Avery's Braces!!

Avery is so excited for this day to actually be here!  Its time to get her braces!

As excited as she is for them to finally be on... I know she's 10 times excited for them to be off again!  hahaha!  But with straight teeth!  She's gorgeous no matter what! :)

The girls were also at Dr. Jeff's office for fillings... aren't they adorable!  We love and appreciate Dr. Jeff and all he does for these kiddos!  His office is now in Owasso but it's worth the drive to see him!

First Day of School 2013-14

 Summer is over and its time for school!  Avery is starting 7th grade at Madison Middle School.  She is playing competitive soccer and also doing Bartlesville Cross Country.  She has mixed feelings about this year because we just found out her best friend at school, Kenzy, is moving but I know she will still do great and have lots of friends.  Her favorite class will definitely be Office Aid!  She loves Lisa Johnson!

 Austin is now "big man on campus" at Ranch Heights Elementary.  He's in 5th grade and has Mrs. Hough for a teacher!  We love Mrs. Hough and know she will really help him grow this year.  He has a lot of friends in his class so he's super pumped for.  I can't believe this is his last year in Elementary!!

 Addison is now in 2nd grade was got the teacher she wanted, Mrs. Roseborough!  Austin also had her for 2nd grade and we love her!  Most of the kids that she is used to having in her class are not with her this year but its a great opportunity for her to get to know some of the other good kids.  I know she's going to love this school year.

 Ashton is now in Kindergarten!  She has Mrs. Mims as her teacher.  Austin had Mrs. Mims as a first grade teacher but I think she will be great as a Kindergarten teacher.  Her husband comes up and helps a lot with her class and I love it.  It's good to have a man around for some of these little kids and he helps the kids stay focused and on task.  

One last picture of my Ranch Height's Wranglers.  This will actually be the last year that Austin will be at school with the girls for a long time!  They just changed our schools to where High School will be 9th-12th so Addie will have one last opportunity to be at the same school with Austin when he's a senior but Ashton won't ever be at school with him again after this year.  Life happens so fast!

Addie's 7th Birthday!!

It's our Addie John's birthday!!  I'm so grateful for this cute little spunky girl!  She shows her passion in everything she does!  I can't believe she's turning 7!

 Addie chose a breakfast at a little downtown diner that Randy likes to go to, Weeze's Cafe!  Some good hometown cooking for breakfast!

Some Chili's for lunch!

 Addie's favorite gift this year was her very first American Girl doll!  I don't think she has ever smiled so big!

 For Addie's 7th birthday we had a little sleepover party with some friends.  They stayed up late, Avery did their hair and make-up and they watched Teen Beach Movie which was new on DVD at this time.

 Our birthday girl in her new pajamas and freshly done make-up courtesy of Avery!  Hope you had a wonderful birthday Addie and always know how special you are and how much we love and adore you!

Summer trip to Kansas City

We love Kansas City!  There's so much to do up there but it still feels like a relatively small, clean, pleasant place to be!

Randy's siblings bought Ed tickets to the Royals vs Braves game for Father's Day so we decided to tag along on this excursion.  First and foremost, we've got to check out the swimming pool at the hotel!  Top priority!

This was the first time the Braves have ever been to the Royals stadium, and we weren't going to pass up an opportunity to catch the Atlanta Braves play so close to home!

The boys and Shirley went to both games.  I would have loved to but I knew it wasn't worth the tickets to take the younger girls both nights so I took the girls the second night out to dinner and a movie.  Monsters University... it was super cute!

But this night was awesome!  Austin was so excited!  It was also t-shirt night which could have been very cool except all the shirts were XL.  Oh well, they work out great as nightgowns!

I don't think the Royals were used to having so many of the opposing team fans around!  We had Braves fans all around us and lots of tomahawk chops!  Braves are a team that has fans all over the country! 

Our girls... sassy and sweet!! :)

 Just kidding!!!  Look at that smile!  She had fun too!

