burley

we had a quick one night trip to burley last week.  i love going home during the summer.  my dad always cooks us dinner over the fire and almost always has a firework or two to set off for us.  he did both while we visited this last time(:

my dad and 'toodles' getting the fire started for dinner.

i about had a heart attack when these two hopped on the motorcycle together.  

riggins had everyone running!

while we were outside that evening a HUGE storm hit, it was fast and furious.  it was one of the coolest lightening storms i've ever witnessed.  lighting was striking from every corner of the sky and the sunset was amazing.  we stayed outside as long as could to watch the storm and then the rain came down super hard.  

i love summer storms.

my dad decided to take us on a 'quick' hike.  we started out thinking it was only going to be a couple miles.  we ended up hiking six and didn't even make it to the lake we were trying to hike to.  rhett had to get back to mutual and we ran out of time.  i have to say our kids were awesome troopers.  my girls were in dresses and awful shoes.  not to mention there was still quite a bit of snow in some places.  it ended up being a really fun day and lots of great memories were made.

tacey and her pinecones.

 bry got pretty tired.  between uncle jaxyn and rhett taking turns giving her a piggyback my dad was pulling her up the hill with that stick.  it seemed to actually help quite a bit!

rhett carried at least one child the entire hike.   

 hard to tell here but rhett has bry and riggs on his shoulders!

uncle jaxyn was such a huge help all day! when did this little brother of mine grow up?

love these trips home!

sunday stroll

a couple sundays ago after church we decided to hop in the car and head to cress creek just to get out of the house.  it was our first official hike of the summer, the weather was perfect.

we took my camera along for the mini-hike and captured some pretty cute moments with the kids.

bry making a wish

 riggs decided to throw a little tantrum and went running down the hill, slipped, and fell on the back of his head on the gravel.  it was a pretty hard fall and super sad.  it definitely left a mark.

rhett is the pro at finding a rock to balance the camera on for our little family photos.  too bad we all look completely homeless.  haha.

on our way back down the hill the kids wanted to stop and play in the creek.  pretty much right away bry fell in.  haha.  

 this is the look rhett gave me when i asked him if i was a bad mom for laughing and taking a picture instead of helping her out of the creek.  

 the girls jumped over the creek for a good 15 minutes.  

i love days like this.  i feel like these are the days my kids are going to really remember.  sweet, sweet memories.

our happy place

 for some reason i woke up feeling super unmotivated and just tired and fatigued.  i planned to do nothing at all today.  and then my night in shining armor showed up at home and encouraged me to get my booty to the gym.  a couple hours later i was a new woman!  i came home in a much better mood and a lot more energy.  

with my new energy the girlies and i went to work on our backyard.  we pulled and pulled at some nasty weeks for a good two hours.  and it was HOT out.  i really wish i had taken before and after photos because wow, huge difference!!

as soon as the kids were finished helping me their suits were on and they were out in the front yard playing.

this is what summer is about!! i love it!!

if you see a hose in riggs hands, RUN! he has no shame in spraying you.  

i have a few empty spots (okay A LOT of empty spots) in my yard.  i decided i'm going to let each of the kids pick a perennial to plant!  yesterday bry chose these pretty purple flowers and today we planted them.  

somehow a picture by the new flowers turned into this.

this has to be my favorite picture of the day.  bry doing cartwheels and riggs drinking from the hose.  looks about right.

and we can't forget about the american girl doll.  

pretty sure she is the only one who didn't get sunburned today.

this is the good life.  

spending my days with my kids out in the sunshine.

adios third grade

i hate that my kids are growing up so fast and i am always begging time to slow down.  but i would be lying if i said i wasn't super happy third grade is over with.  i feel like from start to finish with this school year has just been hard for tacey.  luckily i'm pretty sure it has affected me more than her.  tacey really hasn't been this poor picked on little girl or anything, it just has been a lot more dramatic than previous years. and also, a lot more issues where i feel like i have had to try super hard to protect her innocence as a 8 year old. 

 i already have a great feeling about fourth grade.  the girls that have been giving everyone a hard time are not in her class this next year, which i have actually been praying for! and we just found out that tacey and her best friend are in the same class next year.  our paper for teachers next year say she will be having the new hired teacher.  now i just need to hope and pray that this new teacher is awesome.  i swear i never used to care this much about what teachers my kids got.  but after having my kids in elementary school for a few years i've learned that a teacher can really make or break a kid.  tacey has had teachers that have made her feel like a million bucks, like she is just the best student in the whole world.  and guess what, tacey would grow leaps and bounds with those teachers.  she has also had the opposite happen.  so, that is why i stress about the dang teacher thing.  i am thinking i just need to take a chill pill and not worry about it so much because honestly, there is not a whole lot i can do about it right now! 

here are a couple of pictures of tacey on the last day of school on thursday.  even though i was so relieved to have this year over with, tacey was actually sad it was the last day.  i love this cute girl of mine.  i need to be more like her(:

adios third grade!!

SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER!!

missoula

very last minute we decided to go visit dusty and annie in montana for memorial weekend!  it was a fun, quick weekend.  they live in probably the dreamiest place ever.  it's gorgeous there.

literally the minute we got there riggins started acting weird and grumpy and we couldn't figure out what his deal was.  i finally figured out the poor boy had a super high fever.  i panicked thinking he was sick again and was so nervous i had just brought some nasty bug to all the cousins.  turns out riggs is just cutting a crazy sized molar! poor kid is so fever prone and anytime anything is kind of off with his body he gets a fever.  makes me so sad overtime.  luckily i got some tylenol in him and he was good as new.  

riggie skipped church while everyone else went.  

we hadn't gotten any tylenol yet but luckily dad returned with some after church.

sunday after church we went for a walk down to the cutest creek.  the woods is literally their backyard.  the kids were in heaven.

 rhett took a turn swinging all the kids.  this is not a rope, it's an actual tree branch!

dusty and zoe 

 cousin huddle

i'm not even sure what they are looking at or talking about but this was so cute.

 and then rhett scared them to death. 

 my little tazer belongs in the woods.  

 rhett had all the kids on there except for baby zoe, hollis is just behind rhett.   pretty sure they all had some sort of whiplash by the end of that ride. 

we made some pretty great memories this last weekend.  i'm so happy we went.

bry graduates...kindergarten

today was brylee's last day of school and also the day of her kindergarten graduation!

i cannot even tell you how excited i am for summer!! but just thinking about this girl starting 1st grade next year puts a great big pit in my stomach. i've complained all year about brylee being in afternoon kindergarten, but to be honest i have completely loved having her home in the mornings.  i am just going to soak up every second i can with my 3 littles this summer before i have to hand them off to their teachers next fall.

i snapped a few pictures of bry this morning before she hopped on the bus.  i got quite a few humorous poses from this girl, i'm only posting a handful.

this is the face she gave me when i asked her how she felt about it being her last day of kindergarten. 

 i had to snap a picture of bry and one of her best friends hopping on the bus together one last time.  only the kindergarten bus comes to your house.  tacey's bus stop is clear at the front of the subdivision.  i have LOVED having the bus stop right in front of our house.  

 this is bry and her awesome teacher mrs lupton.  she really has been an amazing teacher.  i feel like she has really brought out the best in brylee and really helped bry grow.

 bry with a picture of her and some of her friends that were in her class.  

normally we have to wait until fall to see what teacher the kids get.  but they handed out a paper saying who their next years teachers were going to be.  i am super excited because brylee got the teachers that i have heard everyone rave about.  sad news is that she isn't in the same class with any of her friends.  hopefully she makes some great new friends next year and is able to stay in touch with all these cute girls too.

 all the pictures of the three of us turned out super blurry.  oh well. 

i am so grateful with how brylee's kindergarten year turned out.  it was way less stressful than my last experience i had with tacey when she was in kindergarten.  i really think a teacher can make or break a year for a child.  brylee is reading and excelling in spanish.  i know she had to work harder than some kids but she puts forth the effort and then makes herself succeed.  my heart melted when i read brylee's report card and her teacher said, "brylee, if you continue to work as hard as you did in kindergarten you'll be able to accomplish great things in your life."  hopefully as a mom i can help brylee to continue to do that throughout her life.  i am so proud of her! 

now....

BRING ON SUMMER!!!

life of a 2 year old

i forgot how much fun having a two year old was.  don't get wrong, we are definitely dealing with tantrums and all that.  but wow, it is seriously so much fun watching this little one grow into himself. i really want to just soak every moment in with him at this age.  i feel like i was too stressed out with being pregnant when tacey was this age and then when brylee was this age i was super stressed with having two crazy girls running around.  it's a hard lesson to learn....time flies by way too fast!! 

i just got a new computer and don't have many pictures downloaded on this one.  but i still wanted to document a normal day with my boy.  

sippy and a stool

he hauls that stool around or pushes a chair around the house so he can climb up onto things.

i went in to check on him during his nap the other day and he fell asleep with his hands behind his head and his feet propped up.  it was adorable.

hard at work coloring. 

i found him in the kitchen sink with the faucet running all over him.  (he used the chair to get up on the counter!) he's a little turkey.  

 every morning i sit and watch him eat.  sounds weird, but he is seriously the cutest eater ever!! also, that red mark on his head for once isn't a bruise! that's lipstick from mama kissing him.

basically this boy is living the good life.  just hand him his sippy and blanky and he is a happy boy!

i am so happy i get to spend my days at home with my littles.  they make my world go round, that's for sure.