July 21

Addie is such a spoiled baby. Today she begged me for some chocolate chips and I relented and gave her some. Then I had to chase her to wipe her face off. This is the look she gave me when I caught up to her. Love this girl!

July 20

We just can't seem to get enough berries this summer. I am constantly buying berries and making them into yummy desserts and just eating them plain. Yum! One of the best parts of summer!

July 19

Tonight Addie came down wearing one of my winter boots. She cracks me up with her love of my shoes. She was struggling to get down the stairs with them on and I was just happy that she didn't stumble down the stairs and get hurt.

July 18

The girls love to snuggle together on the couch in the morning while they are waking up in the morning. I love that they love each other so much!

July 17

We finally got around to getting a new (to us) piano this week. We got rid of our HUGE upright when we moved to this new house. We were just so tired of moving it around that we gave it away to some friends in our ward. We debated about investing in our "dream" piano but decided to get something small and portable until we are permanently settled somewhere. We ended up with an electronic piano that we got for a serious steal off of Craigslist. It fits our needs perfectly right now.

July 16

Tonight we took the kids to the Zoo Music concert at the zoo. It was a warm night but we had a fun time together. We had dinner on the lawn and then visited a few animals before settling in for the concert. The performers were a Celtic band that played beautiful, mellow music. This will definitely be summer tradition for our family!

July 15

Addie is doing this funny thing lately of crossing her arms and doing a grumpy face when she is mad. I actually got a picture of it but then started laughing so she laughed too. This pic was so much more cute that I wanted it to be the POTD.

July 14

Tonight Carter lost another tooth. He wrote a not to the tooth fairy and asked for Japanese money. Unfortunately, the tooth fairy could not deliver on such short notice but left a note that she would try to accommodate with the next tooth. With the new teeth coming in, he just looks more grown up every day.

July 13

I'm honestly not a big fan of TV in the morning in the summer but every once in awhile if the kids get up really early I'll let them turn on the Disney channel. Today was one of those mornings and it was a huge treat for them. They were pretty engrossed - as you can tell from the picture.

July 12

Tonight the kids begged Allen to take them on a run. It was HOT but he obliged. They went about 3/4 mile before they were sweaty, hot and ready to head home.

July 11

I dress the girls matchy-matchy a lot of the time and LOVE it but I hardly remember to take pictures of them together. Allen says I will regret not getting pics of them in their cuteness since it won't last forever so I have been trying to be better about taking pics of them. I love having little girlies to dress up together!

July 10

Carter has been working on this Lego village all summer. He plots and plans his creations and fills in the gaps with the village "needs." I love seeing his creativity expressed - even if it makes his room a disaster.

July 9

Today at the park the kids were playing on a friends skateboard. The three of them piled on and were trying to ride around in a circle. Carter is VERY into making the peace sign in pictures these days and the girls like to do anything he does - hence the peace signs.

July 8

Makenna begged and begged to make something out of her princess cookbook today. Allen took her to the store to get the ingredients to make white chocolate fondue and then made it with her. We were skeptical that it would be good but we all actually really liked it and she was one happy little girl!

July 7

This picture just goes to show that my standard of a clean room and my kids is different. I asked Makenna to pick up her room today and when I went to check her work I found that she had taken everything from the floor and piled it on top of her dresser. It's hard to tell here but it was a big mess - doll clothes, jewelry, craft supplies, books, her allowance, misc. toys etc. It just makes me laugh.

July 6

I truly feel like I married the best man in the world. Tonight I was feeling sick again so Allen took it upon himself to fold all 7 loads of clean laundry for me. What a great guy and blessing in my life!

July 5

We've loved having such a long weekend together. Tonight we hosted a BBQ with some of our friends and had a great time. Tons of yummy food, great friends and a big fireworks show when it got dark. This was our "grand finale" for the night.

July 4

The kids were all decked out in their patriotic clothes for church today. We had a pretty low key day and celebrated with some friends this evening and then went to watch the fireworks at Allen's office.

July 3

This morning we attended the Rio Rancho 4th of July parade. It was a small parade but we had a great time and the kids especially LOVED gathering all the candy that was given out. We especially loved the military that was represented in the parade which served at as a great reminder of what the holiday is all about.

July 2

This morning the girls found a tiny white frog at swimteam. I think the poor thing was so scared even though they didn't touch it. They did follow it around for the entire hour we were at swimteam and then I finally made them leave it alone. They really wanted to bring it home with us - which is obviously where I draw the line.

July 1

Carter and his friend Caleb decided to start a Lego club. This is the sign he made for his door for the club. He's spent a surprising amount of time planning the details of the club and even gathering prizes to give out to his friends. Super funny.

June 30

In my quest to eat healthier and cut out processed foods from our diet, I've been doing all my baking from scratch. I've been on a quest to find an amazing blueberry muffin recipe. I finally found it today! This were DELICIOUS and very moist. The healthy part is debatable as they had a cup of oil and a cup of sour cream in them. Oh well!

June 29

Allen was SUPER happy when he found Queen's greatest hits CD on sale at Target last night. What a dork! He loaded it into his iPod and has been listening to it all day and indoctrinating our kiddos with all the hits.

June 28

This morning Addie and Carter were having so much fun playing in this box together. Carter was dragging her around and playing train with her and she was loving it. He is a great big brother to his sisters.

June 27

I wasn't feeling too hot this afternoon and ended up on the couch watching a movie on my laptop (love that Netflix streaming!). Addie joined me for part of the movie. She is still my little snuggler and I love it.

June 26

Carter had a playdate today with is friend Noah. They both love Legos and hole themselves up in his room for hours at a time. This is what his room looked like after the end of the playdate. He had a ball but wasn't too happy when I made him clean it all up.

June 25

Hallelujah! Daddy is home from his backpacking trip. We are all SO happy to have him home. They weren't supposed to be home until late tonight or early tomorrow morning but

they rolled in at about 3:00 p.m. and we were all so happy. This is Allen's facial hair growth over the past 5 days. He was hot, tired, stinky and DIRTY after his time at Havasupai but he had a great time.

June 24

Today we went with the Larsen and Worthen kids to Galloping Graces for horseback riding. It was a GREAT experience and the kids had a ball. I especially love that the kids were given the opportunity to do service in exchange for their riding. They loved their job of picking up horse poop just about as much as they loved riding the horses. The kids were super well adept at riding the horses alone and even little Addie loved her time on the horse.