 The next day we went over to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead.  My sister Sara used to live in Lawrence and had taken us here once before but it was just me and the older kids.  Addie was a baby and didn't remember it.  Randy and Ashton had never been so I was excited to show them around!

They have a cute little school house where they told us how school used to be in the old days. 

 There was also a mining area!  Anything with explosives puts a smile on Austin's face!

 The kids got to sift through dirt and find gems... very exciting!

 They have the cutest little dairy farm too!

 The kids all got a chance to milk a "cow".

 And they also got to pet some animals.

 We were super excited to go inside this little replica of an Indians house.  We thought it looked more like the Hobbits house.  It was nice and cool inside there on such a hot summer day!

But I think what the kids remember most is feeding the baby goats!

 If they saw you with a bottle, they would practically attack you!!  It was so cute!

 You would think they never ate!  But believe me, there were plenty of milk bottles going around!

 One of the last things we did was go fishing.  I let Randy put the worms on the line!  You could fish and you could also feed the fish.

 We had such a fun time!  I would highly recommend this place to everyone!  It's either free or super cheap to get in and then the little activities are super cheap as well!

And sometimes you are even lucky enough to catch a fish!  Austin was our only one who caught a fish this time!  Great job buddy!

Fourth of July '13

Happy Fourth of July!!!  Look at this great chalk art my brother and sister-in-law created with Addie and Ashton!  We were so happy that Jordan and Jen could come home for this holiday!  They are living clear over in North Carolina now and we miss them so much!  

We did a lot of fun things while they were in town.  One of the things we enjoyed doing was playing tennis.  Look at this gorgeous group!  We try to make it look like we know what we are doing!

This was my tennis partner today!  

Look at that form! 

We also returned to Jen and Jordan's old stopping ground... Independence, KS.

We love the water park up there!  

Sora wasn't feeling good so Sara stayed home with her and we brought Mika with us.

We loved riding around in the lazy river, racing down the slides, jumping off the diving boards, and hopping across the lilly pads!

The kids did this over and over again.  Well, the kids AND Jordan and Jen!

The goal was to not use your hands!  Hippity, 

hippity,

hop!!

I was there mainly to sit back and relax!!  After the water park we drove by Jordan and Jen's old house and then stopped at Braums for some lunch before heading home.

The Fourth of July was a lot of fun!  This year the Vaclaw's decided not to hold a firework show, so Randy and I, along with the Hansen's, held a neighborhood party.

 This has now become a staple at every Fourth of July party!  I waited too long and ended up with raspberries instead of strawberries, but it was still super delicious!

We sat up the food tables in the garage and just enjoyed each others company!  Love my sisters!!  And mine and Jen's outfits were not planned!  Great minds think alike.     

 Avery and Mika had fun taking care of all the little kids.

Here's Ashton with some of her and Addie's friends.  We love our neighborhood and all the kids that live around here!  This is Laynie Hansen and Adelade Vysotsky.

 Lots of games going on, especially corn hole!

 But of course the real show was the fireworks!  I think this is Austin's favorite holiday!  He couldn't wait for it to get dark!

 Spectators!!  I like to watch... I'm not big on lighting the fireworks myself.  I think my mom agrees!

 Addie with her Uncle Jordan... and a few photo bombers!  Hahaha!  Like mother, like daughter!

 Addie and Sora with some mega sparklers!

 Love this picture of Austin with the fireworks in the background.  That isn't a fake smile!  Fire makes this boy happy!!

  Even though it was more of a low-key Fourth of July, we loved being around our family and friends!

 We topped off the night with some flying lanterns.  They were beautiful flying through the night sky.  Happy Fourth of July, everyone!  I'm so grateful to live in this wonderful country and for the freedoms I have been blessed with and for those who have helped fight to keep those freedoms.  I pray that God will always be able to help us keep these freedoms.