Jude's birthday

we are so happy to have our cousins living so close to us now.  my cousin Caitlin and her cute little family joined us here in sunny AZ.  the kids are thrilled to have more cousins to play with. 

Jude had his third birthday, and we were so thrilled to come to his swashbuckling party!

 complete with pin the patch on the pirate!

 Bubba is getting so much more mobile these days!

 little A, in her soccer uniform!  she will be thrilled when she finally gets to play on a team!

 how cute are these priate ship cupcakes?

 good times were had by all!

Anna's love of books

i love how much my babies love books, stories, reading.  this is not the first time I've found this girl surrounded by books! and i hope not the last!

winter garden

this year i planted a winter garden for the first time.  i only did a few crops i thought we would eat.    the peas are in, and the kids absolutely love them!

early risers

some of my favorite moments are those we have just lounging around here. 

these baby blues kill me!  this boy is taking over the house for sure, on nothing but pure charisma!

these two babies are best buds.  it is so fun to see Colin light up when his big sister says, "good morning Bubba!" 

spirit week!

we were a little bit behind on getting things together for spirit week.  (seriously, coaching soccer has taken a few extra brain cells.)  i took no other pictures of the week.  but really, i think i captured the best of the week. 

Nerd Day. 

this is my little nerd in all her awesomeness.

i loved the cropped jeans with Hello Kitty socks, mis-buttoned shirt, Bubba's tie, crazy pony tails, and the best part, my old glasses with the glass poked out!  this is one cute nerd!

ostrich festival

each year our family eagerly anticipates the arrival of Chandler's Ostrich Festival!  i have always loved a fair, the rides, the animals, the food!  what's not to love?  this was Bubba's first time at the fair, and he loved it!

 this year we smartened up and bought ride bracelets for the kids rather than buy individual tickets per ride.  this made it much more fun since we could just say "yes" to every ride every kid wanted to go on. 

 one of the best  parts of the ostrich festival is the ostrich races!  this year we went straight there to watch the whole race from the front road. 

 Bubba was a good sport all night!

 and the girls got much braver about all the rides this year.  although, Avery the daredevil was still stymied by her size and not able to ride everything yet. 

on a sad note, some of my delicious fair food was spilled  on the ground!  oh well, there's always next year!

Hello Kitty birthday party for Madeline!

this Hello Kitty fan had a party for the ages!  she and 16 of her closest friends painted their nails, played pin the bow on Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty pinata, cake and ice cream, and much, much more!

it was a fun day for everyone.  Aunt Kiki was there, Grandma and Grandpa!  who could ask for anything more! 

and just for journaling purposes i'd like to review the schedule of my events today: 8 mile run, coach 1 soccer game, watch another, newborn session, birthday party for Madeline, birthday party for mom and me!  it was a great day!