Family BBQ

It was Kieras birthday on July 29th, and she made it clear that she expected breakfast in bed that morning.


My brother and his family were here from Memphis, so we had a family BBQ and my brother was nice enough to bbq the ribs for us "Memphis style" and they were awsome!










We also did some sightseeing with them which made me realize, I live in a really cool place!

4th of July

I love 4th of July, so I couln't just skip this holiday either. We had an awsome time at Katie and Randy's, and the kids were just beside themselves with so much fun in one day.


They swam...


ate ...


watched movies....


and played all day.


This is Katie's neighbor, he was our live entertainment for the day.

Happy Birthday Mason

I couldn't move on and blog about anything else, until I gave Mason his time and space he deserved.

We happened to be in Havasu this year on his birthday, So Mason thinks he got the most awsome birthday trip/party ever.



He was SO happy with this "baby dinosaur" that growls and moves his arms. It's funny how the littlest things make them so happy.



We made his cake on a Sunday, so we really had to be creative with the decorations, but all in all, I think it turned out ok. Carolyn had a great idea, and made trees out of spinach and pretzels. It was teamwork that made it turn out so good.



One of his favorite parts of the trip was "driving" the boat with his grandpa.

Happy Birthday Savannah!

I know I'm behinde, but I'll update one event at a time. May 6th was Savannah's second birthday and we celebrated it with a nice day at the park, followed by cake and ice cream at home. No surgeries, no doctors visits, just a normal birthday day, and it was great. She got a ton of play food, a scooter, and stroller. I didn't get the expression on her face when she first saw it, but it was as if she knew she had always wanted one.

Our Garden

This is what our back yard looked like, and still does for the most part, but this year, I vowed I'd have a garden by spring. After much reading and planning, this is what we( my dad and I) have done so far.

We've got the standard tomatoes, strawberries, carrots, and pumpkins, and a bunch of other experiments. The kids love digging and making mud, and eating the occasional strawberry the birds and ant decide to leave us.




It's still a work in progress, soon, I hope to paint the fence and add the bark in the pathways, but overall I am very happy with our results.

The area behind the garden was pre-assigned from day one as my chicken coop. Yes, despite the teasing and ridiculing, I'll admit, I want a chicken coop. I've waited and waited for the temperature to heat up a little, and it finally has, so last Friday we went out and got the 6 newest members of our family.....Our chicks (no names have been decided on yet)





The kids love watching them, and I've got to admit, they're pretty entertaining to watch. We haven't had too much play time with them yet because they have to be kept warm, but I'm thinking this next week, we'll take them out to explore a little. Chickens?! Gardens?! I know, what can I say, I guess I have a not so secret love for country livin'.

We're in!

We have finally moved into our "new" house, and I quickly realized it wasn't as GREAT as I thought it would be. Living at my parents wasn't a picnic, but at least we had the major componants of a house. We have a functional bathroom, and beds and closets, and we recently got our tv going, but that's it. Kendy has been nice enought to let us go over for dinner every night so we do eat, and the kids love riding their bikes to grammys everynight. I have no pictures, because in the commotion, our camera was misplaced. We have no kitchen, and no flooring in the dinning room kitchen area. We have no heat, and no window coverings anywhere but the bedrooms. Some of the windows don't even close all the way, and that just adds to the problem. Our washer and dryer can't be hooked up because the garage apperently was a rat motel at some point in time and must now be sanitized in some way or other before any of our garage stuff go in. We have an awsome yard, but right now it looks frightingly similar to some of the jungles we saw in Costa Rica. (ok, that's a strech, but it's bad) BUT......

we are all doing well, and the potential for something awsome is so much better than no hope for improvement. I know it sounds pretty awful, and right now it is, but I have to admit this exactly the sort of thing that brings excitement to my life. I love that we bought the worst house in our neighborhood, because it just challanges us to do that much better. I love being so much closer to Kiera's school, piano, hula, the office and THE MALL.

Savannah is doing great. She has a very wide vocabulary, but most words only Mark and I can decipher. She does sound nasally with her s's, and she can't get her tounge to touch her palate, so she really can't make an NNNN sound. She's going to a mommy and me class on monday's with Leah, delany, Mckayla and Eliza and she loves it. (ok fine, I love it more)

Kiera's doing really well in Kindergarten. She won a priciples award for her class last month, and I know everyone gets a turn, but I was still proud. Soccer's done and she really hasn't gone to Hula since October, but she recently started Harp lessons and seems to really like it, but only time will tell.

Mason, Mason, Mason. I could see how even though I try not to give him the middle child syndrom he would get it. Mason got moved from Ms. Margrets class to Ms. Eileen and has done very well with the transition. He's picked up a love for Playstation and Nickjr.com and it's scary how good he's gotten at both. I though I had at least 10 years before I'd hear myself saying "Get off the computer" "that's enought video games for today":)