frogs!

We live close to a green space area, so we find alot of frogs at our house. Usually all you have to do is walk through the front of back lawn and one or two will start a jumpin! Mac is not afraid of animals or bugs what so ever, which I think is great. We catch these little tree frogs almost on a daily basis. It is so cute to watch Mac try to chase after them and catch them himself. And excuse the fact that Mac has no pants on in these pictures, we were potty training this day (and no he is not potty trained, but some days he likes to be).

Sunday Gratitude

I am grateful...

01 . for our new little point and shoot camera. loving being able to take anywhere and love the video feature.

02 . that Mac is a little water baby.

03 . for family and friends who are so loving and supportive.

04 . that we got to hang out with our friends the Rigby girls this week.

05 . for a great trip to the coast, even though the actual beach was overcast, cold and windy.

06 . for such an amazing husband who makes me happy to be in his arms everyday! Honestly he is AWESOME!

07 . for the amazing young lady who chose us to be Mac's forever family three years ago today.

08 . for my cute, sweet, crazy red headed boy! LOVE HIM!

09 . for exciting things!

10 . for surprises in the mail.

Family and the Rodeo

My brother Chris and his cute family came to visit this last week. It was so great to get to spend so much time with them. And McCoy loved playing with his cousins. We ended up going to the little rodeo that is in my parents little town. McCoy was being a bit of a crazy boy, so I didn't get to enjoy the rodeo, but it was just fun to be with family anyway. We did eat a giant elephant ear, yum!

This is my cute nephew "Can". He is just 6 months older than McCoy. They got along so great! It was so much fun to watch them play together.

The Fam!

Hand over their hearts for The Star Spangled Banner.

Little "Smash". He LOVED to have his picture taken!

I think one of my all time favorite pictures now! Could they not be cuter?!

Sunday Gratitude...

McCoy and Bryce with their hands over their hearts for "The Star Spangled Banner" at the rodeo.

July 2010

I am grateful...

01 . For every moment that I get to spend with my sweet little boy. He really makes my heart happy!

02 . for wonderful friends.

03 . for the opportunities we have to serve in our Ward.

04 . for great neighbors and another little two year old boy that moved in across the street.

05 . for hot banana bread fresh out of the oven.

06 . for the fun week we had with my brother and his family in town.

07 . that adoption is the plan that Heavenly Father has for building our family.

08 . that I can turn to prayer to seek guidance and comfort.

09 . for the millions of things I need to get done this week.

10 . for the blessings of the Temple.

First Movie!

Hubs took all last week off! We really enjoyed having him around, it has been alot of fun. Last Thursday it was too hot to just stay home, so last minute decided to forgo lunch and naps and took Mac to see his first movie in a theatre (well if you don't count us taking him to a movie when he was a week and a half old). I have been nervous about doing this, but have really wanted to. We wanted to take him to see Toy Story 3, but we had missed the last showing. So we took him to see "How to Train a Dragon" which both Hubs and I thought looked good. We got popcorn, pop, and candy and went to watch the Dragon movie. Mac did really well, there were a few parts that were a little too intense for him. But he never freaked out and just kept on asking to go home.

We had so much fun spending the day together, sometimes I really wish Hubs never had to work.

Big Boy Bed...

This last Tuesday night, on a whim, we decided to turn Mac's crib into a big boy bed. I have been nervous about this transition for months, but Hubs had made it clear that when he was 2 1/2 that it was going to happen. It all went WAY better than I thought it would.

He was so excited about his "new" bed. He kept saying, "It's great!, It's nice! It's shiny!" It was so cute!

We told him the rules about sleeping in his new bed. And did our normal routine and he was asleep with in 15 minutes.

He fell out twice the first night. Once before we had gone to bed and early the next morning. When he fell in the morning and I went in to put him back in his bed, I laid down next to him. He told me, "Mama, this is for big boys! Please sing me a song and then get out." He didn't say it in a mean way at all, and I was cracking up! So I sang him a song and told him to go back to sleep and I got out!

The second night he fell out twice again. It has now been a week since his first night and he has done great! We are very proud of our big boy!

Grateful Sunday...

I am grateful...

01 . for the power of the Atonement, what an amazing gift, especially since none of us are perfect.

