Me and my Bailey Bug!

The older kiddos had summer school for three weeks in June. This meant that for the first time EVER I got a whole bunch of one on one time with my baby girl! I decided to make it count so we had a super fun three weeks! Bailey is known for making up "stories" (the other kids call it lying lol). For example, Rich comes home and says "Bailey, what did you to today?" and Bailey says "Ummmmm we went to a birfday party and had lunch at old mcdonalds and went to the buffly (butterfly) house aaaaaand...". She could go on and on. What did we really do that day? Laundry! So when we picked the kids up from school and Bailey told them all about going to the Zoo, or going out for breakfast or going to the movies they just rolled their eyes and chalked it up to another Bailey Lie-fest! Worked out rather nicely if you ask me because I did not lie to them about what we did that day and I didn't get peppered with whiny screams of "NO FAAAAIIIIIIIR!!!"  Here are some of our adventures... just me and my Bailey Bug!

The first morning of summer school Bailey FLIPPED OUT when BOTH kids got on the bus. She was used to Kenzie being gone but not Braxton. She was scream crying "I NEED MY BRACKYYYYYYYY!!!!" Good thing I know how to calm her down... DONUTS & CHOCOLATE MILK! Great parenting huh?!?! We tried out a new donut shop down the street from the kids' school. Apple fritters bigger than Bailey's head? YES PLEASE!

The ZOOOOOO!!!
We met some friends bright and early at the St. Louis Zoo. This is one of Bailey's very favorite places in the WORLD! She was so excited (at 8 am mind you) that she wouldn't even get in the stroller. She wanted to walk from the van WITH her heavy backpack full of lunch and ice water. Her favorite animals of the day were the seals in the viewing tunnel and the "BABY OFENT!" (Baby Elephant) The brand new baby elephant was so cute and little! She is hard to see in the pic... she was hiding behind the other young elephant. After the elephants we literally RAN to the van (NOT a short jog by any means) to make sure we weren't late picking the kids up from summer school. Going to the zoo just with her was a completely different experience than I am used to. I am REALLY looking forward to more Bailey/Mommy time when real school starts in August!

A couple more zoo pics... of ALL the things to see and do at the zoo her very favorite was playing with the play food... SERIOUSLY?

We had so much fun and Bailey loved being a part-time only-child : ) Some of the other things we did... we went for a walk around the St. Louis Temple (Bailey loved the fountain and kept humming "I Love To See the temple"), we went to the playground with her BFF Aubrey, we went to storytime at the library and made lady bugs, we went to a movie, we went for a 5k walk around the lake with our friends then had a picnic lunch at the playground afterwards.... we were busy little bees! I loved every minute of my Bailey Bug Time!!!

Happy Birthday Ri & D!

We got to go to Quincy to celebrate Rilea & Dylan's Birthdays!!! Amanda went all out and the kids had a fabulous party! Great food, friends, family & swimming! It was a super fun day! I love these two munchkins SO MUCH and I am very grateful to live close enough to be able to come to family events like this!

Baseball, Bathing Suits & Baby Deer!

Summer is finally here! It is hot and humid and time for some baseball and bathing suits!

We signed McKenzie and B up on the same coach pitch team. It is their first time playing a team sport so, being their father's children, baseball was the best choice : ) Kids baseball is just a giant train wreck until they all figure out what is going on... I think it is hilarious... Rich thinks its frustrating and hilarious haha. It is like they step onto the field and forget EVERYTHING they have learned playing backyard family ball for years. kids... They have a couple games under their belts now. They both got SO much better from game 1 to game 2. It's fun seeing them grow and learn the sport and be proud of themselves. They both earned candy bars in game 2 by having solid hits off the coach and not having to hit off the T.

Aaaaaaaaand as promised... BASEBALL VIDEO CLIPS!!!

