June: Dress-up

My kids love to Dress-up. They dress up every day at least once, but usually more. My 2 almost 3 year old always was more of the Tom-boy type. She would dress up with a princess skirt, but usually with her baseball cap or her binoculars hung around her neck, too. She just definitely wasn't the pretty princess type. And then one morning in June our lives changed forever. Abbigail came out of her room dressed like the prettiest princess. I couldn't stop taking pictures of her. She looked so cute and so out of character. After that day she wanted to be a princess. Every day since then she dresses up like a princess. The funny thing is that after that day her terrible two-ness has been gone. She has her typical childhood naughtiness at times, but all those tantrums and attitude have stopped. Pretty incredible. She really does make a cutie-pie princess. And of course since Abbi was dressed up, they all had to dress up. I really don't know who put Maddi's shirt on Lincoln, though

She was so sad when she had to take it off.

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June- Hike Day

June was a fun month for us. The weather was fantastic. Plus daddy had the first week off so we tried to have fun that week. Here is one of our adventures from June:

Saturdays are family Days. I call them Family Adventure Day. Our favorite adventure from June was definitely when we took the kids to the George Owens Nature Park. We took a picnic and then went on one of the small hikes. We had a blast. Lincoln pretty much had the lead most of the ways and ran the entire trail. The day was full of smiles. Sadly the pics are not the best picture quality, but still cute.

June: Happy Day

June was a fun month for us. It is pretty warm here and we were able to get out more. Plus daddy had the first week off so we tried to have a lot of fun that week. Here is one of our adventures from June:

Happy Day: We love celebrating Holidays in this family and we go all out. When I was a little girl I loved holidays so much that I would make up different holidays just so we could have a special day more often. Well, my little Maddi is just like me. She wishes every day was someone's birthday or some special holiday. So one night before I put her to bed she asked me if the next day we could have a holiday. I said sure and asked what she wanted to name it. She named it Happy Day! So the next day we tried to make it the happiest day ever. Every time her brother or sister would whine or get mad she would quickly remind them they could not be mad because it was Happy Day!

 For Breakfast we had Happy Face Yogurt.

 We made Silly Happy Faces!

We went to the Bass Pro Shop Park (My kid's favorite). 

 These two stood there watching the dog for about 10 minutes straight.

 Lincoln's favorite activity at the park is chasing the birds, ducks, geese, and squirrels.

 Maddi loves climbing the climbing rock. She was very proud of herself. It is a lot taller than it looks in the picture. 

 Running from the geese.

To end the Day off we made Happy Face Pizzas

Back to Blogging

So more than a year later...I am back. I am so behind that I don't think I will be catching up. I am going to start fresh, now! So to all my friends and all my family that lives far away I will try to keep you updated from now on.

We are in Independence, Mo. We live in an adorable Duplex that was super hard to find, but when we did it worked out perfectly for our family. It is the cutest home. I will post pictures of it on a later post because it is taking a long time for them to upload onto my computer.

The kiddies are doing great! I took Lincoln and Maddi for their checkups and both of them are in the 98 percentile on height. Looks like they are going to be tall like their daddy. Compared to what Jason's mom has told me he was like a toddler, I think Lincoln is falling right into Daddy's footsteps. He is a happy boy, so go-lucky, until he doesn't get his way and then the monster is unleashed. It cracks me up that such a sweet kid can switch moods so quickly. That said, he is my most cuddly, lovey kid. He loves to read books and suggle a lot. He is such a chubby guy and I love to cuddle his squishy little body. Oh boys are so much fun!

Maddi is growing so fast. She has been my special helper. She loves to clean the house, make breakfast, set the table and "babysit." She loves making friends. She loves to learn. She is learning to read and write, but mostly she loves science. Looks like she is falling into Papa's footsteps. We are still working on getting her some great friends. She misses her friends and family in Idaho so much. Things are getting better for her, though.

Abbi just makes me laugh all the time. She is 2, so she definitely is my little drama queen, but she also is so lovey-dovey. She loves princesses and pink some of the times. The other times she loves green and balls. She has so much energy. She runs everywhere. People at church are always amazed that she has so much energy. She was definitely supposed to be the middle child. She and Maddi are best friends, but then, her and Lincoln are best friends too. She loves boy things and she loves girl things. One day I told Jason that Lincoln needed a brother and he replied, "He doesn't need a brother, he has Abbi."

Jason and I are doing great! Jason is so busy and such a hard worker. He is teaching summer school, working on his Master's degree and is busy working in the bishopric in our ward (a leadership calling in our church). He has been great at making sure we have quality family time every week. I am cleaning house for a friend once a week and that has been so fun for me.  I am having more fun than ever being a stay at home mom. As my kids grow I enjoy it even more. My kids love animals, so we have been studying animals all over the country. Abbi was obsessed with honey badgers for a time. She kept asking if she could have one for a pet. We had to drill into her head that honey badgers are dangerous and we don't have them as pets. She was disapointed, but gets the point now.

We have a big ground hog in our backyard. The kids love looking from the window and watching him.We are blessed to live close to lots of wildlife and the big city. We definitely have had fun being in Missouri. The coolest part about our location is that we live right next to a cemetary that has a lot of history. There are a lot of Civil War Confederates buried there. I can't wait to continue exploring there. That is going to be our next date night.

We love being here, but oh do I miss Idaho. I miss the small town life and the mountains, but most of all I miss our family and friends. We love you, all!

Enjoy some pics:

Pool Party in the Tub

One morning Maddi surprised us with setting the table and making everyone breakfast.

This is what she made us for breakfast.

If my kids got their way they would have Princess Tea Parties every day. Here is one we had last month:

My happy, silly boy!

The girls were using these stacking cups as their roller skates.

Maddilyn's Birthday

Maddilyn's Birthday is on Christmas. She was so excited to celebrate her birthday with Jesus. She also was very excited to think Santa would bring her gifts for her birthday. We ended up throwing her a special party after the holidays were over. She had the best day ever! She started out the day with spending time with Aunt Mandy and the boys. They went to Carl's Jr and played on the toys. Then they came back to the house where we had a princess party with all of her cousins. And to end off the day, her best friend Amber came and visited. It was a special, fun day!

 Helping mommy get the party ready!

 Birthday Girl

Loving her presents.

The boys were more excited about Laloopsy than Maddi was:)

Pin the rose on Belle game! 

Birthday Cake Time

Poor Maddi burst into tears when her cousins said they needed to giver her 3 birthday spankings. She obviously had no idea what that meant. She was heart-broken that on her birthday she was getting in trouble. We quickly told her that she was being a good girl and Aunt Stacy saved the day by saying we would give her birthday kisses instead of spankings.