wow! pacas!

today i had what was simply a day of pure bliss. the kids and i drove a little over two hours to one of my friends houses whom i haven't seen in i'm thinking almost 4 years. she lives in a small town on what i think is a perfect farm. along the way we saw fields and fields of sunflowers and seeing them in such a quantity made me fully understand why they are my grandma's favorite flower. so beautiful. we also came across a sculpture garden and the kids had to have their picture taken in front of every sculpture. it was so cute! ginny kept running around yelling "art! art!" when we got to my friends house we were instantly greeted by her son, who is the same age as eagan peeking in the car windows and asking the boys to come and play. those of you who know my eagan know it takes him a good 45 minutes to warm up but all haden had to say was "wanna play mario?" and eagan was ready to go. :) she has seriously the sweetest children ever. gwendolyn was so excited to see all the animals. there were kitties and a puppy and chickens and a roster and alpacas. oh my gosh am i in love with those "pacas" as gwendolyn calls them. so sweet. and soft. and so unique!  i hope to have a few some day plus i got to visit with someone whom i love and she has so many of the same beliefs that i do. she is a pure joy. we were invited back in the fall when they will be adding goats(!) to their family and i hope they were serious because i simply can not wait to go back. 

the beach.

today i got to do a few of my favorite things. 1. i worked on a new quilting project. (pictures will be posted when i get just a little further.) 2. i read a little. (not as much as i would have liked to but still.) 3. i painted a little. (gwendolyn took way to short of a nap for me to get much progress done.) and 4. we went to the beach. this time instead of being self conscious i put on a swimsuit and had fun with my children. it was bliss. note* preston is not in the pictures because he was to busy having fun to stand still long enough for me to get a non-blurry shot!

look at my baby girls long legs! oh my goodness is she ever growing. 

a little of this and a little of that.

okay so here is a photo dump for you! what a lucky day!!

ginny with her breakfast. she put the raspberry on her finger (without seeing anyone else to it) and thought it was so funny!

our garden this year has been quite the flop. oh well the boys still think it is pretty great. pop was super excited about this carrot. :)

spaghetti and cantaloupe for supper. 

don't you just love eagan's art? he puts so much thought into it. 

plus it is so silly! i love how happy his stick people are while they are sword fighting. 

my brother-in-law and now sister-in-law were finally married today!! gwendolyn was a flower girl and as you can see it was hard work. :)

and this is what i got to deal with from eagan the whole day. urg! can he be anymore of a teenager?!!

pop thought it was to loud. 

oh my goodness is that eagan possibly enjoying himself for just a split second?! thank goodness grandma brought mustaches.

silly pop! it's upside down!!

well after an incredibly busy week : pop-safety school m, t, w, th + gymnastics t, th + vbs + dress rehearsal + wedding.     eagan-gymnastics t, th + vbs + dress rehearsal + wedding.    ginny-vbs + dress rehearsal + wedding + watching the boys at gymnastics       me-all the above + cooking + cleaning + laundry + baking + setting up for a wedding + well you get the point...i'm going to bed. :) good night!

oh p.s. we learnt this awesome prayer at vbs that we are singing at bed time and well since i'm hitting the hay i'll sing it for you too.

May the Lord bless and keep you.
Make is face shine upon you.
May his blessings go with you.
And give you peace.

Night!

the color run.

You would not believe how much fun I had at the 2012 Color Run in Minneapolis!! It was awesome! We had (so I hear) 20,000 people in our heat! Seriously! Plus there were three heats and it sold out! That is an amazing amount of people walk/running for a great cause. It was nearly impossible to run the 5k with that many people but I think speed walking made it that much more fun. I wasn't worried about dying plus I was with Ryan in his first ever 5k. How awesome is that?!!

Me and my beautiful sister(-in-law) Natasha before...

...and after

My awesome husband Ryan and me before...

...and after.

Me, Ryan, my fabulous brother Darin, Natasha and Rachel before...

...and after.

if you ever have a chance defiantly take part in this race!!!

selling bananas

today we went to the beach with uncle darin and auntie natasha. the kids, ryan and i had a blast. :) i love days at the beach.

 sorry for the blurry picture but this is priceless. i woke up this morning to eagan selling bananas. seriously the cutest thing EVER. the boys were downstairs playing when ginny and i came into the kitchen. so we of course bought some bananas. after eagan came up he came up to me and asked if i thought 10 cents was to much and i told him i thought it was quite a deal. so much so that i bought three for ginny. he was really proud.

 *10 c for a bnana Eagan*

finally finished...well almost.

i totally forgot to take "before" pictures, like usual but i did remember during! ryan and i finally finished our lilac project! (well almost, i need to add some more wood chips but that can be done whenever) my wonderful mom (thanks mom!!) gave us a bunch of lilacs to plant in the back yard. they are doing great!! and now will be doing even better with all the mulch and wood chips. they defiantly add to the landscape! but man was that a lot of work! and in this heat!! i am so glad to have it all done and looking so beautiful. :)

Baby Lennon!!

boy do i have a treat for you today!! i have some baby lennon photos! we got to spend yesterday with the johnson-white boys and the kids had sooo much fun! last night pop was like "oh mom i thought you were still holding baby lennon! i like him." what a sweet heart. 

Preston 4, Grant 6, Lennon 2.5 weeks, Grayson 2, Gwendolyn 1 and Eagan 6