The "Beach Park"

Not too far from our house, we have a great state park that is perfect for a little bit of summer swimming and, of course, picnics! The kids have such a fun time playing in the water & building sand castles, while Matt & I get a little relaxing in!!

This is how you'll usually find the kids...

We love summer!!

A Saturday Walk

Yesterday Matt & I decided we wanted to take the kids out for a little outdoor activity...the weather was prefect, spending a little family time together was great & we all had a lot of fun! We headed down to the Greenbelt to take a walk by the river! We did a 1.3 mile loop and finished up right before noon...it was perfect! All the kids were troopers...even Connor's little legs kept going!

It was even perfect for a few pictures...

And a cute baby girl that was perfectly happy the entire time! :)

Family Reunion #1

Yep...it's official...I'm a slacker. I am NOT good at remembering to take pictures! We took our camera, though it only made an appearance on 2 occasions....never mind the roasting marshmallows over the campfire, seeing all the baby animals that have been born, craft projects, hanging out, etc....so, here's the few from getting together with Matt's family from a couple of weeks ago.

Matt's parent's bought a Tote Goat (yeah, I didn't know what it was either, until we arrived) a few days before we got there. Matt found a new toy, the kids, Matt & I all had fun riding it (when it wasn't raining) and Connor decided the helmet should be his.... :)

If you were to come to our house....

...you'd find lots of Parker's drawings around! This boy loves to color, cut, paste, tape up, etc any piece of art work that he does. I think it's time I found a cork-board to hang up all his artwork on!

Here's some pictures of what you'd currently find around our house....

(symbols for only Rescue Hero's and NYPD allowed in this room)

(Lego "rock monster"...from the Power Miners set...some of Park's favorite pictures to color, recently...and yes, we print LOADS of pictures off daily!) :)

(more Rescue Hero's and Power Miner pictures)

(still not sure what all this one means...he likes to use the "+" sign when he is combining stuff, currently we have "M+"heart"+P" written on our porch in chalk...that means "mom loves Parker...anyway, there is a heart, rock monster and arrows to the right on this picture...whatever that means!)

P.S. I realize I have a month worth of catching up to do (end of school projects, family reunions, misc. pictures, etc), so I'll do my best to do some regular blogging! :)

Earrings!

At our house, we allow the girl's to get their ears pierced when they turn 8 years old. Abbie had the chance to go on her 8th birthday. Annie, however, has had to wait an extra 40 days. Annie has been playing spring soccer and one of the rules is that absolutely NO jewelry can be worn during games. Unfortunately, soccer started 2 days before Annie turned 8 years old. So, this afternoon (her last game was this morning!) we took off to Claire's to finally get Annie's ears pierced!! She was pretty set on getting purple earrings...but, once she was there checking out the different earrings available, she chose the turquoise ones instead...

Before (she was just a bit nervous):

After:

I have a pretty happy eight year old here today! And, I think it was worth the wait....her team went undefeated!!!

Blessing

Sunday brought Allie's blessing day. We knew Annie would be getting baptized this weekend, so we held off blessing Allie so we could do both in one big weekend (hopefully it made travelling/attending easier for our parents!). Here are a few pictures from after the blessing...

Allie with her Daddy & both Grandpas!

And Mommy with her "two white girls" (as the boys have been saying)...

Just the two white girls....

Another Mommy & girls...

Just Mom & Allie!...

I realized that I didn't get any snap shots with both Matt & I with Allie....I'll have to get those that our Mom's took! We had such a fantastic weekend and we are so blessed to have family & friends that came to show their love and support, along with all those that were there in spirit too (we missed you)!

Baptism

Annie had a very special day on Saturday....one that she has been looking forward to for a long time! Annie has always had a sweet & simple testimony and has always strived to follow Jesus Christ. On Saturday, she continued in Christ's footsteps by being baptized.

She chose to have her Daddy baptize & confirm her a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

So beautiful in the dress Gramma C made to have all the girl cousins baptized in.

After the confirmation....perfectly clean & pure.

Annie, we love you so much & are so very pleased with the decision you made! We hope you will always remember that special day & live worthy to have the Holy Ghost as your companion the rest of your life! We love you!!

It's Great to be Eight!

Annie had her birthday 2 weeks ago....she turned EIGHT years old! We ended up celebrating all weekend long (almost). We have a tradition of the birthday kid picking where we go out to dinner, as a family...since Annie's birthday was on a Monday night (when Matt was teaching at BSU) we decided to go out on Saturday night instead.

Sunday night we had her cake & ice cream, since we wanted Daddy to be there for that too! :)

Monday morning, we woke up bright & early so she could open her birthday gifts! She was given her own scriptures & marking pencils, some purple (her favorite color!) finger nail polish, a new outfit from Gramma & Grandpa C (she's worn it a lot!), a new dress & outfits for her American Girl doll from Grandma Judy & Grandpa Bill, and a special date with Mom to get pedicures & go shopping!!

We love this Anastasia! We are looking forward to a special day with lots of pictures & lots of family in town for her baptism!! Of course, I'll post pictures afterward! :)

Allie is 3 months old!

Things about Allie...

1) She loves to be propped up in a sitting position....she definitely likes to see what is going on around her!

2) She has *almost* lost her newborn cry....you know the one I'm talking about.

3) She usually puts up with loads of hugs & kisses from her older brothers pretty well.

4) She loves when Mom is holding her....if mom is busy, a binkie will hold her off just a tiny longer...

5) She does NOT like to lay on her tummy...."tummy time" usually lasts all of 30 seconds.

6) She typically goes to bed around 9pm and sleeps straight through until 6:30-7am!! Yes, I am in heaven!

7) She recently found her hands & loves to have them up near her face or in her mouth (see picture).

8) She will reward just about everybody with one of the cutest smiles ever!

9) She is definitely a blue-eyed baby! They aren't the newborn gray-blue anymore, but a dark, beautiful blue!10) She frequently has "raspberries" on her lips!

We are so blessed to have our little Allie-cat in our family! I love watching each of the other kids play, hold, and kiss her...each of them loves her so much! Matt loves to hold & talk to her as well....I think he misses her a lot when he has to work late or teaches class & doesn't get home before she is in bed. Heavenly Father definitely knew what he was doing when He sent Allie to us! We love her!!

Spring Break, Part 3

We made suger cookies yesterday!! Always a big hit! And, oh so yummy!!

Here the kids are getting ready to frost & decorate...

Decorating away...

All done!!

Now ENJOYING the goodness!!