All Tuckered Out

 Kari is in that in-between stage where she's transitioning from needing a nap to not needing one.  The days that she takes a nap, it takes her a while to fall asleep at night.  The days that she doesn't take a nap, well, sometimes this happens around 4:00 in the afternoon.

 And this....

And this.  Summer days just wear her out sometimes!  

Oh, to be three yrs old again!

Fun-Filled Fourth!

Oh my goodness, where has July gone?  I can't believe I have yet to post on our Fourth of July!  Well, it was a great day!  Probably the coolest 4th we've ever had temperature-wise (which translates into warm enough to swim, but with no humidity, it was cool enough to enjoy being outside for some fun times with our friends and neighbors!

Emily even let me do her hair all patriotic!

The day started out with Cubby and the kiddos riding bikes.  Sorry for the bad pictures, they were off of my phone.  

After lunch we went over to swim at my friend's Andrea's mother's home for some swimming.

Can you spot Christian??

 Kari had so much fun, she fell asleep a midst a HUGE "tank war" of fireworks and smoke bombs.  We set her up on a big floaty in the shade :-).

And then came our fun evening!  This year, my sweet friend, Mandi, offered to play hostess that evening.  What a blessing it was NOT to have to prepare everything and just bring a side to share!

The kids all spread out picnic-style for their dinner...

Juliana climbed into a chair to chill out....

And the grown ups got to sit back and relax!

Juliana kept us busy though--riding the Wonder Horse (I had one of these when I was little!)

And then she moved on to the swings with her friend, Ben :-).

After dinner, we moved on to fireworks (mostly sparklers and smoke bombs for the kids...the grown ups helped with a few other noise makers :-)).

Campbell and Kari--such angelic faces for two sweet girls!  (Notice the piles of snap-its at their feet.  These girls went through 10 boxes of snaps all.by.themselves.)

Here are my good friends and neighbors--Stephanie, Bridget, and Mandi.  What would I do without them?!

Here's Christian with the parachute he retrieved!

Check out the looks on these girls' faces!  There was a big "BOOM!" and I caught their reaction!

And here are Emily and Ella and their sparklers!

 Happy Fourth of July...at last!

The Good Life

Last week we had absolutely gorgeous weather.  I'm talking about the kind of days that you just hate to see end because it's just so beautiful!  Now, I realize that many of my posts talk about the weather.  But, when your life pretty much revolves around your children and their activities, the great outdoors largely determines what you can do and how happy everyone is.  My children are happiest outdoors so when the weather is good, life is good!  And, last week, life was sooooo good.  Playing in our tee-pee that Gma Karen made was a big hit.
 Ah, this girl makes me so happy....she's getting so big!

 The big kids got out the "Bendaroos" at some point last week too and they ended up making Kari some pretty fancy jewelry.  Complete with a pink tiara, earrings, necklace, and bracelet!  It makes me so happy that my children are friends with one another.  Well, on most days they are!  One of the good things about having siblings is that there's always someone to play with!

This picture also makes me smile.  Some nights, story time mirrors the song, "Love at Home."  Other nights, it resembles the song, "Master the Tempest is Raging."  This night was the first and we all do love the story about Jillian Jiggs and her messy room. (It's an book that my mom read to us--I highly recommend finding it out and reading it to your children.)  So, I had to document!

Our summer is flying by...some days we swim.  Other days we play with friends.  Some days are filled with both.  Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!  I'm exhausted by the end of each day, so I assume our kids are too.  Here's to the good life!

Fun Timers with Gma and Gpa Lindseth

Grandma and Grandpa Lindseth came for the wedding and we were so excited to have them visit!!  Life is always good when they come and play and the kids can't get enough Gma and Gpa time!  This time, we were busy partying it up wedding-style, but we still managed to squeeze in some time at a few of our usual haunts (Orange Leaf, Ralston Park, Summer Kitchen, Cabela's).  More pictures were taken of said places, but they're on my phone or posted on facebook.

In any case, Cubby's parents are such sweet house-guests.  Having raised 8 kids, they are very accustomed to chaos and so the noise and messes that come with small children don't phase them in the least.  They tell the kids to come wake them up in the morning and let Mom and Dad sleep-in a bit (I'll admit this is one of my favorite things about their visits!).  They take the kids out either for one-on-one walks or fun group trips to Target.  Even reading scriptures on the iphone is a super-special thing that the kids look forward to!  The house is always a more happenin' place when Gma and Gpa come for a visit :-).