HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY SHILO!

Checking out her new ride from dad, mom, and sisters
Molly modeling the cowgirl hat
Guitar from the Miles crew. Payback for Brody's 1st birthday present from Duane. A little unfair seeing as how mom is home all day with Shilo and the guitar!!
Snowsuit from Grety and Pappas.... need to stay warm on the snowmobile!
Showing everyone how good we are at riding our toy!

Shilo could not decide whether to cry or laugh while we were singing Happy Birthday. She clearly was uneasy about everyone staring at her and singing! She just stared at us all the whole time without moving!

Trying the cake!

Pumpkin Picking

THE PATCH

All the years growing up it was always a task to pick the pumpkins for Pumpkin Festival because it took so long and for years we had a hard time getting people to help! For the past three years we have had super help from family and friends and it turns out to be a fine time! My dad is always amazed at how fast the whole patch gets picked!

Last year the boys enjoyed throwing rotten tomatoes at each other... this year it was the mud puddles!

Dad and Grandpa Kokko would drive the tractor to the piles of pumpkins and we would all throw the pumpkins in. The girls thought it was pretty neat to ride on the bucket while the tractor was moving.

Aerial view of all the kids who helped out!

Shilo telling mom in no uncertain terms that she's ready to go home for supper.

Just Some Thoughts

I wanted to share some thoughts on Lily while they were still fresh in my mind, all my kids amaze me on a regular basis but I find often times I am in awe with the things that come out of Lily's mouth, and always at the most random times. So over the last week she has had two things that I wanted to share.

1. "mom, come in here quick and feel my foot!" why do I want to feel your foot lily? "mom! it's buzzy!" Her foot had fallen asleep and was buzzing and she thought everyone would like to feel the 'buzzy feeling" on their hands.

2. (while sitting at the kitchen table coloring) "mom, do you know what iridescent means?" do you know what iridescent means lily? "yeah, it means white sparkly" how do you know that lily? "aunt betty told me when I was making Calista's birthday crown. I put iridescent glitter on her crown." What amazed me so about this particular conversation was how easy it was for her. She pronounced iridescent like she'd been saying it since she was born and everyone should know what it means.

I guess it may seem silly that these things take me by surprise, but I'm glad that they do. These little conversations or my children's' explanations of things make me realize and appreciate their innocence and their youthfulness.

Calista's LAST birthday party!

On Sunday we had the Kokko side of our family over for pizza and cake for Calista's birthday and mom's (yaya). It was much more quiet than all the other parties and Great Grandma and Grandpa Kokko were able to come. It was Great Grandma's first visit to our house, we were very happy to have her!

Happy Birthday Cody!

Our weekend sure was filled with birthdays! Friday night was Calista and Paxton's Birthdays, then off to Cody's on Saturday for his 6th birthday! Then Sunday was Calista's Kokko family birthday at our house! And Shilo's is only a week away!

Cody showing off his masculine side!

Happy Birthday Cody!

Cody getting his butt kicked by the Monster Lily!

Cody with his favorite gift of the night! His sister's barbie doll!

Happy Birthday Paxton and Calista!

Calista and Paxton's birthdays fall just a few days apart so this year we decided to have a joint birthday party with all the family and friends at the barn!

Paxton's Cake

Calista's Cake

The Laptop Computer!

The Barbie Car!

Molly enjoying the ice.

Paxton was a real sport, he let Calista open all her presents while he waited patiently. When it was finally his turn he was very animated!

Happy Birthday Calista!

The Big 6 Year Old!


















Oops! Shilo stay away from my presents!

















Pretty Princess Shirt!










The most important... the Mermaid Barbie Doll!

Lily made Calista a Princess Calista Crown for her to wear at her birthday party. It was very nice.

Calista's Birthday at School

On Calista's Birthday Mrs. Waris let Lily, Shilo, and I bring in a snack so Calista could have a party at school. In Ms. O'Malley's preschool class we were only allowed to bring healthy snacks so we always brought corn muffins dyed pink with pink cream cheese frosting. Calista has always LOVED them. So when I told Calista she could have whatever she wanted for her school party she said pink corn muffins with pink frosting! Her class really liked the snack! We had a good time visting Calista's class and getting to meet all her school friends!

Singing Happy Birthday to Calista!

Calista's teacher, Mrs. Waris, is the woman standing next to her.

Monday

Here's my other little gymnast!

So on Monday I told Mamie I would watch the Miles Crew for her, completely forgetting that Calista had gymnastics! So all 7 of us hoofed it over to Gymnastics Village to watch Calista! All the kids were great amazingly enough and we sure did fill the waiting room! Her class was pretty neat this week, they're already doing balance beam work! Here are some pictures of the crew.... Brody was watching a movie, he thought it was boring sitting at gymnastics!

Shelby modeling Calista's gymnastic skirt.

Our Weekend up to Camp with the Willettes!

We spent this past weekend up to camp with Kate and Tom Willette and their two kiddos Cody and Kamryn. Cody is 4 days apart from Calista and Kamryn is about 6 months younger than Lily. Since it was the first weekend of bow hunting season we bent all the rules and dismissed Cody and Calista early from school on Friday and headed up north. The boys had hoped to be in the treestands to hunt that night, but that didn't happen (not entirely the girls fault). Instead we reached camp about 5:30 and the boys were able to spend the evening hanging a treestand and setting a ground blind for the morning. We had beautiful weather the whole weekend. We had a lot of fun with the Willettes and can't wait to do it again! Here's to a weekend to remember filled with good food, good friends, and great memories!

I don't think anyone will be able to see this, but when we arrived at camp the field by the pond was filled with turkeys. We hoped it meant a weekend full of wildlife! The turkeys are the little black dots in the distance!

Calista's catch of the day!

first morning at camp, the boys relaxing after getting up at 5am in hopes of the trophy buck. no such luck this time!
everyone enjoying breakfast
shilo thoroughly enjoying breakfast!

FUN AT CAMP!

Cody LOVES the baby dolls at camp, which freaks his father out (and I find hillarious), but best of all is that I caught his father making fringe for the scarf Kate was knitting!

daddy with shilo in a head trapper

lily and kamryn helping out with the stew

kamryn told everyone they were the little bakers and i was the big chef

On Saturday afternoon we all went for a ride on the 4 wheelers, it was a beautiful day and the sky was so nice and clear. We went all through the field and brought the Willettes up to the camp on the hill to check out the view!

Shilo getting suited up for the ride

Shilo and Tom waiting patiently for Duane to fix the flat tire on the 4 wheeler Lily, Tom, Cody, and Kate
Cali, Me, Kamryn (the pink arm), Shilo, and Duane
Don't think for one minute I know what I'm doing!