Saturday at the Natural Science Center

Saturday was spent at the Natural Science Center with the entire Hoots Clan. The weather was beautiful and our kids love all the animals. Here are a couple shots... My three monkeys.

Ethan and his cousin Gavin at the Tiger exhibit

(sorry the lighting is so bad, I was trying to get the tigers in the background).

We even saw the tigers charge each other!!!

It was a little scary to us, but the workers have told us before

this is normal tiger behavior, like brothers and sisters arguing.

Ethan milking the "cow"

Ethan with 8 legs.

Grandma and Grandaddy with their 5 grandchildren.

Gavin, age 5.

Ethan, age 4.

Isaac and Olivia, age 1.

And, Liam, age (almost) 4 months.

A Sunday Afternoon in the Backyard

Ethan has been begging us to get out the "water- things" (the pool, sprinklers, slip and slide, etc) now that the weather is nice. We finally gave in today and let him run around with the sprinkler on (don't worry we are aware of the drought - it was just a couple of minutes). The babies watched from a blanket in the yard, they were enthralled with watching him. Enjoy some shots of our cute kiddos!! Thank God it is almost summer.

His Best Friend's Birthday Party

What could be better than your own birthday party??? Your best friend's of course!!!

Ethan was delighted this weekend to party hardy with his best bud-

who also just turned 4!!

They had a grand time at TumbleBees Gymnastics, check it out...

Ethan and his best friend warming up for the party.

Ethan jumping down the runway style trampoline.

Climbing with glee.

Ready for a flip.

A little help on this "sumder salt"

Duck, duck, goose. Ethan will chase or be chased anytime.

Ethan and his best bud in the foam pit.

Ethan had to be rescued from the foam pit- it was sort of like quicksand-

the more you struggled the deeper you went.

Thanks best friend for a great time!

Looking forward to many more years of laughter, cake and birthday party fun!

Check out our friends...

We added some of our friends and favorite places.
Check them out when you have some free time.

An Overnight Trip to the Mountains

I (Shannon) have had a love/ hate relationship with Boone for years. I loved going to college there, but I absolutely hated the rainy drizzly cold. I loved the majestic snowfall in October, November and December, but I hated that it would snow after April 15th! I love many of the local restaurants and thrift shops, but I hated being so far from Target!!! But, by far the best part of living there was our friends. We were so blessed to get to experience such loyalty and friendship so young. I miss seeing all of them on a regular basis, but one day we will all be reunited again.

This weekend we had the privilege of going up to Boone for the night. Our college ministry, New Life, was having a reunion. We were eager to reunite with our college family. I pictured us leisurely hanging out on the parkway all afternoon and watching our kids joyfully frolic in the green grass. Well, you guessed it, that was not exactly reality!! Instead, it was rainy and pretty cold (at least for this beach lover). My kids were not dressed for the weather, but had fun anyway. Above is Ethan with our dear friends' kids. He was excited to finally arrive in the mountains, after talking about it all week.

Isaac is not sure about the cold.

After our parkway adventure was rained out we headed over to the Bed and Breakfast where we were staying overnight... The Inn at Higher Ground. This is a quaint B&B owned by a kind couple from our church in Boone. This was our first attempt to stay out of town (without help from one of the grandmothers) and I am happy to report that it went very well. Everyone slept well except for mom (I almost never sleep well away from home).

Ethan adored the log cabin B& B. He was amazed that it was actually made out of logs. He always loves to hike, and hiked all over their land with his Dad and his buddy Samuel. The boys are seen here playing with their sword and shield set. Yes, that's right my son was playing with a sword and shield set- thanks Aunt Robyn!! We will call you when he pokes an eye out!!!! ;)

Real men hug.

5 ear infections and 8 pink eyes!!

This is what our house has been like the last couple of days...

all three of our kids have been battling a cold for about a week. Then on Sunday morning all three of ours awoke with pink eye. Ethan could not even open one of his eyes!!

So instead of Sunday School we headed to the "after" hours clinic at our pediatricians office. As it turns out the twins have double ear infections and Ethan has one!!

And, to top it off, I also have pink eye!! Thanks a lot kids!

On a happier note we went to the pediatrician again today for the twins 1 year check -up.

They are both doing well.

Olivia weighed in at 20 lbs. and 8 oz. (50th %) and Isaac weighed in at 24 lbs. and 5 oz. (75 %).

Poor kids, I would die if my mother wrote my weight and percentile on a blog for all to see. Hopefully one day Isaac and Livy can find it in their hearts to forgive me.

Here is our brave pink - eyed cowboy roaming the halls today as he played hookie.