Sep 21, 2010

more summer catch up...

In looking through pictures, I realized I missed some stuff...

In June we had a chance to go to the family reunion for my dads side of the family. They have one every year in Moab Utah. We were blessed this year with nice, cool weather. Sometimes its super hot, but it was beautiful this year. It was at this fun park with nice soft grass and tons of huge cottonwood trees. The kids have so much fun seeing cousins that we dont live near. Its always fun to catch up with everyone. There are some interesting characters in that part of the family. Here are a few fun pictures of the kids...

liam with his standard pose

this is pretty much where you will find cody all day...with different conversation partners throughout the day of course..

Avery and Abby..these best buddies dont get to play often enough.




This last one is just a cute picture of avery and her daddy before they went on a date. Lucky girl!




Sep 20, 2010

Liam's Birthday

What can I say about my little Liam. He has always been kind of a mommy's boy. Which I admit, I kind of like. He can be quite moody, but never to me. He always has a sweet smile for me. He still lets me snuggle him..the older he gets the more I wonder how long that will last. It's so hard to watch them grow up. There are so many things I love about this little man...

He has a great smile...his eyes crinkle and sparkle when you get a genuine smile.

He is so smart! He reads himself to sleep almost every night. He has a book he makes me read him all the time. It's so sweet, it's called Mom Says I Can. In the book the boys dad calls him "little buddy" and his mom calls him "snuggle bug"...so he makes me use those nicknames.

He is FUNNY. He always has a joke.
He loves school and his sweet Kindergarten teacher.
He loves soccer, even though he has yet to touch the ball during a game (not even sure he realizes that!)
He is nice to his sisters...both of them.
He loves puzzles, legos and putting things together.
He's very independent.
Really, he just makes my heart melt....

We were in Alaska for his birthday. This is actually the 2nd birthday he's had there (we were there when he turned two). We had been there about a month and were actually getting ready to come home. We were trying to think of things we could do for his big day. At first he wasn't excited to have it there. There are no chuck e cheese's, no friends, not really a way to have a big party.

But his smart daddy came up with the perfect thing. He told Liam he'd start a fire in the day time and that Liam could throw sticks in it all day, and that we could roast marshmallows at night. He was so excited. That darn camp fire was his favorite thing!! 

He also told us he wanted a surprise party. How do you do a surprise party for a kid who knows it's coming? Well, we did our best. We had his favorite dinner...salmon. I had made a cake earlier in the day and hid it.


We were all hanging around the fire and I talked him into going on a walk with me. While we were gone everyone else set up the party...


They had lots of help as you can see. By the way...it's probably ten and night by this point. These babies were dirty and tired! But ready to party!!

When they could hear us coming back, they did their best to hide..


Aunt Janelle is a good sport..not many hiding places to choose from.


this is a horrible picture, but as you can see...he is delighted and surprised!

He opened his stack of presents...



Blew out the candles...

Overall I would say our Alaskan surprise party was a success.
Now my big five year old is in Kindergarten, and soccer, and growing up too fast!!

One funny story...
Liam and I were chatting while we were on our walk. I was telling him that 5 years ago he was born. He asked what time and I told him he was born late at night..it was like 10:35 I think.
He said "wow mom...thats late. Were you still awake?"
Yes Liam, I'm pretty sure I was awake!





Love you buddy!

Sep 14, 2010

AK 4...Nikiski Beach Park

I know you are probably on alaska overload! I've been on picture overload. There are so many to go through that its a little overwhelming. Thats why not many posts lately. So, I decided just to do little posts of fun places or days we had. This was a really cool beach we found. We had a blast looking (not touching) the water. And collecting cool rocks.





Codys brother CY, Janelle and Wyatt


I like this one because you can see everyone doing their own thing...


Looks like she was munching some rocks...oops!

Avery's treasures..she named each and every one!




Sep 13, 2010

Alaska Part 3....CABIN FEVER!!


This is what happens in Alaska when it RAINS, and RAINS, and RAINS!!!!

These cool little guys pop up all over the place...


Some fat and bronzy


Some tiny and strawberry like....

and if you're REALLY lucky, and go look at just the right time of day...
you may find.....


SMURFS!!!






OK...I know we are dorks. But like I said we had cabin fever! My sister in law Janelle and I found this smurf when we were birthday shopping for Liam and we couldn't resist a smurf photo shoot!


Sep 11, 2010

Alaska part 2...Park

There was the most fabulous park in Soldotna. Whenever we had a sunny day (which wasn't too often!) we would take the kids out and enjoy the sunshine, weather and gorgeous scenery. This park was all wooden, with tons of different sections. Painted with bright, fun colors. All of which would never stand up to the Arizona blistering, sunshiny summers! It was lots of fun!


Avery and Grace


Caleb

Grace, Caleb...and we're pretty sure the guy in the background is the dude from the Black Eyed Peas...






Fun Climbing Poles




I really missed this park, and especially the beautiful weather once we were back home! We made great memories there.