4th of July

We had a great Independence Day this year.  :)  We had my parents, Steven Ashley & Chase, Cathy and the Karrers over.  The kids and even some of the adults swam for most of the evening.  It was 106 in Bakersfield, yikes!

How many Grandmas go swimming with their Grandkids?  Probably not too many.

It was Chase's first time really enjoying the pool I think, he kept saying "Bath! Bath!"  :)

The Karrers brought sparklers, which were the hit of the night.

I think of everyone here, Baylee was the most excited about the fireworks and kept screaming when they would go off!

The boys enjoying their sparklers.  :)

I thought this was a great picture that Anne took, it looks professional.

And this is just adorable. :)

Livie loves Cathy!  She hung out with her all night.

Baylee with her sparker.

This one was pretty funny, so I thought I'd add it in.  Luke seems very concerned.  He must know Jaden well.  :)

We had a pretty good view of the Seven Oaks show, so that was great.

What's new?

This is kind of a miscellaneous post, an attempt to catch up...

No Rhyme or reason for this picture, just thought she looked like a cute little baby seal or something and I had to put it up.  :)

Livie didn't like hers as much because she couldn't get her hands out.  Baylee rescued her though.

We are kind of going backwards because I wasn't paying attention to the picture order.  :/  Here are my big three right before the Christmas program at church.  You can expect a couple of cute videos of that to pop up soon.  :)

Tony and Aubrey on Thanksgiving playing some sort of video game at my parent's house.

Grandma and the girls.

Jaden demonstrating why we will never own one of these at our house.  Obsessed.

Baylee in her new "robe of many colors".

The boys, up to no good as usual.

A picture of a lunch scene at our house the week we kept the Karrer boys.  :)  It was a riot.  Please note the look on Baylee's face.  I think that old saying came true and her face is actually stuck that way, at least that is how it seems these days.   Ahh... the terrible 2s, 3s and 4s!  :)

Here she is in a much better mood... she loves her sisters, Aubrey is enjoying being the middle child for a little while longer.

This is an absolutely rare occurrence at our house... the kids all fell asleep on the couch at the same time.  I shouldn't even say rare, because I can assure you this has never happened before and will most likely never happen again unless there is a gas leak of some sort.  I actually had Tony check to make sure there wasn't a gas leak when I saw this... just completely random.

I just liked this one because Brenna is cracking me up.  She was so into the movie, it was really the first time she has seen a movie and paid attention to it.  The kids are VERY into Robin Hood right now, and she loved being right in there with the big siblings, at least for a few minutes.

That is about all I've got.  We have just been keeping busy doing life.  Tony has pneumonia which is a bummer, he has been quite under the weather lately but is doing much better the past few days.  That is about all of the excitement around here!

Pumpkin Patch

On Saturday, we went on our 5th annual pumpkin patch trip with the Karrers.  It is getting to be so much fun with all of the kids, and to look back on how much they've all grown since that first year.  :)

Here are the big three, Jaden is a little reluctant to pose since just a few feet away his friends are all playing.

The fantastic five.

I love this one with all of the big kids.  Especially Caleb, he cracks me up.  :)

They got quarantined while I was taking pictures of the Karrers, this one actually turned out the best I think, and as an added bonus, no one got lost.  I think I might have to invest in one of these, it is quite handy to keep them all together.

Our family, it is so much fun!

Brenna and Livie were extremely tired because this was around 4 pm and they had not napped at all this day.  (We were at the buddy walk earlier in the day)  They were troopers, they are such good girls.

I love this one, Aubrey is so relaxed.  :)

Never thought I'd have 3 girls.  Never thought I'd spend so much time doing hair!  They sure are cute though, eventually I'm sure Baylee will help me.  She loves her little sisters.

The boys think it's more fun to stick things in the girls' hair.  They are good entertainers. though.

Princess Lulu

Our little peanut, eating as much grass as she can get away with.

 

Nursery

(A snapshot in time)

I love to look back at my kids when they were small, and it is fun to have pictures of their friends at those stages too.  I took my camera with me on Wednesday night to snap a few pictures of the nursery kids.  I have just a couple like this from when Jaden was a baby and they are treasures, I have to remember to do it more often!

Sweet Baby Elle

Baylee and Brenna

Reese and Livie

This one just cracks me up!

The girls being little mommies.  :)

Baby Dax, 1 year old already!  :)

The big boys were much to busy to have their pictures taken.  They were having a big battle with all of the blocks as their soldiers.  It was fun to spend time with all of the little ones, they are ALL growing way too fast!

First Day of School, Take Two!

Today was the first day of enrichment classes at Valley Oaks!  There are a lot more of Jaden's friends at school this year.  Here are a few of them posing before classes start.  :)

 

Here is the same group, plus a few more.  They were all so excited!

This is where they line up while we listen to announcements and do the pledge of allegiance. My kids all have it down, even Aubrey because we do it every day before school starts.  I am such a cheesy homeschooler.  :P

It was Matthew's first day of Kindergarten and he did great!

Here are the kids and Becky (Jaden's resource teacher) walking over to the tractor.  (They load onto the tractor and it takes them to their classes because they are pretty far away.)  They LOVE that part!

Here is my sweet Jaden before the tractor took off.  He is officially a first grader now.  He did well in his classes today and I wasn't even worried about him.  He is getting to be so grown up.  He was thrilled that August was in his class again this year, along with Luke, Matt, Reese, Kimberley and Owen.  It should be a fun year!  This quarter they are studying insects, camping and music.    Right up a little boy's alley!  I just love our little school.  :)

MIA (Missing In Action)

That has been me lately.  Where have I been?  What have I been doing?  A whole bunch of this:

Teaching this one to open her mouth for food and not spit it everywhere:

Teaching this one to be patient while it is her sister's turn for a bite:

Teaching this one to keep clothes on while we have visitors:

Teaching this one her letters:

Trying to keep an eye on the big kids "playing" with the babies:

Spending a lot of time swimming and enjoying our friends:

Loving this face:

Enjoying our kid's sweet friends:

And of course, spending a lot of time doing this:

Poor Livie.

She doesn't care most of the time.

Oh yeah, and Brenna is crawling.  Mostly Army crawling, but she can and sometimes crawls for real.  More and more, she is going missing.  It would be much easier if she were bigger.

Oh, and we got a new stroller!  Lifesaver.  :)

We have been on the go with Tae Kwon Do and Gymnastics and having lots of fun outside.  I even got my bike back in working condition and have been riding a little here and there.  I'm sure I'm leaving plenty out, but we are enjoying our summer so far and loving our fun family.  :)