Day at the Park!

Family bike ride

Tonight some of us went out on a bike ride. Jaxson was sick and stayed back with Sophi who had homework to do. It was a beautiful night with the big sun setting. They say Kansas has some of the most beautiful sunsets ever! It has been a really wet year and allergies have been crazy, especially mold, check out the photos of mushrooms, dark ones from our yard, white ones from our neighbors yard.
We also have these really crazy trees that everyone who visits wants to know more about. They are called Hedge Apple Trees. They were origianlly planted in acre lots to help keep the wind under control on peoples property and supposedly they keep out bugs and snakes. There is a really pretty tree just down the street from us and the apples, which are very poisenous to eat, are falling like crazy right not, so we had to get a few pictures.
As Gracie and I were riding around waiting for Daddy and Bella to get ready, we stopped in front of a big tree and looked up and saw this huge squirrel staring at us, you can see it's eyes and body if you look close...it was a bit scary!
Fun night, riding around with the family...hope Jaxson feels better soon!

Derek's Birthday!

Today Derek turned 35! Sophie made him a Nutella cake from her families recipes in Germany. It was a really messy process, but well worth it! It was really yummy but not too sweet. The at night we invited a bunch of friends over for some food and a white elephant gift for Derek. However, after Jared prank called Derek...another story for another time...we pulled a prank on the husbands and told the wives to make the white elephant gift something important to the husbands. Derek was in on it all and it was sooo funny! He got a Buck Horn from Aaron Johnstun, an autographed baseball (from Jared Michaelson...who was sweating bullets), a highschool picture of Jess Howard with his basketball team(...he was so embarrased) and some really nice football cards from Shawn Gonda. They were all nervous and upset...it was so funny! The wives did good, there were more fun gifts, but those were the funniest! We eventually told them the truth and had fun the rest of the night talking about the reactions and thoughts going on!
I got so busy into the party that I only got a picture of the food and the first guests...the Michaelsons.

Soccer

Sophi and I coach Jaxson and Isabella's soccer team so after camping and no sleeping, we were exhausted and it was a hot day. Since we are crazy busy during those games...we failed to take any pictures from their games, but here is a picture from Grace's game. Jaxson played great, so did Grace, but Isabella started as Goalie and had a few good saves but after the first goal was scored on her, she ran off the field crying and refused to go back until the other team would leave. She likes practices better because she is the best, but put her against other good kids and she's too scared....I guess we'll keep practicing. I love coaching but it keeps us really busy!

Camping

We had our ward campout on Friday night. It was so fun, lots of families were there. Some of us stayed up until midnight telling scary stories. For Kansas, it was actually a pretty cool night which kept the bugs away but we were expecting a typical warm night and did not come prepared with enough warm clothing. So I gave Brock my blanket and Grace's friend stayed over with us so Grace, Brooklyn and I shared a Highschool Musical sleeping bag! Let's just say I froze and didn't sleep AT ALL!!! I would open my eyes and see how much the moon had moved throughout the night just wishing morning would come faster. So we all woke up wet from the dew, sore from the ground and grouchy from the lack of sleep but we still loved it and can't wait to go again...but maybe not too soon!

Sophi's shoes

Brock loves having free access to the house when the kids are gone. After getting Isabella dressed, I came out and found Brock sporting Sophi's shoes around as proud as can be!! He's so cute!

Day Moon

This is so pretty. We watched the moon change as we sat at the bus stop this morning. 7:30am...so cool!

Brock doing yoga!

Brock loves watching and immitating daddy do yoga...here is his favorite pose. They both become one with the earth and feel it's energy:)

Eventful Saturday in Kansas

We started this rainy morning off with a 5k race supporting JAK, just about kids, raising money for abused children. Jaxson and I ran as the rest stood on the sidelines cheering us on.
Jaxson's friends, Seth and Samuel joined us as well. Samuel, who is 8, ran it in 27 minutes and got second place in the elementary age group. Jaxson and Seth got 4th and 5th place, arriving in 29 minutes. They did so great and beat all their old times. They ran the entire time and left mom behind as she had to stop and walk a bit after mile 2. Mom still finished in just over 31 minutes. Bella then finished it off by participating in the fun run. Grace did join in on a little dancing to the "YMCA" dance. It is such a fun, contagious atmosphere, that we all want to train and run together in the next one.

After the race we headed over to the YMCA so Derek, Jaxson and Sophi could do hip hop aerobics...funniest thing I have ever seen!!! They only lasted about 45 minutes before they were outdanced and tired. Check out the video and laugh along!!

Then we headed to our Bel Aire days and played games, got faces painted, played a little tug-o-warjumped in the moon bounce, rode on the trolley, found money in the haystacks and ended it with Ratatouille on the big screen in the gym. Fun, eventful day and no fire alarm was pulled by a little Bella this year...I guess she learned her lesson!,

Hair cuts!!

Sophi and Grace went and got their haircut last night...sooo cute!!

New Furniture!!

Here are the girls posing with our new furniture!! THANKS ROB!!!

Our Renters...

Scary!!

Brock's favorite things!

Brock's favorite thing is eating and he LOVES to get messy. He is eating a fudgesicle in the front yard. His other new favorite thing is to growl...here is a pretty good picture of that!