July 4th

We had a fabulous 4th of July this year!  Andrew had to work but our afternoon included a talent show and the pool.  From there, we met at Aaron and Nichole's to celebrate.  They had an amazing burger bar that had a recipe for any kind of burger you would want....

The food was fabulous and we had a fun time just hanging out....

Later in the evening we headed out to watch fire works at the park.  They had sparklers for the kids and they loved it...

It was such a fun day to make memories.  Thanks Aaron and Nichole for everything!  And we thank God for our freedom!

Oliver is 3!

On Monday Ollie turned 3.  I can't believe my little boy is a big 3 year old!  For breakfast he got cinnamon rolls and then we headed up to Target to exchange some birthday gifts that he got duplicates of so he could get Percy and James for his new train set.  Then we headed to his cousin, Jake's, to eat lunch and got to the pool.  We only got to be at the pool for about an hour before we had to leave because nasty weather was coming.  We hung out at Jake's a little longer and then headed home to make dinner.  After we ate he got to open his gifts from us....  

no, he does not have pants on :)

here is his "cheese" face

he was so excited to have a big Buzz!

He is so sweet and such a fun kid.  He loves these new movies we got by Leap Frog.  Since watching them he now knows all his letters and their sounds, and numbers 1-10.  He is really excited about learning them and talks about them a lot!  It is so fun to see him learning but I would love it if he would stay this age forever ;)  He is potty trained for the most part (still wears diapers for nap and bedtime... I need to get a plastic liner for his mattress). It took a couple weeks of working at it but now he goes on his own and does great!  He still likes to wear diapers though!?  Next week we are going to work on gettind rid of the paci, not looking forward to it!  He has been sleeping up in his big boy bed in the loft for a couple months now.  At first he would come out at night and would use the bathroom excuse, but now he does a good job of staying in his room even though it takes him forever to fall asleep some nights.  I have been trying to wake him up earlier from his naps in hopes that it would help him fall asleep sooner at night.  At his dr. appointment yesterday he weighed 34.3 lb and was 39 in tall.  Between the 75 and 90 percentile for both.  He has been saying some funny things lately and I really need to start writing them down!  Here are some things Ollie likes to do:
play cars
play-doh
paint
watch movies
play outside
run "turtles" (hurdles)
play with trains
line things up (see pictures below)

he lined all his cars up

and again...

this pic was at the beginning of summer- our garden is now full and the kids got a new pool from grandma for their birthdays.  it has a slide and they love it!

his new Cars laptop

lined dad's shoes up on the table

Both kids are at ages where it is really hard for me to get good pictures of them smiling but we take what we get :)  We did get family pictures and individuals of the kids but we can't get digital copies of them to put on here :(  We are so thankful for our Ollie Boy and we love him so much!

Oliver's 3rd Birthday Party

Last Saturday we celebrated Oliver's 3rd birthday at Rodeo Park.  It was pretty hot out, but there was a nice breeze and didn't end up being too bad.  The breeze did prevent us from being able to have center pieces (they blew over and a vase broke) but we just went with out.  Ollie wanted a Cars 2 birthday party so that is what we went with.  I made a chocolate peanut butter cake and tried to decorate it like a race track.  It started melting as soon as we took it outside :(  We had cake, ice cream bars, popsicles, and oreo popcorn.  I'm so bummed I forgot to take a picture of the whole shelter ready to go.  After gifts and food we had a water balloon toss.  The kids enjoyed that as well as the playground, disc golf, and soccer.  Ollie enjoyed having family there as well as some of his close friends.  Towards the end he started getting a little emotional but... it was his party so he could cry if he wanted to :)  Here are some pictures of the day...

oops!

ollie loved it anyway

jake and ollie eating popsicles

emmie girl

jake helping him open his gifts

emmie loves john!

some of the girls

the shirt had to come off to eat ice cream

and here is why :)

We love you Ollie boy!  It was so fun celebrating the 3 years we have been blessed by you!

Father's Day 2013

Father's Day this year was so fun!  Andrew, the kids, and I, along with Andrew's family that came down for Emmerson's birthday party, all stayed overnight at my parents after the party.  So Sunday we woke up there and my mom took a good morning picture of Andrew with his kiddos.  He is such a wonderful daddy and we are so thankful for him...

After church, Andrew's family came down to our place and we grilled out for lunch and celebrated Ollie's birthday, Luke's birthday, and Father's Day.  Andrew did get to play disc golf with his dad during nap time...

After family left, we headed back up to my parents to celebrate with my dad.  We grilled out again and my aunt from IL came out to join us....

We are so blessed with wonderful fathers that are good examples of what a father should look like.  We are also thankful for our Heavenly Father that always loves us no matter what!