Our 4th of July...2012!

This year we celebrated the 4th of July with Nena's family and Spencer at our house. We started off the night with a yummy BBQ. We had a couple cute little helpers when it came time to prepare food and clean dishes. Who needs a dishwasher when you have these two little cuties to do all the cleaning...

Here's all our crazy kids enjoying their food...




After dinner, the kids all enjoyed some ice cream toffee bars and popcicles...


Then, they played several rounds of "red light, green light". I loved how Jaedyn was really getting into it with the big kids...






Jaedyn loved it when it was her turn to be "it"...


After the kids played in the back yard for a while, we headed out front to do some fireworks. We got some family pictures done first with, surprisingly, good cooperation from all the kids.

Here's our family...


...and Nena's family minus Kennedy (she was in AZ with family)...


And, we can't forget to include Spencer in some pictures...


I got a good laugh with Jaron and Sadie here. They were trying to shoot this gun that blasts out streamers and they were having the hardest time with it. I loved their faces as they tried, it's like they were really scared of what was going to happen...


Josh was the official "sparkler lighter", so he was constantly swarmed by the kids wanting more sparklers...




I'm not sure what Jaron was doing here, but it makes for a great blackmail picture when he's older...


Jantzen likes to keep the sparklers really close to his face, it kind of freaks me out!


Jaedyn was a little leery of the sparklers again this year, but after a couple she started loving them...


Jaron tried to teach Jaedyn how to spell her name on the road with sparklers...


I think the boys are trying out some "Harry Potter" spells here...maybe?...not sure really.


The kids took a break from the sparklers to watch Josh light off the other fireworks we had...


Even though we only bought the "legal" (boring, according to Josh) fireworks, we got a really good show from several of our neighbors...they did all the "illegal" fireworks for most of the night...


After all our fireworks were over, the kids played some more with the sparklers...


I think Jaedyn loved the "Pop Its" more than the sparklers. The big kids were teaching her how to throw them at peoples feet...that doesn't feel good, but luckily she doesn't throw them hard enough to make them hurt.


Jantzen took a break from sparklers to play with his favorite thing in the world...his "Hero Factory" guys...


After the kids were all done playing, it was time to clean up. The only one who was willing and eager to help clean was Jaedyn. She was such a big helper...


Here's the kids, all worn out...yay!!


We all had so much fun hanging out together all night. It's so nice to have family close to spend holidays with. The only bummer of the night was the fact that a lot of our neighbors kept doing their illegal fireworks until about 2am, which made it hard for me to sleep. Luckily, the rest of my family slept through it!

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!

Play Time with Jaedyn!

This is what happens sometimes when you agree to play with your little sister, you end up with one of her hair bows on your head...

Jaedyn thought it was hilarious, but Jantzen thought it was funny only for a minute. He's such a good sport to play with Jaedyn like this since she doesn't have a sister.

BTW, Jantzen isn't wearing lipstick in this picture, his lips are just really red...not sure why. And, every time Jaedyn sees this picture, she says, "Pretty Girl"...Poor Jantzen, he's never going to live this one down!

Happy Birthday To Us!!

It's that time of year again...the time that we kick off our summer full of birthday celebrations! We always start off our "Summer of Birthday's", as I've come to call it, with my birthday. Last Friday, Josh and I went out on a date without the kids (thanks Nena) to celebrate my 29th (hehe!) birthday. I had to say my age because Jantzen asked me how old I was going to be and I told him 29. He looked at me and said, "No you're not because then I'd only be one because you had me when you were 28". I guess I can't fool my 6 year old, but I did fool my mom. She asked me how old I was going to be and I also told her 29, she believed me...It was funny! Anyway, back to my birthday date. Josh took me to one of my favorite places to eat, Olive Garden, for dinner and then we went to see "Snow White and the Huntsman"...it was a really good movie. After the movie we went home and hung out in a peaceful, quiet house (the kids spent the night at Nena's...thanks again Nena).

Yesterday was my actual birthday, so after we got home from church we started the birthday festivities. The kids insisted I open my presents before we ate dinner, so I obliged them. It was funny when I'd go to open a gift because Jaedyn would tell me what was inside. She handed me a box and said, "That's your purse mommy!"...it was pretty cute how excited she was getting about it and the fact that she couldn't keep it a secret.

Jaedyn took this price tag off my purse (Josh isn't the best at removing price tags from gifts) and insisted that I wear it, so I only cost $16.99 because I'm on sale. This is the type of pictures I get when I ask Jaedyn to smile...can you tell she has two older brothers?!?!

Here's my fun birthday gifts I got. From Josh and the kids I got two new maxi dresses, a navy cardigan, a super cute purse, three new pairs of wedges (total value is $140, but I got them all for $20 and one is a pair of Steve Madden wedges...I'm so good at getting good deals on shoes!), a couple bracelets and earrings to match two pairs of my new shoes, and a couple new dumbbells (not pictured) to help make my workouts harder. My awesome friends gave me an anti-stress sinus pillow and some Doterra oils (peppermint and lavender) because I get headaches so often and easily...I love how they thought about me like that. I love everything I got, my family and friends are so good to me!


These are the beautiful cards my kids made for me, I love them!






After I opened my presents we ate dinner. I chose to have BBQ pulled pork sandwiches and they were super yummy! After dinner, my family did the dishes and then we decided it was time for birthday cake. Since mine and Josh's birthdays are right next to each other, we decided to have our cakes together. I like white cake and Josh likes chocolate, so we always have two different cakes...


This was Josh being a "cheeser" while I was getting the camera ready to get a picture of the two of us. Now I know where the kids get it from!


Jaron was the photographer for the evening and these were all the "outtakes" he got while we were trying to be serious for our picture. Again, I see where our kids get their goofiness from...their dad!


Yay, we finally got a good picture of us with our cakes!


The kids sang "Happy Birthday", then we all enjoyed some yummy cake and ice cream.

Today was Josh's birthday and he decided he wanted to go to Outback Steakhouse for his birthday dinner. Jaron told our waiter that it was both of our birthdays, so he brought us both out a huge Oreo sundae. We were nice and shared them with the kids, they were all in sugar heaven eating them...


We did a little goofing around with the camera after we devoured the Oreo sundae's...


Here's Josh and his "mini me"...


...and him with the princess (her "ohhh" face is her new favorite picture smile)...


My kids are seriously the cutest!...


...and goofiest!...


Jaedyn and I had a lot of fun giving each other kisses...hers made me laugh because they tickled...


After we had our fun at dinner, we headed home so Josh could open his presents. Jaedyn was his "birthday helper" when it came to opening his presents...


Josh got a couple new shirts (one not pictured because we had to order his size online), a new pair of "Tony Hawk" shoes, and some accessories for his GoPro camera...


Here are the cute cards the kids made for Josh...






It has been such a fun weekend of birthday celebrations for Josh and I. I really do like having our birthdays right next to each other. There's nothing better than getting to celebrate yours and your best friends birthdays together.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO US!!!