Blackmail......

Is this THE BEST blackmail picture ever?!?!?! I'm SO going to use this when the boys are in their teens, and giving us the business :)

7th Anniversary

Dennis and I just had our 7th Anniversary. It fell on a Monday night, and Dennis wasn't feeling great, we didn't have anyone to watch the boys.....and we had soccer practice. So as you can probably guess, it was a very low-key, non-eventful night. We had a nice family dinner of a yummy fall soup I made. It's sometimes just the mellow family nights at home, that can turn out to be super fun and memorable.

Just wanted to say......Happy Anniversary babe, thanks for being THE BEST husband, daddy, and friend a girl could ask for. Love you - xoxox

Soccer Time......

We're alive and well! We are in full soccer mode with Conner, and he loves every second of it. He is on a great team, and his coach is a friend of Sara's from Davis (Carl Mack). Conner has made lots of little buddies on his team. He sometimes is a bit physical for soccer, so it's looking like football may be a solid option in his future :)

Here is the little guy in action!

Logan likes to pretend he is on the team. Here he is with Nadia, one of Conner's friends sister, and possibly his future babysitter!!

Tahoe

We just got back from 2 wonderful weeks in heavenly Tahoe Donner. I somehow managed to do a great sales pitch on Dennis and talk him into vacationing for 1 week, and "working" from the cabin for 1 week. We went up with the Marovich family, and also did a great sales job on them.....we convinced them to say for almost 2 weeks.

We had such a great time, and the all the kids absolutely loved every second of it. Our typical day consisted of hitting the Tahoe Donner beach in the morning, heading out about 12:30pm, and napping/resting until about 3pm. In the afternoon we would either go on a hike or hit the Trout Creek Rec center to go for a swim. We love all of the cool hikes we can go on practically right outside our front door.

We spent the 4th of July up there, and hit the parade in the morning. Let's just say we may be steering clear of the parade next year. They had cowboys who were shooting fake guns, but they were SO SO loud. Conner and Allie were beside themselves. Conner and Dennis had to spend most of the time in the Ace Hardware store behind where we were sitting. Logan and Brynn on the other hand, were totally content. The sirens from the fire truck were not a fan favorite either ;)

Another really funny part of our trip was that Logan was obsessed with hugging Allie. I think he sensed that she wanted no part of it, so he would chase her around the house yelling "HUG ME".....and she would be screaming as if someone was putting a needle in her eye "NOOOOOOOOO". We kept trying to sit Logan down and explain to him "Logan, no means no, leave the poor girl alone". Needless to say, our talk really did nothing.

The last few days my parents and Kaitlyn came up which was really fun. Kaitlyn was like a CELEBRITY with Allie and Brynn. It was so cute, they worshipped her, and she was so good with them. A true babysitter in training!

Now, it's back to reality! Which has been quite the adjustment for all of us. I'm already counting the days until our next long vacation in paradise :)

Logan is 2!

I can't believe my baby turned 2! Where did the time go? We had a very low key birthday for him. I look at it like - you have to have a big 1 year party, and after age 3, they expect a party, so when they turn 2, you can get away with not having a big party. Kinda lazy on my part, but I'm ok with that! We had our next door neighbors over for dinner and cake, which was perfect for the birthday boy.

Logan is at SUCH a fun age, I keep saying I want to freeze time with him right now. He is starting to talk quite a bit, and just blurts out with the funniest things. On the not so funny side, yesterday he blurted out "oh dammit", when he dropped some play-doh......oops. I blamed Dennis for that, and of course he blamed me :) As Dennis put it, "at least he used it in the right context".

Here are some memorable traits about Logan at the age of 2 -

1 - Loves MICKEY MOUSE - he is obsessed!

2 - Favorite Show - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

3 - He adores his brother - copies him, follows him, wants to be like him, LOVES him!!

4 - He is the best hugger - he gives these warm, tight hugs, and then pats you on the shoulders....it so adorable

5 - When he says good-bye, he always says "wuv you"

6- When he gets mad at Conner, he gets this really serious look on his face, he points his finger at him, and says "Naughty Conner, Naughty".....it makes me crack up every time.

Happy Birthday Logan.....we love you!!

Conner is 4!

It's so hard to believe my little guy turned 4 years old! I'm not sure where the time went, but it has sure flown by. We had a great day. We had his birthday party at a place in Roseville called Wacky Tacky. It's a huge fun house type place with tons of cool things for the kiddos to burn off ALL that energy they have. He had all his friends there, and loved every minute of it.

I got this idea from my friend Danielle, and I'm so stealing it. I'm going to start asking the boys these questions below for each of their birthdays. I think it will be so fun to see how the answers change over the years. So here are Conner's current answers.......

What is your favorite food? Quesadilla
What is your favorite color? Orange
What is your favorite song? Conner the fireman (on his personalized CD)
What is your favorite shape? Triangle
What is your favorite toy? Firetruck
What is your favorite TV Show? Thomas the Train
What is your favorite book? Firetruck book
What is your favorite animal? Giraffe
What is your favorite dinner? Tacos
What is your favorite breakfast? Oatmeal Squares
What is your favorite desert? Cupcake
What is your favorite vegetable? Peas
What is your favorite drink? Juice
Where is your favorite place to go? To the train station (it's really the train museum)
What is your favorite car to ride in? Mommy's car (woo hoo)
What is your favorite sport? Football (daddy's been in his ear)
What do you like best about your brother? That he plays with firetrucks with me
What is your favorite movie? Lightening McQueen Show (aka CARS)

Oh....and he really likes firetrucks, just in case you didn't get that from the list above.

Some quick thoughts that come to mind the sum up my little 4 year old include:

- He is such a happy kid, and all he wants to do is play with his friends and have fun, fun, fun allll day long!
- He is very funny, his one liners and constantly cracking us up. His latest is "i'm just joking, i'm just kidding", and will say it like 50 times a day. Probably only funny to hear it coming from him! - He is very thoughtful when it comes to Logan's needs. Even though they don't get along 100% of the time (actually, more like 50%).......he always makes sure Logan is well taken care of.
- He loves learning new things.....and soaks them up like a sponge. He definitely has Dennis' crazy memory....he'll remember something totally random that he heard months ago.
- He is a good kid who means well, and really, what more could we ask for :)

We love you Connie Mac!