4th of July fun!

Just a few days behind on these but better late then never! I told grandpa all about how Madison for the first time in a long time would sit still long enough for me to take some photos of her. Over the last year she has become a pill to photograph and find myself wanting to take pictures of my other little monkey Ryan cause he is such a little poser for me! We had a great 4th of July and went to a friends house and had a BBQ, did a few fireworks and just let the kids play play play! :)

A lot has happened to us this week. Moving into a new home (bigger and lots of yard for the kids!) We are very excited for this. Found out that Ryan will have to undergo another surgery on his boy parts :( gotta make sure it is taken care of so this mommy can have some grandbabies. :) And also he is undergoing testing at a neurologists to find out what is causing "tics" that he keeps having in his face over the last couple weeks. A lot is going on but looking forward to finding out the results so we can figure out what steps we need to do to help him get through this!

4th of July- Part 2

My 4th of July was challenge after challenge after challenge before "enjoying" the day off. We had plans to visit grandpa and pick cherries from his cherry tree and then off to Nana's for lunch and a nice day in the park with family and friends where the kids can play in the water and just enjoy the day with their cousins.

ONLY that day never really happened. LOL! We got to church late... had to go to an extremely overcrowded grocery story called Wal-Mart to get groceries for our picnic, forgot stuff so made a side trip to Freddies and left my debit card in the car so had to run back out and re-ring everything back up. Got to the Father in Laws house and realized we forgot the kids' fireworks at the house so we headed back home for the fireworks. Didn't get to pick cherries at Grandpas so hoping to get by later this week... which at this point isn't looking so good because my To Do list just seems to keep getting longer and longer. So after fixing face paint umpteen times with the kids, we headed off to Nana's and got there around 4. Can you believe she ate lunch without us! So what if we were only 3 hours late for our lunch date... :D

We went to the annual fireworks at Ann Morrison and left from Nana's house who lives about a mile away. In Madi's stroller we packed in 5 camping chairs, two blankets, a cooler full of ice, a bag of fireworks, a bag of snacks, a 15 lb bag of camera equipment, a tripod, 3 backpacks and a kid's chair. Can you believe the wheel broke off on the way there... A stroller with 3 wheels doesn't work well... did you know that! :D

So here we are with our 3 kids who decided to bring their scooters with them so they can't carry anything and all this gear and a whiney almost 3 year old who thinks she HAS to be carried everywhere and a broken stroller... My husband ran back to Nana's grabbed the van and recruited his brother Matt to help us to carry stuff into the park. My job was to carry in my camera bag and my 3 year old so I walked on without them as they found a parking spot and carried everything in. My husband did a great job carrying everything in except he forgot one little item... As i am getting ready to finally set up my camera stuff 20 minutes before the fireworks display... I notice my tripod is no where to be found. He remembered EVERYTHING except for that.... So no fireworks pictures this year from me. I didn't even try. I knew they wouldn't turn out so I didn't bother. Also did I mention that in the cooler that I packed for dinner at the park included Black Forest ham, Swiss Cheese, Mayo, Mustard, tomatoes, onions... everything except the bread... I FORGOT TO PACK BREAD! It was quite the day of mishaps... but in the long run it still ended up being sooooo much fun and a 4th of July I shall never forget. Next year I guarantee I won't forget the bread or tripod....

I remembered crayons at least for my 3 year old! And here is my cutesy Sister In Law Laury!


My single, adorable brother in law Matt.... :D


Laury kicking her husband in the toosh! Trust me it is much deserved... she puts up with a lot! :D


Me and Laury! Aren't we so cute!


My crayons and books entertained the kids for awhile.


My husband and his brother


My two favorite boys


I have no idea what they were laughing about but soooo cute to watch them


The boys and Madi snuggling up to her Uncle Jack


My niece Sydney and her friend Paige


My nephew Zach. He told me it was one cool picture of him! :D

Girls will be Girls!


Chalk Art in the Park! It was absolutely stunning!


And last but not least.... Josh with two of the kids

4th of July - Part 1

Getting ready was the biggest challenge on 4th of July. I would get the hair and make up done and then it was ruined... NO NOT ON ME!! On the kids Ha Ha!

Everytime one kid was done I would send them off with dad so he could watch over them so I could get the next one done... only dad thought telling them to sit still and NOT touch their face... meant rub it until it completely gone... or to rough house on the floor and rub the paint off their hair. It was quite the challenge but finally got the job done... and so worth the wait. Aren't the kids adorable!

