I'm Back...

Wow, it has been a while since I last posted.  We have had a lot going on, way too much to even explain it all here.  But, we are all doing well.  Here is a little recap, random, but nonetheless:

CALIFORNIA

We visited California and threw a baby shower for my sister Amanda, I don't know why I don't have any pictures of the trip but here a couple of random ones of the kids.

This is Taylor's first time on the swing, she loved it.

Daddy's hat, mommy's glasses

SARAH & PAINTING

I don't think I can thank my friend Sarah enough, she flew out to Missouri on her dime to help me.  I don't think she realized all the work I had in store for her.  We hardly slept but we got a lot done.  We're both the kind of people that can just keep going and going until everything is done...I don't know if that was good or not, but we were a good team...and we're still friends!  Thanks Leslie and Emily for all of your painting help too.

Thanks Sarah! We painted 4 bedrooms, the trim and the furniture for the kids rooms, and cleared out the garage, it was a lot, and somehow we managed to watch the kids and have fun.

Here's what happens when you have  4 little kids running around while you're trying to paint.  Good thing I didn't care since the carpet was being replaced the next day.

Mason and Abby were dying to paint, I let them do just a little, but I am a perfectionist with things so I didn't let them do a whole lot...I'm a mean mom I know!

Gotta do what works right?...it only lasted a few minutes, by the time I took her off she had paint on her hands and feet, not a good idea.

GRANDMA & PAPA

Sam's parents came to town, it was nice having them here to visit.  Sorry Papa, you're camera has most of the pictures on it so I only have shots with Grandma.

We went to the zoo

Abby helped grandma make her famous cinnamon rolls, they are seriously the best I have ever had.

ABBY

Abby did gymnastics for the first time,  "nastics" as she calls it, she loved all the tumbling she learned and quickly caught on, she was one of the first kids in the class to do a bridge all on her own.  

Here is Abby with her new friend Kathryn, they go to church with us and signed up for gymnastics together.

I took Abby to the hair school here, on Mondays you can get a haircut for $5 bucks, what a deal.  I have always cut her hair, but its hard now that it is getting longer and it has curl in it.

MASON

Mason started t-ball, he really likes it.  He's pretty good at it too.

After swimming at the pool

Mason playing around, I love how even though he can be so bratty with me and act all grown up that he'll still play pretend and be a sweet little boy.  He starts kindergarten in the Fall.

TAYLOR

Well, the last time I wrote Taylor had just turned 5 months. Her 6 month check up she weighed 14.5 pounds.  She started army crawling right around 6 months and got her two front bottom teeth in. By 7 months she was crawling on all fours and started pulling herself up.  She's all over the place now.

Here's Taylor playing with a plastic bag, we need to get her some toys!

Here is a more recent picture, she is so much fun and funny.  We love having her around.

4TH OF JULY

We went to the parade that our city had and then to the festival.  It was a lot of fun, the kids got to play on some rides and I tried a deep fried twinkie for the first time, can you believe that even exists?

 We had a few small fireworks for the kids at home, here they are with the sparklers.  Yes, those are ear plugs in their ears, its the only way we could be outside and enjoy the fireworks in the area.  It was crazy here, I don't think there is any limit to what you can buy because there were professional fireworks going off all over our neighborhood, it was pretty cool.