Cousins make the best of friends

Just sitting and singing together on the porch.

I really want to say "two little love birds", but that is just gross when it is your cousin.

So instead I will say "two cutie pies"

It has been sooo warm the past couple of weeks that we have spent a lot of time in the water.

Brothers are good friends too!

These are the bathing beauties of the house.

Happy Father's Day

Here is a sample of some of the delicious Father's Day Cuisine we enjoyed.

Jello watermelon with mini chocolate chip 'seeds' in a real rind.

It was a real crowd pleaser.


Then there were the hamburger and fries.
AKA-cupcake 'buns' with brownie 'meat' and seasame seeds and frosting.
Sugar cookie 'fries' and frosting 'fry sauce'
In perfect red baskets from Walmart.
Just a side note-we love these baskets. With two families in the house we run the dishwasher 2-3 times a day. I haven't wanted to go to paper because of the waste and expense and these great baskets were a good compromise. We just put napkins in the bottom and rinse them with water after breakfast and lunch and somtimes dinner.


Happy Father's Day to our favorite dad!

My catch of the day!

I just about ran over this baby bunny with the lawn mower this morning. She slowly hopped away and all I had to do to catch her was keep the dogs back and reach down and pick it up. I brought it into the house immediatly and let the kids hold it for a minute. Mason said he would think about what we should do with it. Then at dinner he suddenly said, "Mom I am done thinking."

I said, "Oh, about the rabbit?"

"Yes, and I decided we should keep it!"

Her name is Nellie and she already escaped out of one home and is now living in the butterfly tree. She even has a designated blanket that she loves to hide under.

"Mom I have to rock her to sleep now because that is what I have been doing every night."

OK, but we haven't even had her one night!?
Then later I hear her singing and rocking and the bunny sleeping.

She is a very good bunny sitter.

The beginning of summer fun!

Abbie

Mason
Matt

Emily

Rylie

Happy Birthday Mason

Mason's birthday was on a Sunday so we had ice cream and opened presents that day. Then on Monday was the kid party that involved a trip to the fire station.

Here is the handsome 4 year old.

These three are great friends.

They were so excited to sing to Mason and eat his cake.

Future Firefighter
This fireman gave the kids such a cute tour. He really enjoyed sharing his job with them. The kids loved seeing all the trucks and hoses.

This was what the fireman was the most excited to share with us. This is a brand new million dollar station with everything a fireman could want-even a pole to slide down!

He was showing us the upstairs living quarters and Zach escaped from me and headed down the hall. I didn't think much of it and headed after him. The fireman stopped midsentence and pushed past some kids to sprint down the hall after Zach. What I didn't know was that the upstairs opening to this pole is not locked, I didn't even know that it was around the corner. Luckily the fireman did and knew he needed to get there quick. Zach had triggered the gate, which automatically opens the floor around the pole. He was standing at the edge of an opening to the next floor. He fireman quickly picked him up and hearded us away from the pole. He said they had to beg to get the pole installed and that the fire chief threatened that the first broken leg and the pole is out. So the fireman was concerned about both the safety of my baby and keeping his pole!

A quick trip to Idaho

My kids LOVE going to their Nana and Grandpa's house. They ask me all the time if we could just live there. We were able to go on a spur of the moment trip a couple weeks ago and we all loved it! Jacob had drill in Utah for a week so we headed to Idaho.

We celebrated Mason's "early" birthday with mini ice cream cones and presents. You could eat 4 or 5 or 6 of these and still not be full of ice cream. It was great!

It was also Olivia's dance recital and it was worth the trip just to see her perform. She has become an amazing dancer and did great in all 5 of her dances! My mom even had to perform in a "mom's" special number dance. She pulled out some moves we didn't know she had in her. We may be requiring a little more in our Christmas family talent show.

Of course a trip to Idaho isn't complete without visiting the farm with my Dad. He always treats us to an exciting ride around to see what is growing. This time we drove around some cinder pits and even though I know he is a confident driver I was a little nervous looking down the steep road into and out of the pit. Mason must have sensed my nervousness because he kept saying, "Grandpa we should just go back to the rode."

Fun with our cousins

Our cousins surprised their Dad for his birthday and drove from Utah to Wyoming to be at our house when he came home from work. He was very surprised! It is a really long drive just to say "Happy Birthday" and go home the next day, so they stayed the rest of the week.

We visited the duck pond together.

These two ate more bread than they threw!

Rylie has become quite the artist. She created this all by herself the other day and was quite proud of it. So was her Dad-he is the one that had her pose by it and took her picture!

These two had more to keep track of than us. They had 10 babies and had to keep them safe from our "babies".

Aren't baby geese cute?