4th of JULY!

This year for the 4th we didn't do much. Mainly because Steve had to work and trying to keep 4 young kids up until after 10 is just TOO tiring! Steve worked until 6ish, so for breakfast I made the kids red, white, and blue pancakes. Then I took them to Jabbers to play for the afternoon, Hoping this would tire them out to take naps.....yeah right. Only Reese took one....I should have drugged them ;) JK! (kind of) Then we made homemade chicken pot pies for dinner. I know we went against all tradition of BBQin but Steve wasn't here to man the grill. And they turned out perfect...surprisingly! So After we lit off our fireworks here with the kids until we were attacked by Mosquito's (we always forget bug repellent) I kept looking at the kids and seeing a mosquito on their forehead sucking away. lol! Also a funny thing here in Idaho is that at all the fireworks booths that are everywhere, when you buy fireworks that go off higher than 5 ft. you have to sign a paper saying you wont lite them off here in ID!!! LOL! Yeah who abides by that? Its the FOURF of July! So after our own we drove up on the hill and watched the cities before getting all the kids to sleep with in minutes after 11pm. Best night of them going straight to bed. I didn't even have to lay with Tori.

Cake Pops

I kept hearing how good these cake pops from Starbucks were, so I took the kids and we had one. They are so easy to make so I got a recipe on line and tried them. They turned out great....except dipping them was a little harder than I thought it would be...

Father's Day 2011

Steve had to work on Sunday, but before he left we went to church and visited with some old friends from Battle ground that just so happen to be friends with some of our friends here in Nampa! Small World!!! It was great to see them and watch the kids remember eachother. Then we came home, made Steve a deliciouso brunch, and played until he had to leave. Steve- youre a great dad and we all love you a ton!

Sydneys Day Cheer Camp 2011

Sydney loves dancing and singing and ENTERTAINING! She is obsessed!! Here is a short video of her being a flyer at her cheer camp. Its not very good.....I had to shuffle Reese and Tori on my lap.



Steven thinks he is a break dancer. He told me this is what they look like.

Cupcake wars Cont.!!

Steve requested I make some chocolate peanut butter ones, so here they are. They are chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganche filling w/ PB cream cheese frosting. These turned the best so far.

Blue Velvet, Blackberry curd filling with lemon/Blackberry creamcheese frosting. They turned out pretty good, but not as good as they sounded! :)

Summer break

Since school is out the kids have been having fun sleeping in different places around the house. They all slept under the stairs one night, but ended up waking up at 4am and not going back to sleep!!!


Sydney loves doing hair lately. I dont know where she gets it from...definatley not me! She did Tori's hair the other day and it was so cute.



Sydney started a gymnastics class






Steven had his friend Tadeo over before he left for Argentina for 6 months.





Reese still isnt walking, but she stands up on her own and gets this cute smile on her face like look at me!

Cupcake wars!

I love that show and I love CUPCAKES! So I got this recipe off their site for Coconut Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache Filling, Topped with Caramel Buttercream Frosting and Toasted Coconut. They were AMAZING! and gone in seconds lol!

Idaho City 2011

The weather hasnt been as warm as it usually is time of year so instead of playing in the water we decided to go check out Idaho City. Its kind of a fun old town with lots of history. THe populations is not quite 500 so everybody pretty much knows everyone. Im sure people were looking at us and our 4 kids thinking those noisey tourist...lol! It was basically a small town until the 1860's when there was a huge gold rush there bringing thousands of people there to fight for gold...literally. Lots of stories about people killing others for gold. We checked out the old jail, a museum, the strip, and the cemetary which was the best part. The cemetary was very interesting seeing all the old graves, some were marked "unknown" and they say out of the first 200 graves dug back then only 28 were deaths by natural causes. We finished the day with some yummo pizza and Uswirl!











There were no headstones on these ones, but they are thought to be 2 infants.

Washington Visit

Leif and Rachel were up at mom and dads for a visit so of course we took a quick trip up there to see them and their sweet little babies. The first day we got Micah automatically went to Steve and kept reaching for him when anyone else held him. IT was so cute and weird......must have been a guy thang. Steven had a blast wrestling with Uncle Leif and making Micah laugh. He is always getting the babies to crack up while acting silly. Its so cute! Sydney was so happy to see Aunt Rachel and spend time with her. Tori loved playing with Savannah because she is a girl and Tori loves girls!
The best part was staying up until 1am, laughing hyisterically about stupid stuff..ooh man it was fun! We are going to miss you guys so much!!! Wish you Mulligans could have made it!!!








We celebrate the twins first birhthday



Sydney was so excited to see her cousins. She has missed you guys!



Beacon rock




We went to the Portland Zoo
 

We had fun With Grandpa Brooks
and Grandma Suzie! Tori loved playing with Papa Martin.....which is very rare for her to even warm up to anyone...especially that fast!

Zoo field trips and last day of school

Stevens kindergarten class and Sydneys first grade class each had field trips to the Boise zoo this year. Its a sad little zoo...meaning its very small and only takes about an hour to get through the whole thing. Steve was able to go each time with them and they LOVED having their Dad come with them!


I cant believe my kids are done with school for this year. It went by so fast. It was a little bumpy at the beginning of the year but eventually got better and the kids started to enjoy school more. Steve and I tried really hard to make it to their school as often as we could, whether helping out in class or just having lunch with them. Im not looking forward to the adjusting back to school next year!

Mothers Day 2011

Mothers Day was great! I had a great day full of pampering,beautiful cards and gifts. The kids each made me something special from school. I love those presents the best! They are so thoughtful and each child is so excited to give them to me. Steves got me some crocs, stella&dot jewelry, an amazing chocolate cake (from costco...no steve cant bake :) and NEW CARPET!! I was SOOOOO HAPPY to finally get our whole house recarpeted. It felt like we were in a brand new house. AMAZING! Something about used carpet that makes me kringe, escpecially at this stage of my life when I spend most of my day on the floor with the little ones.


One thing I missed was not being with my mom. Im so blessed to have such a loving and wonderful mom. She is the best and is the perfect example of someone who is completely selfless. She has always put other before herself and I admire her for that. I love you, Mother!

Easter 2011

This year Steve had to work both Sat. and Sunday but worked it out so we had Sat. morning and Sunday afternoon/evening with him. We did the usual easter egg hunt in the backyard, dyed eggs, and in the morning the kids found their baskets and stuffed their faces as fast as they could before we stopped them. We werent able to go to church in the morning because Sydney and Steven had colds and Steve was at work. But we had a nice ham dinner and a huge costco strawberry cheesecake for dessert.