Our newest family member

Putting Zebby down was one of the hardest things for our family. We all missed her so much. And I was surprised at how wierd it felt not having a dog in the house! (I am not much of a dog person myself, but Jared and the kids love them!) We started looking for another dog that evening. Friday morning I decided to look on Craigslist, and I found an ad for Bronco, a 15-month-old chocolate lab available in Idaho Falls. We went and looked at him that afternoon and brought him home with us.

He took a little while to get used to our family, but he is doing really well now. He is good with the kids - he loves to play with them!!

Bronco always whines when the kids go to school. And he's also excited when they get home. Jacob always has fun playing with him. Sometimes I think they get too rowdy, but I have to remember that they are both young "kids" full of energy and love of life!!

Mark loved Zebby, so I was excited to get another dog he could play with. I wasn't sure how Bronco would take to Mark at first, but they get along so well. Mark and Bronco are such buddies!!! It is fun to watch them play together!

Family Birthday Party

Since we have 3 birthdays within 2 weeks, we decided to do only one birthday party where we invited extended family to join us. We did a little celebration of our own on each birthday, but we figured it would be more convenient for everyone else if they only had to come once! So they all came over on Sunday, May 2 to celebrate Brooke's, Mark's, and Joseph's birthdays!!

I just made cupcakes. I figured it would be easier than trying to make a cake that all 3 birthday kids liked! Plus, it seems that cupcakes get eaten quicker than a regular cake!

Grandma and Grandpa Thornton, Aunt Angela, and Uncle Jason and Aunt Heather and their 6 girls were all able to come and help us celebrate.

We sang to Brooke, Mark, and Joseph, and then we all enjoyed some cake and ice cream. Everyone seemed to have fun. And just like I predicted, all the cupcakes were eaten!!! Yeah!!! (I was glad about that. I love cake!! And we still had some left over from Mark's birthday the day before, and Joseph's birthday was in another week. I didn't need a lot of cake left for me to eat!!!)

My baby boy turns 3!!!

Mark turned 3 on May 1. I can't believe how much he has grown. He has really changed from looking like a toddler to looking like a big boy. He is such a joy to have in our family. He makes us laugh all the time! We love him so much!! He had a great birthday!!

My parents sent him a new outfit and some fun cars to play with. He was pretty excited. I was pretty excited when he put the clothes on. He has been SO picky lately when it comes to his clothes. I got him some new clothes the other day, and he still won't wear some of them!! So I was glad when he chose to wear these!! And Mark absolutely loves cars!!! He plays with them all the time. These ones wind up when you pull them back. He has fun playing with them. I just have to keep reminding him to play with them on the floor - not the table or the piano!!

We got him a Hot Wheels stunt loop (or something like that). You put the car in and pull the lever and it sends the car around the loop and out onto the track. He has a lot of fun with it. He spent most of that day trying to play with it - Joseph and Jacob thought it was pretty cool to play with, too! We had to keep reminding them that it was Mark's new toy and they needed to let him play with it!!

Mark wanted a fish on his cake. So this is what I came up with. It was fun to, and I thought it turned out alright. He was pretty excited about it!! ( Sorry, I forgot to flip the picture before I put it on, and I'm not smart enough with this to know how to turn it!!)

I thought I would need to help Mark blow out the candles, but he knew exactly what to do! He blew out the candles before we were even done singing to him!!! He is such a smart boy!!!

Mark qualified for the school district's preschool since he is delayed in his speech. (He is very intelligent, and he signs 141 words/phrases, but he doesn't "say" words clearly.) He was able to start this week since he was now 3. I think he had mixed emotions about it. (I know I did!! :) ). He seemed excited about it when we talked to him that morning, but when we got to the school he didn't want to get out of the car. I walked down to the room with him and helped him get his stuff hung up. He seemed better by then. Then we found his cousin, Alora, and he sat by her during singing time. He was doing pretty well, so I was able to leave. His teachers said he did great!! And he did well on the bus ride home. He again showed mixed emotions about it this morning, but when the bus came to pick him up, he got on it without any problems. I can't believe my baby boy is old enough for preschool!!! It's been so different being home with just Megan!!

Here's Mark getting off the bus after his first day at preschool!! He almost seems too small to be getting off a school bus!!!! But he was excited about being able to ride on a bus like the older kids!

