4 Generations

Our main reason for traveling to UT was that my sweet grandmother from Florida was up visiting my parents. It's our only time each year to see her. Allie couldn't get enough of her and enjoyed all the time she could get with her.

(Katelyn is caught in the act!)

The coolest thing about my grandmother is that she just loves her family. She gets down on the floor and plays with the girls and makes them feel special and loved. What an amazing woman. She is such an example to me and is one of the strongest women I know. She has left such a great legacy for all of us, especially these little girls to look up to and follow. Love you!

I'm going to pretend to start playing catch up. We've had an eventful month.

The first event was the HUBS turning 30! WHAT!? We celebrated earlier this year with a trip to Disneyland. Yes, it was fabulous!

On the actual day we were in Park City with the fam. So...we took a ride on the Alpine Slide (my first employer by the way). It's wierd going back. I don't miss it for even a second (except maybe my nice tan and my strong muscles). Allie and her cuz McKenzie rode on the airplane ride 4 times I think. They were in pure heaven! The girls even went down the slide!! They were screaming and laughing with joy the entire time.

My dad made his famous Ben and Jerry's Mint Oreo ice cream instead of a cake (like I've said on here, we are caked out), which was delish.

Not a bad way to celebrate another decade alive.

What a dork!

But I love him anyway!!

Snickerdoodles

This post isn't about Snickerdoodles. I made some the other night. I have already had 3 today and want another. Maybe if I write it out the craving will go away...

Doug's friend at work got a new camera and offered to take some pictures of us. Yes please! As you know I've been wanting pictures for awhile now. :) Doug drives past a wheat field everyday and thought it would be a cool place for pictures. He was right. Here are some he got to us and I can't wait for the rest.

We started packing and needed a "baby jail" to keep Katelyn from getting into everything. It works for toddlers too.

Allie and Doug tried camping in the backyard since Allie earned it. They did some smores and watched a movie. But we live by a pretty busy street so the noise and lights made it hard to sleep. Oh, and the fact that Allie couldn't stop talking ;) so they went inside for the rest of the night!

4 day week for us and then off to Utah to see my family and my grandma from Florida!! :):)

When friends come to town

This is something I love...when friends come to town.

My old friend Casey from G-town married my roommate from college Natalie. So we will always stay close and in touch with them. On their way to Portland they stopped to stay the night. They have 2 beautiful girls and we loved every minute with them.

Blair and Allie

Lucy

Natalie and Mar (didn't get a shot of Casey. He was thrilled enough to be taking our picture)

Our friends from Logan, Brad and Kim, live in Richmond, VA now for school. Kim's family lives here and Brad is diung a pharmacy rotation for 5 weeks. They had their little girl the day after Allie was born. We met up with them and went swimming and met thrir baby boy. It's so fun to see my friends and watch our kids play together.

Allie and Milah (one day apart). Another reminder of how bite sized Allie is!

More invitations to all those we know and love to come for a visit!! Love ya!

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!