Yorktown Beach

It's not too hard to keep track of Quinn at the beach cause she spends most of her time just like this

Hard to know if thats chocolate or sand on their faces since they like to eat both

Burying Lily's uncle Jared

Quinn wanted to sit by Ashlee the whole time - it's a little offensive that she likes Ashlee more than me

Me and Ashlee have decided to make going to the beach one of our regular summer activities.  We've only been twice but we're getting smarter everytime we go.  We've learned that bringing an umbrella changes the whole experience (duh) and also that it's much smarter to drop off all our stuff on the beach BEFORE we park instead of carrying 2 coolers, chairs, bags, towels, toys, and 4 kids all in one load (duh)!  Did I already meantion that I LOVE summer!?!

I love seeing the different phases my kids go through, Beck went through a phase where he would carry around a bouncy ball all day every day.  Right now Quinn is always carrying around an empty bowl and spoon around the house and she is obsessed with wearing Beck's penguin slippers all the time. 

What else is new

Enjoying a little chocolate milk

I think it's becoming obvious on this blog that everytime Lily and Finn come over to play with Beck and Quinn that I can't resist a photo shoot. ( I should probably just put up a permanent picture of Lily and Finn on my sidebar.)  They play so well together that I could just let them play and get things done around the house but instead I choose to spend my time following them around like a big creeper because it's so fun to watch them play and hear all their conversations

Movie at the Park

Last weekend they did a movie at the park and showed the "Muppets".   It was really fun the weather was perfect and there wasn't a crazy amount of people there to see it so Quinn could move around a little when she got restless.

Waiting for the movie to start

I think Quinn is trying to Lady and the Tramp Tanner with a peach gummy

Quinn and her boyfriend Matt.  She would not leave him alone the whole movie, she sat on his lap the whole first half of the movie and then he layed down and she kept going over to him and laying on top of him.  Natalie said that she went to put her hand on Matt's leg and Quinn lifted up her hand and tossed it off and then Quinn started rubbing his leg.  What can I say the girl knows what she wants and really goes after it!

Summer Lovin

I am loving summer and everything that goes along with it.  There is nothing better than spending our afternoons at the pool followed by a backyard bbq for dinner.  I love dressing Quinn in a little summer dress, Beck in his flip-flops, giving the kids popsicles, the smell of sunscreen, GETTING A TAN, walks around the neighborhood before bedtime...I love it all!

The Drive-In

I LOVE the drive-in!  For some reason we never even thought to check if we had a drive-in around here until last week we found out there's one 30 min away, and now that I know it's there I think I'll be one of their most loyal customers.   They were showing Madagascar 3...I'm pretty sure that it was a good show except we spent so much time trying to figure out how to turn off the light inside our car, switching back and forth from sitting inside and outside of the car with Beck,  and getting mauled by Quinn who was on a huge sugar high, that I didn't actually see much of the movie.  And yet even though I know the kids will act the exact same way if we went again... I still want to go again next weekend!

Preschool

Lincoln and Beck - this picture cracks me up they're only a year apart!

Beck had his last day of preschool until next fall, and I don't think he's too heartbroken about it.

They had a party the last day where the parents could come watch the kids get their certificates.  And then afterwards, since we love any excuse for icecream me and Ashlee took Beck and Lily to Sweet Frog.

The Cave

Would it sound crazy if I told you that I left Beck in my closet for 3 hours the other day...because I did, but I promise you he was the one that wanted to stay in there for that long!

Beck has been way into "huts" lately so usually I just drape blankets over chairs or get out his tent but I was feeling lazy the other day and didn't want to get out all the blankets to make a hut so I asked him if he wanted to play in a cave and I gave him a flashlight and cloring book and put him on my top closet shelf and he LOVED it!!   I kept coming in and asking if he wanted me to get him down and everytime I got a very enthusiatic "NO!', and every single day now he asks to play in the cave...who knew entertaining a 3 year old could be so easy!?

Landon and Julie

I just want to share this touching story about my cousin Landon and his beautiful wife Julie they are two of the most kind, most fun, and most AMAZING people I know - seriously, I'm not just saying that cause we're family, I really love them.   Check out their adoption story here:

http://bigtoughgirl.blogspot.com/2012/06/new-life-endshope-lives.html

Sorry Ladies - He's Mine!

Beck is a dream child (I'm choosing to forget about all of his crazy 3-year-old tantrums right now) I don't know how I got so lucky to get this kid!  Let me give you a few examples of why I say this:

1 - The other day I was emptying the dishwasher and Beck comes up behind me and just picks up the tray of silverware and goes and puts it all away - in the right slot and everything, and then when he was done with that he took all of the waterbottles out of the dishwasher and without me asking filled them all up with water and put them in the fridge

2 - Dane swept up the kitchen floor the other night and then put the broom away and just left the pile of food and dirt on the floor, and then 2 minutes later (without me saying anything) Beck walks in the kitchen, see's the pile of dirt and gets the broom and dust pan back out and sweeps the dirt into the dust pan and throws it away!!!  What the heck, how did he notice and think to do that!?

3 - This has happened multiple times - I've been in the kids room getting them dressed in the morning and handed Beck his clothes to put on and he says: "not until I make my bed silly!".  The crazy thing is up until that point I had NEVER told Beck to make his own bed.

4 - This is just sweet - the other night we put both kids to bed and Quinn was crying so I went in to comfort her and Beck said that he wanted her to lay by him so I put her next to him in his bed and for almost ten minutes he held her hand with one hand and tickled her face (the soft way) with his other and kept sporadically kissing her forehead, and then finally said "it's time for you to go to bed now sweetie" and gave her a kiss and told me to put her back in her crib.

What a guy huh!?!?  I would say I don't know where he gets it, but I have an idea...a couple of Dane's highschool friends have told me that one of their favorite things to do when they went to Dane's house in highschool was open a cupboard or move a rug or pillow when Dane wasn't looking and then without skipping a beat he would immediately notice it and fix it.

The rest of the weekend

Monday we went to lunch and the fountains with Hone's

Tanner & Quinn (showing a little attitude)

Look who's actually getting wet at the fountains

After the mall we went over to a bbq at Dustin and Jessie's

Beck spent the entire bbq hovering over the dessert table

Ashlee, Natalie, Julie, Mandi, Lindsay, Nichole, Michelle, Jessie, me, Brityn, Danielle