Christmas in July! More BIRTHDAY fun!!!

1+2+3+5+17+19+31+55 = 133!!!

Chris' sister, Nickie and our two adorable nieces, Lexi and Chloe came out for a visit from Philadelphia where they are living while Nick completes his residency as a Radiologist!  All the girlies were able to come two weeks ahead of Nick for more fun and excitement so we had a big birthday bash to celebrate birthdays, being together and bonding memories!!!

Here is the birthday crowd!!! 

(It wasn't Brady's birthday but we didn't want him to feel left out so we let him celebrate too!)

We hosted a HUGE birthday bash at our place for all of the crazy July birthdays!

(+1 August birthday, +1 September birthday and 1 February birthday, Bradys')

My AWESOME sister-in-law Chelsae stayed up SUPER late with me a few nights before the party to help me make these party hats!  Aren't they super cute???!!!

Our super sweet and super crazy birthday girl!!!

I am addicted to making banners for parties!!!

Gifts Galore!!!

Chris' big birthday gift from me was his awesome new grill!!!  He does a great job grillin' up delicious meals and we love him all the more for it!  Doesn't he look so handsome?!?!

 D-E-L-I-C-O-U-S-N-E-S-S!!!

All of the cousins together for the first time since Chloe was added to our family!!!

And the birthday presents begin!!! 

We'll start with the youngest and go to oldest...(opening presents was CHAOS so I'm pretending that is was nice and organized! =)

 

I made Chloe an apron that coordinates with the one I made for Lexi last year

Olivia's turn!  She got some pretty necklaces from Auntie Nickie and also some fun stacking blocks and a dress-up bear "puzzle."  She loved them and started playing right away!!!  And she has been wearing her necklaces ever since!

Livy's big present was her new bike!!!

 (I also made a tutu and a headband, pictured but she wanted nothing to do with them...and she got a big girl potty!)

Miss Lexi's turn! 

We gave Lexi her birthday presents early since we were together.  She got a homemade purse from me and some ice cream bowls. 

Brady gets spoiled with presents too!

Brady got a bubble gun, some glo-sticks, a parachute guy and a few other gifts from Aunt Nickie and Uncle Nick and Grammie and Grandpa (they just couldn't let him feel left out!)

Next up the "The girls"  Chelsae had her 17th birthday at the beginning of July and we had a small party for her then and Shawnae birthday is the end of August, for which we also had a small birthday but we celebrated here as well of course!!!

Two crazy Sistahs'!!!

Chris was up next and he got a few DVDs (of course, his favorite!), a gift card to Best Buy, some "moo-lah" and this awesome Josh Beckett Red Sox picture from little bro Drew in Maine!!!  Chelsae just happened to be wearing her Beckett shirt!!!

Dad and Mom got a cute book of their trip to Philly last fall made by Nickie and an Old Testament Guide from us, along with some new digs and a boot warmer/dryer.

One cute couple!...

...And another cute couple!!!

Great Granma Jones, or "Grammie Opals" as our kids call her is always fun to have at a party!

What's a party without CAKE????

Preparing to blow out ALL of those candles!!!

Birthday KIDS: YOUNG and OLD!!!

AND....don't forget the CUPCAKES!!!

CHEERS!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVERYONE!!!

Greasy, but yummy food + awesome friends + birthday guy = Suprise "Man Party"!!!

For Chris' 30th birthday we had a pretty low-key family party so I wanted to do something bigger for him this year and planned a suprise party!  It was so much fun planning this party and I'm proud to say that he really had no idea about it (until he arrived home early before any of the guests and I made up an excuse why he couldn't come inside and had to run to the store to get me some brownies right that second!)

The theme of the night was "Man Party" and we enjoyed lots of greasy and tasty "man food" that we don't normally eat!  We also watched his new movie Avatar and had so much fun with our friends!  It felt like we were back in college again with two couples on the couch and four other couples on the floor sprawled out across pillows and blankets!  Thanks to all of our friends who were able to make it and I hope we have many more fun parties to come!

The birthday boy devouring his hot wings!

I made this birthday banner and hung it literally minutes before Chris got home and I had to send him away!

Our friends Jon & Charlotte Gardunia (with Alivia) and Chad & Candice Hymas (with baby on board and Carter also in attendance!)

Ryan, Nicole and Sophie Wells (Annie, not pictured)

Other friends that were able to come:  Shelby & Rachelle Williams, Shane & Shannon McEwen and Easton. 

Since we watched Avatar I served blue kool-aid and jell-o and we also has nachos and cheese, BBQ meatballs, bacon wrapped little smokies, buffalo wings, tater tots, chocolate chip cookies, and some veggies with curry dip for those of us who didn't want to die of a heart attack that night!  It was delicious and so much fun!!!

Suprise Birthday Picnic!

I am very blessed to celebrate the birthday of two of my favorite people every year on July 21st!!!  Olivia was born on Chris' 29th birthday and so to celebrate his 31st and her 2nd birthdays Brady and I planned a suprise picnic in the park!  We got some KFC (can't go wrong there) and picked Daddy up from work and then we had a nice picnic in the Rock Creek Canyon Park at our favorite picnic spot under a big beautiful tree.

After they each got to open up a present (Chris- Avatar) and (Livy- bubble whistle, thanks Sam and Alivia!) we went for a beautiful walk along the river!!!  It was such a perfect, beautiful night and it was so special to spend some nice time together as a family enjoying each other and the outdoors.

Before leaving the kids had fun playing at the park and making silly faces!

Boise Hawks Ballgame

Chris' company, Enterprise hosted a night at the Boise Hawks game so we took the kids and had a wonderful day in Boise.  We took the kids out to lunch at Tucanos' Brazilian Bar & Grille, then to the 3D Toy Story 3 (Olivia's first movie) and then we went to the mall for a little while to kill some time before heading over to the game.

Brady with the Hawk's mascott!  And the Hawks won!!!

Cute Friends

One of the other reasons why I love Twin Falls is because we have such wonderful friends here!  A couple of my friends and I swap babysitting which has been a huge blessing for me as it allows me to work part-time and make almost the same amount of money I was making full-time! 

On the day that we had our patio extended the kids all sat up in the window seat and watched almost the whole things (Brady and Sam would check on it every few minutes and the whole process took a few hours!)  They loved it when they brought the big cement truck in and poured the cement into the frame.

These two little girls Alivia (aka "Babia," as Livy calls her) and Olivia have become quite the little friends!  This particular afternoon they were getting along really well and being really silly so I took the opportunity to snatch some pictures!

A lot to catch up on...AGAIN!

Even though I have a lot to catch up on I always like to go chronologically so I'll be posting basically our entire summers' worth of activties over the next week so there will be several posts each day, just keep scrollin'!

Back in Idaho!

One of my favorite places (and the reason why I love Twin Falls) is the canyon.  We went down for a beautiful Sunday walk/hike and took some gorgeous pictures of the canyon, river and on the golf course!

We took our walk with Chris' two youngest sisters, Chelsae is pictured above

Our cute 5 year old!!!

We walked down onto the golf course after and the sprinklers were running...

Brady had a blast!

Chelsae and Shawnae had a blast too!!!

Sunday walks in the canyon definately on our "to do again" list!

Video from beach day in Maine..."We found a naked mermaid!"

                                                                                         

Wild Maine Lupines

My last pictures from Maine are of the wild lupines that grow in early to mid-June.  These have always been a favorite of mine and growing up I loved the story my mom used to read me called Miss Rumphius, a story by Maine author, Barbara Cooney which told of the "Lupine Lady" that sewed all of the lupine seeds around the countryside!