4th of july fun

the fourth was filled with fun. we started the day with a parade. it was pretty long. i would say close to an hour and half. the kids got so much candy. it was crazy! so here they are getting ready and down at the parade!

I am not sure why cullan decided to wear that cowboy hat, but it was a big hit. people would throw extra candy at him because they just thought he was so stinking cool!!

 this was one of the coolest things in the parade for the kids. we thought his legs must hurt by the end!

after the parade we headed to a bbq at some friends of garran's parents. there were tons of kids and lots of stuff to do!

 kael on the trampoline!

 the boys found this and did not move. they were in heaven. they love these. this is something else they have been bugging us for. they really want one of these cars. they were so funny driving around the yard.

after the picnic, everyone rested up for the fireworks that night! i was not sure how the kids would do. we have had mixed responses each year. this year it went great. we sat pretty close, but the boys did awesome, even with it being pretty loud. cullan kept saying how cool it was and kael kept yelling about all the great colors.

 ready for a good show!! I am going to post the fire works separate, just because we got some cool ones!

hope everyone had a fun and safe 4th of july!!

playing at the park

while we were there, we decided it would be fun to walk down to the park and have a picnic lunch. it was such a nice day and it was fun for the kids to get out and run and play.

 kael misunderstood how he was supposed to sit in the swing. needless to say, it was kind of painful!

 after we got it corrected, he had a good time swinging and playing. so did B and cullan.

 aunt silara and B.

 kael being cute!

 cullan too.

 then he told me to take his picture like this. very GQ! ;0)

and of course one of miss b. 

it was such a gorgeous day that the picnic and park were just perfect.

fourth of july trip-2

the second day we were there, uncle sam brought over his two new puppies to meet us. the kids were in heaven. they love animals, but they really love dogs. 

we sat out side and played with the puppies and the kids rolled around and chased them in the grass.

 here are the kids, trying to get acquainted with the dogs. i think the pups were a little shy at first.

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 bear found briea's binkie and decided it was a good chew toy!

 uncle sam and B

 the is the other pup, abby

 i thought this was a fun picture because growing up garrran's nickname was bear. here he is holding bear! they are cute together.

i love these next two pictures. briea just loved those pups. they were very good with here. she was trying to be gentle but did not always succeed. however, those pups never snipped at her or anything.

 the boys have been talking about getting a dog long before we met uncle Sam's dogs, however now it is worse. we had to explain that for right now we have enough craziness in our lives, we don't need a puppy just yet ;0)

look at that! pure love!!

fourth of july trip-1

well for the for the fourth this year, the original plans were that Garran's parents were going to come here and visit us. However, those plans changed kind of last minute and we ended up going there. We had a great time visiting and playing. The first morning we were there, the kids had woke up pretty early and were outside playing and helping grandma g with her garden. all of a sudden i hear all of this yelling and laughter. i peek out the front door and the harmless garden hose had become the main weapon in a water fight. it was basically cullan against, grandma, garran, kael and B.

see. he was having a great time!

spraying his dad!

he had just sprayed the door trying to get me, but i was protected by the glass!

i had garran distract him while i ran out and grabbed the hose from him. then the tables turned. cullan was not a big of a fan of being sprayed, but he was still having fun. eventually they over took my control and I ended up soaked. I was outnumbered anyway!!

briea decided to hang out inside with me. she was not to fond of getting sprayed either.

shoo fly

b feel asleep. i came to check on her and she had a little visitor. he was persistent, but after the picture he sadly met his end.

got binkies?

just wondering? ;0)

my monsanto man

well garran had training at Monsanto on monday. he said it went pretty well. he came home with this hat that he won during training because he was able to answer some question about corn!

he's so smart ;0)

Anyways, he said that his boss looks like an older, taller version of a friend that we had in Iowa. Ironically I believe he works for Monsanto too. Anyways, while we are grateful for the job, we are bummed that it will not start for another week or two. I am sure there is a lesson to be learned in this, but I will be glad when we have income coming in again. 2 1/2 months is to long for me!

