HAPPY BIRTHDAY KENNADY!!!

On Saturday, February 13th we celebrated Kennady's FOURTH birthday! I can't believe that she is officially 4 years old. To me turning 4 is the age that you are leaving toddlerhood and I can not believe that (she of course is still my baby though :) ) She had a great birthday party at Fun Planet, a bunch of her friends from pre school came and she had a blast! Kennady we love you and will never forget the day 4 years ago, you joined our family! You are so smart, funny, loving, and the best little 4 year old ever! WE LOVE YOU!!!

The other day I was feeding Bryson and Jayden and as I gave Jay a bite he goes "mmmm". Both of the boys do this ALL the time (what can I say, they love food) but everytime they do it I laugh. So this particular time I responded with "mmm thats good!" and continued feeding them. Next thing I know, I gave Bry a bite and he goes, "mmmm gooood." It was SO SO SO cute! It got me thinking though, where has the time gone? I mean really I feel like I still have twin BABIES, not TODDLERS that are learning to walk and talk! How have they grown so much and learned so much in such a short period of time? It really made me think that I definitely ned to be better at enjoying them and playing with them each and every day!! And just to prove to you that they have grown... here are a few pictures of my BIG BOYS!

Jayden!

Bryson!

Jayden!

Bryson!

I just wanted to share...

... a few things that have come out of the mouth of my sweet little Kennady. She is REALLY cracking us up lately!

• The other night we let Kennady sleep in our bed and she was really wound up and just so excited to be in there. Well it was getting late and so I said, "Its time to go to sleep Kennady, good night, I love you". She responded with her usual "Goodnight Mom, love you". Then she rolled over to Bill and said "and I love you too stinky butt, good night!

• Last week I was in the kitchen getting ready to make dinner so I asked Kennady what she wanted to eat. She said chicken nuggets. Well if you know Kennady she would eat chicken nuggets EVERYDAY if you let her so I asked her to choose something else and teased her about always wanting to eat them. Her response, "I just can't help it Mom, they are freakin delicious!" (yes I know Mom, I learned I REALLY need to watch my mouth around her)

• Today Kennady stayed home sick from preschool because she was puking. Well this evening she started acting like she felt better and ate dinner with us and everything. After dinner I was cleaning up and asked her if she was feeling better. She goes, "Yep, cough cough, see that didn't make me have the pooks".

• Kennady loves missionaries. I'm sure it has something to do with two of her uncles serving missions right now. So when I told her the other night that missionaries were coming over for dinner she was ECSTATIC. Well when they got here she was shy and hid from them the entire night. After they left I told her that they were really nice and that next time she should be nice too and talk to them. Her response, "I know they are nice Mom, but they AREN'T MY MISSIONARIES". I asked her who her missionaries are and she said, "my uncles mom!". What a tear jerker moment! She misses them SO much!

• Kennady also misses her Grandma and Grandpa like crazy! She frequently asks me if we can look at pictures on the "coocaputer" so that she can see them. She gets so excited every time she sees a picture of one of our family members and can really entertain herself with looking at the pictures for hours. So I left her to look at them and went back to homework. Pretty soon I looked over and she was saying "UGH Grandpa come on, Im helping you, just take a step out" She was trying to grab a hold of him through the screen to get him to walk on out.... she was quite devastated when he wouldn't budge!

Christmastime festivities!!

Despite being so far away from family we had a great Christmas this year.  We went to a fun Christmas Eve get together and came home and let the kids each open 1 present... pajamas of course and set out cookies and milk for santa.  Christmas day was full of fun and laughter!  We woke up at 8:00 -  yeah the kids let us sleep in and hurried down stairs to see what Santa had left!  Then around 3 we headed over to our great friends the Trotter's house where we ate more food and had MORE fun!  The kids all loved all the presents that they recieved and really had fun picking out presents for eachother this year.  The boys were at a great age to really enjoy Christmas and Jayden was an unwrapping machine.  We would give them each a present, Jayden would unwrap his, then Bryson would had Jayden his and Jay would unwrap it too!  

We got quite a bit of snow this year!  This is the road that we live on!

and here is our winter house! 

Taylor and Kennady send hugs to you all....

A life long dream of mine....

I have always loved loved loved kids and wanted a big family. I was raised in a relatively large family and my brothers and I have a bond that I wouldnt trade for anything, a bond that I HOPE my kids develop amongst themselves. Bill was raised an only child and swore he would give any child he had siblings. After the twins were born we reached our "ideal" of having four kids and tried to say that we were done, but both Bill and I have constantly found ourselves "justifying" having another child. I dont know why though! Why is it wrong to want a big family now, when thats what we have both wanted our whole lives? We have finally come to the conclusion that we aren't done. That whether or not we get funny looks when we haul a million kids into a restaurant... we ARENT done!

After we finally realized that its okay to have more than the average amount of kids, I started really thinking about a passion of mine. I have always been fascinated by adoption. I don't know why, maybe its just thinking that so many kids don't have loving homes that they deserve. Maybe its because my Mom was adopted. Maybe it's the example of my amazing Grandma. Maybe Im just weird. I dont know but whatever the reason, I feel like it's something that I should do, something that I am SUPPOSED to do. Now being that we already have 4 healthy, beautiful, amazing kids it makes adoption a little bit harder. Adopting within the US is pretty much out for us. We would like to adopt an infant/toddler and in the states, thats nearly impossible for people who are able to have kids. Plus, I want to adopt a child that really NEEDS us. That without us he/she would not be able to grow and learn and thrive and rise to his/her potential. And being that there are waiting lists for infant/toddler aged kids in the US I think we have to go elsewhere. So I have been doing research, research and more research on various countries. There are so many places to choose from, but they all have A LOT of restrictions. The fact the Bill has been divorced before weeds out a few, the fact that we already have children weeds out a few, and the fact that I don't want to wait until I am 30-35 weeds out a few more. BUT there are also a few that we qualify for... well almost. We meet all the requirements except that I have to be 25. Im 23 so that gives us 2 years to save.....

