Summer Days

In our family we have summer birthdays galore!! Katelyn starts it off, then Ryan, Marc, Grant, Larry, my mom, and then Doug. It's exhausting and we have had way too much cake. Ugh!

I didn't get any pictures from Ryan's party sadly. He had a pirate party and his mom made a pirate boat cake (AMAZING!) and did some really fun activities for the kids. The party favors were great too.

Grant had quite the cake as well. I forgot who the character is already but maybe you know!? I think my sisters-in-law should start a cake business. I will cheer them on.

Homemade popsicles are a must. We have tried a few. In this picture we made fruity/yogurt popsicles. YUMMMM!

Checked out the free Nature Center. Gorgeous and so fun to have a shaded walk. Good times.

Road Trippin' {in a VERY dirty car...try not to pay attention to that}

But mostly we have been busy with a house! That's right, we are buying a house. We should be moving in a month or less. {sigh} We are thrilled!

Sweetest Kisses Ever

This just melts my heart. Check out her pucker!

Born in the USA

{Click to enlarge}

It was an awesome celebration for us. My parents drove over and we had a blast with them. We started by going to the Melba Parade. It's about 40 minutes away from Boise and claims to have "The best parade in Idaho." They did not disappoint. Loads of candy and it was an hour long. Allie had the time of her life once she figured it out.

We played in the pool, had some great BBQ chicken and corn, and then did our own fireworks. It doesn't get dark until about 10:15 here so it was hard for all of us to wait that long. But we enjoyed it! Allie was not a fan of the noise but loved the glow bracelets we got. Katelyn slept through all of it :)

Proud to be an American!

P.S. I dropped the ball and we didn't listen to any songs. I'm lame. Sorry mom and dad!

Green Thumb

Our garden is growing and we haven't killed it! {crossing fingers}

It has been so fun to teach Allie about food and where it comes from and to have her help us harvest and wash and then of course eat it! We have had lettuce, green onions, and peas so far. Everything is growing great!

I love not writing "peas" on my shopping list. :)

Bring on the rest!

Photography

One day I dream to have a nice camera so I can take amazing photographs. One day I dream to take photography classes so I know how to take amazing photographs. Until that day we make do with what we have.

Second attempt at taking our own pictures. {Katelyn's 1 year and Allie's 3 year pictures} + {Family pictures if possible}

It was too bright.

We were frustrated.

The girls wanted nothing to do with looking at us. (We are boring)

But we did have a fun day in a beautiful park.

And we did manage to get like 4 good pictures out of 200. Eh. Blah.

And of course we will keep trying because we are cheapos!

They are cute no matter what. Would just love to have some pictures to hang someday...

Still dreaming!! :)

ONEderful!

Katelyn turned ONE!

I have been thinking about the last year and what a joy it's been but at the same time it has been so hard. Katelyn is so different than Allie was. This is NOT bad but I had it all figured out so she's throwing me for a loop in almost every case. We had a birthday party with Doug's parents and his sister's family. We had a taco bar and a caterpillar cake. Both were scrumptious. I will have to share some new taco recipes later with you all.

Fun things about Katelyn:

Waves hi

Is VERY intense about eating

Has permanent rug burn on the tops of her feet from scooting around all day

LOVES bath time (also very intense here)

Wrestles with her sister

Has NO teeth

Eats everything in sight

Loves to eat oatmeal, fruit, crackers, beans, chicken, pureed veggies

Sucks her right thumb

Cries a lot

Momma's girl!!

Says: Dadda, momma

Loves to jump and kick those legs

Is not afraid of anything

From so sweet and peaceful...

To so sweet, playful, and FULL of life!

Walking dinosaur (idea from Dan and Lisa). Our awesome bargain buy found on Craigslist! She is not even close to walking but will take a few steps with her new little friend.

The tongue helps her concentrate!

A little diva.

Colorful Caterpillar cake

Let's start this thing!

Wait, what do I do with this?

Okay, I figured it out. SO GOOD!!

Don't even think about taking this away from me!!

This video is priceless. She was so funny with the cake.

HILARIOUS!

She finally figured it out. Digging in!

Here's to another year with our Katelyn! I wonder what lies ahead of us...

This and That

Father's Day with dad

Doug's father's day ukelele (idea from Dan) and a matching one for Allie so they can play together.

Swimming Lessons...diving!

Kicking

Holding breath?

Father's Day cake with cousins

Allie and Logan

Allie and Joshy with Pa

Larry and Ben

Ryan, Luanne, Katelyn

Dress up

Day with Rosey!

Squished cheeks :) Love them!

Our friend Sarah came from Logan. Miss her and husband Eli a lot!

Baby Birds

*Note: We just found out that starlings eat the Idaho State bird and that you are supposed to have Fish and Game come and kill them. Hmmmm, that ruined our fun little time there.

We found this in our old bbq a few weeks ago.

Starling Eggs (they look just like Robin eggs). The mom laid 5 eggs, one a day. I didn't want to disturb them too much so my picture is just of the 4 eggs.

Baby chicks hatched and they are a little freaky looking. It has been so fun to watch the process and Allie is really into it. :) Glad we could provide a safe home for them.

Eating Machine

This girl is all over the place and into everything all the time. She puts everything in her mouth. I cannot turn my back for one minute.

She is usually crying about something. She wrestles with Allie, climbs all over her, eats her, laughs at her, trys to find her all the time.

But she's ours, she's great, and we love her to pieces! AND she turns ONE next week. She is our toothless ONE-der :)

I am in complete shock! We'll be back with cake pictures :)

i LOVE the zoo

Hogle Zoo.

Beautiful morning between rain storms.

My family.

Ran into best friends Natalie and Casey.

Carousel and animals + bird show.

Katelyn exploded...literally from both ends and all over me.

So much fun!