splish splash!

we went to the splash pad with our sweet friends the Cochell's this afternoon and we had so much fun!

thanks jen for inviting us!!!

emma & keaton

sophie lynn

nolan and sophie checking things out

more heat is headed our way, temperatures in the 100's with heat indexes in the 105's and 110's.

I think I hear on a daily basis how miserable I must be being pregnant; I even had one lady say "my gosh, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes right now if you paid me". hmmm...why I do agree it's a bit toasty, I love being pregnant and don't mind the heat so much.

maybe next time we go to the splash pad it will be ME who is running around through the water!!!

texas rangers education

back to sports and my husband...

he LOVES the Texas Rangers. I must say I'm not a huge fan of professional baseball on t.v., I just can't make myself sit still to watch it...not the case with chris...and now emma rose!

the other night, chris and emma hopped in bed for a long time to watch the Rangers play.

I could hear him explaining the game to her for over an hour, and she LOVED it!

so fun! at least he found someone to enthusiastically watch with him!

now she's saying "I want to play baseball" and "Here's how you hold a bat mommy"...wow!

to the lake!

this past weekend we were super blessed to go to the lake with a group of friends to the hartsock's lake house...

it's so fun to be there and such a bummer to leave :(

brian & sarah make each part of the weekend so fun for the kids...to start saturday morning, Mickey Mouse waffles!

Sea Doo ride with daddy!

Emma went cliff jumping for the first time, after chris talked to her about it for about a minute, she jumped...over and over! port & haynes are professionals already!!

little Boo somehow fell asleep for the whole boating experience, despite all of the kids, noise, boat engine etc.

lots of fun at the dock

movie out on the deck with ice cream sundaes to come!

the doke's aren't vacationing this year so this little weekend trips are such a blessing to us!

the weekend ended with mommy having contractions 5 minutes apart, so this may have been our last weekend get away for awhile!

practice, practice, practice

so I had some more practice with 3 kids the other day when Sulley came and spent part of the day with us...if you know Sulley, you know he's super easy to take care of so I don't know how accurate the practice was!

sulley sandwich

Sulley made all of the kids robot costumes, complete with buttons!

...and maybe we had a few cookies from the bakery at Target too!

gracie girl is ONE!

happy birthday sweet Grace! we can't believe you are one already...it seems like yesterday gerod and kerri stopped by to show a cute video announcing they were pregnant! sweet girl, we prayed for you for so long and it's been more than a blessing to watch you grow and see who you are becoming.

you are the sweetest and we love you so much!

emma helped herself to ice cream & cupcakes! yummy!

love you grace!

"cheese!"

little Boo loves to say "cheese!" for the camera!

one thing we are learning about Sophie is her love of being by herself, be it floating off in the pool (with floaties!) and just soaking by herself, sitting under tables and chairs reading, sitting on the couch, playing with toys in a corner...just off in her own little world of Sophie.

so funny!

love you sweet one!

A NighT at ThE MuSeUm

the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History has a movie night each month where you can bring sleeping bags, pillows, lawn chairs etc. and they clear out the main hall way to drop a huge screen to show a movie! this time it was How to Train Your Dragon, a little intense but really cute movie.

we went with our dear friends the Ho's and as always, had such a great time!

little Boo

sulley & emma

it's a late night but so worth it!

now...if we could just get our kids to sleep in the next morning, that would be perfect!

just a day

we've been in a heat advisory for a few days here in toasty Norman, OK...the advice from the local news has been "don't go outside unless it's necessary and for only a few minutes"...hmmm, that doesn't really work so much with kids, especially kids who LOVE to be outside all day long! we were a little sun-kissed and tired from the sun so we had a day of indoor things!

- birthday cupcake delivery to Grace

- fitting and measurements at Kim's for Emma's flower girl dress

- Target for new princess shoes and tiara's (of course!)

- CVS for vitamins (11 weeks and counting till baby girl makes her arrival!)