I think I have...

the CUTEST pumpkins in the whole patch!  I mean really, Im sure that I am a bit biased, but I just can't get over how incredibly adorable these babies are!  The twins had their first pumpkin carving experience on October 22, and Bryson LOVED it, Jayden on the other hand... definitly not going to be his fondest memory!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one.. B is looking at J like, seriously dude?  Get a grip!

Just a couple pics...

For some reason Bryson and especially Jayen HATE taking baths all of a sudden?  The happiest moment of bathtime is me taking them out.  I can no longer bathe them together because they fight me THE WHOLE TIME!!!  Any suggestions??

See, Jaydens happy wild hair self (after the bath)

and Bryson... he is definately glad to be out of the tub!

And the most important part.... we celebrated Taylor's 10th BIRTHDAY!!!  Wow where has the time gone?  I cant believe she is officially in double digits!  We love you Taylor and are so proud of the person that you are becoming!

So, the day before her birthday Taylor was wearing Kennady's undies... yes she could "sortof" fit into them.  I noticed while they were getting their pajamas on and I was like what the heck?  Why are you wearing Kennadys?  Her response, "because all of mine are getting too small".  So the highlight of her gifts was a bag full of new size 10 undies! lol  (There was an ipod hidden in the bottom of the bag)

Elder Jason Ward.....

Has been called to serve in the Philippines Cauayan mission.  We are all so ecstatic that he decided to go!  I know I will miss him A TON, especially if I don't get to see him before he leaves, but I know that he will have an awesome time in the Philippines and that he will be blessed for being there!  The Philippino people are very lucky to have such an awesome guy so willing to teach them.  I love you Jason!!!!

First day of school.... TIMES 4!!

There are officially four people in school in this house, and its NUTS!  j/k  Bill is still working on his masters degree, I just started my bachelors AGAIN, Taylor is in Year FIVE, and Kennady is officially is PRESCHOOLER!!!  Here are some pictures of the girls on their first day!!

Just for Grandma....

Can you guess which pictures are of Jayden and which ones are Bryson??  Answers are at the bottom of the post!  :)

Answers:  Bryson, Jayden, Jayden, Bryson

Just a little goofiness...

Since my Mom has been complaining that she hasn't seen any updated pictures of my kids in you know like a week, I decided I better add some before I  get into trouble! lol

Taylor and Kennady... this one cracks me up because Kennady's head looks huge and Taylor looks like a shrimp!  It makes it even funnier because we call Taylor our pipsqueak because she really is small for her age.  She got a new hat the other day and Kennady can barely fit it on her head... she is pretty big for her age.

Jayden Potter

and Bryson Potter

Summer Fun!

We have had a lot going on in the last few weeks!  The most exciting news though, is that Taylor is home, and we are loving be a whole family again!  

This last weekend it was SO NICE outside so we decided to go to the best park ever (Valley Gardens).  We had such a good time, walking around, playing with the kids on the play ground, watching these remote control boats, and eating ice cream.

Here are the girls watching the boats in the boat pond.

Mommy and Bry Boy and the playground

Daddy and Jay Bay

This is the coolest plant ever... im not sure what it is but the leaves are HUGE!

Kennady swingin

This is what happens when Daddy feeds them.....

Not sure how these got so out of order, but this is at Valley Gardens too!

The boys LOVE water, so this was their entertainment while I made dinner the other night.

We watched our friends the Trotters, dogs for them while they took their family exploring Scotland.  Well they were already watching an extra dog so we had 4 all together.  Lets just say Kennady was in puppy dog heaven!

The Twins Love Bath Time

Very Long Overdue....

I just got photoshop and decided to make Jayden and Bryson a birth announcement.... so here they are!!  Introducing Jayden Ray and Bryson James Howard....

Monkey Forest

is the coolest place ever!  Lauren and I have been planning on going to see the monkeys for quite a while now, so on Saturday we decided we are going (whether the guys like it or not)!!  Well I think we were all glad we went because we got to see TONS of monkeys and even a lot of babies.  That was the main thing we wanted to see were baby monkeys!  Monkey Forest is really cool, because the monkeys are free roaming so you get to see them not in cages and even get really close to them... you have to stay at least an arms length away.  We got to see them swinging in the trees over our heads, and even witnessed two fall out of trees.  Monkey forest currently has 140 monkeys living there, so they were everywhere, and SO SO CUTE!!!

Here are two of my little monkeys... arent they cute?!?!

Mommy, Kennady, and Bryson.  None of us are really looking at the camera because there was a monkey sitting right behind Bill when he took this.

Most of the crew...

This little guy was so cute.... he must have been thirsty too!

What you lookin at?

In this type of monkey the babies are originally carried hanging under the Mom's belly and then as they get older they switch to the top....

This picture cracks me up.  Mom and Dad enjoying the nice after noon, snuggling, and then baby monkey is scratching his butt!  lol  This is one of the youngest babies we saw, and he was carried under his Mom's belly.  

Cute little monkey family