More hospital pics

Meeting their new brother!

It's tradition in our family for daddy to dress the baby's to come home from the hospital. This time he had a few helpers. Lucky guy!

Our new little miracle

Taft Reason McDowell

It's a...........

I told the kids I would make rice krispie treats and color them blue or pink and cover them in chocolate and when daddy got home from work we'd cut into them so they could find out if we were having a boy or girl. We were afraid Crew might say something and ruin the surprise since he was at the ultrasound with us. But if you ask him he still says, " it's a gool," and "I'm having a baby brudder." So yeah, our secret was safe with him. So here was the result:

We are so excited to be having another fun little guy around our house. We were all super excited to find out that it was a boy except for Kya. She got upset and didn't want to talk about it for a day or two. But she got over it and the other day came up to my belly and said, "hi baby boy," and then kissed my belly, then she kept telling him that she loves him. It was so fun to see that. I love that girl so much! These boys are lucky to have her as a sister.

Conors Birthday

For Conors 9th birthday we went to the Aquarium. He got to take a friend. They LOVED it! The scuba divers came right up to the kids and gave them knuckles through the glass. All four kids got to touch sting rays and some of them touched star fish and horse shoe crab.

For some reason they have tigers at this aquarium. We wonder if they ever eat the fish!

(The camera battery died before we got to touch the sting rays. Tom got some great video of it though and I'm not awesome enough to put a vidoe on here so just ask us next time you're at our house and we'll be glad to show you.)

The next day some friends invited us over for dinner so we brought Conor's cake and ice cream along with us. It's always more fun to share your cake with friends. As I was lighting the candles I thought wait a minute why aren't they staying lit? Of course it was Crew! I should have known. He was blowing from across the table as I was lighting. He is such a funny little dude! Never a dull moment with him around.

(The sea life quilt Grammy made for him this year was fitting.)

Conor was able to complete his Harry Potter series set between Auntie Kindy, Grammy and Papa and us. He was sooooo happy about this. He's been waiting a while to read book three and when he opened the one from Auntie Kindy he said, " you are the best person ever!" He had it read and started on book four eight days later. He's now halfway through that one. I swear I cannot keep this kid in books and neither can the library, that's why we decided he needed his own set of this series

We also got Conor his new Bear stuff for his Bday. He was way excited. This was his first day as a bear scout.

My cute little baby Conor is 9! and still as cute and happy as ever. He told his primary teacher, "I'm glad that I chose to come to earth because I have a pretty great life." It made me teary eyed when she told me. I'm so happy that we get to be a part of his great life and that we get to be with him forever. I feel priveldged to be his mom. I can't believe I've been a mom that long! It's been amazing and we're so happy to have Conor as part of our eternal family!

Tom's Birthday Surprise for Kids

For Toms Birthday we sent the kids on a scavenger hunt around the house. The surprise at the end was hidden behind our family picture and it was the ultrasound pics of baby McDowell #4! They were super excited! It was so fun. (We found out that we were pregnant with Crew on Tom's birthday 3 years ago. )

Cousins

Auntie Kortney and Jhett came to stay with us while Uncle Pratt had business in Denver. It was so great to have them despite the fact that Jhett had ear infections and apparantly Crew was cutting a huge molar that we didn't realize till a day or two after they left. He was totally not his usually sweet, polite self, he was one grouchy dude! (he's always saying please, sorry, canks, no canks, yes sir, yes mam, and scuse me) We thought he was just having a hard time having company but he was probably hurting. Poor guys! While they were here we went swimming, and to the park. Jhett got a turn playing our family and my family's tradition when I was growing up of Don't Eat Pete, for FHE game. He was so cute and excited to have a turn. One of the days Auntie Kindy and Briley came and we went to the park again and brought a picnic.(Sadly I didn't have my camera that time) One of the pics is of me reading a story to all the kiddos. Notice Crew and Briley each holding their teddy bears during the story. so sweet. Crew and Jhett just happened to have matching jammies so we bribed them to sit still for 2.5 seconds to let us take a pic of them together. Right before they left Jhett had just woken up from a nap and was snuggling his Auntie Krista. Kya wanted some love so she stole him from me and was kissing on his cheeks. He just layed there soakin' up the love. It was the sweetest thing!

My little buddy

I am so lucky to have a little buddy to hang out with during the day. He helps me with laundry and dishes. We go to playgroup and storytime at the library. We play with playdough and fingerpaint and ride bikes. We like to play cars and do puzzles and read and rock in the rocking chair before nap time and sing songs to each other. We make big messes sometimes and sometimes we look like this (above pic) and are exhausted by the end of the day but as Crew said to me the other day after we dropped the older kids off at school, "Mama, we're both friends!"