4th of July

We had a very enjoyable 4th of July!! We got to spend a lot of time together as a family. We started early on Friday with letting the kids do chalk on the sidewalk. I thought it would a simple enough of an activity. Wow, they got SO messy!! Especially Brecklynn. I was amazed at how mess she got.

Saturday, there was no early morning parade or fire trucks down the street or anything. We decided to have a fun morning ourselves. We woke up, took the kids out to eat, and then headed to main street to watch the town. We met up with GG and the kids loved the parade. It was really small but perfect for them.

Cambree was showing us how to 'properly' wave.

Ridge-when he saw the firetrucks

Right after the parade, we went to the pool. It was absolutely perfect. We stayed from 10:00-1:00. We all got ROASTED. We've never stayed so long and poor Brecklynn got a pretty bad burn on her little nose and cheeks and Curtis turned into a lobster. But we all had so much fun.

Here's all 3 babies at the pool. Could never get a good one. One was always crying, crawling off or something!

Then after good long naps, we got ready for the 4th of July (or 3rd of July) fun. I bought the girls shorts last year after the 4th. And of course, I just made their matching bows. They looked pretty cute if I do say so myself. I love Brecklynn's shoes. I got them for $1.50 at the second hand store. Her feet are a bit fat so they don't fit the best, but we had to take a picture at least :)

We headed to Pat and Steve's for pizza. Even Lan came down to share in the fun. Here are Darrek and Brecklynn. Notice the matching sunburns :)

At about 8:00 we all piled into the cars to head to the fair grounds for the fireworks. We had quite the group!! Cambree and Ava were connected at the hip the whole night. You'd think they never saw each other. I love their relationship. It was a great night and the firework show was great. We were literally underneath it with the ash falling all around us. It didn't start til 9:00 and then the fireworks lasted 30 minutes. Then you wait forever to leave. The kids were exhausted. It was a great night.

Next day, on the official 4th of July, we of course went to church. After, Roy and April suprised us all by coming down. So right after church we headed over to Pat and Steve's again to hang out for a bit. We then ate dinner with the whole family.

Ridge enjoyed a ride on the g0-cart.

Ava and Cambree did too

Then we had our own version of a fire-work show. Quite the show.

After she finally figured out that the sparklers didn't hurt, she LOVED them

All the Allen girls decided to give the go-cart a spin. It was quite the sight.

It was a wonderful day and we've enjoyed even more time with the family today. I love these times when all the families come together for a bit. Happy 4th of July!!!

Just keep Swimming

This summer, we've really been taking advantage of the Safford Pool. My mother-in-law was so sweet in getting every family a pass for the summer. So we have been going almost daily. Its been wonderful!!

The kids have swim lessons in the morning and then at 11 we go back till about 12:30. Makes them good and tired. I LOVE it!!

Brecklynn didn't like it one bit when we first started going. Now she is a little swim baby. She crawls so far into the water that she eventually isn't crawling, but floating.

Ridge is so funny about the water. He hates being splashed. He loves the water but splashing is a no no around him :) We have a lot of pool toys that he likes to play with and if you throw it to him, he has to run out of the water so he doesn't get splashed when it lands.

My MIL has had my niece Quinn and nephew Calder for the week and so we got to join them at the pool one day. Cambree enjoyed the company. They spoil her :)

I just love the pool. Its something to do with the kids during the hot days and gives everyone a break.

Mount Graham Picnic

Recently we did a picnic up on Mount Graham. It was a lot of fun. Besides the heat and bugs, it was a lot of fun. Kids all enjoyed their time with cousins and getting dirty-and boy did they.

We had a lunch there and then played some games like Do you love your neighbor and Baby if you Love me Smile. It was cute to watch the kids interact that way.

It bums me out cause it is so hot now that we probably won't be doing it again this summer for the heat reason but we'll see.

Cambree doing do you love your neighbor

Notice Brecklynn's hair-yeah I did do it but she wouldn't leave it a lone. Just adds to her dirtiness. :)

Brecklynn is 11 Months!!

I cannot believe this little girl is already 11 months. Where did this past year go? I seriously cannot believe how fast time seems to fly with kids.

Brecklynn is getting to be so active. She really thinks she can walk. If she can be up standing, she will be. She climbs on EVERYTHING!!! I swear at times, she's harder then my two other kids combined. I cannot take my eye off of her for a second. She has discovered how to close doors and constantly shuts herself in a room and freaks out. She loves the toilet. Yeah :)

About a week ago she started saying 'hi' and 'bye' while waving her hand in this super cute way. She also has started to do the 'uh oh' noises. Pretty cute.

She is recovering from yet another double ear infection. So she is on track for getting tubes. Another yea!! But we did get to see how much she weighs now and she's at the 19lb mark. This is great considering when she had that bout with strep, she got down to 17 pounds. So we were happy with her gain. She eats ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. She's an oinkler. I am amazed at how much she'll eat. She gets mad if you don't share.

She's discovered the art of throwing tantrums. Its over the silliest of things too. She will throw herself on the ground and roll around and scream. Her scream sounds like she got hurt or was in pain, but no its just her being upset. Very annoying.

Books are a new favorite. If you let her, she would sit and read with you for hours. She loves to point at things and look at you to tell her what they are and then smiles with a quick laugh and goes to the next thing. Love it.

Music and dancing is fun for her now. She moves her head and body to the music and gets all excited about it.

She can finally officially hold her own bottle. She has been able to laying down for awhile, but in her car seat and sitting up, she can now alone which is great!!

She still only has 4 teeth, but her top teeth remind me of goofey. They're so cute. Love them.

Her hair is in that in between stage of being long enough to do different styles beside pebbles and too short to just leave it alone. Even better, she hates having her hair done. I will do it sometimes 6 times a day and then I will finally give up on doing it. Ridiculous.

She crosses her legs all the time. No matter where she is sitting, she crosses them. I have gotten used to it but I have people all the time point it out and think its so cute.

She's so stink'n cute. I still cannot believe she is about to be one. Makes me so sad. Now I am having to think of what to do for her birthday. I think Sara and I are going to do a joint one for these little guys. Should be fun. Here's to one more month of this little girl officially being my baby ;(

Twinners

They do look like twins don't they?

Family and group Shots!

This was our first time getting a family shot done since Brecklynn was born in the hospital. So it was long over due and I am greatly impressed with it. I can't get over how well it turned out. The colors, the expressions etc were perfect!!

The kids are all looking! People with multiple kids will understand how huge of a deal this is. Rarely ever can you get them all to look at the camera, let a lone all smiling.

And of course we had to get a couple shot.

So anyone looking to get great pictures done, please check out Beckyn McArthur's photography blog. She is truly amazing at what she does and very reasonable. I will definitely be using her again!!

Cambree's photo shoot-large share!!

So this photo shoot was first set up to be for her 4 year birthday. So even though we got the rest of the family involved with pictures, Becky did get a lot of Cambree and again I LOVED them!!!!! There was too many to pick from so there's a lot.