Time with Beckie and Marques



For the first summer since Brendon was born I decided to stay home. Fortunately we had many family members plan trips to come visit us. The first  to visit was my sister Beckie and her boyfriend Marques. We had a great week with them.  We did a lot of fun things. Which included getting them both addicted to games on our IPad!

                                              
Playing in the Bentonville Square Fountain

                                       

 

 Naturals Baseball Game

 Crystal Brigde Gardens

Learning how to play Baseball with Marques

 First Corn on the Cob

We tried cutting the corn off the cob, but she wanted to east it like everyone else. 

 Splash Park

 Angry Birds Game

We bought snacks for Beckie and Marques to enjoy while at our house. Red vines was one of them. Arianna enjoyed them.

 Plating on Brendon's water slide

Take a close look at Brendon's face. This is how he felt about sister having a turn.

Dinner at Abuelo's

 Fun crafts with Aunt Beckie

Birthday! Birthday!

We have been busy the past couple of weeks with both the kids birthdays. It was crazy planning two birthday parties in two weeks, but a lot of fun as well. Each year I make a cake and plan a party for the child having the birthday. I love to explore with different cake ideas and have fun trying new things.

Arianna's Birthday came first. We had a Giraffe themed party. I had a blast planning and decorating for her party. I was very excited to finally get to have a pink party. Making her cake was a learning experience. I spent many hours on the phone with my fabulous sister Lindsey who talked me through the fondant frosting. I can't believe my baby is a year. She is the personality of the family. Some things that make her special are: her scooting around on her bum instead of crawling, Her scowl, the way she smiles and says hi to everyone! You are my baby girl Arianna. I love you.

ARIANNA'S PARTY

bubble party favors



The Cake



Its my party and I'll cry if I want to.

Birthday Girl and her cake.

eating the cake

yummy

opening the presents



BRENDON'S PARTY

It was really fun to plan Brendon's party because he was able to help. He picked out the theme, what cake he wanted me to make, and all the friends he wanted to invite. His party was  a T-Rex pool party. We had a T-Rex bone cake, Brachiosaurus cookies and Dino bones for each kid to take home. Brendon is my little man that loves to help me cook, play trains, swim and much more. He is a very helpful with things around the house and know more about the Ipad than I do. Happy 4th Birthday Brendon!  I Love you.

Party favors

The Cake

Blow- up slide and pool.

Ready to blow out the candles!

opening presents


BIRTHDAY DINNER

Along with the Birthday celebration we have the Birthday Dinner. The Birthday Girl or boy gets to pick the menu for dinner the night of their birthday. Arianna had her favorite Macaroni and Cheese with watermelon. Brendon had wings. I think Brendon was more excited to use the red plate then he was to eat the dinner on it.



Summer time

We have had a blast this summer!  I am trying to enjoy as much time with the kids as possible. Since Brendon starts preschool in the fall. We recently got a splash park 5 minutes from our house. We have loved it. Arianna even gets in on the action.
                                     

cuddled up with daddy.

 We took a quick trip up to Wisconsin to visit family and be a part of Michael's farewell. He was called to serve a mission in Mexico. He reports to the MTC this week. We are excited for Mikey and know he will be a great missionary. We love you Mikey. See you in two years. some fun things.  Before Anthony arrived we drove to Green Bay to the Train museum. Where we spent a day with Thomas the tank engine. There was a lot of fun activities to do all encompassing Thomas and the Island of Sodor. When Anthony arrived we took Arianna on her first go-cart ride with Brendon and Hailey. She couldn't decided if she liked it or not. We also had an early celebration for the kids birthdays. They both enjoyed that. It is always fun to spend time with family. We all had a great time.

showing off the train ticket

Taking a ride on Thomas.

Thomas the train

Play at the train museum.

 Arianna is in the car with me you can barely see her bow.

Passing by

Opening presents!

Loving what she got!

Katie and Arianna

siblings :)

 Fourth of July weekend was really fun this year. Anthony and Brendon both enjoyed going to the firework stands and picking out fireworks. I believe they went back 4 times! On the 4th we got together with some close friends and enjoyed a show of fireworks. Thankfully Arianna wasn't bothered by the noise. In fact she would clap and say "ya da dad".

hanging out before the firework show.



family



light it and run.

Month of May

May was a great month for our family. We had many wonderful and humbling experiences.

 To start the month off we had my dad come and visit us for a week. It was so much fun having him here. Brendon made sure he got in a lot of train time with Grandpa Mills. Any free time we had Grandpa spent it playing trains with him. Arianna followed him around the house everyday and fell asleep in his arms every night. Unfortunately my dad's visit came along with lots and lots of rain and  tornado warning. He got to be very familiar with our safe spot. He is convinced we need to move now. It was wonderful having him all to ourselves for the week.

Reading books with Grandpa.

Playing trains. The track they built together.

Saturday night at the Naturals Game

A baseball from the game!

Sleeping on Grandpa.

Playing in the rain!!

Soaked to the bone.

We were very fortunate to not have any tornadoes touch down in our area. Joplin a city about an hour or less from us was not so fortunate. They had a massive tornado touch down and destroy a lot of the city. The hospital, walmart, school and many other local stores and homes where destroyed. This really shocked  our family. Anthony has many customers that live in Joplin and we have friends families also there. Our church in this area was asked to gather up 200 men to go and help in the clean up effort. Anthony did not even question whether he should go or not. He quickly volunteered himself. He was gone Saturday and Sunday of that week helping in the clean up efforts.The first day he was there he was helping clean up debris that had fallen or damaged local homes. One woman came out of her house in tears, hugged Anthony and told him she had been praying for someone to come and help her. I felt blessed that my husband had the opportunity to help. It was a life changing experience. Pictures of this event will come soon.

 A year ago I was asked to fellowship a sister investigating the Church. Since then she has joined our church and we have become very good friends. Sunday the 29th her son Brenden was baptized. Anthony was asked to baptize him. It was such an amazing experience to watch my husband take Brenden into the water and baptize him. I am grateful for this gospel and opportunities like this that bring joy and happiness into our lives.

Anthony,Brenden, and Maria

Elder Schofield on the left taught Maria and her family the discussions