HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

THE FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND...started off with a nice daddy & son campout. Thursday night we put up the tent in the living room and got the sleeping gear ready and watched a movie. Laney was going to sleep in the tent with them, but last second realized....it is ALOT more comfortable sleeping on her bed rather than the floor! :0)


Friday we ended up going into the mountains for a picnic lunch with our good family friends The Walker Family. It was our first official time going up into the Colorado Mountains!

These two girls are watermelon-aholics!! When we took the watermelon away from Emy she started shrieking at us. Laney just kept asking for more.


Laney & her friend Crew were hiking and looking for monsters. Lots of wildlife out here in the colorado mountains i guess! :0)


Below, our good friends Riley & Gibson, helped Logan catch a ladybug with their supersonic bug catcher....and of course a picture of the guys just hanging out!


Emy definetly is always keeping us entertained. She is a hilarious! She will be 11 months old tomorrow!


We stopped for a family shot at a lookout point as we were driving back down the mountain. Of course we had to get a smoochie picture in since we haven't had one for a couple years.

Three kids and we still got the heat!" (-Cheaper By The Dozen)


On the fourth of July we woke up and headed to a Pancake Breakfast Celebration at our church. After breakfast was served they held a bike parade with all of the kids. Logan has been looking forward to this for weeks. All the kids LOVED it and they rode around FOREVER!! It was so much fun!


As you can tell from Logan's expression above, he still isn't fully confident of his bike riding skills!



The picture above and to the right...let's just say it is a way we got our kids to eat green beans!


Afterwards we hurried home and went to the pool. What is the fourth of July without some pool time! We made it just in time before the rain clouds came in for a couple hours.


Emy LOVED playing with Logan's goggles. She thought she was sooo funny...and she was!


We then headed out to be with some friends for the night. We had SOOO much fun. We seriously couldn't have asked for a better 4th of July. We were with great friends, had a great dessert and ended up having a perfect spot up on the top of a hill next to a park. The kids briefly played at the park, went crazy with silly string, then the fireworks started. The traffic wasn't too bad at all getting home.



This is Jenn's good friend Lanita and her little man Chase (rt.). He is stinkin' cute and hilarious.

It was pricelss listening to all the kids oohhh(ing) and awww(ing). Jenn couldn't stop smiling. The picture of the kids above (Abram & Seth...also Lanita's boys) give a perfect picture as to the expressions on all of the kids' faces all night!

One of thing Jenn LOVED was taking the kids out of the car. Jenn held a sleeping Laney in one arm, a WIDE AWAKE (at least for 15 more minutes) Emy in another arm, while Rich grabbed a sleeping Logan in one arm and some bags in the other arm. It was just the cutest moment ever walking in late from a GREAT night with the cutest ever sleeping zonked out kids!

June already over??

For Father's Day this year we tried hard to let daddy sleep in but the kids were too excited to give him our gifts so I am not sure how much he really "slept in"! Lately Rich has been reading to the kids the series of The Chronicles of Narnia. Rich LOVES these books and reading to them at night. He looks forward to it everynight.


These are some of Logan and Laney's friends they have been playing with. Of course we got the classic Mr. Potatoe head group shot. Then...can I just say...I don't know what it is about a box....but wherever there is a box there is LOTS of fun. It started out as a house, then a human tumbling cube and ended up as a dance floor. They were going crazy and loving it!



The kids are crazily excited for the 4th of July this year. They got a nice traditional holiday package from Gma Brown and LOVED opening it. They are excited to use all of the 4th of July decor to put on their bikes for a special parade they will participate in at our church.



I came walking by Laney's room one day to find her and Logan playing Santa Clause. It was hilarious! Of course I would have to say my favorite picture of Logan and Laney this month is above and to the left. They both came walking down the hallway like this and saying..."mom, can you take a picture of us" It was soooo stinkin' cute!

COLORADO SPRINGS ADVENTURES!!

This past week Rich has been at a conference for work down in Colorado Springs. Jenn and the kids decided to drive there (1 hour away) and visit with daddy. Along the way Jenn was able to visit her friend Lisa, whom she played basketball with in highschool. YES, she is pregnant less than two months away until delivery and she looks that good! Only she could pull that off!