- Barnes & Noble to play with trains and pick out a book

- lunch with our dear friends the Lane's and Newton's

we saw our sweet friend Millie at B&N too!

sophie normally doesn't let anyone else (including chris!) hold her if I am around, but she loved Ned and I think was content with me leaving for the day!

kids' table for lunch! in case you ever want a gigantic cookie for $1, McAllister's is a great stop!

love you Lane's...wish we lived closer!

daddy & his girls

if you know my husband, you know he LOVES sports...I mean, he can tell you an OU football game score by the quarter for the past 10 years. it's remarkable! he used to sleep to Sportcenter in the Young Life building years ago...we walked into Boomer Sooner at our wedding reception...our wedding was planned around OU football...he works for OU sports marketing and his office is in the football stadium...you get the picture!

how funny the Lord would bless him with 2 little princesses, soon to be 3 little princesses!

I must say, watching you with our little girls warms my heart and brings me to tears of joy. you are excellent at tea parties, swaddling baby dolls, tasting fake food, twirling and dancing...

you are a wonderful prince to your princesses!

we LOVE you!!!

boo & bear

are we old enough?

this weekend we were in tulsa and my friend lisa arranged a play date for a group of us who have known each other for over 20 years! it was so fun to see everyone and see everyone's sweet kiddos and babies!

bec, I am SO glad you are home from India!

dylan, gavin, eli, emma, adorlee

kate, braden, becca & baby to be, me, sophie, gabe, cherish, daena & baby to be, lisa, graham

~it was so funny to look around, we used to be the kids playing on the floor and riding bikes to each other's houses...and now we're the mommies with mini vans and car seats in the drive way! are we old enough for this?

becca is my sweet friend from childhood, we lived 3 houses down from each other, were college roommates, attendants in each others' wedding...lots of history together and so many amazing memories the Lord has given us as friends, sisters. funny thing is our oldest children are 3 months apart, our youngest children are 3 months apart, and our 3rd babies to come will be 6 weeks apart! now if we just lived in the same city!!! at least were on the same continent now!

love you becca, you are so dear to me!

meredith's wedding

we went to tulsa this weekend to see my wonderful family, some friends from out of town, and go to meredith and skylar's wedding. we wanted to take emma so she could see what a flower girl does since she'll be in a wedding in a few months! my sweet mom took her shopping for a pretty dress earlier that day- thanks muka! we had so much fun taking her on a date!

we were sad to leave the reception early because it was pushing bed time on an already tired little girl...we had talked about cake and dancing, so we gave her the option of ice cream instead and she was all for it!

meredith, you were such a gorgeous bride and we are so blessed we got to come celebrate your special day! loved the dress, the veil, your bridesmaids' dresses...loved everything!

birthdays!

this month we celebrated a lot of birthdays...my sweet friends Shannon and Allison and Emma's friend Port!

we had so much fun celebrating everyone on their special day! I didn't get to go to Shannon's coffee girls' night because I was having contractions! this baby seems ready to make her presence known...not yet little one! :)

sophie, ella, & asher enjoying yummy cupcakes

chris and I were talking about how we never gets pics of us with the kids...so here's sophie and me, my little Boo!

emma, beau, & haynes

beautiful flowers to celebrate my beautiful friend Allison!

we are so blessed to have such wonderful friends who we get to celebrate life with!

happy birthday!

delicious & nutritious!

I know I get in a rut sometimes cooking dinner each night...I love getting new and easy recipes from others so I thought I would share a summer family favorite meal of ours!

chicken & veggie kabobs

- peppers, onions

- chicken

- your favorite marinade or olive oil

- salt & pepper

- brown rice

(skewers and a grill)

1. cut up veggies and chicken separately and season with marinade and salt/pepper (I do this in the morning so everything soaks all day, but you can do it 30 minutes before too)

2. preheat grill to med/high

3. place veggies/chicken on skewers, cook (4 minutes on each side or until done)

4. serve over brown rice, enjoy!

I love this meal too because there's little clean up involved and it's a great way to learn how to grill!

happy summer grilling!

hAppY 4tH of JuLy!!!

we had so much fun celebrating the 4th of July in Tyler, TX this year with chris' oldest brother and family!

we packed up and headed to Texas on Friday afternoon- fun times!

watching late night fireworks with cousins

lots of driving :)

and some napping...

hope you had a happy 4th!