Visitors! - Part 1

On July 3rd Aunt Karen flew in to town! We were so excited to see her!!!

She is always so much fun and is up for anything...like monkey in the middle. :)

Noni let the girls make and frost star shaped sugar cookies for the 4th of July the next day.

And on the 4th we headed to the airport to welcome Aunt Jody and Auntie Eve! Auntie Eve hadn't been here since our wedding...15 years ago!

We spent the day visiting, playing games, and watching the girls. :)

The girls and Noni had so much fun setting up a "fair".

Abbie was guarding the snack table. :)

 

Fair goers first had to get their tickets so they could play games.

 

One of their games was "Dino Pop" because they got some little plastic dinosaurs that shoot balls out their mouths when you squeeze them.

Ring toss.

 

Mama was a whiz at Dino Pop! 

 

Auntie Eve is so much fun! 

 

This one was shoot the ping pong balls off the golf tees with a water gun.

 

Peaches is constantly stealing my phone and either playing games or taking pictures. :P

Here she flipped it around and gasped, "It's my face!" Kind of. Haha.

Lou had a very colorful and patriotic dinner. :)

Daddy, Grandma, and Grandpa were supposed to join us for the fair and BBQ, but they got held up working on the house so Lou and I brought them a plate later. 

Oh...this is random but Noni and Papa have wild rabbits all over their place. They are so cute and fun to watch. :)

 

Lou and I headed home early so I could get her to bed and the rest of the girls spent the night and did some smoke bombs and sparklers that we'd got from a firework stand on the way. 

What a fun 4th spent with these beautiful ladies (and poor outnumbered Papa, haha)! We only wish we could see them all the time!!!

Laughing

Farmhouse Update!

After the footings were poured it took us a couple of weeks to build the forms for the walls. It's slow going when you can only work an hour or two a night, Saturdays, and half of Sundays.

One night when it was almost done we put the girls to work setting clips.

They did an awesome job and between all of us we had the whole thing done in an hour.

Even Peaches was able to help by setting the clips out where they would be needed.

Even if we are only out there for twenty minutes she gets SO dirty. :P

I said, "What's on your face?" Her: "Huh?" So I flipped my screen around so she could see herself.

Silly girl.

We are very proud of the girls' hard work! They are learning so much!

Buggy helped outside for almost the whole time and then went and got Lou when she woke up. 

 One day I was needed to run the transit and Bug took care of Lou for a full two hours...which feels like a looong time when she gets fussy.

On my birthday we poured the walls!

Grandpa came to help, and we got one of the guys from church. The girls and I helped a little, but they had it under control.

 

Peanut was in charge of taking pictures. :) 

Boo worked with them the whole time. Bug got taken out pretty quickly from getting a splash of concrete in her eye. Not sure how that happened with her glasses on, but then she rubbed it causing quite the irritation.

Selfie. :)

The little ones watched from inside.

The girls were impressed that one of the truck drivers was a girl. She was really good too! She handled that truck and it's equipment like a pro.

Boo spent a long time cleaning out this extension chute that we borrowed.

 

T took a time out to take us all out to dinner for my birthday! He even arranged for Mama and Noni to meet us there! I think my primary love languages are quality time and acts of service because this meant more to me than any present! He and the girls did get me presents too though...a book I'd been wanting and a new Ninja blender since I accidentally dropped and broke mine.

  

It was a nice birthday! Although I ended it scrubbing blue paint out of the carpet after Peaches found some craft supplies. :(  Toddler 4, Carpet 0. She's going to get out of this phase one of these day right?!?

Our anniversary was the next night, and we thought about going out to dinner but after a crazy couple of weeks we decided we just wanted to stay home. We had grilled cheese and tomato soup. Lol.

Then we spent an hour starting to tear off forms.

Definitely not the tropical vacation we'd promised ourselves we would take for our 15th anniversary. :P

But this view is better than any ocean/beach/palm tree anyway!

Maybe we'll be done with the house by our 20th. Haha.

Leftover Thursday

Peaches learning how to pet the dog nicely. :) 

Yes she is.

:)

Our friends from Mexico were visiting and got to come over for dinner one night. :)

 

Noni and I at our Mother's Day present Wildtree party. :)

While we were gone Buggy made dinner for everyone...homemade hamburgers AND buns! And they were SO good! I was super impressed! She said, "Mommy I cooked and cooked all day and then we ate it so fast!" Yep. That's how it goes baby girl. Haha. 

We've been trying to eat more fruits and veggies around here. I was very happy with the results of my efforts one day for me and the three little ones. 

Peaches is in that very difficult ready-to-give-up-the-nap stage. She easily takes a nap...2+ hours but then she's up till 10pm, or if we skip her nap every little thing causes a meltdown from about 3pm till bedtime but she goes to sleep right away. It's my least favorite phase. :( I had to take a picture of her sleeping so sweetly the other day...not too many of these days left. 

Some days I just have to put her down for a long nap because I need a break from the hurricane. Haha. This night she decided to decorate her face in the bathroom while she was supposed to be brushing her teeth. :P 

Never a dull moment. :P