Jace is FOUR!!!

I know, I know. It's been a long time. Things are busy, and sometimes it seems like no one really reads this thing anyway, so I've put it on the back burner. Anyway, let's back track a little, and maybe I'll get caught up one of these days!!!




Jace celebrated his fourth birthday while we were visiting Canada! We had a great time, I can't believe Jace is 4 already! Seems like only yesterday I was taking him home from the hospital!

The kids were very excited to wear birthday hats!! They are always putting things on their head and pretending they are birthday hats...

Jace hugging Grammy. He was so excited about all of his presents!

Jace laying on choo-choo rug.

He also got a Buzz bubble rocket ship. I don't know who liked it more, Jace or Kevin!!

Kind of an unfocused picture, but here's Jace blowing out his candles. He requested cupcakes with worms on them!

The next week Jen, Kevin, and the girls spent over a week here. We were in heaven! The kids have been in withdrawal ever since. We're really trying to recruit them to move down south!!

And I couldn't leave this Sleeping Beauty out! There's nothing sweeter than your baby sleeping! I can't believe my baby's going to be 3 next week! YIKES!

Kind of a Catch Up

The summer has been flying by, and I have not been the best at documenting it! We've had a lot of fun, and can't believe it's already the middle of August!

We went to several parades and carnivals and enjoyed every minute of it! I'm teaching the kids to realize the goodness of cotton candy!

We've done a LOT of swimming in the back yard and playing on the slip-n-slide. Seriously, the kids could be outside every day, ALL day, if I let them!

The kids think the slip-n-slide is a glorified drinking fountain!

The kids were introduced to "Monster House", a cute animated movie. Every time Jace watches it he keeps his hands by his eyes so he can close them if it gets too scary! He loves any movie with a monster, dragon, or "mean guy".

Brooklyn's been a cute little mommy to her babies! She sure is sweet and thoughtful of them. Sometimes she asks me to hold them for her, but is very specific about how I need to hold them. She also is a PRO at wrapping them up in a blanket!

Jace has discovered that he, too, can wear a tutu. The kids dress up in them and twirl around the house. It's all good until he wants to go outside in it. That's where I draw the line!!

We recently went up to Canada where Trev was a groomsman at his best friends wedding!! We had a great time up there, and, like always, the time flew by!! Trevor had a busy semester at school, so it was nice to take a break and be able to spend some time together!

More blogging to come soon (I hope!) about our trip to Canada, Jace's 4th birthday, and our Canadian visitors!!

Showing Our Canadian Pride

In honor of Canada Day, the kids and I are sporting our Canadian attire. Unfortunately Trev has clinicals most of the day, and I'm on-call tonight, our celebration will be minimal. However, we had to take pictures to prove our Canadian pride. The kids were so excited to wear their Canada shirts, but thought that meant they got to go to Canada today. They were disappointed when I told them we wouldn't be going for another 4 weeks. Anyway, here are the kiddos showing their pride.

I had to bribe them with candy they got from the parade, but they did hold still for a 1/2 a second for me to snap a picture. They're so enthusiastic!

This is how most of the pictures turned out. Laughing, wrestling, tickling. LOVE these kids!

Waving to Grammy & Papa in Canada!


Shouting "Hooray"!


Again, this is how the majority of the pictures turned out...


Two little monkeys hanging from the swing!

We wish we were in Canada to share in all of the festivities, but I suppose we'll just have to wait a couple days to celebrate with parades, fairs, and fireworks! Oh how love the summer!

Summer is Finally Here!

Now that summer has finally arrived, we've been having a ton of fun!

The kids love playing outside on their swing set, and are little monkeys climbing and swinging from everything they can. Best news of all, is Jace has learned how to pump on the swing! HALLELUJAH!

We've made some yummy treats that seem to get more on their faces than in their mouths! This is a classic Brooklyn expression when she's trying to explain something to me. Love it!

On a rainy day, we brought the cushions from our swing inside, the kids found that they made perfect little beds to lay on while watching t.v.!

I gave Brooklyn her first haircut (scary, I know). She was very disappointed to find out we only used scissors instead of the razor like when I cut Daddy & Jace's hair.

