Happy Birthday Cody!

Today our precious little baby boy turned 1 year old. Here he is first thing in the morning, not quite sure what to think of our Happy Birthday song (Kathleen and Brandon sang gloriously). His first present of the day was a new Elmo shirt.

We threw him an Elmo themed birthday party this evening.



The Reese's were so nice to be our family for the evening to celebrate Cody's birthday with us.

He loved his new toy and threw a downright fit when Ryan took it out of the box and Cody couldn't play with it for a moment. Guess it was a good choice.


Happy Birthday Cody!

Kathleen's Birthday Party

Kathleen loved Cinderella III that she got from, "Jared, Heidi, AND Xander Mom!" She got three different packages in the mail this year, which she totally LOVED. She is a package pro now.
She got another movie from Grammy and Pampa and this awesome flower making kit, which we have already used twice. She loves it.
She went to a birthday party for a friend this week and got her face painted.

I painted a clock with an antique look and Kathleen loved it. She took a picture of it hanging on the wall.
Here is the cake that Kathleen closely supervised as I made it for her.
Kathleen had her birthday party today. We made homemade picture frames. I took a picture of each kid in front of the castle they colored to go in the frame. Here are Kathleen and Brandon.

We had 12 kids show up. Who would have thought that everyone actually came that we invited but one? That meant a LOT of presents.

Crazy Week

I hurt my back this week and had to go to a chiropractor. One of my vertebrae are twisted causing my rib to poke up. So, painful as the last three days have been, I am getting fixed. And today I can finally pick up my baby. Horray! Anyway, Brandon thought it would be fun to take this picture. He was pretty excited about it. Then, "Mom, take my picture."
Grandma and Grandpa got the kids this awesome fan that blows bubbles for their birthdays. They love them. If you look closely, you can see bubbles in this picture.

I didn't get any pictures of Ryan cooking on our camping trip. Luckily my mom had some. He made dutch oven peach cobbler one night, breakfast of blueberry pancakes, dutch oven BBQ chicken, potatoes, and rolls and the list goes on. He is quite the little camp chef.


On a side note, I got my first speeding ticket today. And it was doubled for being in a work zone. I sped up to get past a semi at a spot where the speed limit went down 10 mph. I missed the sign (being behind a semi and what not), so I was going 15 mph over. Bummer.

Happy Birthday Kathleen!

Today is Kathleen's 5th birthday. I can't believe she is 5 already. Where does the time go? She has been eyeing this Bell balloon for a while, so I bought it for her today. So first thing, she wanted to watch Beauty and the Beast with her Bell balloon. She danced and danced with it. It was so cute. Kathleen went to get the mail and found a package for her on the door step. It was from Allison. She was soooo excited. (By the way, she never made it to the mail box).
Thanks Allison!
Kathleen chose cupcakes for her birthday cake. Chocolate with chocolate frosting.

Kathleen really wanted to go to the "doughnut factory" for her birthday. That is Krispy Kreme because she can watch them make the doughnuts. She loves it.Kathleen and Brandon really enjoyed playing with all her art presents.

Camping Trip with Plumb's

This week we went on a camping trip to the Blues Mountains just outside of La Grande, Oregon. It was such a fun trip. We met my family there. Grandma and Grandpa (Plumb) and Bradley, Alyssa, Tanner, Kaylee, and Ashley with her two kids, Faith and Logan, were all there. The kids had the time of their life (except the bugs really got Kathleen overanxious).

Kathleen and mommy picked flowers for a table centerpiece.

We had a birthday party for the five July birthdays. Logan, Grandpa, Cody, Kathleen, and Tanner. Kathleen was so excited the next day because she thought she was five. When I told her she wasn't yet, she said, "Yeah huh, you sang happy birthday to me yesterday."

Cody loved the cake. In fact, there was an extra piece sitting on a plate on the table behind him, and as you can see, he got a hold of it too.
One day we had light sprinkles, but a lot of thunder. Brandon hid under the table until it was gone.
The girls prefered to sit under an umbrella a little more in the rain.

At one point when the kids were just tired of bugs, they hung out in the front of a tent.
Every one waiting for the rain to end.
We swam at a "river" that the kids loved. I would call it more of a creek. It was never more than probably 2 feet deep where we were.

The campfire is always the best part of the day.
Grandpa fell asleep mid-story one night.
Horseshoe tournaments were super fun, but it was way too hot. Is Bradley playing horseshoes or sniffing his armpit? You decide.

The boys crashed.

One time we were coming back from the potty and Brandon just looked so cute walking down the road with a big grin and his shirt tucked into his pants.






There was a ditch with a log across it that entertained the kids almost the entire time we were camping. They loved it. And, of course, it was the bridge to terebithia.

Ryan and Brandon built a linkoln log cabin.
I decided to try making a fruit tart off of a show from the food network. Kathleen loves to watch it and regularly asks me to make the food for dinner. So I guess she finally got her way.
Cody is really starting to play just like the big kids. It is so fun and cute.







One day the sun was shining just right through the window and cast this awesome shadow. It probably is lame, but I thought it was cool.

Also, we got shelving in our garage last week. Here is the before picture:
And after:
Complaint: My national geographic arrived today looking like this! I can't believe they even bothered delivering it. The worst part is that it comes in a plastic wrapping. Where is that? I don't know.