Day 2

Marisa and Aubrey wanted to get buried in the sand. They laughed the whole time I was doing it.


Madison buried in the sand.

Madison

Aubrey

Bethannie

All the girls. Are they not the cutest things ever

Smile

Mackenzie hanging in a tree

Marisa and Aubrey hanging in the tree

Bethannie and Madison hanging in the tree


We went to the beach in the morning stayed and had lunch and ended up being there for about 4 hours. the girls even said they did not want to leave after that but we had a day of shopping for the other half the day. So off to the house we went for showers. After taking 1 hour and 30 minutes to shower 6 people and fix hair and pick out clothes we were on our way to the mall. The girls did so good staying with eachother while they all went shopping. We went to the Children's place and to Justice. The girls favorite stores. They were just so cute. I walked out of the Children's place with 12 pairs of sunglasses. 2 for each girl and I found some for James. When they were less then a $1 a pair it was cool. They just had a blast though looking at what they liked and wanted to get. The older 3 girls all found an outfit that they all liked and wanted to match. So we bought that for all of them. After our day of shopping I just let the girls come home and play out front. they rode bikes and scooter's and just ran after each other. it was funny to watch them. Then they all wanted to hang in the tree. So after putting girls up a lot they all finally got as pic hanging there. Needless to say it was a long day and we were ready to go in and go to sleep. At least I was. Probably not the girls.

Where are my kids?

The girls went up stairs and were playing and then the next thing I see is this. The girls were laughing so hard I guess because they knew how crazy they looked. But we had a big fat mama, A rock star, A beautiful woman, a little girl and a crazy woman. Names given to them selves by themselves. I just laughed.

Crazy I know

So I had decided I thought it would be a lot of fun to have my nieces Madison. Aubrey, and Marisa come and stay for a week. James would stay in KY for the week and I would just have the girls. So as crazy as this sounded to me I knew we would have a ton of fun. We did the 11 hour drive home. It took us a little longer due to traffic and stops with 5 girls. But we got here on Friday. After being gone for a month I knew I was in desperate need of groceries. So I went to the store with 5 girls. I did it and it was not bad. I did hear a few times can I have that. Can I have this. We decided we would just go look at the beach this night. The girls were just so excited to see the water. So we all went not in swim suits just our clothes. It was fun and well I should of just put on swim suits. Telling 5 girls do not get soaked we have to run to Wal-Mart after this must of meant... Get wet Aunt Tara will take us home and change us and then we will go to Wal-Mart. So all the girls were soaked except Bethannie. Mostly because they would try to go out in the waves a bit and the wave would come up and soak their pants. Mackenzie just totally fell in the water. Well I let them have fun and we did go to Wal mart with the girls wet. I told them it was fine. they had played enough where it was not like they were drenched any more. It was a fun first day of our trip.

Bethannie's 8TH Birthday

Bethannie and her American girl books.


Bethannie and her great grandma.

Bethannie and her new purse. She loved it.

Bethannie opening her presents

Bethannie got high school musical cupcakes for her birthday

Annie with Aaron.

Bethannie opening her presents.

Bethannie with her cousins.

She got 2 new outfits from Justice, a light up journal, a ipod, and a new purse. She loved it all.

July 4th

We went to our family friends the Westermeyer's. I think they figured out that the 2 families have been doing the 4Th together for about 52 years. I grew up always going to their house or them coming to my grandmas house. It is always a lot of fun. We were very glad we got to be there and see every one who came for the 4Th. The kids have fun playing with all the little kids and their cousins. they have a bunch of great Dane dog that the kids always think are so funny because they are bigger then they are. Well I did not take a lot of pics that day either but I did get a pic of the kids. What a great day.

Kids first Reds game

Dad and James


Grandma with Bethannie

The 2 goofs.

So I thought the kids would just love going to see a real baseball game after the 2 older ones both playing this last spring. They did indeed love it. I thought that since we were going to be in Cincinnati we would ask my dad and Margaret and my grandparents if they wanted to join us. I thought they would like it as well. We had a blast. The night we went every one got a seat and a hat for $10. So we thought not a bad deal. The kids would wear their hats and then take them back off. For the most part they all did really good and they all said they loved it.

Great grandma and Mackenzie

James with his mouth full of popcorn so into the game.

Bethannie

looking down at all the seats of our family.

Thanks for going with us Dad and Margaret and Grandma and Grandpa. It was a lot of fun.

A quick trip to Ohio

I went and saw some friends of mine while I was up in Dayton. I thought the kids would love seeing them after not seeing them for so long. I was so right. they loved it. the loved being able to just run and ride bikes and have fun. I helped my friend Monica paint her house. She said she was thinking about it and before we ever even thought about going to sleep that night we had already painted most of the room. It was so funny. her husband said I was not allowed to leave till the room was done. I told him he had to finish it. Thanks Monica for letting us crash at your house for the night. I really appreciate it.

Next stop was in Alabama

We celebrated Bethannie's 8Th birthday a little early while we were in AL. My mom and Mark wanted to be able to be a part of it. So we made a chocolate thin mint ice cream cake. It was supper yummy and that was just what Bethannie wanted. We never do chocolate cake for birthdays because big James does not like it. Like her curly hair. We love making her have curly hair every once in a while. She loves it because it makes her look like one of her cousins. She got a fake American girl doll as she says. She really wants a real one but at this time just not something she was going to get for her birthday from my mom. Any how we had a lot of fun being there as well. We were there for about a week and a half and it was fun getting to know Adam my stepbrother and his new wife.

First stop on our trip

So we went to my dad and Margaret's for a week at the beginning of our trip. We went to the pool a lot and the kids loved it. They really are all a bunch of fish.I was really bad at taking pics of every one while I was gone so Sorry I did not get any of them.

Our ward 5K for service

So we did a service project where we decided everyone who wanted to would run or walk a 5K. If you chose to run it you needed to bring in canned good that we would then donate to a food bank for people here in our area who needed them. It was such a fun morning. We had a few others turn out for it but they had already left before we got this picture. there was a before pic but I did not get that one. So here we all are after our 5K. The girl in the pic at top was going to be moving a week later and we were not going to be seeing her anymore and so I grabbed one last pic with her before we left. It was a not so great pic but I still was glad we took it.

My little Diva

So Mackenzie was told to go to bed one night and she was being really quiet and so I went in to check on her to see if she had fallen asleep. No she was not asleep. This is how she looked when I walked in. I thought who lays in bed at night with sunglasses on reading a book. Only my kid. She was so cute though.

Baseball is it really over?

So the kids have both enjoyed playing ball this spring. Bethannie however has decided it is not a sport for her right now. James however loved it and wants to play again so he will be playing again this fall. It was a lot of fun watching both the kids learn how to play and get better at it as the season went on. We will be missing sitting out every Saturday for 4 hours minimum for 2 months straight. What ever will we do now to fill our time? Relax that is what.

Busch gardens

I went with a friend of mine and her girls and went up to Busch Gardens. it was fun because we went as soon as the kids went to school that day and we just took the little girls. They had so much fun. We will miss going with them now because they have now moved and so we will not see them now for a long time.

Gracie and Annie waving and making faces.


Elizabeth and Mackenzie waving.

The girls in the water part

Mackenzie stopping long enough to say hi