picture post.

after a couple of picture-less posts, I thought I’d post a few recent pics {reverse order}…

library time…

impromptu splash pad visit {we stopped to go to the park not realizing they had built a splash pad there}. fully clothed it is!

another splash pad in the afternoon…




reading with cc in his new room…



happy birthday cc!!


making a campfire at daddy’s soccer game…

watering the backyard/playing with our water toys


storytime…

petting zoo at the library…




she looks sooooo old to me here!!!

update on the babies.

I realized I haven’t done a true update on the kiddos in awhile so here goes…

evan ray:

• weighed 52 lbs at his 4 year well child visit and was 44 inches tall. as our dr says “the size of the average 6 year old”. at least he’s consistent
• has such an amazing ability to learn. this kiddo adds & subtracts without being taught how. he has started to sound out words without much prompting. if we misunderstand what he says, he will correct us and tell us what letter the word he was trying to say starts with.
• has such a tender heart and will randomly shower you with kisses and “I love you”s.
• has also started pushing his limits even more than before. it’s almost like he’s started coming into his more rambunctious “boy” stage. it’s frustrating because he is so sweet but at the same time, will walk up and kick over his sister’s doll house for no reason or will run over one of the dogs again, for no reason. hopefully this is a phase that we can curb with consistent correction because this little boy is just too sweet to be mean!
• has finally gotten his “big boy room”. poor kiddo has had the same “nursery” décor his entire life. we just finished redoing his room and he loves it!!! poor baby was still sleeping in his converted crib until a couple weeks ago. did I mention he’s the size of your average 6 year old?? oops!
• has a clock in his room that turns green when he is allowed to get up. believe it or not, he usually waits before getting up!! he’s definitely our rule follower. once he gets up, he comes into our room to wake us up if we’re not already up. the first time he did this {a couple months ago}, he scared me to death!!
• has done so well with his new speech therapist!! we are so excited by the progress he has already made in a month!
• is very protective of his little sister. it is super cute to watch him walk up to anyone talking to her and introduce himself – “hi, I’m evan and I’m avery’s big brother!” she’s a lucky little girl {even if she won’t realize it for awhile!}
• loves playing soccer, kinect games, board games, jumping in the bounce house, riding his bike, driving his truck, playing on his ipad, reading books, coloring, building…really, just about anything
• LOVES to swim!! so much so that when we got out of the pool, his eyes were “fuzzy”. poor baby! he is able to swim from one end of the pool to the other…over and over and over again! our little fish!
• wears size 6 shorts/pants and 5 shirts

avery jo:

• definitely marches to the beat of her own drummer.
• loves to dress up as a princess daily. she has her selection of dresses in the game room closet and is quite vocal about which she would like.
• has really developed quite the vocabulary. it’s super cute when she uses a word for the first time – it still amazes us!
• is quite dramatic! if she gets upset about something, she will run off and pout. her current favorite locations for these fits include in the kitchen in the corner of the cabinets, behind the curtains, in our room, or in her closet. I have no idea where she gets this from?!?!
• LOVES animals!! especially small dogs. I keep telling brian we should get her one but so far, that idea has been nixed. I don’t get it! it’s not like we’d notice another dog
• knows her colors and most of her letters & numbers. considering she hasn’t been in school during the last year, I’m pretty impressed!!
• is quite chatty and loves to tell you about all kinds of things. only problem is that sometimes her mouth gets ahead of her head and part of what comes out sounds almost chinese! it’s actually pretty funny!
• has done so well in swimming and is able to swim short distances by herself. she is not afraid of going underwater and loves being in the water!!!
• is starting to show signs of having similar speech issues as evan. we have asked his therapist about it and she has told us to wait until she is at least 3 to test because any earlier than that would not result in effective therapy
• loves her big brother and doesn’t like to be without him
• knows exactly how to annoy her brother and does it daily!
• still uses a paci at nap & bedtime although we are about to break that habit…yikes!
• is still in her crib. once we get rid of the paci and are sleeping well, we’ll convert her bed
• is still in diapers although we could probably have potty trained a few months ago {we didn’t because of the california trip & ashley’s wedding}. we’ll probably cross that bridge soon but don’t want to throw too many changes at her at once.
• still wears all of her clothes from last summer. she really slimmed down in the last year and while they’re a little shorter than last year, they definitely still fit. she is wearing between a 2T & 3T

love, love these little stinkers!!!

