July Summer Fun

Man, looking back through my pictures ALWAYS makes me feel so blessed to live the life I live. We have had such an amazing summer. I had zero expectations for this summer since we were having a new baby but I have been pleasantly surprised at all the fun we have been able to have!

Mckinley is so creative and thought of this cute jar lid cross stitch all on her own. She made one for herself and one for each of her two best friends. So cute!

I lost my milk from all of our 4th of July family activities and not being able to pump as often so it was time to break out the frozen milk. I had 60 bags of 7 oz each! And Jackson wouldn't drink them. So I put him on formula and after a couple weeks I tried again and now he is drinking the frozen milk. Phew!

I was able to go to a retirement party for one of the Radiologists I used to work for. It was so great seeing a bunch of the people I used to work with! Especially this gem. Heidi is my angel. She has helped me through each of my pregnancies and miscarriages and I honestly don't know what I would do without her.

Love sweet sleeping pictures of my babies!

Ever trying to capture his smiles on camera. Ha ha.

Fun picnic in the backyard when we were having a play date with my friend Sarah.

Play dates with cousins are a great part of summer. The kids were all looking through our look a like books. It was so fun listening to all the things they were finding. These are the best books!

My friend Christina hosted all of us for lunch and to let the kids play outside. It was such a great day!

These girls are such amazing friends. I love every time we get to be together! Elleny, Rebecca, Serena, Blair, me, and Christina.

Our ward had a really fun summer BBQ. Last year we got rained and hailed on, this year we were all dripping sweat. We still had a great time though.

Ava decided all on her own that she wanted a puppy dog on her face and the girl painting faces did such a great job!

Kallie won the jar of candy thanks to the suggestion of her dad to guess the right number!

Now that I am done pumping I feel so free! I have gone over to Kristen's house a few times and just stayed there for like 6 hours. It's so fun to visit with her while the kids play. She has a fun bounce house that she put up outside for the kids.

Kallie, Maverik, and Tyler. The triplets. :)

Kayler is so obsessed with babies. She is always asking me to hold Jackson. She is so cute! I caught her just softly rubbing his face. So adorable.

Jackson loves baths so much! If he is fussy and crying I can put him in his tub and he will calm down right away. Look at that smile!

I loved this sign Tyler made. He is such a boy and I just love him so much.

We won a cold stone gift card at a pool party this summer and we have been going and using it and enjoying trying different flavors.

Family movie night in Mom and Dad's room!

Brandon worked so hard to get Kallie's front tooth out.

Then the next night he worked on Mckinley's vampire tooth and got it out. Tyler's two top teeth are loose and Kallie's other top tooth is a total snaggle tooth right now. Brandon's got his work cut out for him!

Of course summer time always includes lots of bike riding! I'm excited for next year when Jackson will hopefully be big enough to sit in the bike trailer with Ava and I can join them!

Good Bye to Jordan and Annie

We had our crazy lunch at Pizza Factory that we do when everyone is in town. It is seriously nuts to go out to eat with so many people, but we love it. We arranged the tables into a big square in the back private room and the kids ran around like crazy. Chandra flew home after this lunch.

Ava missed a lot of naps during these crazy weeks and looked so cute passed out on the couch. Notice her baby carrier full of stuff next to her.

She is going through the hoarder phase Kallie went through where she packs as much stuff as she can into back packs and purses and shoves it all on her stroller and then pushes it around the house.

Friday night we said good bye to Jordan and Annie's family before they left for England. They will be gone for four years. So we had to take some before pics of the kids with their cousins.
Mavis and Ava.

Annie snuggling Jackson.

Kallie, Colby, and Tyler.

Annie bought some sidewalk chalk and the kids went crazy with it out on the basketball court. So fun for them to have such a huge canvas to work on. It was so cute!

Brandon and all of his brothers in their old scout shirts. We decided to take a picture in them before we made Karen throw them away.

Another keepsake picture, my dad is getting rid of his accordion so I told my mom to take a picture of him with it. So many memories as a kid of my dad playing this.

Free Stuff

I usually avoid free days at restaurants like the plague. I never go to the free zoo day or go get a free donut on national donut day. The crowds are just ridiculous and not worth it to me. But when cousins are in town, sometimes you do things for the first time. We taped on some cow spots and went to Chick Fil A for free food on cow appreciation day. 

It actually turned out to be a really great experience. We only waited in line for 15 minutes, we got 4 tables all next to each other, and our food came out super quick. It was a lot of fun.

Had to throw this in here. When Brandon was in St. George I painted Ava's thumb nails with the yucky nail polish to help her stop sucking her thumb. It was a terrible night and I ended up taking it off with nail polish remover in the middle of the night. But over the next two weeks I never saw her suck her thumb so I thought maybe it cured her. Until we found her like this after a nap. I don't think she sucks it when she is awake or even when she's going down to sleep but apparently she sub consciously still sucks it when she is sleeping. Dang it!

I've never done a free slurpee on 7/11 either but we decided to venture out with cousins and do it. The line wrapped all around the store. It took 15 minutes to get to the slurpee machine which wouldn't have been too bad except it was like 90 degrees in there. I was dying! Tara and her kids got there right when we were at the front so they slipped in with us and we all got out with a tiny little slurpee that didn't even last the drive home. Definitely not worth it, but a fun experience. I'd rather just go pay for a slurpee on any other day of the year. :)

More Summer Fun

We really had such a great time spending so much time with cousins this July. 

Water games in Karen's backyard.

Hadlee was so in love with Jackson and held him any chance she got.

I love when a huge group of kids gathers around one phone. So cute.

Sam and Brynlee made chocolate covered strawberries with Marmee and all the kids had to line up to get one.

Movies with cousins in the basement.

Another attempt at a smile...

These kids sure love their baby brother.

I keep telling Tyler just a little bit longer and Jackson will be able to play with him.

I bought passes to Airborne and they expired after a month. It ended up being bad timing because Brandon took the kids to St. George and then all our cousins were in town but we finally went to use them on the last day we could. The kids were all kind of sick and they weren't that interested in jumping around so it was a little disappointing but I still think overall they had fun.