Favorite Summer pics

4th of July

I know it's late to be posting about 4th of July, but I've been having some serious blogging issues. Anyways, we enjoyed our town's 4th of July parade. We drove downtown to find a spot to watch the parade, and on our arrival our oldest told us that he didn't bring his shoes. Not the first time he's done that. Luckily we live in a small town and didn't have to walk very far and he didn't really need shoes to enjoy the parade.






Later that day we went to a park and randomly met a lady who has a bearded dragon for a pet. She let Jonas see it up close. He looked pretty nervous, as soon as she took it back he asked her "When does it strike?" She said " no it doesn't do that" I guess that's what he thought it was going to do the whole time he was holding it.





Later that night we drove to a park where fireworks were permitted to light some. The air smelled like rain and there was a very nice breeze blowing to give us a break from the heat. It was fun to watch the fireworks going off and think about how awesome our nation is and how lucky we are to live here, where we have so many opportunities, religious freedoms, and the right to own a bearded dragon if we so desire.

Ok my computer was not letting me post anything new on my blog. I finally fixed the problem. It probably would have taken someone who knows computers a lot less time than 2 months to fix the problem, but oh well. Anyhow, I realized how important my blog is to ME cause it's the only journal I really keep besides scrapbooking. I had wanted to post about Jonas deciding after seeing one of the neighbors having a garage sale, that he wanted to sell some of his toys out of the garage. He made some money and that led to him wanting to have a lemonade stand. I helped him set that up, but tried to have him do as much of the work as possible. He had some neighbors come and buy lemonade from him which just made his day. He is soo excited about earning money now. Hopefully he'll keep that enthusiasm as he gets older. Now we just need him to learn to save money instead of wanting to buy candy, soda, and donuts with it.




I took some pictures of my kiddos in the front yard a little while ago. They are growing so fast. I love seeing their interactions (when they're not fighting of course). Dax loves to watch the older kids and they love and are just as entertained by him. 

Tons O Fun

We camped for a night over St Patricks day. It was amazing how much effort went into packing for that one night. But it was a lot of fun and I'm glad we went before it turns blazing hot. We even had a leprechaun visit us and leave a note and some ring pops.







Jonas is playing soccer


Savvy loves her puzzles from Grandma


James plays guitar for the kids


Dax loves to chew on kitchen utensils and everything else, he's already got 2 teeth and produces buckets of slobber each day

Jonas gets a haircut

Savvy loves to garden or water the grass with her watering can









We had a staycation with James' sister and her family. It was AWESOME!!! Thanks for coming to visit guys.

A few crazies hiked angels' landing





The rest of us stuck with the shorter hikes

















I just love the look on his face here



Finally got into the painting egg tradition and the kids loved it




Happy Easter

February Stuff

Miss Savannah goes to joy school now and loves it. She gets a little more tired out these days.






Morning Smile- this kid wakes up happy and ready to start his day





I think Sunday afternoons are the perfect time to pull out the card and board games. Here is my family playing old maid






And here is James teaching the kids how to properly gloat when winning a game


I think she was feeling disappointed that she wasn't getting the old maid. She gets excited when she picks it.





And here are some pics of my wide eyed little Mr Chubs






Finally caught a smile!

Fun in January

At Grandpa's Pond








At the pool



Dax likes the water, he only cried a little when he got splashed in the face



This kid gets smothered in kisses by his mom every day


This morning before school









Happy Birthday Mom! We love you :)

Christmas time

One of my favorite memories from this last Christmas was the night that we drank some hot cocoa, and opened up our elf on a shelf. (Thanks again to Aunt Di for sending him). Elf on a shelf comes with a story, then he sits up high somewhere in the house and watches the kids to make sure they have good behavior at Christmas time. Each night he goes and reports to Santa then comes back during the night and finds a new spot to sit and watch. Loads of entertainment for the kids. They woke up every morning so excited to find his new spot. Anyways, after opening up our elf whom the kids named Twelf, we went driving around to look at the Christmas lights. We found a whole street that was seriously decked out and then found a house that had the lights coordinating with the music. We didn't think the kids would be that into it but they ended up car dancing and not wanting to leave.

We also had lots of talks with the kids about the true meaning of Christmas and I did lots of thinking about how we can make our celebrations be more centered on Christ.


Jonas got an amazing star wars transformer toy for Christmas from his Aunt Mo which I don't have a picture of. He took it to school for show and tell. He has a little friend at school who is very similar to Jonas who saw the toy and said "oh yeah baby, now your talkin!" It made me laugh because I can imagine Jonas saying the same thing.

I also loved hangin with family of course.