evan lately.

mister e has had quite a few “funnies” lately that we don’t want to forget…

a few nights ago, jaxon & grayson spent the night while their parents were working. since e has his big boy bed now, we pulled the trundle mattress from avery’s room into e’s room and jaxon slept “on the bottom” while e slept “up top.” we had to go in a few times because we could hear the boys talking but then things got quiet {e’s monitor was in the game room so I could hear grayson}. I went in to check on grayson and was surprised when I saw light around the outside of e’s door. when I opened the door, both boys bolted for their beds. they had been sitting on the floor playing with the toys in e’s room. it took everything in me not to laugh but I didn’t – somehow! – and told them that they were to go to sleep. if I had to come in again, I would separate them – so mean! haha! e immediately said “mommy, I’ll turn out my lamp. I love you!” little stinker! love that boy!

the night after jaxon spent the night, I was tucking e into bed for the night and he asked me to sleep in his bed with him. I told him I couldn’t do that because I needed to sleep in my bed. he told me he was afraid tick tock crock was going to get him. I asked if he thought mummy or daddy or rylea or addie would let tick tock crock get him and thought for a second and then said “no. tick tock crock is scared of rylea & addie’s bark anyway” and went to sleep. I just love the innocence of a little one & the way his mind processes different situations!

we have so many more stories that I need to be better about getting down but those were a few that we thought were cute & funny!

evan’s batman bounce house birthday party.

mister man was super specific on the birthday party location & theme this year and I’m not going to lie, both made my life so much easier so I was all in! he wanted a batman birthday party and he wanted it at “the bounce house place.” done & done!!

unfortunately for mister e, his party always seems to fall right when everyone is on their summer vacation {or everyone else is having their party – we had 2 others we have to miss this afternoon!}. we still had so many of our friends & family who were able to come and celebrate with our little man and we are so grateful to everyone who could make it! he had an absolute blast and keeps asking to have his next birthday party there we’ll see….haha!

the best part of the party is that you show up with cake & party favors and EVERYTHING else is taken care of! I do love throwing parties and creating all of the details but there is something to be said for just showing up and having a really fun party {and let’s be honest – 4 year olds don’t really care whether they have all the cute party stuff}. brian even said he loved this party because he got to show up, play, and take some pictures and didn’t have to worry about anything else! loved it!!!

a few weeks ago, we went to a friend’s birthday party and e saw a game there that he really wanted. every time we would ask what he wanted for his birthday, he would say the flying fishy game {exactly like the elephant game that blows butterflies into the air but he didn’t want that one}. the problem was that I forgot where we had seen it. everyone was looking for it and could not find it anywhere! when he finally told me whose birthday party it was, I texted her mom to find out the name of the game. I could only find one in the US and it was used but I didn’t care!!! before the party, we opened his pressie from us…

“the” gift

party time!

the girls playing with avery’s pressie from brittni



nanny became avery’s sticker canvas

our attempt at a group picture…there were still kiddos running all over the place but you take what you can get

time to eat!







pressies…


and then home to get them all out & play with them

vanpa got us tickets to the skeeters game that night so we headed out a little early to check out all of the fun kiddo stuff…

we knew e was tired! he wanted nothing to do with the splash pad…

we made it through the 6th inning before calling it a night! we were exhausted!!!

we had such a fun day with our friends and family!!! love you all & love our sweet 4 year old!! we hope your party was everything you wanted