Brian's Birthday

Family birthday dinner for Kelli and Brian :)

For Brian's birthday, Jake wanted to have a lemonade stand so he could earn money to fix Brian's remote control car (he got it when he was 11 and it has been sitting in a box in the garage since then!  We took the pile of dusty car parts to the hobby shop and the shop owner spent 2 hours helping us get it running. It was SO cute to watch this gift unfold from Jake to Brian (and don't worry, I didn't actually make him pay for it....but loved the fact that he would have!).  My two favorite boys right there!

Birthday dinner at Grammies!

Wallace Visit

We were so thrilled to have the Wallace family stay with us this summer....we miss them so much and LOVE when we can all be together!

Jake and Mia have been waiting for their sleepover with Aiden and Quinn for MONTHS!  The whole thing was a good idea in theory, but within a half hour, the little people had moved rooms, beds, etc!  

Uncle Brian is always good for a little dance party!

All of them are getting so big :(

Mia ADORES Quinn and was so sad to see her go!

4th of July 2012

We went back to our Dublin neighborhood for the annual 4th of July block party.....glad they still let us attend ;) Lots of fun, as usual!

first sparkler ever!

Monterey 2012

One of our favorite weekend spots.....turned out to be a great little trip!

June Randoms

Here are a few random pics from the month....FYI, I don't tote my camera with me everywhere, but am a BIG fan of my iPHone that lets me snap a quick one whenever I feel like it!

Big girl....at the dentist!  I don't know WHY I always dreaded taking them to the dentist....movies, prizes, stickers.....seriously, kids these days have it GOOD.

He's an old pro..

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!  Thank you Auntie Staci (and crew) for this....it is awesome and has already provided us with many laughs!

This may not seem like a big deal, but Brian and I thought it was!  This was the first time we decided to brave a "nice" restaurant (this qualifies as one that has real table cloths, wine glasses, and soft music.....as opposed to the ones we usually go to with kids cups, crayons at the table, and so much noise you can hardly hear yourself think).  We went early as not to interrupt anyone, should our kids decide to misbehave.  We are very happy to report that we made it through without any meltdowns.

We got to have Tyler for a few days while Julie and Tim were out of town.....it was tons of fun and I just can't get enough of that little man.  However, running errands proved to be a challenge.  As you can see by this picture, it's a good thing that I didn't need very many grocery items!

Bath time x 3!  They LOVE their cousin!

Happy Birthday to me (again!)

This was quite a switch....being a guest and not the party planner for my OWN party! Brian earned some big points with a SUPER thoughtful surprise party for me! I had asked for an outdoor movie screen for my birthday...for the record, I did not ask for a set-up ANYTHING like the one Brian put together. Can't say I'm not happy about the "upgrade" from what I had asked for....but most of all, SO happy about the way it played out. In addition to buying me an awesome gift, he coordinated a surprise movie night party.....keep in mind that the only thing Brian usually volunteers to do for the parties we host is test the appetizers to make sure that they're edible! Sooo, I had also booked a surprise trip to Monterey as Father's Day gift for Brian....we ended up getting home from Monterey around 1pm....I left to run an errand with Julie at 4:30pm...and guests arrived at 7pm. In that amount of time (and with 2 kids in tow!), he went to the store to buy the food, picked up the cake, and set up the movie screen, etc. AMAZED! He's going to be sorry that he ever let me know how capable he can be when it comes to these things....I'm going to expect a lot more out of him as a future party helper! Jake and Mia picked out the movie "Dolphin Tale", and Brian invited a bunch of friends and family to surprise me + enjoy the movie. It was SO fun! With the help of a few very good friends, he set up a dessert/candy/popcorn table too....he knows I have a sweet tooth! I was feeling like one lucky girl, that's for sure! Many more movie nights in our future!