Outing with cousins

Today we went to meet my cousin, Dana, and her daughter, Kennedy for a playdate at the Butterfly house. The kids had a great time! It was so nice seeing the two of them. It's been a few years since I've seen Dana, so it was great to see what she's been up to. Her daughter is adorable. She was born a week or two before Tommy, so they are very close in age.

We met at the park near the Butterfly house for a little playtime, which the kids loved. It was getting warm, so we went ahead and went inside the Butterfly house. The kids loved it. They were in awe of all the butterflies. And Tommy loved seeing all the bugs in their aquariums, too.

After we were done at the butterfly house, we went to ride the carousel. The kids had a blast!

Pics of Jen's kids

Hi everyone! Many of you often ask about my sister and her family, so I thought I would update with pics of their kids! Jen's family is doing well. The kids are growing like weeds!

Here are a few pictures.

Playdate for Tommy

Today was Ally's last day of VBS (her 2nd round this summer) with her friend, Trevor. Trevor's mom, Meredith, is one of my closest friends, so she and her other son, Connor (a few months younger than Tommy) came over while Ally and Trevor were in VBS. We had a nice visit. The boys had a great time together. This is actually their second play date - we went over to Meredith's house on Wednesday while the older two were in VBS. All four of our kids get along really well and just love playing together, so it was nice that Ally and Trevor got to be together in VBS and Tommy and Connor had a play date of their own.

It's been a rough week with Tommy. I'm not sure why, but he's been really acting up all week. He's had a really hard time listening and yesterday, he spit at Trevor while we were all at McDonald's after VBS. He's never done that before, so I was very shocked and embarrassed. Needless to say, we ended up leaving as a way to discipline him for his behavior. Today he was a little better. He had a few moments of not listening, but not nearly as bad as the last few days. I noticed that he was itching his nose, so I thought maybe he's having some allergic reactions. After giving him Singulair, his behavior was quite a bit better. Maybe there's something to that?? Who knows. All I know is that i'm glad it's Friday!

Family comes to visit!!!

The last week has been wonderful! My sister-in-law, nephews, and niece from out of town came to visit! Laura was also here for a few days with her girls. It was so much fun seeing everyone! We had the greatest time just hanging out at Grandma & Grandpa K's house or over here at our house. It was relaxing and so enjoy able watching the kids play together. Unfortunately, i didn't have my camera until the very last day we saw all of them, so i didn't get very many pictures. These are all from the last evening when the kids were outside playing and watching fireworks.

Bobby and the kids fell in love with Tucker. Katie loved cuddling with him and carrying him around. One afternoon, after being at our house, Bobby mentioned she had been thinking of getting a dog. We ended up going out to the country to take a look at the puppies. Bobby and the kids decided to get one!! It actually was the other cockapoo that Matt and I were considering when we went to get Tuck! It was between this one and Tuck and the only reason that we ended up getting Tuck was because the kids picked him. But hey, at least we kept the other one in the family! :) His name is Cody. He's a really sweet dog.

My kids absolutely LOVE their cousins. They have so much fun with them and you can totally tell how much they look up to them. Tyler was Ally's buddy throughout the entire week. Wherever he was, she wanted to be. Katie and Ally had a great time playing together, too. When we would go home, Ally would talk about them and refer to them as her "best friends". She loves them so much! Tommy was interested in showing off for all of them - it didn't matter which cousin it was! lol He really seemed taken by Ryan, though. And Ryan was so great with him - Tommy just loved the attention. All 3 of them made my kids very happy! It was great.

On Tuesday, the women (me, Bobby, Laura, and Glenda) went out for lunch and shopping. We had a great time. It was a much needed break for all of us. We had such a great time and really enjoyed that bonding time together. We went to lunch and then went shopping at the old shops at the riverfront. It was such a nice outing.

Don't you love Katie's headband? She and her mom made it together! They also made matching cuffs on the hem of her pants. They did such a great job, didn't they?


Bobby, Tyler, and Katie are going home tomorrow. Ryan will be going home in a little over a week. He's going to stay with Grandma and Grandpa K and they will be driving him back home later. I'm sure we'll see him throughout the week.

Bobby and family, if you read this, know that we will miss you all very much. We think of you every day and you are always in our prayers. We love you all.

4th of July Fireworks!

Our 4th of July evening down on the riverfront was really fun. We ended up getting down there earlier than planned, so we got the kids McDonald's and Matt and I got kabobs. Shortly after, we had gobs of funnel cake and kettle corn! The kids had a blast. Tommy was high on sugar by the time the fireworks started. lol

We met our friends', Monica and Dan, to watch fireworks together. Monica and I have been friends since elementary school. Monica and Dan have two kids, Andrew and Samantha.

I snapped a few pictures of Tommy with Sammi and Ally with Andrew. They all had a great time together!

I managed to get a picture of all 4 kids together. That's no easy task! lol :)

This is Monica with Sammi

And Dan, Monica, Andrew, and Sammi. Dan is being his usual silly self. :)

4th of July Parade

We had a great 4th of July! It started out with our town parade. We met Rod, Ashley, Collin, and Evan down on Main Street. They saved us a spot, so we were up close and the kids had a great view! (thanks Ashley!)




Ally, Tommy, Collin & Evan had so much fun together. They really enjoyed the parade. Ally loved the bike-riding animals (they were bikes dressed up like animals being ridden by people). Ally's favorite was the camel. They were very creative and so much fun to watch people trying to ride these things.

Tommy's favorite part was eating candy and Popsicles. lol


We originally planned to spend the 4th with Grandma
and Grandpa K. and our nephews and neice who are in town from Georgia, but they were going downtown from morning until late afternoon and Matt and I figured that if we did all that our kids would be too tired to go see fireworks that evening. So we opted to go to our local parade and then just cool off at home afterwards. And boy was it HOT! We were drenched by the time we got home. The kids were exhausted!


We missed seeing our family, but we've had a great week visiting with them quite a bit. My kids LOVE their cousins, so they are having the greatest time playing with them.