As you can tell we didn't get the greatest "group shot" of our kids together. Hummm...guess we will have to get together again and try try again! :0) It really was one of the nicest visits. It was so good to see her and see her as a mom too! Laney I think ate up her home as she put out strawberries and watermelon out on the table (Laney's two most favorite fruits).

One of our friends from Batlimore, Serena, was in Colorado Springs as well, visiting her mom. We stopped by there and it was as well such a good visit. Serena is amazing with all she does while she too is pregnant and less than 3 months until her due date. Bless that girl, she took us on a nice walk around Colorado Springs. All the kids thought the hammock was better than a ride at an amusement park! :0)

If you look above at that "woodlike" structure. Well, it is wood. All twigs!! Some artist created it all out of real twigs...AMAZING! No nails or bolts...100% twigs. Reminded me of how one of the 3 little pigs did it! :0)

Above is Laney chumming around with Charlotte getting ready for the ride. Laney managed while there to eat a nice handful of ants!! UGH...I can't even talk about it anymore it grosses me out!!! So far she has eaten a rolly polly bug and a handful of ants in less than a 2 week period. I guess that isn't too bad, but still, the point...my girl is eating LIVE animals!! I guess she thinks I don't cook good enough for her! :0)

WE THEN...met up with daddy after his conference ended at the hotel. Rich took us to the most beautiful place!! It is called (hence the picture below) Garden of the Gods! It was breath-taking!

It was fun letting the kids climb around and just be in such a serene area of nature. Of course at the same time...(me being a paranoid mom) my heart kept skipping beats as I saw my kids soooo close to the edges of some tall rocks. Laney ended up with some good trophy scratches but is still our tough little girl!

WE LOVE IT OUT HERE!!

THE LATEST AND GREATEST!

LOGAN JUST TURNED 5 YEARS OLD!! Crazy! I still can't believe he is going into kindergarten this year! He is such a great boy and makes us laugh and feel loved everyday! He LOVES to play with his friends, go swimming, watch Scooby-Doo, ride his bike, read books, draw, play computer games and loves playing bad guys!


We start off his bday of course with my Logan entering my room reminding me it's his birthday party the next day. Of course Emy helped me make the cake as you can see above.

I went all out to make a fun Scooby-Doo cake. HE LOVES Scooby Doo right now...which is kind of fun, because if you go back and watch the movies, they are stinkin' HILARIOUS! We had a BBQ with hotdogs and enjoyed wacking Scooby Doo apart piece by piece. Wow..that sounds graphic explaining a pinata game! :0)

We had fun with the Harrop and Walker family as they joined us in the celebration. The Harrops are our good friends from Law School in good ole' Valparaiso, IN. The Walkers are our good friends back from college...well...first Rich and Dustin met on the mission and were roommates and then I met Dustin and Riley and then the bond started from there! :0) We were fortunate enough to have moved in the area close nearby both of them.


Logan had SOOOOO much fun and LOVED his party and playing with his friends and OF COURSE LOVED all of his presents from friends and family!

Above daddy is teaching Logan to tie his shoe.


Here are two pics of Logan and Daddy preparing to "campout". They put up our small tent on our patio outside and the slept outside for the night. Logan was sooo excited.

Below you can see Logan doing a "kung-fu" move. YEP...that is exactly what it is. I was doing dishes as I put on a video for Logan. When I finished the dishes and looked over, he had it on special features of the Kung-Fu panda secrets of the furious five movie. I couldn't stop laughing inside as I saw him being serious and mimicking the "teacher's" moves!

Below is my cute cute husband on his bike. He now bikes to work 2 times a week, which is a total of 22 miles each day. He also swims once a week and runs once a week now. As you can tell he is preparing for his triatholon on Sept. 7th! GO BABE!

We have what we call "FAMILY MOVIE NIGHTS" every friday night. Usually with pizza or some sort of fun food and all gather around the movie on a blanket eating together on a blanket on the floor. However, last week we came up with a groundbreaking idea. "FAMILY PARK NIGHT". Yep, we will now have Family Park Night every once in a while on Friday nights. We went to a park about 2 miles away from us...it has a GREAT park and area...a grill and just a perfect atmosphere. We all ate a BBQ dinner and played at the park and just enjoyed being together. It was sooo much fun!

I LOVE watching my kids eat hot dogs! :0) Don't you?

