Jail Break, The Greene, Cows and Croquet

Okay so just warn you this post has alot of pics! First up is Abby and Dylan with Uncle Jeff and his duct tape hat-this picture cracks me up because Dylan is striking a total Jeff pose!

We had to build a chair barricade to keep Colby in the living room since he likes to put any small thing he can grab in his mouth but that little stinker was like Houdini!! He could always find a way out! Every time he would get out the kids would yell "Jail Break!"!

We took the kids to Young's Dairy which is always so much fun! I thought Lacey would be in heaven because of all the cows turns out she isnt really interested in the brown cows only the black and white ones! We saw some baby black and white goats and she kept saying that they looked like cows!

One morning we took the kids to The Greene-an outdoor shopping center, which is super fun! They have a splash pad fountain that you can play in so we let the kids go play since it was sooo stupidly hot!! They loved it! And bonus we stopped in at Payless and they had a great deal going we spent under $20 and got 5 pairs of shoes worth about $130 altogether!! woohoo!! This first picture is blurry but it is just so funny!

Jeff and I got together and threw an Unbirthday Party for everyone! It was way fun with yummy snacks and silly toys and of course some croquet!

I still have some more pics of things we did-I know it is ALOT of pics but we had so much fun and I love taking pics of these guys!

Carriage Hill Farm

So a while ago Bryan and I made the decision that instead of all of us driving out to Utah-it would be way less expensive for him to fly to Arizona and drive up with his parents and I took the kids to Ohio. There was absolutely no way I was going to do 4 kids trapped inside because we were under an Extreme Heat Warning all week long with the heat index about 115-120 everyday and no one coming home in the evening to help balance out the crazy! We both really wanted to take the kids to Utah and be with Bryan's whole extended family but I knew Bryan just did not want to pass up the opportunity to go to Arizona. He hadn't been back since his mission and I know he was dieing to go. I feel torn about the whole thing. I feel bad that we didn't just bite the bullet and go but then hearing about how things worked out almost makes me glad we didn't go! Not that anything went wrong it is just that I like (well love is probably the better word) a schedule, and I like to be on time, and I don't do well with up in the air just go with the flow, let have breakfast even though it is 11 in the morning kind of things. My kids are on a regular schedule and if they get off it heaven help anyone around them! So my type A retardedness along with my kids just does not mesh well with Bryan's family relaxed stance on things!! Plus I did a scrapbook for his Grandparents with pics we had gathered from his extended family, which turned out amazing and it would have been super embarrassing to have everyone talking about it with me there. I am more a behind the scene kind of girl rather than the spotlight seeking kind! So anyway Bryan took off and had a blast and the kids and I had a great time with my parents.

The heat in Ohio was still quite high although not as high as Iowa! So we did morning trips with the kids that lasted about 1-2 hours, its about all we could take! Went to Carriage Hill Farm one day. The kids love this place, it has sheep, chickens, horses, cows, and sheep and huge barns you can go into and walk paths through the woods and a penny candy store(which was closed cuz they changed the hours and didn't put it on the website-not cool!! not cool!!). It was fun and as always I got tons of cute pics! I just love taking pictures of my sweet kids!

Here is Dylan looking in the little creek as some small fish swimming around

We came across the creek at the end of the walk path we were on and had to do some rock hoping to cross it! The kids loved it! And I snapped a couple cute of my mom-doesn't she look amazing?!

Check out this gorgeous rooster! Isn't he beautiful?!

I love this pic of the kids! It is so hard to get them all to smile at the same time!

all about Colby!

So Colby lately has gotten tired of being put in the bouncy chair when we are eating-the kids have been eating in the living room since the table has been taken up by scrapbook stuff from the project I was doing and Colby likes to try to eat everyones food. So when he has reached his limit he squirms around and tries to get himself out

he gets to this point and is usually crying and then gets tired of holding himself up and so he rests on his head-so fuuny and so sad at the same time!

and this is how I get and fold the laundry now a days-its the only way to keep Colby in one spot while I try to speed fold the laundry!

Colby has also learned a couple of new tricks-he can clap-super cute and he can shrug his shoulders-which is hilarious! Abby likes to ask him questions and he answers straight faced and shrugs his shoulders! In this first clip she asks him if he likes her and in the second on she asks him if he is part of our family. It is funny to watch him but equally funny to watch Abby crack up at him!

4th of July!!

Independence Day!

Abby, Dylan, Lacey and Colby in their America finery! We started the day off with our towns 4th of July Parade-always super fun! They kids waved-

and picked up candy! (the highlight for them of course!)

Colby chilling out-

After the parade we went home and got some stuff ready then headed up to our friends the Butlers house for some fun, they kids ran around and swam in the pool-it takes Abby and Dylan a while to get over being petrified of the water but once they do they are all about it! Lacey of course has no fear, she just wanted in the water! Then we ate super yummy food and then headed out for fireworks. We brought games to keep the kids busy so Lacey played memory-and we waited.....

Bryan and Paul played Bop It-and we waited.....

Jenn and Abby played Guess Who -and waited.....

Lacey and I played Mancala and then she told me she wanted to play by herself!-and we waited some more....

Cobly was awesome the whole day and didnt mind waiting and waiting....

Dylan and Logan played Guess Who and we waited.....

Abby (with a little "help" from Brendan) and Breanne played Battleship and waited..

Everyone played Bingo and you guess it waited some more!

Colby couldn't hang on anymore and fell asleep but then woke up when the fireworks started-he did pretty good he just didnt like me trying to cover his ears!

we pulled out the glow braclets when it got dark enough and the entertained everyone till the fireworks got started!

This picture doesnt do the fireworks justice-they were amazing!

All and all it was a very great day and even worth paying for it in grumpy short tempered kids today!