Buddies

Owen and Ryder have a budding friendship and have enjoyed some fun summer times together this year.  Usually the fun involves some kind of water activity and lots of giggles.

They were up and down the slide about a million times one evening.

Happy Baby

Gibson is so sweet, so easy going, and so happy! 

The first day I put Gibson in his bumbo seat, Owen and Lilly were so excited to see their baby brother sitting up!  They sat and talked to him pretty much the whole time they ate lunch.

Isn't this priceless?

Living Room Dance Parties

are the best.

 Especially when they grow

 Any guesses as to what kind of dance party this might be?

....Dancing to some good ol' bluegrass :)

A Wedding Weekend

Owen was asked to be the ring bearer in Jimmy's cousin's wedding about 2 hours away.  We purposely left earlier in the day so we could take the kids swimming at the hotel swimming pool. But after driving a ways down the road, we realized we forgot the Owen's tux and had to turn around.  Once we arrived, we had just enough time to get settled into our room and head to the rehearsal.  We weren't sure how Owen would do being the ring bearer, but it all worked out quite well. Owen was pretty excited to walk down the aisle with Brittney-the 6 year old flower girl.  She was wonderful with Owen and he latched onto her for the weekend....even called her his "girlfriend." A bonus was the "Lightning McQueen" song (Walking on Sunshine) that was playing when he walked down the aisle.  

After the rehearsal, the whole wedding party went for a ride on a firetruck.  I bet you can just imagine how exciting O was at this!

Lilly was more than content to stay back and help keep an eye on Gibson.

 and practice her curb jumping. (about 100 times )

Then we headed back to the hotel to get the little munchkins to bed...which was not an easy task since they are used to sleeping in their own rooms and were excited about their surroundings.

The big wedding day...

the handsome ring bearer (I didn't get much for pictures...guess I got carried away in the day and just forgot)

But when all was said and done, we had some EXHAUSTED kids on our hands.

More Celebrating

We had a cookout at a friend's house from church and then we all headed to the fireworks for the big show. It was still in the upper 80's or maybe more during the show. So, yes, all our faces are shimmering from the heat.

Owen was quite impressed by the display.

Lilly's face just about every time a firework went off.  She would say "Lilly scared" or "It's loud" after EVERY one. 

Gibson was, once again, a good sport.  Though I think he just wanted to get in some air conditioning ;)

Our Independence Day Celebrating

Our dear friends, the Rodriguez's, came for dinner on the 3rd to kick off the celebrating.  

Here's our kiddos enjoying cookout food:

Owen and Ryder cooling off in the "pool" (our cool temperature hot tub)

Owen, Lilly, Ryder, and Jack

(next year Gibson and Hudson will be able to join, too)

Silly girl, Lilly, is becoming quite the fish!

Happy Red, White, and Blue Day!

 Happy Independence Day!

And some of the out-takes:

Milkshake face

Here's a milkshake that's been enjoyed Lilly and Owen style:

Hot Tub Swimming Pool

Miss Independent trying to get ready for her swim.

SMILE!

Gibson gave us his first smile today! 

Melt. My. Heart.

:)

Tent

Last weekend we set up the tent for the kids to play in one evening.  They really wanted to sleep in it, but neither Mommy or Daddy were brave enough to agree to it. (Kids up super late, and up with the sun would make for one cranky and long day.)

So, instead of sleeping in the tent we ate breakfast in the tent.  They were happy with that. :)

What could be better than bacon and eggs in a tent on a beautiful Saturday morning?