Happy Birthday, Katrina!

We celebrated Katrina's Birthday after church on her actual Birthday~July 20th! Mom and Papa made a delicious lunch including BBQ chicken and corn on the cob. (: It was a beautiful day so we all ate in the backyard and relaxed in the shade.
Katrina and Finley
Katrina with her gifts.
Finn smelling Mama's new bubble bath from us. It looks like he's going to take a drink (:

A close-up of Tyler and I
For dessert, Kenton got an ice cream cake from DQ decorated by Becca. (: It was really yummy!

The Henry Family
I think Griffin bumped my arm as I was taking this picture...kind of an interesting effect.

Happy Birthday, Sadie!

Sadie had a Strawberry Shortcake Birthday Party at the playground near Memaw and Papa's house on Saturday, July 19th. Becca decorated cupcakes and also served ice cream cupcakes from Dairy Queen. (: It was a fun party with lots of sweet cousin moments and family time.

Sadie handed stickers out to all of the kids at the party, which Griffin thought was pretty cool.

As the kids were playing with sidewalk chalk, Mark Benson drew this picture of Strawberry Shortcake by looking at one of the party napkins. (: How cute!

The Birthday Girl and her Mama!

Sadie and her Dada!

Sadie had lots of little helpers while she opened her presents. She was a really good sport about it and had fun sharing her new treasures with her brothers all of her "boy"friends. We kept Ronan busy by giving him the job of running all of the wrapping paper to the trash can. (:

Best Buddies ~born just a year and 12 days apart.

Aaron and Becca found this super cool bubble wand that turned out to be a huge hit with all of the kids (and adults)! It was really easy to operate, so even the youngest kids could make it work.

Ben, Ronan, Sadie, and Griffin chasing a big bubble up the hill.

I wonder why our boys are always 'monkeying' around. Daddy is such a good example. (:

Tyler pushing Luke in the swing and getting him to giggle.

Josh and Kenton happened to be wearing their matching shirts. Aww, how cute. (:

Toward the end of the party I got some snuggle time with baby Luke. He is such a sweet boy--so cuddly and little.

Great Grammie & Grandpa's Pool

Saturday, July 19th

The Creagers came down to Eugene so that Brad could help Josh prime the walls on the inside of our house. While they were working, the kids and I went to the pool where Great Grammie & Grandpa Lermo live. Josh's mom brought the Creager kids, and the Greens met us there a little later. I was packing up to leave as the Greens got there so I didn't end up getting any pictures of Ethan and Macey swimming...but you can see Amy's pictures here.

Great Grandpa, Grammie, Ronan, Lydia, Dylan, Great Grammie, and Audrey in the pool. Griffin is standing out of the pool wearing the green water wings. (:

Great Grandpa helping Dylan with his water wings.

Lydia, Ronan, and Audrey jumping into the pool at the same time.

Here's a little video clip of the cousins jumping into the pool. They had so much fun together (:

Quick Update: Plaster and Painting

The garage door and all of the exterior doors have been installed. The siding is close to being done and we've decided on exterior paint colors. We will hopefully be ready to paint in the next few weeks.

A view of the front of the house:

The dry wall and plaster has been done for a few weeks now, and we are in the process of painting & prepping for cabinets in the kitchen and bathrooms.
Here is a look at the plaster:

View from the upstairs looking down at the fireplace:

Our appliances have been delivered:

Throughout the construction process I haven't gotten to do much work on the house because I am mainly with the kids, but lately I've been getting to do a lot of painting. We've been putting the kids to bed, bringing the baby monitor out to the new house, and then painting until we are tired. (:

Katrina came over to paint with me last Friday night and we finished the laundry room and kitchen!

soccer, swimming, sidewalk chalk, and more

Here's a glimpse into our continued summer fun: July 15-17

Ronan is still enjoying going to soccer each week. He is having lots of fun and learning some skills. (: His coach is really funny and does a great job of keeping the kids interested and excited about soccer.

Two boys joined the class recently, so now there are 2 girls and 3 boys total.

We've been going swimming as much as we can. Becca and I often take our kids together and sometimes meet up with other moms & their kids. Our kids are all doing great in the water! Tyler loves swimming, going down the slide, and jumping off the diving board. He is always in the pool the longest. Ronan is basically swimming on his own now, but prefers to stay close to where he can touch. Sadie and Cohen float around independently with water wings or holding onto noodles, and Griffin is content floating on his own (pretty close to me).
Ronan and Caitlin Sims

Swimming makes for hungry kids! I just love how happy Griffin looks in this picture (:

Ronan and Sadie ask to play with each other pretty much everyday. We had Sadie over the day before her birthday so that Becca could get some shopping done.

Ashley also stopped by that day to say a final goodbye before moving to Norway. He and Ronan are pretty silly together. Josh and I aren't very sarcastic and don't joke a whole lot with our kids, so it has taken Ronan a little while to understand when Ashley is joking or being serious. He now gets Ashley most of the time. (:

In this picture Ronan is laughing really hard about something that Ashley said. (: We are all going to miss having Ashley and Camilla close by!

On Sadie's Birthday a few of us went to Dairy Queen for lunch. Her party was still a few days away, so it was fun to celebrate with her on her real birthday.

So happy to be 5!!

Memaw and Papa got home the night before from their vacation, so Papa joined us while Memaw was back to work in the hair salon.
Just a couple of "Papa's boys" (:

More to come--July has been full of fun Birthdays and progress on our house...

Fun with Finn

Monday, July 14th
We babysat Finley for a few hours while Katrina was at work. Memaw and Papa were on vacation in California, so Katrina and Becca had to get a little creative with childcare. Our kids all love to play together, so we were looking forward to some Finley time! My boys were still in their jammies when Finn arrived, and it turned out that Griffin and Finn had the same surfer pajamas on. (: They were so sweet and loving to each other. We played at our house for awhile, then we strolled to the nearby elementary school playground--to climb and swing and slide!

Giving hugs (:

Playing "store" with Ronan.
Finley watching closely as Griffin handled the money.

These are just a few pictures I took after nap time later that afternoon. Ronan had his shirt off, so Griffin wanted to take his shirt off, too. They were racing each other from the couch to the back door over & over again. I love it when they find things to do together that they both enjoy (:

Home to our Boys

We got back to Eugene just as Griffin was waking up from his nap at Grammie & Grandpa's house. It was such a sweet reunion! Ronan and Griffin both ran to us as soon as they heard our voices (: Griffin was super cuddly and Ronan was full of stories of all of that they did.

Mama and GriffinDaddy and Ronan

That evening we gave the kids their souvenirs from our trip.
A monkey for Griffin...

A baseball hat for Ronan...

It felt so nice to be back home with our boys!