We finally broke out the kiddos swimming suits last week, too. One of our favorite summer spots is Millennium Park's splash pad. The kids had a blast!!! Last year Bailey HATED any kind of sprinklers... this year she was LIVID when it was time to leave after 3 hours!

We have some new additions to our neighborhood... baby deer twins! We have seen them a couple times walking around the neighborhood but the kids were SO excited to see them in our BACKYARD! They are so stinking cute! Bailey is not a huge fan... she said "NO MOM! THEY ARE GONNA BITE MY KNEES!" Yaaaaa she is super weird!
































Bring on more summer fun!!!

Braxton's First Day of "School"!

Having a hard time believing Braxton will be in Kindergarten in August. To get him ready we signed him up for a jumpstart to kindergarten summer school class. It's not really his first day of REAL school, but still picture worthy : ) He is so stinking big and SO ready to be in school! McKenzie is taking a kids cooking class and summer sports class at the same summer school so they get to ride the bus together! Bailey had a rough time watching them BOTH get on he bus. She cried "MOM.... I NEED MY BRACKY!!!" She got used to it after a few days - she is loving the one on one mommy time! We had a fun picnic after their first day was over...

Memorial Weekend!!!

I was SO excited when my brother, Mike, called to tell me they were coming to STL for Sarah's Birthday & Memorial Weekend! Amanda & Chris came too and we had such a blast with all the little cousins running around. I absolutely love seeing my kids have such a great time with their cousins! We had a fun-and-food-filled weekend!

 We went to our church picnic at the park on Memorial day. The boys played a rousing game of wiffle ball (I have great video evidence of all 3 of the dads striking out swinging out of their shorts!) I didn't get many good pics of Hunter & Ragen... they would NOT hold still... too many fun things to do. After the picnic the kids crashed HARD and then the ladies all went shopping : ) Mikey made dinner out on the grill like a BOSS. He had good help from Hunter though!

Dessert? TED DREWES! DUH!!! Everyone had to head back home Monday night so we had some UHHHMAZING Frozen Custard and then we had to say our goodbyes : (

The whole gang! 

 Thank you Mike, Sarah, Amanda & Chris for coming to visit. I know it is a big sacrifice - especially the long drive from Texas - and we really appreciate it! We had a ton of fun, a LOT of laughs and most likely gained a few pounds... all part of a great weekend. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

April... Tree Sap, Waffles & Running

Not much going on in April around here... We had to clean up the MASSIVE mess in our backyard that the crazy amounts of snow caused. Rich got to have a WHOLE bunch of chainsaw fun. We had tons of huge tree limbs to clean up. The weight of the snow snapped them right off the 12+ sad pine trees lining our property. It took me daaaays to get all the tree sap off our skin and clothes. We killed our backs but after working on them for a full Saturday we finally got them bundled and out for pickup. Poor garbage man... in the pic you can't really see the 10 huge bags filled with smaller debris behind the limb bundles.

"MOM... WHAT'S FOR DINNER?"  I love the shock on their face when I answer something random like "WAFFLES!" Kenz & B learned how to make their own. Fun and YUMMY!

McKenzie's school did a Fun Run Fundraiser for Leukemia Research. She was SO excited. I told Rich about it and he said, "Have fun with that..." LOL. Well, WE DID! Just me and my girl. I don't look too excited but that's just because I SUCK at self-portraits. I was just happy to get both of our heads in the shot. We only did the 1 mile... super easy right? Oh wait - I am SO out of shape. I was in pain and Rich laughed pretty hard at me when we got home. Well worth it though. 

Summer is just around the corner - MUCH more fun than April!

Cell Phone Randomness... Jan to March

It's that time again... time to clean the pics off my cell phone. Some of them are too great to just sit on my hard drive : )

Silly little dress up addict!











The new Hot Wheel Wall! Toys are WAY cooler than when I was a kid!
And another amazing wall... BUMBLEBEEEEEE!!! Thanks to Papa Bowman!!!





Peek-A-Boo & Pancakes : )