Catching Up...

I'm torn.  Sometimes I feel ambitious about keeping my blog up-to-date and ensuring all these memories we are making are captured and remembered.  Other times I just really admire the parents I know who are so busy actually having fun and making memories with their kids that they rarely have time to blog or update facebook. So I'm trying to find a happy medium - I want something to look back on, but I don't want to look back and wish I spent more time with my kiddos.  Anyways... here's a bit of a "catch-up" on the summer so far. We've been having lots of fun in the sun... and I think I can honestly say that this summer is "easier" than the last.

Papa teaching the kids the fine art of "beersbee"... minus the beer chugging of course!

Texas watermelon! Good, messy stuff!

Fletcher lovin on daddy

Sometimes he just can't get enough and he squeezes your face... I love that!!

Red-headed red-neck haha

Griff "sun tanning". With spf 60 I might add

My newest little love... Miss Paisley. A baby sister for Avary!

Fun at the beach!

We had to bribe them out of the water with cookies since they were looking a little blue/chilled!

Griff and his buddy Mason working hard at the sand castle building contest!

They won a prize!

Griff recently managed to get himself into a bit of trouble with the neighbor kids.  He proudly came in one day to tell me about how he "painted" the fence with mud.  I later realized it was our neighbor's newly painted fence! So they spent a hot afternoon cleaning up and apologizing :o

Troy was working last weekend so I planned to have a camp-out with the kids one night. I wanted to see how they'd make out sleeping in a tent this year cause I really want to do more of it! After looking for just the right spot, we settled on my parent's backyard.  Thank goodness, cause I ended up hauling them all in at 2am since we had some extreme winds that uh, mommy couldn't sleep through ;)

I've decided I love camping with them... but I don't love tenting. One day we will get ourselves a trailer I hope!  We had a weenie roast...

And even an outdoor movie!

Papa went all out and built a frame for the projector screen...

Yesterday Troy's sister got married.  The girls were flower girls... man is it fun dressing these cuties up!

The girls and their cousin Harper... they were so proud to walk down the aisle.  Or maybe just excited for the lollipops waiting at the end!

Troy had the camera for the wedding and so that's about all the photos I got.  There... now I'm caught up... time for a quick rest before they're all up from naps!

At the Park

Troy was working last weekend so I took the kids for a little bike ride down by the river.

We collected leaves....


And small trees...

And caterpillars!

Had a couple bike races...(especially when it started raining!)

Then headed down to a little beach to throw rocks in the river....

Until we realized the beach was completely under water!

 Stopped to get another look at the very high river...

A little bit of pestering from the best pester'er around.... Sunny bugging Fletch for a smooch

And Gibby for a hug...

Besties

I got to spend the day with two of my bestest friends and their beautiful little girls.

Aren't they gorgeous?  That's Avary and Lydia.  xoxoxo

Fletcher was pretty smitten with little miss Liddy (a fellow ginger!)

But then he's had a lifelong crush on this little lady too... he's such a lover!

We had an awesome day... everyone was happy... and they all napped well... it was wonderful! I just wish it was longer... sigh... love you girls!

Weekend Away

This past weekend we attended our good friends, Jade and Jason's wedding.  It was so wonderful out in Cypress Hills... and it was kid-free so Troy and I thoroughly enjoyed our little mini-holiday! I was privileged to be co-MC for the event and everything went very smoothly... such a beautiful wedding and such a deserving, wonderful pair! It was a bit of a Shaunavon High School reunion as lots of old friends were in attendance... here's the best shot I got of the Shaunee girls!

My parents had the kids for the weekend and I imagine they are now enjoying relaxing in the peace and quiet of their own home.  They kept the kids very busy with trips to the parks and local fair.  Here's a few shots my mom took of the kids at Griffin's preschool spring concert...

I feel so lucky to have my parent's help.  Not too many people could handle my little herd... and my mom always makes it look easy.  She took them all to Griff's concert by herself and even took photos and videos for me since I missed out!

Bathroom Before and After!

I'm a little choked - here I thought I had a picture of our bathroom pre-reno... and I don't! Grrrr! I've got a couple shots post-demo... and a shot of our other half bath which pretty much looks exactly like this bathroom did but on a smaller scale.  I LOVE how everything turned out. And I LOVE how handy my previously un-handy husband has become!

Half bath... man I want this one to magically transform!

Demo... before the tub and drywall were ripped out... check out the dark, poopy paint.

 New tub, drywall, backer board, plumbing

And voila! New bathroom!

I love how all the tile turned out... but man it was tedious! Nothing happened in 30 minutes like it does on HGTV that's for sure.  Our renovation motto was, "if there's a how-to video on You Tube, we can do it ourselves!".  I'm happy with the end result... maybe wasn't so happy during the transformation process.

And if looking at a bathroom isn't your thing... here's a quick pic of Sunny riding her bike... with her fancy shmancy riding goggles.

Mother's Day 2013

For Mother's Day the kids sat still for a picture ;)

Super-heros

Pretty Miss Gibby helping mommy clean out the pond... gotta love spring!

Denim Girls

My dad picked these jackets up for the girls cause he thought they'd look cute on them... And I agree! Thanks papa... They'll be fittin us in no time :)