My 4th of July Weekend!

This week at I ♥ Faces they are doing a patriotic addition. What did you do for your 4th of July?
My fourth of July was a blast. I know the kids had such a great time too!

For starters Jacob got to go rafting with his Uncle Jack (Notice the lack of pictures of Jacob!) I love rafting but unfortunately this year it will not work out for me but next year for sure! It was his first time he got to go and had so much fun.

So Ryan and Madison and I met up with Grandma and went to the Middleton Parade in the afternoon. The parade was lots of fun and they got lots of candy.

After the parade I met up with my brother in law Matt (Which by the way ladies he is single and cute!) and he filled in for daddy! He was the biggest help ever. We had to reserve spots at Ann Morrison Park for the fireworks so we got there around 6:30 pm. The fireworks didn't start till 10:30. So he played with the kids and entertained them. I really need to find him a girlfriend... he is seriously one of the greatest guys ever (Well second to his even cuter brother Josh!) and he will be such a great husband one day.

Anyways pictures are so much better then words... so I will let pictures tell you the story.



This is a picture of the new sign posted at Ann Morrison Park. This 4th of July they celebrated their 50th year. This is the greatest addition to Boise Idaho. It has a walkway that stretches for miles and miles along the Boise River, Parks, rafting, Soccer, Frisbee Golf... All kinds of activities for locals.
I know these pics have been posted already but for http://www.iheartfaces.com/ we are supposed to post our weekend ventures... so this is a re-post! Here are my cute adorable children and puppy sitting on my brand new beautiful apple red microfiber sofa we just bought on clearance (I'm a bargain shopper!) But it was perfect for 4th of July.


All smiles from the little ones


Here is the cute single brother in law Matt. Any other single ladies out there? LOL!

These events are a little out of order. But I didn't feel like moving pictures around! Here is Jacob cramming down a cookie.

My goodness you should have seen her disgusting face after eating this!!!

This was at the parade. I know Dea will appreciate this because she owns a Nikon D60 but I found a feature this weekend on this camera. You find it in the filter mode and it is called Cross Screen. It creates a star effect around highlighted areas. So I played around with this a little.

But here is my absolutely gorgeous little sister who I will have to keep my eye on as she gets older because she knows how cute she is!

And here is Elvis... Sadly next year he will be replaced by Michael Jackson now that everyone says he is the new king... Sorry to all you Jackson fans... but I like Elvis more! My husband says the star effect looks fake... but who cares it still looks cool! He also thinks editing photos is lame and boring... I tell him golf is boring so back off! :D

Here is Adda and I. Notice the star effect again! So COOL!

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever! I can't get enough of her

She was so hot at the parade! Poor doggy!

Little miss Maddy!

LOL! This little bike was so adorable! It didn't look very easy to ride.

Here is little bo bratty playing by the fountain.

Isn't this little girl adorable! I mean she has got to be the cutest little thing I have ever seen After my daughter of course! :D

Ironically her mom is a photo enthusiast too! I met her at the fireworks. I think that was why her daughter was so cooperative. She is so used to the camera.

Ryan got a little wet which was fun for awhile until around 8:30pm when it started cooling off!

Here is my nephew Gavin and his amazing Mohawk... which Jacob now wants one!

LOL! Too funny! Gotta love the festiveness (Is that a word?)

Does he EVER take a serious picture? I mean he really has to be goofy in every photo!

Here is all the photo taking nerds in our group. I can say that because I would be standing next to them if I weren't taking a picture with them.

And some more of this cute little girl! I just can't get enough of her! And Taylor... look what she is wearing! It is a skirt just like yours! I was so excited to see one in person!

Here she was licking the icing off her face (which I photoshoped out of the picture.... Why? Because little girls with messy faces just aren't as cute!)

The cute little girl in the middle is the sister of the girl I was taking pictures of. Both of them wore those fancy skirts.

MY FAV of the day! Bristol and his bubble. I just think this lucky shot turned out ADORABLE!

I should turn this over to Pepsi! He is even sporting the colors. Maybe some how I can photoshop the logo onto the bottle...

and last but not least... all the amazing fireworks!
My first time shooting fireworks... what do you think?
Can't wait to try them next year. They should be even better now that I have a better idea on the settings.
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too! Can't wait to see what you all did too!