Hillary's Wedding

 My sweet cousin, Hillary, got married this past weekend and it was quite a family affair! Ethan, Jack and Claire were all three in the wedding, and my dad performed the ceremony. I think the rest of us provided lots of entertainment for the wedding party and guests...

 We were a little nervous about how the 3 kids would make it down the aisle because at the rehearsal there was a lot of hesitation. However, come wedding day, they were rock stars and looked like pros.

Ethan was very excited to wear a tux - to say the least. I saw these "GQ" poses multiple times through out the day. I can't imagine where he gets them...

Owen was a little disappointed he didn't get to be a ring bearer too, but Aunt Keela and Hillary still got him a wedding party gift (construction trucks), so all was well with the world. He was most excited about the "dance party", and I have never seen that kid so uninhibited. He was the first and only person on the dance floor for awhile and it did not phase him. He did, however, form a little crush on my cousin Katelyn, and he really wanted to dance with her but never could work up the nerve to ask her. So he stared at her the entire time he was dancing. It was hilarious. 

Harper was only concerned in getting her hands on a cupcake and some champagne. (seriously) She did have fun dancing with Papi, and eating ice out of Mimi's cup. 

It was a beautiful wedding, and we couldn't be happier for Adam and Hillary as they start their life together!

Paw Paw's

It was Paw Paw's birthday this week as well as Father's Day, so we headed South to celebrate with him. Harper has been so obsessed with farm animals, it was time to show her the real deal. It was cute watching her soak up all the animals that she'd really only seen in books. Paw Paw managed to get us really close to a large (but gentle!) bull that let all the kids pet it. She was hesitant at first, but it was cute hearing her "mooing" sounds once she was back in the truck.

Of course Owen was happy as can be as he helped collect eggs and even do some brush hogging on the tractor. Ethan was in his element when they went down to the creek to swim. (I didn't get pictures b/c Harper and I opted to stay at the house.)

And of course no trip to Paw Paw's is complete without playing at the pool table. 

Happy birthday AND Father's Day, Paw Paw!

Oh Summer, where are you going??

 I'm starting to panic as I realize that June is winding down. July is already looking busy, and next thing we know...it's going to be August. August is when my flexible, easy-going life ends. Okay, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but Ethan will be starting school for the first time and this marks the beginning of our family's life being divided up into semesters!! Noooooooo! I am excited for him and for this new stage of life, but it certainly has been nice to not HAVE to be anywhere most days. I'll probably be in mourning the rest of this summer, so be prepared.

  At the beginning of May we added on to our back porch. Owen was in HEAVEN as we had backhos, dump trucks and cement mixers in yard for 3 days. I opened a window for him to look out of, and he talked to the workers as they worked. Of course he had to wear his boots, hard hat and utility belt the entire time.

Once the back porch was completed, we had an impromptu party with a few friends to celebrate. Of course s'mores were the highlight.

We decided to do swim lessons with Miss Donna this year at our friend's, the Harris', pool. Not to anyones surprise, Ethan loved it and Owen hated it. Ethan has been our fish from the beginning and it hasn't changed. He learned to dive and has been enjoying diving for objects in the deep end. We showed him some video of Michael Phelps and he's decided he's going to be an Olympic swimmer now. Owen, however, would rather spend his pool time eating, watching the golfers through the fence, or maybe...just maybe getting in with his floaties on. 

And these are just because I think they're cute. 

The Splash Park

We made our first trip to the down town splash park, and it was quite the hit for all three kids. Harper loves the water (and has NO fear of it), so it was nice just letting her play and not worry about drowning! Owen was mad that we made him leave his tractor to go the splash park and refused to put a swim suit on. But once we got there he decided it wasn't too bad. And Ethan, of course, was in heaven. (he also loves being in the water) I had a hard time getting a picture of him because he was off playing the whole time. I sure love these crazy kiddos!

14 Months

 Another month has gone by, and Harper has continued to provide us with a lot of laughter. She's becoming quite the ham, and she will do anything for a laugh. She's developed this new laugh herself that I can't quite explain, but it cracks me up. She still isn't walking...she can, but she doesn't choose to. If people will cheer for her she'll walk quite a bit, go figure. Her new favorite thing is to read books ("BAK"), and she's very opinionated on which ones. She pretty obsessed with animals and the sounds they make, so I've had to find all the baby books with animals in them. She can make the sounds for about 5 different animals; the rest of them "baaa" like sheep as far as she's concerned. She still loves her baby, and she really likes to wear things on her wrists that look like bracelets.

For all her girlie-ness, this child knows how to get dirty. She has ruined more clothes than her brothers combined at this age. By the end of each day she looks like Pig Pen. I'm trying to be okay with it, and to be sure to just dress her in dark colors! (the particular picture she was mad at me because I didn't want to hold her after she played in mud.)

Harper's eating has become a small source of stress for me b/c she hardly eats anything and she's so scrawny. One night she and I got to go on a "date" while the guys went to a movie. I ordered myself a crepe and a smoothie thinking she might eat some of it. Apparently she just has more adult tastes as she ate and drank it all. I had fun watching her take such joy from it! You know you're a mom when it's more fun to watch your kid enjoy the food you ordered for yourself than to actually eat it...

And in the quest to find fattening things she'll eat, we discovered that she REALLY, REALLY, REALLY likes ranch dressing. I've never seen her devour something like that before. I keep scrambling to find different foods that can be a ranch-delivering-mechanism, but really she's quite content to just lick it off her plate. I may need to re-think this strategy....

Just because...