The Three Stooges

Good gracious - these pictures were three weeks ago.  Unreal.  My first full day with all three on my own, I decided it would be a good idea to try for a photoshoot.  Aye aye aye.  It was interesting to say the least!  But it did yield some pretty cute pictures :)  The kids were in some cute shirts (of course they had to all coordinate) - I especially loved that Jack's and Ryan's were oh so similar.  Katie was bribed with fruit snacks.  Jack wanted exactly NOTHING to do with the pictures.  And Ryan screamed about 95% of the time.  I guess that's what I'm in for when it comes to pictures in the near future :)

 

Love this one - despite Ryan screaming :)

And Jack was being so sweet and leaning in for a hug.

Katie loves to hold him - except she usually gives him back when he fusses.  I think the fruit snacks made her decide to stick with it this time though.

And I love this one!  This was as close to a good one as we were going to get :)

Ya gotta be quick to get a cute one of Jack!  He is wild!

Katie is so sweet - such a super big sis!

And little guy was glad that the pictures were done - he even stopped screaming!

And me?  Well I was glad it was over too :)

Goodness Ryan has changed so much in three weeks!  Such a cute little peanut!

While Jack napped, Ryan hung out in the swing and Katie watched Mary Poppins on her iPad!

Later in the day, I actually caught Jack willing to smile for a quick moment!

And my friend Kara and her three kiddos came over that afternoon and brought dinner and visited!  Ryan was excited to meet her :) In fact, he was so excited he slept most of the time (and ate the rest of the time)!

 Sadie loves the Boppy pillow :)

And then a couple of days later, I had the camera out again!  I decided we needed to get some fresh air, so I blocked off the steps and took the easel onto the deck for the kids to do chalk and then blow bubbles!  I got some great pictures of Jack - he is such a mess.  Here is my favorite series of pictures when we first got out there!

Katie was so excited to get out there and blow bubbles :)

 You can just hear his big laugh when you look at this!  Happy dude!

 And I brought Ryan's little seat out for him to hang out and get fresh air too!

 Boy am I lucky to have this girl to hang out with - we have to stick together since there are so many boys in our house now!

 They were even sweet to each other and had a big time blowing bubbles together!

 Who knows what was going on here - all I know is I love that sweet boy and his appetite for adventure!  Even though his stubbornness wears me out sometimes :)

And they had a blast coloring on the chalk board of the easel!  So glad I took it outside so they could have a big time with it!

 And they even sort of cooperated for a group picture.  It started off with Jack just taking a seat next to Ryan and smiling and then I got Katie to run over there.  When Katie sat on the other side, Jack wanted to sit with her :)

 And once Daddy got home, he and Ryan took a short snooze :)  I have a picture of him with all three of the kids asleep on his chest. 

Things are getting more and more crazy and I hate that I'm not able to blog every day.  I will get back to it once we find a routine though :) So just stick with me on this ride...it is a wild and fun one!

 

Fresh Air + Fun

A couple weeks ago, we finished the dinner routine early and it was nice outside...and Ryan didn't need to eat right away, so we spent some time outside!  We weren't out there for too terribly long, but the kids had a blast!  Katie rode her bicycle around for a bit and then did some chalk and then helped Brad move some branches he trimmed off the trees to the street.  Here she is ready for some biking!

 And this little peanut loves spending time outside!  Goodness - he has changed so much since this picture was taken!

 And she quickly decided it was chalk time!  These kids sure love them some chalk!

 Jack came out to play too - he was excited for some chalk time!

 Oh - and the hula hoop made an appearance as well - that is always entertaining :)

 Not only does Jack like to draw lines with the chalk, but he enjoys dumping it out and watching it roll down the hill.  Such a boy.

 And this.  I can't get enough of this picture.  May have to frame it...messy mouth and all.  This is my boy.  Happy, crazy boy.

