In the pictures Maya is the little asian girl, Kendal is the dark blonde girl and Karly has the ultra blonde hair. They are thick as theives and have fun at gymnastics together.

Riley has started swimming

Here is Riley in his new swim uniform...... I think Aunt Rachel will get a kick out of this

All the kids

Monkey

Here are some more current pictures of monkey, she is growing, but has stayed really skinny, she is working harder with her therapy, so we will see how things go, she hates some of her therapy tools that are used, for instance the ace bandage we wrap her hips in to get her to evenly balance her body over both hips and legs (she doesn't use her left side the right way). Every time we break it out she starts to fuss and wimper, and for the 10 minutes twice a day that she has to wear it and walk laps in the house, she just fusses. But she will get over it when she can walk better.

She also can stand up pretty well

Piglet prefers to do this in her crib but when the occasion calls for it will stand very well against any piece of furniture that she wants to

She's mobile

Piglet has also learned how to crawl and goes where ever she wants to. It's great that she is learning and growing, but wow having 2 little ones that can go when and where they want is hard work.

piget's bath time

As with all the kids, piglet is most comfortable in the sink when it comes to bath time.... she is a water bug and loves to get in the pool but for sure when it comes to her bath she likes to lay back in the sink and soak in the bubbles.

more pictures of the kids

here are a few more pictures of the kids!!!!!

Allie's Ballet

Allie had her ballet performance today, I'm not sure why she had to do 60 hours of ballet this month to figure out a 2 minute performance, but she did it, she smiled, she didn't forget the routine and she had a blast. This is her with her class and her two teachers, Miss Ashley the blonde and Miss Elise the brunette, they are really sweet, but tend to take themselves a little more serious than they should. Hanging on Allie is her new 'best friend' Anna they made fast friends and have been inseperable all month long. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed in the performance, we have to wait and buy a 40 dollar dvd to be able to show everyone. I'll have more pictures in the next few days, finally things are winding down and we have more time in the coming weeks to take pictures.