Look Who Is 3!

Karley turned 3 on February 19, and it was a day of celebrating! The morning started off with having chocolate chip pancakes. We made a number 3 for her and sang her Happy Birthday!! After breakfast we started to get things ready for the Berning's Jan./Feb./ March birthday celebrations! This year Kristen's parents offered to host the party. We were going with a Winter Theme and they had some fun outside activities for the kids to do even though most the snow was melted.

Here are some of the outdoor activities:

Emma and Wilson checking to see if any fish are bitting.

Emma and Grandpa Bering were having a little snow fight!

If you look closely, you can see the snowball about to hit Grandpa!

The boys had a great time playing ice hockey!

Lots of the kids had a great time just walking across the ice since the river was still frozen!

After the outside activities, we came in for some cake and ice cream! Our friend Heather did a great job with the cakes!

Wilson (7), Dorothy (14), Karley (3), Brielle (4), Lincoln (3) and Jolene

Lots of gifts were exchanged between everyone. As you can tell from the pictures below Karley really enjoyed ALL the girly items she received!! She wore them for many days after and slept with some of them also!

First Real Hair Cut

Last month Karley finally got a hair cut from Aunt Stacy. A couple months before that Karley cut her own hair on just the top of her head. After a while we decided it needed to evened out! She was really excited for Stacy to cut her hair. She now has a shorted cut and no more mullet!! (according to her dad).

A Good Night Sleep....

Josie and Connor like to switch beds every now and then. This night she decided to wear her ear warmers so that when Tessa woke up in the middle of the night she wouldn't hear her!! I am not sure if it worked or not, she never said in the morning.

Snowboarding 101

Emma was interested in taking snowboarding lessons this winter. Terry and I are not snowboarders or skiers so this was something new to us also. After her fist lesson, Emma came home very excited and right away drew a picture for me to see what she looked like because Terry took her to her first lesson. Her lessons are five weeks long on Thursday nights from 5:30-7:00 at Sundown. For the most part the weather has been rather nice. This night was rather cold but that didn't bother the kids at all. I think the instructor was more cold than them. It is nice because she only has one other boy in her class. Now her and aunt Penny have something in common.

Emma getting ready to go down the hill.

Learning to lean back and use her arms as she stops

Riding the "Magic carpet" ride back up the hill; she made this connection to Princess Jasmine

This is the detailed picture she drew for me when she got home the first night!

I don't think she missed labeling anything!

Wilderness Water park and Resort

Feb. 4-6 we headed to the Wilderness Water park and resort with Tim, Kristen, Brielle and John. We had a great time, kids and adults, playing in the water, playing games, taking baths, and watching a movie!

Tim pushed the kids around on the luggage cart after things were unpacked and before heading down to the pool!

Josie and Karley having fun in the tube at the Wave pool!

Karley and John relaxing in the Lazy River.

Tessa sitting back and relaxing. She enjoyed the water and watching all the action around her.

Karley being a proud BIG sister! She had fun playing in the water with Tessa.

Connor had a great time in the water. He especially enjoyed the Wave pool and riding the waves!

There was a great play land that we played in Saturday morning before the pools opened! Connor and John had a great time playing with each other. The girls had fun also.

Even the Terry had a great time in the play area also with the air powered toys!

Terry also had a great time playing Laser Tag against Emma and Connor. Yes, I am sure you can guess who won!

After a full day of playing the kids couldn't wait to go back to the room and take a bath with everyone!

Who wouldn't want to take a bath in this tub??

After baths and supper, we ended the evening with the kids watching a movie and adults playing some games!

It was a great way to end a fun filled day!

Below is Emma reading to John before everyone was headed off to bed!

Look what I Can Do....

Tessa's new favorite thing to do at 5 months is play with her toes!

Belken Diner

The kids LOVE to play with play food! They like to prepare meals for the family, make up their own recipes and play diner. This usually takes place in the front room by the piano. On this day, Connor and Josie were the workers and Emma, Karley, Tessa, Terry and I were the customers. Connor and Josie would have ALL the food displayed in the piano (they were just getting started here), set up their cash register and had some bags on hand to pack the food up. Connor went and got his spare change to use as real money. This was a great idea because once things got up and running he would tell us how much we owed and then we would have to count the money out. Connor would recount it to make sure it was right and practiced giving change back when we paid too much!

Emma placed her order here and Josie bagged everything up in the white bag for her while Connor took the money.

When we were done eating our food, we would put it back in the bag and through our "trash" in a plastic container. Josie and Connor would then empty the trash and restock their food supply!

Great way of recycling!!

After awhile, they would all switch positions and take turns working. Connor then would pay them a little for working since he was the "owner".

Belly slides....

This winter Terry has taken Connor, Emma and Josie over to Bunker Hill for sledding. First time they went it was Connor and Josie (Emma was sick at the time). They realized when they got there that sledding on the sleds weren't working that well and so decided to try going down on their bellies and away they went!!! They had a lot of fun!! When they got home, they told Emma all about it. She couldn't wait to go when she felt better. That day came and away they went. Terry said there were a lot of squeals and laughing. They also tried going down all holding hands together, which Terry said was fun to watch.