02 . for the power of the priesthood and that my husband holds and honors it so that we may have that blessing in our home.

03 . for the power of prayer, He listens and He answers.

04 . for the promptings of the spirit that help guide me as a mother to my children.

05 . for Birthmothers, what a huge sacrifice they make that will be a part of their life every single day.
06 . for C and our future Birthmothers.
07 . to see my brother C and his family for the first time in years. I am so excited to spend the week with them!
08 . to live in a country where we have many freedoms and where we have men and women who risk their lives everyday to make that happen.
09 . that happiness is a choice, and I can make that choice for myself every single day.
10 . for my beautiful little family!

The 4th at the Lake House!

This is going to be a long one!

I think that the 4th of July is my favorite holiday! One of the reasons for that is that we always spend it with Hubs's family at the family lake house. I love the fire works too, but to be honest I haven't watched fire works since before Mac was born. To watch them at the lake you have to go on the boat at night, and that is not my favorite thing. Here is the annual grandkids 4th picture. You can see 2008 here and 2009 here.

The weather this year was beautiful! Even after it rained all the way there the first day.

Mac is obsessed with fishing poles and what he thinks fishing it. This cute little fishing pole is now at the bottom of the lake. One minute after I took these pictures, Mac decided it would be a good idea to just drop in the lake. We never retrieved it, but was glad to find out that it wasn't the first time, or the second time for this unlucky little fishing pole.

This picture cracks me up. I am actually really surprised that neither of them ended up falling in because they kept doing leaning over the side of the dock.

The boys and the Star Wars guns. Mac officially learned what a "gum" is this weekend.

Since the house is right on the lake, we basically make all the kids wear life jackets every time they play outside. This life jacket was a bit big for Mac and he was having trouble playing in it.

Playing in the pool, this kid really loves water. He doesn't care how cold it is!

And take a look at our car from the drive to the lake house. It rained all the way their and mix that with miles of dirty gravel roads.

Eating strawberries for lunch!

Cute little Tater!

LOVE these pictures of Mac with his favorite Aunt J! They were sharing otter pops!

My cute little goofball!

My cute, patriotic niece Abbi!

My SIL brought all the stuff to make these cute skirts for the girls! Are they not just too adorable, the skirts and my nieces! Love these girls!

There is a street fair in the little town on the other side of the lake. The girls go to it every year!

Usually Uncle Spencer brings the fireworks for the kids, but we knew he wasn't going to be there so we brought some. Mac had been begging for days to go buy some fireworks. When we stopped on our way out of town at the fireworks stand, I looked in the bag to see what they had gotten and Mac told me not to touch it, they were his fireworks. I couldn't help but laugh, but had to scold him for being mouthy (which for some reason he has been doing alot of lately). On top of all of that, Mac was scared to of the sparklers and jumped out of this shot at the last second. He did like the smoke bombs though.

After church on the 4th we headed to beach and just hung out as a family. Mac kept on telling us that he wanted to go swimming in the ocean. This is Mac and Grandpa G.

Another cute one of T.

I think my favorite picture. Mac and his Grandpa!

This seems to be the only way I get in any pictures now.

Can you tell he was having fun? What a face!

Wanting to swim in the ocean!

Grandma was laying on the floor and baby T came up to her and started to snuggle. It was too cute!

A P-O-P ride! So Hubs was telling Mac that we could go on a boat ride, except that Hubs spelled out B-O-A-T when he told him so that Mac wouldn't freak out and want to go right that second. The smart little guy that he is figured out what Hubs was talking about and then he kept asking if he could go on a P-O-P ride, trying to say what Daddy had told him. It was pretty cute!

Like I said. The only way for me to get in a picture.

Mac has taken an interest in taking pictures with my camera lately.

You can tell which pictures are his.

Helping Daddy drive the boat.

He has finally mastered the art of eating otter-pops. He was having trouble figuring out how to get them to work right.

The best shot of just the boys.

The girls and their grandma!

Another Mac shot!

When we got home, I spent a couple of hours washing both cars. The gray car was filthy from our trip and the white one literally has not been washed in years. That one took alot of elbow grease. After I was done, we had to pull the cars out of the driveway and I spent 30 minutes just washing off the driveway from all the dirt, mud and debris. YIKES!