Fourth of July

We had such a great 4th of July this year! This is the second time we have had people over to celebrate and I think it will be a tradition that we keep for a long time! This year wasn't as hot as the past few years but storm clouds threatened to burst and thunder clapped in the distance. We were worried that they might not even have any fireworks. Thankfully the storm passed by with only a couple sprinkles and we got to have a great firework show. 

We spent the day making food and getting everything ready for the party while the girls were taking naps. At least we thought they were taking naps. Natalie was sleeping like an angel but Heidi decided to climb out of her crib, grab the bottle of baby powder, get back in her crib and then proceed to dump the whole thing out all over her and her bed! She was a mess!

Everyone started arriving around 6 and the first thing we did was eat. That is the best part of any gathering I think. :) Everyone just hung around ate their food and talked. There was a ton of food. Mostly just finger foods but Shane grilled hot dogs too.  And of course there were cupcakes and a patriotic cheese cake!

 Heidi really loved her cupcake

 Colby and Sabrina

After everyone finished eating we had our 2nd Annual Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest. Seriously, so much fun. Shane and I had never done a watermelon seed spitting contest before last year but because it was such a hit we did it again this year.

 Badra went first...he wanted to get in a practice shot before we officially started. His practice shot was way better than his official shot. :)

 Dane tried it too

 People would take their turn spitting a seed and then a couple of us would circle the seed with chalk and write their name next to it.

 The kids all wanted to try too.

 Pretty blurry but this is Shane's wind up. Last year he tied with Bub's friend Jay...this year...not so much. :)

 The winner of the spitting contest. He spit it almost all the way to the street!

 

 Badra's official turn

 Johns turn

 Sarah's turn

 All the spectators

The pink circle by the grass in the front is the winning seed. :)

After we finished that we waited for it to get dark and then went over to our neighbors backyard. They set off fireworks directly behind our house but for us they go off just behind the tops of the trees. Our neighbor is just a little higher than we our so he lets us ALL come over to his backyard to watch the fireworks. We bring our chairs and file into the yard, watch the show and then file back out. It's so much fun! A neighbor set off a firework that was really close and it scared Natalie but once I calmed her down and told her that the rest were going to be farther away and really beautiful she got excited again. Both of the girls loved watching the fireworks and didn't even mind when the neighbors set off fireworks close to the house. One cute thing though...Natalie asked if Jesus was making all the fireworks in the sky. :)

 These and the one at the top were taking with Shane's phone. Thank goodness for iphone 4 and it's camera flash! I forgot to bring my camera over to the neighbors when we went to watch the fireworks. :)

Weight Watchers

So my best friend is getting married next month and I am her maid of honor...hence the weight watchers!! Before having kids I think I dieted once in my life. I love food way too much to stop eating it. After Heidi I have never been able to get back to what I was before kids and every time I go on a diet I get massively cranky and stop. Now I'm doing weight watchers and I love it. I'm not trying to lose tons of weight...just be healthy. I feel so much better after only a couple weeks. It helps that I can still have good food. :) I had this for breakfast...

Banana Pancakes with strawberries and powdered sugar...2 points :) 

One of my new favorite dinners is this...

A crunchy corn tortilla, refried beans, grilled chicken, cheese, another tortilla, sour cream, pico, lettuce and avocado. AMAZING!! :) 10 points.

Backyard Pool

We bought the kids a little plastic pool today. It finally cooled down to about 90 degrees at 7 tonight so we let them try it out. They had so much fun! There is even a little slide built in so they can slide into the water. 

 I couldn't get them all to look at me at once.

 

 Natalie is practicing her floating. I think her booty is still touching the pool but hey...at least she's trying!! :)

 Natalie actually posed for me. I sure love my girls!!

 They wanted Violet to join them

 She didn't last very long...even with all the hugs!

 

Love the face while she's splashing...I think she's holding her breath. And seriously...check out Nokie's hair...where did she get that from?? :)

Summer Days

We have been having so many summer thunderstorms lately! Crazy wind, bolts of lightening and loud thunder. Last night Shane and I sat on the back porch and watched the storm roll in. It was so pretty. A little scary too, waiting for it unleash on us. :) I was trying to get a shot of the lightening but all I got was some lit up clouds.

 My only shot of the lightning just ended up being some bright clouds. You can't even tell how dark the sky was!  Two minutes after we went inside it started pouring buckets! The best part was that the storm blew away all the humidity! At least for the morning...by noon it was back in full force! :) 

While it was still beautiful this morning, I took the girls to the park to play in the water. They had so much fun. Heidi went through the water once and was over it. She just kept trying to run away from me to do other things. Natalie on the other hand, had a blast. She went through the water over and over. She wanted me to time her to see how fast she could run through the water. :) 

 Heidi went in first and got completely soaked!

 Natalie was very cautious the first time and managed to get through without getting very wet.

 Heidi liked jumping in the puddles better than running through the froggy.

 The girls had so much fun!

 

My kids love raspberries and put them on their fingers like olives. It's the cutest thing ever. :)

Happy Father's Day!

 Such a busy day! I let Shane sleep in. There was a big thunderstorm last night that knocked the power out for a couple hours so we let Natalie sleep with us in our bed. It was so cute to see the two of them snuggled up together when I got out of bed this morning. :) While he was sleeping, I made some banana blueberry muffins...so good! We went to his parents house around 10 and hung out until lunch. Shane grilled some amazing chicken and corn on the cob. -I just realized how much I talk about food. It just makes me happy! - We had a really nice time eating together and hanging out with Shane's family while all the little cousins played together. At nap time we brought the girls home, let them sleep and then went to my parents house. While we were there the girls pretty much swam the whole time! They are turning into fish. It's awesome. Dad grilled hamburgers which were amazing. We had a full day of family, good food and celebrating dads...a perfect day!

They both colored him pictures for Father's Day and they are showing him what they did.

I have to say that Shane is seriously the greatest father. He is so good with our girls and so involved in their lives. I love watching him play with them and teach them things. Just watching them together makes me smile. :)

Swimming

It is so nice having my parent's pool right up the road. We take the girls there a couple times a week and they just love it. I found these really cool swimming floats that go over their bathing suits and they work so well! They keep them afloat and still allow them to use their arms and legs and actually swim. Today Heidi figured out how to keep her balance with the float and swim. It was so cool! She would swim back and forth to the deep end with no problems. A couple times she hopped off the steps and her face went under the water but she didn't even care. It was pretty cute! The other nice thing about these floaty things...Natalie isn't afraid to swim anymore. She just takes off swimming wherever she wants to go. I love it! Now when we go to the pool I can actually have fun too instead of holding them the whole time. :)