We have been spending a lot more time at home (for obvious reason) - and it has been great having time together either on the deck or playing inside or visiting with each other!  It has also been nice saving money on eating out - though we have gotten out more than I thought we would!  Everyone has been so generous with bringing meals (which of course I never turn down) that we have hardly had to do any cooking!  Whew!  I won't know how to cook once it is needed! Ha!

Sweet Land of Liberty: Our 4th of July

Better late than never, right?  In order to continue playing catch up, this is going to be a majorly long post full of pictures!

 

We had a great 4th of July!  And I was even able to decorate just a little!  This burlap banner was across the mantle.

And here is a picture of the entire mantle - while watching a soccer game :)

And I love this print that framed and leaned up there!

And we had a new garden flag hanging out front...

And a hand towel on the oven handle!

All that was missing was a cute wreath.  I had my eye on a couple of them but never got to ordering one.  Maybe next year :)

 

On the 4th, we headed to the pool for almost three hours!  The weather was pretty mild for this time of year and it was so nice outside! 

 

Here is Daddy helping Jack swim :) 

And Katie was about to jump in :) She is swimming like a little fish this summer!

And this dude did great in the shade!

Katie and Stella had some snacks during one of the rest periods!

And so did Jack :)  And Jill ordered pizza and had it delivered to the pool - it was so fun to have a pizza picnic!

Cute boys :)  Love this one!

And Daddy with his two little fishies :)

Not sure what was going on here - I think maybe Brad was helping Jack jump in backwards.  He loved it, whatever it was!

And Katie and Avery jumped in together!  So funny.

It was so fun to spend time at the pool with friends!  And Brad's mom spent the day with us, so she was at the pool with us too!

Jack did a great job holding onto the side - he was so proud!

And a cute picture of Jill with Stella and Hank!  Love it!

Since we were planning on going to see fireworks - which meant a later evening - I asked Katie to take a little nap.  That wasn't a problem after that long at the pool :)

 And I wanted to get a picture of the three crazies together - let me just say how entertaining some of the outtakes are.  here are my two favorites - all patriotic and smiling!  Please look at Ryan - poor guy was being tossed around like a sack of taters (I can say that - I am from the south, ya know)!

Love this!

Jack is looking so old to me these days - probably part of it is because of how much time I spend with Ryan, who is a little peanut!

And Katie was so excited to celebrate and get to go watch fireworks!

Brad grilled out some burgers for all of us - nothing like a cheeseburger, watermelon, and chips!  It was delicious!

And then we spent some time on the deck letting the kids do chalk and such!  Jack had to have a shirt change because he was a mess at dinner!

And Katie was just counting down until we could load into the car for fireworks :)

And a sweet picture of Grandma with Ryan!

Even Ryan was patriotic :)

And I got Brad to take a picture of me and the little guy before we headed inside!

 And a family of 5 picture!  Excuse all the stuff in the background :) That's real life, folks!

And then we headed to a high school not far from us to watch fireworks that are done at a park - we didn't want to get too close because of traffic and crowds and all that.  But it was perfect!  We backed in and layed the seats down so that they were a place to sit in the back of the van!

And there was a field to let the kids run around and get more energy out!

Jack was super excited about seeing the moon and stars!

And we watched fireworks with the same crew that we did pooltime with!  It was so much fun!

Stella, Avery, and Katie - quite the trio!  Sweet girls :)

And the obligatory fireworks picture :)  We saw the ones from the park and then could see others that folks were doing in their neighborhoods.  It really was a great spot and we were home within 5-10 minutes since we didn't have departure traffic to deal with!

 And I do believe this one will be going in a frame :)  Love this!  Mommas and our big girls!

And a picture with Katie and Jack before we got ready to head home!

And a family picture of Lewis, Hank, Jill, and Stella!

And a family picture of Ashley, Lila, Andrew, and Avery!

And Ryan did great!  He had a good time hanging out with Grandma :)

Katie wanted to take a picture, so she took this one of Ryan before Daddy loaded him into the car!

And a Mommy-Katie selfie before calling it a night.

We had such a great day!  Definitely a great way to celebrate our country's birthday - and kick off a weekend of fun!