24th of July

Surprisingly enough we didn't have anything going on the 24th of July weekend. We got a lot of editing caught up and we also took some time to spend time as a family.  On Friday the 22nd we went to the Handcart Days Parade. Chico enjoyed it a little bit but wasn't aggressive in getting the candy so he got a lot less than the other kids around him. Luckily a nice guy next to us noticed and encouraged his kid give some to Chico. :)

Grizzly was very hot the whole time and so I fanned him the whole time but he still was very flushed.

I love this next pictures with his cute little hands clapping for something.  He probably doesn't even know why he's clapping, he's just joining in with the crowd. So cute. :)

One of our favorite parts of the parade:

This tractor came through near the end and Chico said, "I want to see more tractors."  Chico knows what the good stuff is. :)

After the parade we headed over to the same park we had Chico's party at.  When we pulled up Chico remembered and said, "Hey, where is everybody?" Sorry kid, no presents and tons of attention this time!

BUT there was beautiful lighting for pictures and Brent had the time of his life taking pictures of the people he loves most.  These are just a few of them. :)

He is pretty skilled at crawling on his feet instead of his knees when it's a weird textured surface.

Chico really wanted to play on that Big Wheel. He was asking if we could go home and get his. When we told him no he just sat and stared longingly at it.

After that I stole the camera from Brent and took the rest of these:

Those pics below of Griz in the sand are from this same night. There were just so many that I thought they deserved a post of their own.

Griz in Heaven

Oh how he loves to dig in the dirt, feel that dirt between his fingers, fling it a bit in the air, and occasionally sample some to see how it tastes. He's all smiles in the sandbox.

craft projects

So, when I first started this "mommy-type stuff" blog I intended to post recipes, craft projects, inspirational quotes, AND pictures of my kids. For the last year and a half or so, it's been mostly pictures of the kids. Which is of course the best part of the blog but I'm going to try to do the other parts too. So here it goes. Here are some of my craft projects I've finished recently:

This was inspired by the make-it-love-it website. She did butterflies for hers but I wanted something for my boys' room.  So I came up with these rocket ships and stars. I don't know if you can tell from the picture the size it is on the wall, so I'll tell you.  The wood and rocket ships would probably fill about a 16x20 frame.  I found these stickers at Dollar Tree and thought it went really nicely with the rocket ships but I worried it was too busy. So I lightly put he stickers up and asked Chico what he thought and he replied, "It looks AMAZING!!!"  That was enough for me, and the stickers stayed. :)

This mesh bag for toys was also inspired by make-it-love-it.  I just bought some mesh and sewed and surged it on my mom's machine (mom actually did the surging, the surger frightens me slightly) Then I sewed the ribbon on the top and made two loops to go over the suction cups.  Yay! No more standing on toys while I'm showering and hopefully it solves the toys getting all gross and moldy problem too!

This last one has been in the works for quite some time but I'm sorry to say I just barely finished it.  I printed and mounted these pictures on thin cardboard in like... November. Then I tried taping them onto a corkboard so that I didn't have to stick needles in them. That didn't work. SO I took it down until I could think of something better. I came up with the idea of hanging them from ribbons a while ago but it took me a while to execute the project and by now the pictures are in need of updating! lol.  I like how it looks above the kitchen table though and Chico loves to look at the pictures and ask questions about them.  The first day we put it up he was sitting at the table and said, "Awww, that little Chico is smiling at me!"

More to come another day when I finish the other projects that I've been working on. :)

chillin' at the park

Brent took the kids to the park on a Saturday night. They had a lot of fun playing in the water.

Favorite picture of the night:

I joined up with him a little later and had fun laying in the grass watching the kids play. Grizzly loves to climb all over me when I'm laying down, it's so much fun.

Brent is so awesome with kids.  He used to work at an after school program and would go play with the kids on the playground and would just go crazy on the playground equipment doing all kinds of tricks. The kids absolutely loved him. And now he gets to do it with his own kids. :)

Man I wish I had that much energy.

more birthday pictures

We had the whole fam come to the park and celebrate with us with pizza, cake and ice cream. The kids were having so much fun playing on the playground that Chico decided we all should move down there and open presents next to the playground.



He'd open one present and then want to start playing with it right away. It was hard to convince him to keep on keeping on and get all the presents open. His cousins were so excited to have him open their gifts, especially his cousin his age, N.  It was adorable to see him so excited for Chico.  Chico got a bit overwhelmed and was a bit shy but overall he did better than I would have expected.





He has a weird fascination for Spider Man. I don't know why, because he's never seen it before as far as I know. He just loves how it looks I guess. So I found him a Spider Man hat which he loves.  Oh, and that little dragon in his hands he latched right onto also. He named it Sharkie.  I think that is the first toy he has named right off the bat.


and a few of his awesome grandparents...



He may not give the cuddliest hugs (he gets that from me) but he sure does love them.





I love when my dad is in a goofy mood. I think he's fishing for goldfish crackers...


My brother's kids weren't able to make it on Chico's actual birthday so my mom, my grandma, my brother's fiance, and I threw a little quick birthday party during the day a couple days later. The craziness that ensued was... well crazy.

We had corndogs and then frosted cupcakes with the leftover frosting from my lightning mcqueen cake.

Grandma got the fun job of cuddling with Griz

Then we had to go inside to blow out candles. Chico was a little overwhelmed by all the attention.

After a little persuasion I convinced him to blow out the candles.

Then it was time for more overwhelming attention when the kids all gave him their presents. He was hiding by his great grandma for protection from the kids pressing in on him.

His sweet cousin R, gave him this dinosaur that he bought with his own money. 

The kids continued to press in on him so finally he just went and hid behind the chair. Silly kid. Hopefully next birthday he'll like the attention a little bit more.

Thanks to all of you family that came and supported Chico on his birthday. We love you!