Girls' Day! (insert 3 screaming girl voices)

With Daddy at work and Brock staying with Carter after his baseball team's pancake feed, it was the perfect opportunity for GIRLS' DAY!

Fully equipped with fingernail polish picked out by the girls, nail stickers, Care Bears Movie, and chocolate chip cookie dough to eat by the spoonfuls. 

Introducing: Limalicious and Purpletastic

The girls got dressed as fruits.  Sophie was a lime, and Ella was a sweet plum.
Ahhhh! I'm a fruit!

The girls' day turned into a yummy rib supper with the girls' favorite things (macaroni and cheese, jello with fruit, and chips) and treats from Daddy when he got home from work.  Their plan is to stay up all night in their fancy dresses and go to sleep in them.  At one point (8:00 p.m.), Sophie said she wanted to go to bed to be healthy.  A minute later, she started jumping up and down screaming "let's go play!". 

Ella's new board.  She loves it ;)

Golf Cart Rides

Brock's 8th Birthday

Drywall.  Sweet, sweet drywall.

After some helpful advice from Papa and Grammie, ripping out lath goes a lot faster with the large pry bar rather than a smaller one. 

"It does work."

 

 

 

Our Photographer

Sophie was such a trooper and helper throughout the whole week.  While mom and dad were busy on the rooms and Brock and Ella were at school, she helped us in any way that she could.  Thanks, Soph!

My Nap-Time on the Porch

So tired and so sore.  At the end of each day, we were exhausted!

 

Harper's favorite spot was in whichever room we were working in with her head propped out of a window.

So many toys and kids in one room for a week and a half.  As much as they were excited to stay downstairs for an extended period of time, I think they were ready to have some space.

We have since gotten the bedrooms drywalled and the kids back in their rooms; however, we still have the finish work to do, but we will work on that one room at a time.  It is nice to have our downstairs back (somewhat).  The office is still loaded with toys until we get the finishing work done, but it is slowly coming together.  Chad said it best when he said that it is definitely a process.

Jumping High Fives (Pocket High Fives)

While on vacation, Chad made a deal with the kids that whoever was caught doing a good deed or helping out in some way would get a jumping high five.  The kids thought this was so magical, and it worked the entire vacation!  Everywhere we were, the kids were rounding a corner asking for one of Dad's jumping high fives that he grabs out of his pocket.  So cute!

Whenever we would drive past the Super 8 that we stayed at when we had the fire, the kids always ask if we could go back there sometime.  This year for Brock's birthday, we thought it would be fun to take the kids to Omaha to stay in a hotel for a night (with a pool and a hot tub, of course!).  All of the kids were super excited, and they definitely made the most of it.  It was a great celebration of Brock's birthday and a nice staycation.

Redbox Movie (Hotel Transylvania) for the Ride

Our first stop was Cabela's to get the kids new life jackets, and it was a pleasant surprise to find that they were giving away free lunches of hotdogs, chips, and pop to all of the customers.  The kids were on Cloud 9 feeling so grateful for this special day with their free lunch from "the really nice people."  When we arrived at the hotel, we barely made it to our room when the kids were stripping off their clothes to get ready to go swimming. 

Finally!

I had to reiterate to Brock that there was, indeed, NO diving.  He didn't believe me when I kept telling him, then he got mad at me for saying that there was no diving, but then he was okay with it when he was able to read the "no diving" signs.

Hot Tub

Me and the kids were waiting for Chad to come down from the room, and we were all really excited to see him come out of the elevator.  Little did he know that there was a pane of glass separating the pool from the hallway, and he ran smack dab into the glass just as a bird would try to fly into your freshly cleaned window.  He made a very loud sound as his head collided with the invisible glass, and there was definite giggling behind him.  Although he left unscathed, he did manage to leave quite the print on the glass as you can see from the picture below:

Sophie kept getting pelted with Brock's cannonballs.

There's BUBBLES?!  Score!

Dinner Date

These were the best smiles that I could get out of them.  Not sure what is wrong with all of their mouths.

Silly Faces

Ella and Sophie were playing on the hotel phones pretending to talk back and forth to each other when Ella says, "Yeah, I'm 18." 

I don't even know what to say to that.

Trying to get a family picture:

We're Ready!

One of THE bestest places EVER! 

The hour-long wait was SO worth it.  After all of the kids got their own cheesecake, Chad couldn't stop laughing at the insane amount that appeared on our bill.  It was such a fun night!

The Kids' Evening Swim with Strangers

The kids so badly wanted to go in the hot tub, but when we got to the pool, the hot tub was filled with adults, and I didn't know how I felt about having the kids splashing around all of the adults that were trying to relax.  After about 10 minutes of Sophie begging us for them to go into the hot tub, we finally said yes, and the kids ended up being the life of the party (splashes and all)!

Brock's Actual Birthday

Birthday Doughnut from Dad

Presents!

What is in here?

A DS charger!

He wanted so badly to have tons of candy on his cake, but he loves the cookie cakes, so I decided to just tape candy to his presents.  He was not disappointed!

Chocolate Bass

49ers Helmet -- "Thank you!"

Brock's Cake

After feeling really confident in my candle stash from previous birthdays, it was time to light the cake, and low and behold, I didn't have enough candles.  Matches work, right?  Nothing like a little fire hazard to get the party started.  Unorthodox = Us

Dad says, "You better blow those matches out fast!"

Happy 8th Birthday, Brock!  We are so, so, so proud of you and love you SO much!