Life in no particular order

Blogger has been a complete pain as of late. So I am very lazy about posting pictures. Here are a few snapshots of what we have been up to the last month or so.

At the end of August one of my childhood friends Renee got married down south. My amazing husband agreed to let me go down for 3 nights and have lots of fun with high school, college and current friends. Thankfully I also have some dear friends who helped me out with H and B during school hours.

The foursome from highschool, we sure had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs back in the day. It was really fun to catch up these ladies, we sure don't do it often enough.

I also got to see some college friends because Renee and I went to college together as well! Jackie, baby Carly and Molly and I all stayed two nights in  a hotel, it was awesome catching up with them for 2 days straight. We got to see Charissa just at the wedding and it was so good to see her too, but not nearly long enough to chat. Love you girls!

Hudson loves to play trains and trucks if I can get him all set up and he's in the right mood:)

I know this picture will come back to haunt Hudson at some point. What a good brother to play the princess game with sister:) Both my boys actually really like this game:)

A few weeks ago Ethan had cowboy day at school. They had some amazing people come in and set up several centers where they got to stamp leather, watch horse shoes be headed and shaped, lasso a pretend bull and several other things. It was pretty awesome!

 A couple weekends ago Kevin and I were able to get away for a couple nights to go to my cousin's wedding Auburn. It was such a beautiful area and so great to get away for a while. We went hiking on Saturday morning. It was the first time we have been hiking alone since we had kids and we loved it. We really miss having hiking only 20 minutes way like we did in San Jose.

I took Kara's girls to storytime at the library a few weeks ago. Lots of fun!

 Ethan is now  toothless wonder. We are waiting for 4 teeth to come in!

 I have a lot of fun with these two all day. They are great at running errands and keep me company. We get lots of looks and smiles and "are they twins?" comments when we are out.

This past weekend our town had their annual emergency vehicle show and parade. Morgan enjoyed checking out one of the armored SWAT vehicles.

Thats life here in the Schenk house. Life is sure flying by now that school has started. Both Ethan and Morgan are blessed to have amazing teachers and they are doing really well. We are thankful for that!

Morgan's Party.....finally

Here it is nearly a month later and I am finally posting about Morgan's birthday. Life sure has a way of moving rather quickly and all of a sudden I look back and realize that it has been almost a month since my last post! We started Morgan's actual birthday by bringing cupcakes to her classroom and getting to sing to her with her classmates. She was beaming as you can imagine.

After school it was time for Morgan to get her present from mommy and daddy. I took her to the mall to get her ears pierced. She was very excited to get them pierced and super brave the whole time. This picture was right before they squeezed the triggers and after they were done she cried and cried.

It was nothing a few hugs, some lemonade and some ice cream couldn't fix though:) She is pretty proud of her earrings.

Two days later on Friday afternoon Morgan invited 7 girls over for a little play date party. We kept it pretty simple by doing a couple crafts, playing pin the bow on Hello Kitty, playing outside, and eating pizza and cupcakes. Most of the girls had just been through the first week of kindergarten so they were pretty exhausted, but I think they all had fun.

A little pin the bow on Hello Kitty. I'm pretty sure birthday girl was cheating on this one!

5 candles! Morgan's cake request was nice and simple this year, cupcakes with sprinkles and a little plastic Hello Kitty on top. Considering I made 4 batches of cupcakes that week I was happy to have something simple to make!

I love how excited kids get to have friends open their presents. I'm not sure who was more excited, Morgan to open her gifts or her friends to watch her open their gifts. I love that!

Later that weekend we had a little birthday swim party at my parents for Morgan, Hudson and Brooklyn. Morgan got an American Girl Doll which she was totally surprised by and is loving. Doesn't it look like her?

Hudson got his OWN golf clubs and he is in heaven with those! He really thought he should sleep with them that night and every day for a week after he carried the bag to the bus stop to get Ethan and Morgan in the afternoon.

Brooklyn got a little scooter which she too is loving.

Birthday week was a success and I'm happy to have it behind me for another year:)

Not only did school start a few weeks ago, but during the first full week of school we celebrated 3 birthdays! I told Kevin that this week may be the death of me for the next 14 years! We were all tired because school started and excited because there were birthdays to celebrate. It was a fun but long week. I think everyone was celebrated well.

 On their birthday, Brooklyn and Hudson woke up to balloons in the family room and two small presents from us.

Later that day we got the house and yard ready for their little birthday party. It was really more of a playdate with cupcakes and presents. It was my goal to invite kids their age so we had a fun mix of kids and moms who don't normally all hang out together. It was a beautiful morning so we played outside most of the time. We had 4 girls and 3 boys. Days before their birthday H and B were arguing because Huds wanted to invite girls to his party but Brooky said girls could only come to her party;) So fun to listen to their conversations.

We had Superman/Hello Kitty cupcakes. Kara also made adorable superhero masks for all the kids that I forgot to get pictures of. She make yellow and red for the boys and pink and purple for the girls....super cute!

Hudson and friend Talen. They looked like twins that day!

Here's what an awesome mom I am. The lighter ran out of fuel when I went to light the candles, so we sang to each of the kids individually and then they pretended to "blow out" their candles. I'm pretty sure this is the only year I'll get away with that one!

 YUMMY cupcakes. Pretty much the only reason kids like birthday parties right?

Hudson loved his transformer motorcycle.

The kids had never had a birthday party so they never had so many gifts at once. They were perfectly happy with their first gifts and wondered why they had more to open:) Thanks friends for totally spoiling us!

Morgan Rae is FIVE!!

