Happy 4th of July

We had a great 4th of July here in Kentucky. The last 2 years, Steve has been out of town on the 4th so we were super happy to have him here and celebrate together!

Isn't this dress to die for? I can't stand how cute Emery looks in it. Aunt Jenny got it for her and I wish she could wear it every Sunday. She is my patriotic girl. Davis was already at church with Steve so I didn't get a picture of him...

We celebrated the 4th with a BBQ, of course. Good times with the Larsen's and the Madsen's. These two boys never stop making me laugh. They are just trouble together. Cute trouble, but trouble all the same!

Watching fireworks...the city made the huge fireworks legal this year, so it was hard for our fun box of 'street' fireworks to compete with everything going on in the sky around us, but it made for a good show. I think the kids loved it.

Emery and her best little friend, Kennedi. They are 3 months apart and just so cute!


Our pyrotechnic experts at work. This always makes me a little nervous...

Emery watching fireworks with one of her very favorite people, Uncle Keith.

Learning New Chores

This summer Davis has been working on learning some new chores. He is turning into quite the helper. He can wash windows and mirrors, vacuum the kitchen floor, clean up any room, do the dishes, etc. While we stayed at Grandpa and Grandma's house he learned how to feed the dog (it was super cute, but I don't think he will be needing that skill anytime soon at our house), take out the trash and anything else Grandma needed help with. I think being out of school has been a little hard for him...he does really well with the structure school gives, so having chores to do every day has helped us have some more structure at our house! I am so proud of this big boy!
Of course, Emery had to get in on the cleaning action. She wants to do everything that Davis does.

Coloring

I should of gotten a picture of her with the marker, but Emery got into Davis' markers and colored herself. I think she did a pretty good job! She did it again while we were visiting my parents last week with a pen she found. I am not sure why coloring ourselves is a good idea, but she actually really likes to color on paper, too. She is much more interested in it than Davis was at her age. I think I have an artist on my hands. Hopefully she will stick to legs and paper and not my walls!

Whole lot of Nothing!

Sadly, I haven't even taken one picture since I last posted. So, a picture-less update, I guess! We (the kids and I) are going to Salt Lake soon while Steve works down in Atlanta (after the last long trip he had down there I decided there was no way I was staying here alone!) so hopefully we will take some fun pictures on our trip. The thought of flying with Emery is already giving me anxiety. Seriously, she is horrible. I don't think it is possible for her to hold still. She is a happy camper as long as she gets to do whatever she wants:) It's going to be ugly. I need to quit stressing about it because the anticipation will just make it worse.

So we have been doing a lot of swimming (except for the last week has been a little rainy), working out and the kids love playing at the YMCA, and just enjoying our summer. Grandma Larsen came to visit for a couple of weeks so we had lots of time with Grandma and cousins. We loved having her here and when we put her bed away, Davis was adamant that she was coming back and was mad at us for putting her bed away!

I got a new silhouette craft cutter and I have been putting vinyl on everything in our house. I love it! Speaking of crafts (sort of ) I am obsessed with Pinterest. If you haven't seen it, it is a website where you can visually organize things you find online on virtual 'corkboards'. So instead of bookmarking a tutorial for something I find that I want to make, I 'pin' it on Pinterest and put it in an appropriate category that I created and then it puts it on my corkboard for that category. I don't know if that makes sense but if you haven't been on there, you should check it out. You can also follow people and see what they are pinning and get even more ideas. I love it! There are so many fun ideas out there and this in an amazing way to organize them and have them at your fingertips. If you want an invite, let me know.

I really can't think of much else exciting to report...Steve is outside trying to teach Davis to ride a bike (somewhat unsuccessfully, I think :) so I better head out. Happy Sunday and hopefully I will be back soon with a better post!!

Baby Porter's Blessing

My best friend, Carrie just had her first baby, Porter and we were able to make a quick trip up to Chicago Memorial Day weekend for his blessing. We were so glad we could go..so good to see Carrie and her husband, Bob and meet baby Porter for the first time. I could have held him all day. He is the sweetest. They were so nice to let us take over their apartment and stay with them. I think Emery emptied every drawer and cupboard in their house. Just showing them what they have to look forward to before long with Porter!



I loved that we got Emery smiling in this picture...don't let it fool you...the next picture down is a better depiction of her behavior at church lately.

Crabby and naughty. That is what we get at church these days. Nursery can't come soon enough.

Sweet baby Porter

Davis loved Aunt Carrie and Uncle Bob. He jibber jabbered to them non stop. I am sure they loved it.

Our Birthdays

Steve and I celebrated our birthdays at the end of May. We are getting way too old...but I'll save the complaints. I had a surprise little get together the night of Steve's birthday with friends from our ward and then we had a BBQ on my birthday since it was Memorial Day.

We usually go to Utah over Memorial Day and my Mom always makes me rhubarb pie which is my favorite (and really is amazing by the way). Since we weren't home this year, Jenny found a rhubarb pie for me. It was really good and very thoughtful of them.

33. Whew, that sounds old!

We set up Jen and Keith's Bonzai water slide in the back yard and the kids went crazy all afternoon. This is Emery after her first slide down and yes she is buck naked! Who needs swim suits in the back yard?

Steve in all his 34 year old glory. He got new golf clubs for his birthday and lets just say he was a little bit excited about them.

Reading in the Tub

I came into my bathroom a couple of weeks ago to Davis and Emery and about 20 books piled in my bathtub. They both love books and of course Emery wants to do whatever Davis is doing so I guess they thought the bathtub was a good location for a library! They stayed in there for a long time reading and playing. I thought it was pretty cute!