I didn't really get a good "before" shot, but her hair was pretty long, and not really even, so I decided that I'd just trim it to one length (except for her bangs which are taking FOREVER to grow!).

Here's the finished product. Certainly nothing fancy, I'll save that for when she goes to a professional! It's a lot easier to keep up now, and looks a lot less straggly! (On a side note, don't you just love her little bum?! She puts her underwear on backwards sometimes and walks around with a wedgie!)


We celebrated Father's Day on Sunday by waking up and cuddling in bed. There's no better way to start the day!

Working on the Basement

Over a year after we started the basement it's finally ready for dry wall! Trevor had the majority of last week off of school, most of which was spent in the basement finishing up electrical, framing in air ducts, and doing insulation. Luckily we have some great family and friends who have helped out a ton! I even was down there doing some of the grunt work! (You know if I was down there helping, they must have been desperate!)

Here's my sexy man in his work attire!

Cutting wood for framing.

This was my really fun job. I got to cut the insulation so that it was easier to put up. Oh my achin' back! Ugh. I am not as young as I used to be.

Here I am stapling the insulation. Trevor took the staple gun and showed me how to do it (he just went pop, pop, pop, down the seam, connecting the dry wall to the studs.) I tried it, and it wasn't exactly as easy as he made it seem! Good thing Marc came the next day with a battery powered stapler!!!

Now, we just get to wait and watch as our basement gets dry walled! I'm so happy we've hired it out and don't have to worry about it! It'll probably be our last project for a little while, until we can make some more money to finish it! Sheesh, it's expensive!!! I'm excited to have it done so we can entice our Canadian and out-of-state family to come visit us :o).

Floating Across the Duck Pond

Yesterday my sister Tara came over and we decided to take the kids on a walk to the duck pond. When we got there we scouted out some hungry looking ducks, and walked across the bridge and down to the water's edge. Well, I got a call from Trevor, and Tara was talking on her phone to Wes, and next thing I know, Tara yells my name and starts laughing hysterically. I'm not sure if the kids bumped the wagon or what, but it rolled right into the pond. Tara just stood there laughing, and I hurried and took my socks and shoes off and ran into the water after it, but it just floated further away....and I was not about to submerge myself in that nasty water! Random people were stopping and taking picture of our little mishap. Luckily it eventually floated to the other side of the pond and I was able to wade out a little bit and grab it. Of course we didn't bring our camera, but luckily Tara had her camera phone! The quality isn't the greatest, but it makes me laugh just looking at these!

Here's the wagon floating across the pond. It floated under the bridge and across to the other side. I was kind of nervous because this lady there was saying that it would probably just stall in the middle of the pond and we'd need a kayak to go get it.

Here is Brooklyn on the other side of the pond watching the wagon. The kids were very distressed about this, they love that wagon!

Here I am in the filthy water! The kids were cheering, and kept saying "Mommy save the day!" so I guess it was all worth it!

I'm just happy that there weren't any kids in the wagon...and that the wagon floats! Sure made for an entertaining day!

Cowboys, Worms, and a Little Bed Head

Well, the kids are home, and life is back to "normal" again...although I'm not sure if things are ever really normal! The kids were excited to find out we got them presents while we were gone.
Jace said, "I'm sorry, Mom, we didn't get you any presents. It's the wrong holiday for you to get presents. Maybe on the next holiday you'll get some presents!" What a cutie...

Here are the kids in their cowboy hats. The first thing they just had to do was get their rocking horses. (What's a cowboy without his/her horse?!) Then they had to watch Toy Story, because now they have a hat like Woody!

With the nicer weather we've been having, the kids have a new found love for bugs. I will probably dedicate another post to that, but this picture is of Brooklyn saying "Shhh, Mommy, my worms are sleeping!" She had her worms wrapped up in her blanky! What a good little mommy she is!

And here is Jace with some MAJOR bed-head!! I think he looks just like my brother, Nate, in this picture! We actually just cut his hair on Sunday, we just couldn't handle the shag any longer..but I must say I'll definitely miss the bed-head!!! More pics to come...