crazy days

today feels like this. wild. we are busy cleaning, doing laundry, having a pipe in our wall fixed and my second ultrasound is this afternoon. hopefully they will get everything they need this time. i have to admit, getting ultrasounds here is not my favorite. they do not give you any pictures, and the ladies i had last time were not so friendly. they were all business and kind of cold. the other time i have had ultrasounds have been great, in Iowa. the ladies were always nice and they always handed out a ton of pictures. i miss that. especially since we won't be doing this much longer. oh well. off to finish folding laundry and cleaning the kitchen. i really hope to get all my stuff checked off my list by dinner time!

in my head.

for some reason i can not get this out of my head. so i thought i would share.

good mom vs. evil mom

so here is my dilemma. our house backs right up to the path that leads to the park. so we have a pretty heavy flow of traffic of kids. the boys have made two little friends, one is a boy and one is a girl. this kid has told the boys that his name is Master. not really his name. i will not say his name on here, but that is not his name. anyways, here is my dilemma. if it is a hot day and i give my kids a Popsicle, do i mind letting their friends have one to, absolutely not. i think that is fine, and I have seen our neighbors do the same for our boys. where i have the issue is when the following scenario happens, as it did today.

kael comes up to the back door.

kael:master needs a Popsicle!

me:well tell master he better go home and get one.

i don't know if this really irritated me today more than other days, because i saw "master" take something from kael that he had been eating and finish it or what. i don't know. maybe i am just in a mood. i just don't feel like my back door is a drive up window. am i over reacting?

looked out the window and look what i saw....

in charge.

so in this picture i caught kael wagging his hand back and forth. cullan touching his tongue to his nose. well then there is briea...looking very in charge!!

monday

what a great thing to wake up to on a Monday morning!!

lazy sunday afternoons

and this is one of my favorite ways to spend them. this is our spot. when she gets tired, she just crawls up on my lap, we rock, and out she goes.

my budding artist

this is a picture cullan drew today. he brought it to garran this morning. cullan said that he had drew a picture of garran so that he would know he loved him.

dr who

so as the story goes, garran used to watch this show Dr. Who with his dad growing up. it still comes on the BBC network. so we have started watching it. i am not a super sci-fi person but it is a pretty good show. however we have a new super fan at our house. that's right Cullan! we watched an episode today where Dr. Who was wearing a bow tie. Cullan asked if we could make him one. so here is the actual dr. who from the show.

this was cullans own version of Dr. who! he came down stairs dressed like this and wearing his new bow tie. he is such a funny kid. i just love him.

loves the pages

so i found this feature on blogger where you can add stand alone pages to your blog. i have been trying it out and love it. mine are on the side of my blog under the picture of garran and i. i have decided to use them to tell about each one of our family members. if you want to find how to do it, go under edit posts. at the top there is a tab that says edit pages. when you click on that, there will be an option to start a new page. you can have up to 10!! just some random knowledge for anyone who is interested.

something delicious!

i found a recipe on this wonderful website for homemade watermelon popsicles. oh my goodness! YUMMY! we decided to make them last night after the kids had already gone to bed, just due to the hectic night with tornado's and all. anyways it is super easy and if you have a really yummy watermelon it makes just that much better. i am not a huge popsicle person, but these are really good. you can tell it is made with real fruit and well it is just good.

to prove it, i thought i would post pictures of my cute kids enjoying them!

if you want the recipe here it is! let me know if you try it and what you think!!

4 cups of watermelon

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup hot water

2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

mix sugar and water until dissolved. add lemon juice and stir. blend liquids and watermelon in blender and pour into popsicle molds. freeze overnight. ENJOY!

melt your heart

every once in a while your kids will come out of no where and say things that just melt your heart. yesterday i had one of those moments with cullan. i was sitting in the chair and cullan came over and asked if he could talk to the baby. i said sure. so he leaned towards my stomach and said the following things while patting my stomach.

"Hi baby, I have a spider man book bag. I have lots of toys in it. You are going to come live with us on my birthday." Then the part that really melted my heart. He leaned in really close and whispered "I love you baby".

future chef!

i have been trying new recipes lately. we found this recipe for a pasta salad. it is so yummy. perfect for summer and very colorful. Cullan loves to help. he absolutely LOVES to cook! so before you call DHS, i do let him chop tomato's for the salad, however i am surprised that it will even cut the tomato's. it is extremely dull! but he saws away and has a great time. he even told me tonight, while i was standing next to him, "Hey Mom, grab a knife, let me teach you something!". Ya, those were his words exactly. no ego on this kid!!