Cousins and best buds FOREVER!

This is Blake and Mason at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Mas is 2 months older than Blake, but I wouldn't be surprised that when they get older, Blake will be bigger than him. Chris and I hope we're about 5'8" (he's the tallest in his family and I'm the shortest) and yet Tami is 5'9" and Tony is like 6'5" (Blake's parents) so it's just for now.

Mason kept getting into grandma's cupboards and here you can see his innocent, "What I'm not doing anything!" pose.

4 WHEELIN'... YIPPEE!

These are for sure not the most flattering pics of me, but we did have a good time. Tami's kids have two four wheelers (thanks, Papa Bruce!) that they share with the cousins when we get an opportunity to get together. I was privledge to get to take Aliya out for a ride, only she drove. By the end of going "jerk... stop... jerk... stop" from her hitting the gas and letting off, I had to bring us back home. She did a GREAT job for only being 3 and really did drive it whole time (see I was doing a "look no hands, mom". Then I took Mason for a quick spin around the block. I think he appreciated "the wind in his hair" vs. water in his face (when we go jet skiing). It was a fun family activity and Tam and Ton were AWESOME for letting (and trusting) A LOT of kids drive them on their own!

Happy 70th Dad!!! SURPRISE!!!

My dad had his 70th Birthday this past week and I was able to go to Utah and surprise him. I knew all my brothers and sister would be there and didn't want to miss out, but I've missed out on things before. So I told them I wouldn't be able to go because Chris had to work (which was true... he worked... just not in Chicago like I said...he'll be there tomorrow, a week later). Anyway, i didn't tell anyone i was coming, except my little brother Chuck (Christian) because he was my ride. He picked me up from the airport in his Land Rover and I dropped him off to get his other car. So he went out to mom and dad's first and I showed up at 10:30pm and rang the doorbell. Tami and Tony were already up from Pheonix, so mom answered the door, surprised and tam was shortly behind her. But it was truly the surprise on my dad's face when I walked in with Mason and he was shocked. It was fun and all worth it to see his face. I was able to see and surprise Ponch and Ro and Mike and Julie and their families on Saturday. It was so fun to just hang out. Saturday Mason was sick, so it wasn't what I was planning on, but we worked it out. He napped while everyone else was swimming. Then we had the cousins driving 4 wheelers. Sunday was church and a Luau. Monday was shopping and dad's big party surprise with dinner at the Mandarin (yum!) and "program". Tuesday was lunch with Kell at our traditional, Robintino's. It was fun surprising Kat Tuesday night and that was really great to see and spend time with both of them. Wednesday was lunch at Paradise Cafe' and the good old Bountiful Parade where it was really fun to see Steph, Molly, Kim, Carri, Joe, Brad and people I grew up around. Then I stayed up way to late (again) talking with my "big sis", Rochelle and left and came home Thursday morning. The flight GOING to Utah was great with Mason... he got his own seat and he did wonderful! Coming home SUCKED! The plane was full, he had to be on my lap, he wouldn't sleep, he peed through his diaper and just wasn't as pleasant. I'm grateful for a husband who let me go be with my family for a few days and take care of the 3 older boys at home. Thanks, honey.... YOU ROCK!!! :) PS Pictures to come soon.

Six Flags of FUN!

We were able to go to Six Flags here in St. Louis while Chris' mom was visiting and let me just tell you we had a BLAST! After being pregnant last summer and missing out on all the "summer fun", we hit it full throttle. Thanks to a great friend, Brooke, for watching Mason so we didn't have to worry about him while we were there. Tanner and Parker were both big enough to ride all the rides by themselves and Evan was able to do a lot of rides and rollercoasters. His favorite was of course Scooby-Doo and his favorite rollercoaster was Tony Hawk. Tanner's favorite was Batman, Mr. Freeze and the Excalibur. Parker loved "The Boss" and Tony Hawk. I don't know if it's because I've been on those before and loved them, but I'll tell you my new favorite is the Superman ride. It takes you up 110 feet and you sit looking over the park and you just hangout there for what seems to be forever. Then you just freefall down super fast and your stomach goes into your throat so you can't scream if you wanted too and it's AWESOME! We are excited to go back soon! We're sad we didn't get time to hit Hurricane Harbor (the water park), but maybe next time.

Nanny came for a visit!

Chris' mom, Carolyn came up from Houston, TX for a visit with her grandboys. We did something everyday she was here and the kids had a blast. We were able to go bowling, to the movies, Six Flags, swimming, and we ate out... A LOT! It was fun for Tanner to see that he only has about 1/2" and he'll be as tall as Nanny. I took her for her first pedicure and might have started her onto a little pamperin' she can enjoy at home. Thanks for the visit, Nanny!

An effort for a FAMILY PHOTO!

So we tried to get all 4 boys together and of course the 3 oldest couldn't help but look at Mason as I'm trying to get him to laugh, but this was the best one we were able to snag.

We thought it might be fun to attempt a new family picture and this was the best picture we could come up with. The lighting was not perfect, but we can at least say we tried. We thought we'd go PLAID so that when we look back on this photo, we'll laugh and say, "That was so ugly, I can't believe we wore that!"

4th of July FUN!

Our 4th of July and FIREWORKS!!!

Needless to say we had a GREAT time this 4th of July! I will add more pictures later, but this is a "typical" Parker idea. We see lots of frogs, big and small, around our house and catch (and release) a lot. So he had caught a baby frog the day before and we were just getting ready to start our fesitivities. Parker yells, "WAIT!!!" and so we wait. He comes back with tape and his frog and a big smile. He decided it would be a great idea to send "froggy" into space :) Yep... you know the rest of the story. My 8 year old with a great big smile on his face, taped forggy to the rocket, lit it, and sent him to space. Don't worry, he did not explode, but I'm sure with the force of take off and the landing, that baby froggy didn't make it :( For all you froggy lovers, I'm sorry and you can report me to BPA (Bad Parents Association). It was the highlight of HIS night! PS click on the picture if you want to see "froggy".

Inline Hockey CHAMPS!

CHAMPIONS!!!
In photo: Drake, Tanner, Parker, Kevin, Brad, Jacob and goalie Noah. (not pictured were Alec and Braden)

Both of my older boys play on what has been a 10 and under inline team. They played with this team for 3 sessions. The first sesion they went to the championship game undefeated and lost taking second. The second session they lost one game going into the championship game and again took second. They weren't about ready to let that happen to them again. So this session they played AWESOME and ended up WINNING!!! They were so excited to get bragging rights and do what the other teams had done when they got jerseys that said champions on it. Well the rink decided to give trophies this session. As a parent I felt bad for them that they got these cheap trophies instead of bragging right shirts, but the kids were okay with it because they really did do good and were just glad to win. Because they've been in the championships at least 3/4 sessions, rink rules are that they move up to the 12 and under league. So we'll see how they do. (This is now age appropriate for Tanner, but Parker's only 8, so he might decide playing 10 and under is just fine seeing that he could/should be playing 8 and under :)