The Cow Whisperer

 Whenever I have to put fliers on our neighbors doors about an upcoming neighborhood activity, I always enlist the help of my kids.  It's great.  I give them a stack of papers to hang on the doorknobs and they run ahead and do the work, while I push the stroller and sip water from my water bottle.  They are great little helpers and they love helping with these kinds of jobs.  This time, we stopped at a field near our house to see the cows.  They were all really close to the fence which normally doesn't happen.  So Emery stopped and started calling the cows over....and they totally came!!

 Maybe they thought that she had food or something, but they all slowly wandered over to where we were standing.

 They didn't get super close because there was an electric wire.

By the time we left most of the cows were lined up looking at Emery.  ha ha!

4th of July

We had such a great 4th of July this year!  We of course started the day off by going to the parade.  Our friends the Greens saved us an amazing spot in the shade right at the beginning of the parade.  The kids got lots of candy and we all had tons of fun. 

I forced Rob to take this picture of us before the parade.  Ha ha.

Rob stood over with the kids to help get candy...I mean keep them safe.  :) I stayed in the shade and chatted with my friends.

After the parade we hung around the house until it was time to go to the Hatch's house and eat dinner. 

Laurel and I were matching!

We had some amazing food!  Seriously it was so good.

And Sadie helped me make this awesome flag cake that we found in a cookbook from the library.  And it turned out great.  

We love our friends and we love celebrating the 4th of July.  We went home after dinner and set off a few fireworks at our house.  Ours looked pretty wimpy compared to what our neighbors were setting off. I didn't mind though...I'm not a huge fan of fireworks anyway.  Then after the fireworks show we all went to bed way too late!

Beauty shop

 These girls were in heaven when a friend came over and played beauty shop with them.  I love the eye lids.  :)

Now keeping them out of my (very small) makeup bag is a little more difficult!

Riley is 4!!

 Riley turned 4 in July.  "Seventeenth July" as she calls it.  She has been telling me all the things she wanted for her birthday since her last birthday.  ha ha.  She loves playing and imagining things.  She is always a puppy or a dragon or a baby kitten.  She is so enthusiastic about everything.  One of her most favorite things to do is to sleep together with all of her siblings.  She sometimes asks me minutes after she gets out of bed if they can sleep together.  It is so cute. 

 She also is a very good fruits and vegetable eater.  She will eat tomatoes like apples.  

 She loves to play with Emery.  

 She loves playing dress up.  She is usually in that dragon costume that Emery is wearing.  Even though i think it is a size 18 months.  Haha

 She's a great helper around the house which will be helpful this year as she will be home without her older siblings all day.  :(

 She got some fun cup cake girls that she has loved playing with.  

 We ended up going to a splash pad on her birthday and met up with some friends.  Also my brother Evan and his wife Shanna and their kids came over that day.  It made for a fun day!

 Riley is 4!

 Aunts and Uncles in the background!

 Cousins!  We love having cousins come visit.  The kids are in heaven having other kids to play with!

 Daisy, Emery and Riley.  Best buddies. 

We love our Riley Mae!  Happy fourth birthday!

Crazy Hail Storm

 One morning we decided to take a walk to the park.  We invited some friends with us and headed out to the garage.  The kids hopped on their bikes and I ran in toe grab snacks and water.  When I came back out, it was sprinkling.  The kids still wanted to walk to the park, but I had to run back inside for something.  Thank goodness for that because minutes later it turned into a crazy hail storm.  The kids stayed out and rode bikes in the rain and hail.  I watched with Finley from the garage.

 

 They collected some of the ice and made a little snow cone.  Crazy that this happened in JULY!!!

Then they went out and bounced on the tramp for a while.  Such a fun morning.

Aquarium Pass

 We have loved having a pass to the aquarium.  It's so fun to just be able to go an spend a little bit of time and not feel like we have to see everything.  

 We saw this turtle that looked stuck in the corner of the exhibit.  But the next time we went it was gone, so I guess he got out.  :)

 My cuties in the shark tank!!

There was a lady holding a huge cockroach teaching us about it.  Made me think back to my days in AZ where they ran wild! yuck.