Independance Day

We kicked off or Independence Day holiday by joining a run/rally for a local fallen soldier. Izzy Obryan, he left a wife and one year old son. Sg. PJ Kellogg ran from Newburn Tn to Jackson Tn, 50 Miles! Matt and Aaron ran the last 8 miles with him and the kids and I joined them to walk the last mile. It was a wonderful experience! After the run we had some barbque, bonus here was all sales went to a scholarship fund for the Obryan boy! For the weekend festivities I got us all new flag shirts from Old Navy, it was awesome because they were only $5 and for each one purchased the are sending one to troops!

We had been out in the heat for around 2 hours at this point, it was starting to wear on the kids! But they were good sports and hung in there!

Later in the day we went to a Jaxx game with the Raabs, Yarbroughs, and the Cygans. It was a lot of fun and Ben was a sport! We even made it all the way through the fireworks!! All and all it was a successful celebration weekend!

Because I can not resist

I just thought she was especially cute this day! So enjoy!

The Streak

What can I say... I let him run around in his diaper all day most days because it is sooo blasted hot! Well, on this day he took it off while I was busy in the kitchen and went for a naked horse back ride! Good thing he has a saddle!!

Apples

Clara LOVES food! She is getting tired of just soupy strained foods, but she has NO teeth! This is odd for me because Ben broke his first tooth on the first day of his 5th month! and then he got 3 with in the next 6 weeks! Last week I sliced an apple nice and thin and took the peel off. She really liked gnawing on it! When Ben found he there were sliced apples, he had to have some too! They are soo cute!

First Stake Youth Dance

A couple of weeks ago Matt and I helped Aaron and Rachel chaperon/DJ a stake dance for the youth. Originally Melissa was going to keep the kids for us, but then schedules changed and she had to be at the dance also. We decided to just take the kids with us and see what happened. It was A Lot of fun!! Ben was doing the conga, and break dancing! He had a group of kids cheering him on as he busted a move and did some "mixing" unfortunately I have no photos of that. But this is him crashed out in my bed at 9am the next morning! yup he is still in his clothes! The kid parties hard!! In contrast to Ben's exciting and very active night, Clara ate some dinner, laid down on her blanky and promptly went to sleep at normal bedtime!! She is sooo sweet. She played with some toys for the first hour we were there before the dance started. Then I gave her a bottle and a jar of food, changed her diaper and set her back down with her toys. She acted sleepy so I laid her down and gave her her favorite blanky. Next thing we knew she was out!! she was laying on the stage behind the speaker and slept there for the entire dance! she only woke up briefly when I transported her to the car! Do I have awesome kids or what!!

6 months until Christmas!!

And Clara Jeanne is 6 Months Old! I got her already for her photo shoot and Ben had to get in on the act. I just think they are soo adorable with each other!

I don't actually know what they were looking at, but whatever it was they were both laughing!

She adores Ben!! They sit all snuggled up to each other like this in the stroller most days while I run!

She is getting soo big! She is sweet and I am afraid just the tiniest bit spoiled! Because I don't dare leave her in a room out of reach while Ben is up and around I haul her into every room with me and am constantly checking on her! So, now she feels it is completely necessary to have me in her line of sight at all times! Even when she does not need protecting from Ben! I have a good friend that calls this "golden butt syndrome" cause her butt is too good to be put down anywhere! She is super sweet though and doesn't cry much, again possibly because she is never more than a couple feet from me, and soo much fun!

I think she looks like a little doll, and she is more fun! Her favorite things right now are spoon foods, water from our glasses, Daddy playing peek-a-boo with her, and pretty much anything Ben does! She is a bit of a Mamma's girl and I am admittedly soaking it up while it lasts!

It is too hot for blankets here. Ben insists that they be on the bed. He usually ends up shoving them off at some point, but non-the-less they have to be there in order to go to sleep. Also, the light must remain on, and the fan off!! Crazy kid. This night he was begging for milk, not uncommon, but we are not giving him sippy cups to go to bed with anymore. We developed that bad habit last summer. Any way, I gave him a small plastic cup and told him just to set it on the table when he was done. When we checked to see if he was asleep this is what we found.... yes that is the cup in his hand and yes he is dead asleep!!

Don't you love his farmer's tan?

Just because....

These are just some shots I took on Saturday because she is just soo darn cute. I love the curly pig tails!! and the expression on her little face..

The Best Friday Ever!

So, Friday night we had a big time! As soon as I got done teaching at 3 we loaded up and headed to the lake. This was Clara's first trip, and unfortunately we got NO PICTURES!!! I guess I will just tell her the camera was broken? Anyway, she loved it and was a great sport!! We played in the water for nearly an hour and a half!! Then we found that their was a relay for life event going on in the park next to the lake, so we decided what better place could their be to get dinner! We had some Delicious barbecue chicken and beans and slaw and supported the Relay so it was awesome! Then when we got home Matt and Ben decided we needed some sweet treats. A quick trip to Kroger resulted in two tubs of ice cream and a cake!!! Ben's favorite part of the night was the ice cream.....

Teaching Moment

Last week after Ben got out of the bath was on my bed and I had combed his hair and needed to put a diaper on him. He decided to run away from me. I told him to stop but he was being naughty. Well, he fell off the bed and smacked his mouth on the side of the bassinet that sits next to our bed. The result was the swollen lip below. Now some folks would have immediately loved him better and hugged and kissed and what not. After an inspection to access the seriousness of the injury and finding it minor I seized the teaching moment. "See, Ben, this is why we don't run from mommy, and we stop when she tells us to. Otherwise we get ouches!" Then a hug and, "shake it off". I sometimes wonder just how screwed up my kids will be as adults!!??