Happy Father's Day Jeff!!

I was pretty sad when we realized that Jeff would be all alone for Father's Day.
We decided we would celebrate when we got back.

I just could not wait to make it home to this guy:



He is the most amazing Daddy to our little boys. I couldn't have asked for a better example and priesthood holder. I love watching him play with and love our boys.
Thank you, Babe.
We are so lucky to have you.

Weston was so excited to show Jeff his present.
I am making him a quilt. The top is halfway done and then I have a lot more work after that.
I was worried he wouldn't be as excited as I was about it...
but every day he asks me if I got to work on it more and when I will be done. How cute is that?!
It will be so cool to see him snuggled in something I made especially for him.

Happy Father's Day, Jeff.

We're BAAAACK!!!!!

**I am obsessed with putting my blog in order of when things happened. Which means all of the Texas trip posts are below this one. SO just scroll down and you'll find the motherload of posts!! Have fun and thanks for keeping up with us. :) **

Well, we are back home after our 3 week long vacation to Texas.
It was a fabulously wonderful and full trip but I must admit: it is absolute BLISS to be home, in our own beds, and back in our own little groove.
I WILL be blogging all about our Texas adventures. But I am a bit busy what with all the laundry, unpacking, relaxing, and just being with my hubby. So here is what we've been up to since we got home:

I can officially say that I survived flying with 2 kiddos by myself.
It wasn't fun and it wasn't pretty. But we had the kindest, most kid-friendly man sitting next to us. Truly, he was heaven-sent. He has a 4 yr. old and 3 yr. old of his own, so he was wonderful and West had a blast talking with him. Thank you, friend. This was the best pic I could get on the plane:


To say I was thrilled to see this guy would be the understatement of the year. 10 days was waaaay too long. I sure love my guy-- more than ever!!!!

Jeff did THE most amazing thing while we were away:

He put a beautiful garden wall up in front of our house and now I get to plant flowers!!! YAY!!!

Oh but wait, he didn't stop there. He also dug up the tree stump in our backyard, took out about 200 bricks, and lots and lots of weeds,

and put in grass for me!! Then he put in a little spot for our garden. Mmmm...we'll be planting whatever can be planted this late in the season.

And this was all a surprise. Wow.

I love Love LOVE it!!!

I feel SO spoiled to have such a cute little backyard for us to play in now. We will be spending every single day in the saftey of our own yard, playing, swimming, basketballing, and just plain having fun. I am so excited!!! Thank you thank you, my sweet husband!!

The boys were just as excited as I was to enjoy time with Daddy. We have had such a fun few days home.

We've been playing:

(just look at all those teeth, the top 4 came in while we were in TX!)

acting silly:

rough-housing:

and visiting the family we missed so much:

So much fun!!

Stay tuned, here's what's coming soon:

Texas trip -

Pool time, Cousin time, Grandma & Grandpa time, Girls Days,

Projects, Weston's 3rd birthday, Family Pics, Zoo days, and more!

Relaxing

Jeff went home after 10 fun-filled days in Texas.
That left me with 10 more days that we filled up with playing, relaxing, reading, watching movies, cuddling on the kiddos, and squeezing every minute out of our time together.

We had so much fun and made great use of Grandma's pool:


Weston Loved jumping to Grandma & James.
Tave had a lot of fun playing on the step and splashing me.
And I was in heaven for 2-3 hours during naptime *almost* every single day. I got to lay out and read. Perfection!!


Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the last half of the trip:

Thank you everyone, for making our trip so wonderful!
We miss you!!

Fun with Grandma & Grandpa

I remember doing special things with my grandparents when I was growing up.
I loved those wonderful days when I got to hang out with them all by myself. (or one or two other siblings with us) They were always days I looked forward to and still remember well.

So I was thrilled when Mom said that her and Dad wanted to take the boys out for a day with Grandma & Grandpa! They went to the zoo and had so much fun!!

Splash Park!

We took the boys to a splash park and it was awesome.

Happy Birthday West!!!

Weston turned 3 years old while we were in Texas!
It was so fun to be with this side of the family for a birthday!!
We celebrated with a Super-hero party (as requested by the birthday boy)

Here is the setup:

We had so much fun with the people we usually don't get to party with!

The Guest List:

Jeff, Nicole, West, & Tave (of course)

Grandma & Grandpa D

Grandpa Joe & Grandma Dean

Uncle Guy & Aunt Sharon

Joe, Amanda, Cole, & Owen

James, Amy, & Ava

Jonathan

Thank you, thank you, everyone for making his birthday so special!