Brooke turns 6!!!

Brooke turned 6 years old on Sunday, April 25. I can't believe that it's been that long. She is so a joy to have in our family. I think often times I forget just how special she is. I'm sure it's been a tough challenge for her to follow after two brothers, but she holds her own with them!



She opened her presents that morning. She got a Zhu Zhu hamster, Jilly. She was really excited about that. It was a toy completely different than anything she's gotten before. She loves to watch Jilly scurry across the kitchen floor!!

She also got a Tinkerbell puzzle. Brooke loves to do puzzles, and she is pretty good at them. This one has 63 pieces, so it was more of a challenge for her. But she did good with it.

I always like to decorate their cakes. Brooke told me she wanted a princess cake. How was I going to do that?!! I asked if a castle would work, and she agreed. I thought it turned out alright. And she loved it. I was glad since it was only the first of 3 birthday cakes I had to do in 2 weeks!

Here she is blowing out the candles! She did had fun, and as you can see, she was pretty excited about it all. I think she had a really great day! Happy Birthday, Brooke!!!

The Dog Gone Blues

Yesterday was a sad day for our family. We had to put our dear dog, Zebby, down. She has been part of our family for almost 16 months now. But she had been starting to snap at Mark, though she never broke the skin. But after having gone through a dog bite with Jacob (from a neighbor's dog a couple of years ago), we knew we couldn't take any more chances of her really hurting Mark. It was such a hard decision - we loved Zebby so much. She was truly the best dog we have ever had. When Jared took her to the vet's, he said that she had really bad arthritis - and we thought she did. (That explains why she snapped at Mark sometimes - she just hurt so much.) The vet said there was medicine that would help her, but he also said that if she was snapping at the kids, that we were best off putting her down. Hearing that helped reassure me that it was the best thing.

It was kind of funny - I have been getting so annoyed with Zebby over the past 6 months - all the dog hair and dog poop, how she kept taking snacks from Mark and Megan, her noisy barking. I have talked about getting rid of her for quite a while now, but I cried so much yesterday!! It was a very sad thing to me. (Plus, I'm already an emotional wreck because of the pregnancy!) Mostly, I was sad because I know the kids have truly loved her - especially Mark and Joseph. Mark would always go and lay on her and play with her - even shortly after she bit him. He just absolutely adored her.

If Zebby was laying on the floor, Mark would always go to her. She was his favorite pillow!


We spent some time yesterday afternoon outside playing fetch with Zebby one last time. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day outside.

Goodbye, Zebby! We love you and will miss you lots!

Dusting

I know I posted a few posts already today, but I just had to share this really quickly.

Have you ever wondered how toddlers dust furniture? Well, I found out today.

Brooke and I were in the kitchen washing dishes. And when we were done, this is what we found in the living room:

They emptied about half of that big container of baby powder. Then they were using baby wipes to wipe it up with.

Needless to say, they both had a bath after that one. I was just grateful that the dog was outside while the kids "dusted" so that I didn't have to give her a bath, too.

Anyway, today has been an interesting day to say the least. Hope all is going well for everyone else!

Mark's fun breakfast!!!

This morning, I sat Mark and Megan at the table to eat. I got Mark the rest of the Strawberry Frosted Mini Spooners. Being the last of the bag, there were a lot of crumbs in there. Jared and I love the crumbs, but apparently Mark doesn't. I left the room for a few minutes and when I came back, this is what I saw.




The pictures don't do the mess justice, but all those spots are globs of milky cereal crumbs!!!




I had to clean cereal off of Megan, all of the cereal bags, and the table. There was even cereal on the dog!! (Zebby always sits in the doorway waiting for her chance to go and find some scraps on the floor.) But the wall was the hardest to clean. There were milk streaks all the way down to the baseboards!!

It's a good thing Mark is so cute. When I saw the mess, I cried "Mark!!" He just looked at me and then went back to eating. I couldn't get mad. I wasn't exactly pleased with the change in my morning plans, but I got things cleaned up. It amazes me how kids seem to know when we "don't have enough to do!" It seems that they are always getting into something! But at least I can laugh at most of the things our kids do. They sure do make life more interesting!!!