World's Best Grandpa Award goes to????

Katie and Kellen have wonderful grandpas! However, this night Grandpa Lyle gets an award. He called me Monday morning to tell me that he was sorry he forgot to tell Katie and Kellen a "Sammy the Sequirrel" story and sing some songs before he left on Sunday night. They have this on going story about a squirrel and his adventures. Anyway, on Monday, Grandpa Lyle came over to our house to tell them a story and sing some songs. They kids were crazy excited!! I heard them saying, "best night ever!" Thanks dad!

Notice the blurry thing in the picture...well, that is Kellen's foot. Grandpa must have been playing an exciting song to make Kellen want to bop his foot up and down.

Tennis anyone?

Kellen just started taking tennis lessons from Uncle Scott. Scott is really good at tennis and is now sharing his talents with his nephew. Kellen loves it! 

 Due to clubhouse rules, an adult needs to be there at all times. So Katie and I just sit and watch him play. She likes to sit in the tree and draw. Lately, she has been sitting in the tree planning her birthday party...in August. She is just getting ready really early :)

A yard full of rocks

We are renting the house we are currently living in. The owners did not want the renters to have a lot to fuss with in the backyard. With that said, the backyard is "landscaped" with rock. We offered to change that and they politely declined. Luckily for me, my kids are the eternal optimists and they found something to do in a backyard full of rocks! That is....they dug a hole, pulled out the hose and played in the mud! Heck yeah, they had a blast! Their friend Madalynn came over and helped build the "pool" as they call it. I am grateful that they can find great beauty in a very interesting backyard.

 Our friend Madalynn.

 Notice the backyard is full of water!

 If you look at the trampoline, Katie is showing off her front handspring tricks. She is our resident gymnast!

 Oh, and one more thing....the kids got bored one day and decided to cover Kellen's head with all of Katie's clips. I had to get a picture of it to fully embarrass him when he is older.

Katie insisted that I get a shot from the side to show to full effect.

Hall of Flame Museum

We were invited to go the Hall of Flame museum with some friends from church. They kids loved it! It was really cool though. There were several old trucks that the kids could look at. They also go to dress up like a fireman and slide down the fire pole.

 All dressed and ready to help those in need!

 Katie and her friend Jocelyn.

 Here is Kellen acting normal.

 Kellen was being a turkey for a moment and refused to smile. Then....

 he changed his mind!

 There is our resident monkey, Katie. She had no problem getting to the top of the pole.

 There he goes!

 Here we are next to an old fire truck.

 My handsome young man.

My sweet Katie Nana.

When it's too dang hot in AZ.....

You buy shaving cream and let the kids go to town with it in your bath tub! They had a blast and were playing for about an hour. Yay for shaving cream!


So this is how they started off. They were kinda covered....and then they sprayed more shaving cream and the rest of the pictures show what happened.

I think they had a lot of fun! 

Kellen's Armpit

Our conversation with Kellen tonight.

K-Today I licked my armpit two times

Tom-Really? One time wasn't enough?

K-Oh wait, I actually licked it three times.

Really, I never thought I would have the conversation with Kellen.

Father's Day

This year Father's Day was held at our casa. We all enjoyed Hawaiian Haystacks in honor of Katie's request. It sounded easy and we knew that it would feed a lot of people. Good thing because we had about 12 people with 2 in utero (Jake and Erica's twins).

This year each father received his own tie cake. I got this off pinterest so I cannot claim to be creative. However, I can claim the ability to copy others. So, each father got their own favorite cake. From left to right: Ross-German Chocolate cake with a almond and coconut (whatever type frosting goes on German chocolate cakes). Tom-chocolate chip cake, cool whip frosting with strawberries and blueberries. Dad-Tomato soup cake with cool whip frosting with strawberries and blueberries. Jake-Fun fetti with cool whip frosting with strawberries and blueberries and sprinkles!

 After dinner, we all sat down to give my dad his present. We got him a book with pictures and songs that reminded us of him. It was really nice, I am just not super great at describing it right now. Of course we all goof off from time to time. Diana got some lovely pictures of us :)

 The kids played dress up that night. Katie dressed up as a bear. You can see Landon behind her as a wizard.

 For some reason Katie and Kellen decided to dress up like each other. Katie is so little that she still fits into size 5/6 clothing and she is turning 10 this year.

Finally, Kellen is playing the part of Waldo from Where's Waldo and Landon is a gun slinging skeleton with a  red sequin headband. As you can see we had a super fun filled evening!