Weston loved all of his gifts. Especially his Batman & Superman figures.
Opening Gifts:

Blowing out the candles:

I found such a cute idea online for party favors: Superhero capes!!
It was fun to make them and even better to see the boys SO thrilled to be Super-Weston & Super-Cole. They are a little bit big because I made them during naps (hence no models) but next time they will be perfect. :)

Happy Happy Birthday Weston
We sure love you buddy!!

Cabelas and Guy & Sharon's

I've never been to Cabelas before. I wasn't expecting that much, honestly.
But Mom & Dad really wanted to take the boys. So we went aaaaand,
We LOVED it!

It is so cool to see all of the amazing animals they have displayed. My favorite was the Elephant.
Weston's was the crocodile. eww, scary.
So if you have one nearby, I highly recommend going. It's free and fun, what could be better?! (just don't buy anything while you're there, that's the trick!)



After Cabelas we headed over to Aunt Sharon & Uncle Guy's house.
They gave us a fantastic lunch and we had so much fun playing and visiting.
We sure love them and wish we were closer!!

Thanks for another fabulous day everyone!

Girls Day!!

We have a girls day tradition. It is a must on every trip.
(there's a guy's day, too, but they don't take pictures)

This girl's day was especially fun because there were no little babies this time!
We had the entire day to shop, eat, see a movie, talk, eat, and talk some more.
We had so much fun.
I sure love these ladies!!

(Mom, Nicole, Amanda, Amy, & Aunt Sharon)

Fort Worth Zoo!

We always make sure to go the zoo when in TX!
We loved seeing all the animals and the boys loved running around and acting like them.
So great!



We had such a fun day with:
Grandma, Grandpa, Amanda, Cole, Owen, April, Deven, & Jacie.
(and of course the 4 of us were there!)


Dad does an awesome job of capturing the animals on camera.
Here are my favorite shots:

Looks like a postcard, huh?!

Park Days

The boys were always up for time at the park!

It's even better when Grandma's there!!

Owen ~ what a cutie!

Tave's First Swim

Tave tried out the pool for the very first time!

He didn't really like it at first
but after crawling around on the step for awhile, he learned to love it!!
(which was a good thing since we spent so much time in it)

Four Generations

Grandpa Joe, Grandpa, Jeff, Weston, & Tave

I love having everyone together!

Some favorite moments

I love watching our parents be grandparents. It is so great to see the kiddos just love them and have tons of fun.
One of Tave's favorite things was reading with Grandma.

Thanks, mom, for all the time you spent with him.

One of the coolest things about going to our parent's homes is seeing our kids play with the toys we loved growing up. Weston had so much fun with these micro-machines. Man, brings back memories. :)

Ava

I just had to put a cute picture of little Ava on here.
We have missed James, Amy, & Ava so much since they moved to Texas.
We were able to see them and Wow has Miss Ava changed.
She is doing so many new things and is such a darling, chunky thing now.
I just couldn't get enough of those cheeks!

Boys

We had been so excited to see Weston and Cole play together.

They had such a fun few weeks, and while there were definite moments of frustration and fighting, they also had a blast.

Our first full day we headed over to Joe & Amanda's!

The boys started out like this:

and of course they ended up like this:

We met sweet Owen for the first time:



And the boys ended their day relaxing in the playroom:

Take-off

Our trip to Texas started off in an airplane.

We flew TONS with Weston, but since having two kiddos it just hasn't happened.
Tave's first flight was, well-
you put a crawling kiddo who never ever sleeps outside his crib in a small confined space and see what happens flight.

Let's just say, lots of toys and treats later, we made it.

Check it out...

Here's my new button:

I love it. So bright and cheery.

Also,

I'm having tons of fun creating.
Here's a peek at what's new in my shop:


I use mostly vintage and some new buttons to create these.
Fun, huh?! Go check 'em out.

And while you're at it...
Please grab my new button

it's down there on the right!

Love you all!

Pictures!!!

We had our family pictures taken for Weston's 3 year and Tave's 1 year birthdays!!
Christy, from Cheapshots did great! We had so much fun. And I definitely recommend her! :)
Here's a sneak peak of some of my favorite shots. She has a ton more up on her blog!!

Darling Tave ~ 1 year old

Mischievous Weston ~ 3 years old! (in 2 weeks)

Isn't this just so sweet?

Thanks, Christy!! We are so happy with them!