Logan may not be able to play about 90% of sports...even at his age now. BUT we he can play "Coach Pitch/Tee-ball" now. Not to mention he LOVES baseball, so we are soooo happy he is able to play this sport. Anyway, he LOVES it! After his first week of practice he wore his shirt for the next 2 following days in a row. He wouldn't take off his cap either. (Which actually works out good that he loves that hat considering he gave himself a hair-cut when the mama wasn't looking).

Above Logan hit the ball on the 1st pitch for both of his turns. Also he fielded a hit...which if most of you know tee-ballers usually don't field, they watch and all run for the ball and tackle each other to get it, mindless of what the batter/runner is doing, but just trying to get the ball from the other fielders!! haha...yes it is a fun event to watch!

Above and to the right is a shot of our beautiful and lovely town of PARKER. We LOVE the area. The people are sooooo friendly, the place is picture perfect (I always feel like I am in a scene from a postcard), there are trails and sidewalks all over the place which i LOVE!! We love it here! Of course, we miss like crazy all of our Baltimorian Blooded Friends! :0)

THE PARKER COUNTRY FESTIVAL!!

We LOVE our little town we live in. Today we went to the most perfect parade I have ever been to!! There was soo much room on the sidewalk (just perfect to have that small home town feel), the people in the parade were so entertaining (it wasn't just a bunch of people chucking candy at you), you get alot of personal attention from the paraders (if thats a word)...it was very relaxing, the kids LOVED it!! It was just so wonderful...I LOVE hanging out as a family and just relaxing and enjoying our time together!

Laney LOVES petting any dog we see in site. She use to be afraid of them, but once we moved here and see about a million dogs a day, she has gotten a bit more use to them. NOT THE SAME STORY FOR LOGAN! :0)

THE DENVER HEARTWALK 2009! Unfortunately we moved to Denver 3 weeks before the heartwalk so didn't have time to prepare and work to fundraise for the AHA. We did however feel fortunate enough to attend the walk and be in the atmosphere of it. We are more excited then ever to already start preparing for next year's walk! Above is a picture of us enjoying the big bubble machine in the middle of it all!

Two things...

I know one thing for sure...there are two videos I watch that always make me tear up.

1) We have on camera my c-section with Logan being born. Doctors said he probably wouldn't make it to birth and if he did, he might most likely wouldn't come out breathing. Whenever I see the camera zoom in on him as he is held in the air (so I could see him over the sheet) and he lets out a cry...ugh...can't hold back my tears as I re-live that moment...just to be able to see and hear him once alive brought hope to my heart

2) Hoosiers! That is right...I am comparing hoosiers to the birth of my son. :0) When the game is on the line and the littlest and least skilled of all the teammates is up at the foul line with the whole team depending on him to take the lead with his free throws (which he does underdog style) with 3 seconds to go to take his team to state. Man, as he makes even the 1st one the tears are coming and then when he makes the 2nd and you see his coach and team and crowd cheering and see the smile on Olie's face...man, yep...a tear definetly has made it's way out of my eye.


IRONICALLY ENOUGH...Logan is my little "Hoosier Baby"...born in good ole' Indiana!

10 YEAR COLLEGE ROOMIE REUNION

This past weekend all of Jenn's roommates from college got together in Chicago for a 10 year reunion. They were roommates at BYU - Provo together in good ole' Campus Plaza! Holly flew in from Texas, Natalie flew in from New York, and Jenn flew in from Colorado to meet up at Kristen's house which is in the chicago area. Below are some pictures from their visit together!

Holly, Jenn & Kristen on the train! Kristen, Natalie and Holly taking a walk through Chicago.
RANDOM FACT: Chicago originally comes from a word that means "Smelly Onion"


Jenn being 'not so native' with her tourist map! :0)




They enjoyed a 30 minute boat ride in Lake Michigan to get a good look of the Chicago skyline.


Jenn had to put this picture in for her mom! :0) Windy City hair! All of them at Navy Pier!


Natalie, Kristen, Holly & Jenn in the water taxi on the Chicago River.

They all took a Water Taxi in the Chicago River to get to Michigan Ave.


Holly & Jenn (played soccer together at Ricks College.) JENN with beloved CUBBIES WEAR!






Natalie haled down a Taxi and they all arrived just in time to catch the train they needed to get home and enjoy an original Chicago Style DEEP DISH Pizza from Giordoni's.