My Favorite Holiday!

The 24th of July has always been my favorite holiday.  Weird, I know.  Its not even a big deal really, but ever since I can remember, my brothers and I and all of my cousins would sleep out at Liberty Park on the 23rd of July.  We would stay up all night long playing cards, board games, playing football, playing on the playgrounds, telling jokes, etc.... and then in the morning we would watch the parade go by the park.  Afterwards, we would go back to my Aunts house and sleep.  Pretty much because we hadnt had a wink of sleep all night.  After our whole day sleeping, we would head back to the park at night and watch fireworks.  But once my brothers hit the teen years, we stopped sleeping out at the park  :(  They were too cool or something.  I donno.  This fun tradition stopped for awhile, but now that we are all older, we still go to my Aunts house on the 24th and hang out.  She has a BEAUTIFUL back yard.  She sets up swimming pools for all of our kids to play in and she has swingsets and fun things for everyone to do.  She also invites all the neighborhood kids that used to hang out at the park with us.  Its so fun, and it makes me feel old to see that we all have kids now who are enjoying the traditions that I used to enjoy as a kid.  This year she had hot dogs and everyone was asked to bring something to share.  It was fun!!  We decided not to stay for fireworks though, since Gabe had to get up for work the next day, and traffic down by liberty park gets CRAZY when the show is over.  It was definately a blast to catch up with some of my old friends.  I only see some of them at this get together.  Its definately not enough, but once a year is better than nothing I guess. 

Andi enjoying the playground.... in her swimsuit.... haha

Alex also enjoying the playground in her suit LoL

My 2 handsome boys!!!

I just love this backyard!

My cousin brought his dog, so Jo wouldnt get off of my dads lap! She sat with him most the night while he fed her yummy treats!

Sadly, we didnt do any fireworks when we got home, which means we didnt do any this whole summer! How lame are we??!  We will be better prepared next year!!  I guess we will have to do a big firework show for new years or something!

Josilyn turns 2!!

Yesterday, Jo had her 2nd Bday!! I feel like she is not my little baby anymore! She is growing so fast!  She has been talking so well lately.  I'm thinking about potty training her soon, but I keep remembering how much work it was with Andi and Alex.... I just dont have the energy these days!!  Andi was potty trained by about 22 months, and then Alex was 2 and a 1/2.  I just dont want to wait that long again.  Maybe when the summer is over I will start trying. Anyways, back to Jo's Bday.  We decided just to keep things simple.  Gabe left work about an hour and a half early so he could spend some time with her.  I made some fettucini with brocolli and chicken.  It was soooo yummy!!!  And then I decided to get her some delicious cupcakes from the Sweet Tooth Fairy.  They are expensive, but so worth it.  I didnt really do much for Gabes bday which was a week or 2 ago, so the cupcakes were for him too.  We went to Target earlier that day and I let Andi and Alex pick out a present for her (a coloring book and markers) and then I found a little wooden train that was half price, so I bought that for her.  It was a great night!!  When we sang happy Birthday to her, I think she was scared or tired or something.  She started crying and I had to help her blow out the candles.  Too funny!  After dinner the girls played on our little trampoline and ran in the sprinklers.  It was fun, and definately wore out Jo.  She didnt have a nap the whole day either.  So she was quite tired.  The girls also had been asking to roast marshmallows in our firepit and make Smores.  I told them we would do it, but after the sun went down so it wasnt so hot.  Poor Jo didnt make it that long though.  She fell asleep on my lap watching TV around 8:30.  So we had the smores without her.  But it was a good day for her.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO! We love you!!!

I cant believe she was crying.....

No more tears once the cupcake was ready to eat! LoL

Sprinklers + Tramps = hours of fun!!

Sorry you missed the smores Jo.... they were Delicious!

4th of July

It was weird having the 4th fall on a wednesday this year.  We couldnt really stay up late since Gabe had to go to work on thursday.  So we decided to get up early on wed and head up to Pineview.  It is such a pretty lake!!  We dont have a boat or anything cool like that.  We just like to hang out on the beach and play in the water.  We went up with Gabes brother and his family.  It was so much fun playing on the beach, playing water volleyball, and pigging out on yummy food.  But this morning we discovered that we were all way more sunburned than we thought!! The only one who didnt get sun was Josilyn, because she played in the shade and then fell asleep for most of the afternoon.  Other than that, it was a GREAT day!!!  When we got home, we cleaned up and the girls put on a movie and passed out.  We didnt even get to do any fireworks.  They had way too much fun during the day.  But thats ok, we can always do them on the 24th of july!!!

Josilyn

Alexandra

Anadaniella

Gideon

Mermaid Andi

He was so good; just slept the day away!

3 months!

Yesterday was the 4th of July, but more importantly, it was a day to celebrate 3 months with Baby Gideon!!  I cannot believe how BIG he is getting.  This morning I had to go through all his clothes and start putting in 3-6 month sizes!! The little chunk is growing soooo fast!!

Love you Gideon!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Swim Lessons

Andi and Alex have started up swimming lessons again! They LOVE to swim. I usually take them to the Aquatic Center for lessons, but I found out a lady in my neighborhood does classes at her house, and I thought I would test it out and see what I thought. She seems to be a good teacher. We have only gone 2 days so far but I like it. And its nice to let Josilyn run around her yard while the girls swim. Easier to play there then deal with crazy Jo at the Aquatic Center. I would love to put Josilyn in lessons too, but the only class for her age is a Mommy and Me class. And I just cant leave Gideon while Im swimming with her. Its hard, I feel like Jo misses out on certain stuff. But she is still too little too care I think. When we get ready for swim lessons, Josilyn always has to wear her suit there. Even though she wont be swimming, she HAS to be like her sisters. Its really cute! I hope they keep up the lessons and swim when they are older. I always enjoyed being on a swim team and then being a life guard. They are both actually getting pretty good!! I think I need to take them to the pool to practice more.

I wish the class sizes were a little smaller.  So they could have more one on one time with the teacher.  She does teach private lessons, but she didnt have room for us this month.  So maybe in August we could do that.  But Im not sure what she charges for it.  Its already so expensive, but maybe it would be worth it.  We will have to see.  

Life Lately....

Wow!!  I really have been busy lately and its been a long time since my last post.  I have lots of catching up to do.  Well, it turns out that Gabe didnt have to go to Scout Camp with the boys.  His dad was sick in the hospital, and he thought it would be better to stay and make sure everything was ok with him.  After about 10 days of being in and out of the hospital, hes all better and home.  So thats good. 
We have been trying to plan when we were going to bless Gideon since he has been born.  With Gabe's Dad being sick, we thought it would be better to just have a small get together at our house and only invite family.  It would have been fun to have more family and friends come to our church to watch us bless him, but it was really nice with just a few close people here.  I had to borrow a church shirt and a tie from my friend for him.  Gideon looked SO HANDSOME!!!  I just love having a boy!  Its so different from dressing a girl, and I didnt think it would be as fun, but it is!! Look and see for yourself how cute Gideon is  :)

What a cute little guy!! I just love him!!!!!  He didnt like that nice button up shirt for too long though.  After about an hour I had to change him into something more comfy.  But before that, I took some good pics of the whole family (well, I wasnt in them, but thats ok)  :)  I cant believe I have 4 kids!  They are growing up too fast!

This is my favorite picture ever! 

The next day for church, I knew Gideon wouldn't like wearing that Shirt and tie again, so I put him in a onesie that had a picture of a tie on it. It seemed just as cute and way more comfortable.....

.....He still looks angry though, right?  Haha