Morgan Rae, how can you be five already? You light up the room with your smile sweet girl. Everyone asks us if you smile all the time. Our response is usually something like, "well, not quite all the time, but usually for others!" You really are a happy girl overall and we have been extremely blessed by your easy going personality, but this year you are definitely expressing some strong personality traits and you definitely don't let your siblings walk all over you! You are an emotional one, especially when you get tired. I was bracing myself for lots of tears with the start of ALL day kindergarten, but you've actually handled the transition pretty well so far.

As I've blogged about many times before you have had your own sense of fashion since the age of two. You are great at matching things now, but you definitely have your own idea of what you want to wear. Skirts it is right now!

You love to be a "baker" as you call it. You love to help me in the kitchen and taste everything! This is your favorite recipe to make because you mix the cookies with your hands and then you get to lick them off:)

I sure do love spending time with you sweet girl. I'm sad that I don't get to hang out with you in the afternoon anymore now that you are at school all day. We miss having you around! You love to do everything with me. We went through a period this past year that you needed to be with me all the time. You would be completely distraught if you were left at home with daddy.

It has been fun watching your relationship with your cousin Annika develop over the years. You are only 5 months apart, and you two have a lot of fun together. You will now disappear upstairs at Nana and Papas to play with the beanie babies and dolls. Annika looks up to you quite a bit, I pray that you will always be a good example to her!

You embrace life girl. You get super excited to have special time with daddy or I but you really don't demand it. When you do get that time you are actually pretty quite. You will talk when you decide there is something you  need to share, but you are definitely ok with silence. I think there is a lot that goes on in that little head of yours. You are very imaginative and creative, so I often wonder what you are thinking about.

You do love your daddy time again. You love to wrestle with him when you can get him away from your brothers. I am looking forward to watching your relationship grow.

You and Brooky sure have fun together. I love that you have a little sister to be girly with. She looks up to you Morgan and I pray that you will be a good example of girl who loves Jesus for Brooklyn to see. You two now share a room...a very PINK room and I think you love being roommates!

This year you grew so much. You loved preschool and did really well meeting new people. You loved all the pretend play and the art projects that you got to do. In fact your biggest complaint about the first day of kindergarten was that you didn't get to play enough:) You also learned how to ride your bike without training wheels and now you love to ride your bike. You and Ethan head outside almost every morning lately to ride bike. You are doing awesome with a two wheeler!

You and Ethan....you are the imagination behind this guy. I think in some ways he would be lost without you. He loves to have you watch him bike, rollerblade etc and you usually gladly play along and give him an audience. I love that about you. You two sure know how to fight sometimes though. He has been a sweet brother these first few days of school and sits by you on the bus and walks you to your classroom in the morning.

You became an awesome independent swimmer this summer. You don't use floaties at all anymore, not even in the deep end. You can jump into the deep end and swim to the edge. You love it and have had a lot of fun swimming with your friends and cousins this summer.

Morgan, your daddy and I are so proud of the little lady you are becoming. Today you got your ears pierced and you looked so old sitting in that chair. I know that I will blink and you'll be in high school. I am doing my best to soak up all these moments with you and embrace you where you are at...good and bad;) I love you sweet girl and I am so glad that God made you perfect for our family.

Brooklyn is Three!!

Happy Birthday my little firecracker! You my girl are so much joy and sunshine and so much attitude all wrapped up in one. You keep Daddy and I on our toes that is for sure! You LOVE to sing. You are very good at carrying a tune and singing all the words to most songs you listen to often. Recently you love to blare the music in your room and sing and dance along with the music. I love it!

Your vocabulary has grown so much this past year. We are finally making progress with your big girl voice as well. You have quite the high pitched voice sometimes little one!

Like your brother you experienced some major milestones as well. You are potty trained, sleeping in a big girl bed and sleeping your first night without your binky! I am so proud of you! You are also so good at dressing and undressing yourself, which is super helpful sometimes, but not so much other times. Mommy loves how grown up you are getting, but I also know that means you won't be my baby girl much longer!

You have tons of fun with the other three in this picture! You guys can play so great together sometimes. Lately you love playing outside in the morning which I love too. You all love to wrestle and play pretend too. It brings me so much joy to see you playing well together and caring for each other too.

Brooklyn you are my best eater and my messiest eater. You can really pack the food away when you are hungry and you are my least pickiest eater. I hope that continues because I can get you to pretty much eat anything. You don't have as much of a sweet tooth as your siblings though and you have recently started turning down a donut when we get them for a special treat. Your sister and brothers think you're crazy!

You have so much courage and confidence little one. On this day some big boys came over to where you were squirting this water and you kept turning it on in their faces. Nothing much stands in your way when you  make up your mind to do something. That will serve you well in the future and continue to drive me crazy in the present.

You and your sister love to play together. You really get along well and love to retreat to your room to do girl things. Don't get my wrong, you definitely  have your moments, but over all you're pretty sweet to each other.

You and Huds have so much fun together. You really play well together and you don't fight that often. Now that big brother and big sister are in school full time it is really fun to watch you two in your relationship. I love listening to your little conversations.

What's not to love about that little face? You have a kind giving heart Brooklyn. You like to make sure others are ok and you are pretty good with sharing your things if it will make some one else happy. You love to color and draw and currently you love carrying things around in purses and bags and filling your bed with stuff!

You and Ethan have a blast together too. He loves to be the helpful big brother and most of the time you let him. He will often times try to come to your rescue when you are being a little stinker too!

Brooky mommy loves you so much. I am so glad God put you in our family, I can't imagine our house without you. I can't wait to see how God shapes and molds you as you continue to grow up.