To honor the end of summer, we took the kids to an amazing park.  We all had a great time splashing in the water fountains, playing on the playground, and digging in the sand.






















Harrison is fascinated with shadows recently and squeals at them when he sees them move.




Exploring with that middle finger...






Harrison ADORED climbing in the tunnels, but you wouldn't know it by the picture, because it was serious business!


Chasing brother is even more fun!


Any time we had some down time at home, Connor would go out to the garage and "make a boat" (pull off all the sofa cushions and make a mess in the garage).  Despite the mess, I loved when he would put on headphones and listen to music, because he'd sing at the top of his lungs, unaware that others could hear him.  So cute.  I tried to sneak a pick, but this is him, embarrassed, trying to roll out of the frame.


He agreed to a photo with his boat, just no singing.


Nana and Papa treated the kids to ride wristbands at New West Fest.






Ever since Connor was tiny, whenever he was put behind a steering wheel, he'd get his sillies out for a second, then put on his driving face.  It's like he goes into his own little fantasy world of keys, cars, and the open road.




At first, Harrison didn't know what to think of all this screaming from his siblings...


...but he eventually warmed up to it and enjoyed the people watching!  What a way to tie a ribbon on summer!  Now we're ready to buckle down, get back into a more regular routine, and slow down a bit in the coming months (hopefully)!

We all know how the middle of our summer was spent, so let's recap the beginning, shall we?

The first few weeks of summer were filled with summer workshops for the kids (science for Connor and crafts for Alaina), afternoons at the pool, picnics at the park, and playdates with friends.  I think the biggest difference I noticed in having the kids home all the time was how much more they eat now!  I am in trouble when they are teenagers!  I brought a canister of trail mix to the pool one day, and Connor and Alaina were like wild dogs, packing as much as they could into their mouths before someone else could eat it!  I was embarrassed for them and amused all at the same time.






Taking three kids (who don't know how to swim) to the pool by myself was terrifying the first few times.  By the end of the summer, I've gotten to the point where I don't have an anxiety attack, but it's still not my favorite thing to do!

It's not summer without stitches (or so I hear), so Alaina was the lucky one to get seven in her chin after jumping into the pool backward and hitting her chin on the way down.


June began Harrison's insistence on feeding himself.  He's a great eater and will eat anything you put in front of him, but HE has to be the one to put it in his mouth, which can get quite messy!


On Father's Day, we had a nice brunch together, then had the extended fam over for a bbq.


Summer is my favorite season, and I love everything about it!  There's nothing better than an afternoon picnic, enjoying the soft clover underneath you as you stare up through the green trees above!






(Especially with a cute, babbling baby crawling all over you!)


Rather than risk everyone's lives at the pool, the slip and slide in the backyard has been the go-to entertainment.


It wouldn't be June in Colorado without some crazy thunderstorms, including this one, where the hail dumped so fiercely that Harrison was terrified of the windows rattling.


Not the best photo quality, but the electric storms in the evening were fun to watch.

With school starting in 3 days (but who's counting?!), I finally feel like I just might have enough "free" time to catch up on blog posts in the next few weeks!  Here's to a blog post bender!

This one is long overdue, but I finally took some pictures of the new house with our stuff in it.  We bought some new furniture so we actually have places for people to sit, eat, talk, and sleep, so who is coming to visit?!












The guest "suite" isn't the Taj Mahal, but it's better than an air mattress in the living room!  We still have some work to do on the basement (busy summer sucked up all of our resources!) and the kids' rooms, so we won't go into much detail there, but hopefully we'll have some visitors soon to fill up all of this new stuff! (hint, hint)

I'm not even going to attempt to blog the hundreds of photos from Yellowstone or Glenwood Springs.  A few days after we got home from the Glenwood Springs trip, Angela's brother and his family came to visit.  What kind, fun, down to earth people!  We spent lots of time visiting on the deck, checking out Old Town, going to Breckenridge (I stayed behind with the baby...I still am traumatized from so much time in the car this summer, so the thought of another 6 hrs in one day was enough to terrify me), and hanging out by the Poudre River.


We celebrated Papa's 50...something birthday (can't tell, since he's blocking the candles). :)


Alaina is looking entirely too grown up these days...


...and the fact that this little guy's first year is wrapping up is way too much for me to handle.  So happy and so sad at the same time!


As we're prepping to begin first and second grade, I was smarter this year and picked out the kids school shoes online and gave them a choice between two pairs instead of running around to EIGHT different stores like we did last year.  As much as an ordeal as that was, I now look at Alaina's beloved kindergarten shoes and can't believe how fast last year went.  It's thrilling and terrifying at the same time!  I never want to forget that she picked the "gems" off of her toes the first week to give as presents to her friends at recess.  She won't ever say "Suspitable Me" for Despicable Me again, and Connor's *this* close to realizing that "comftorful" is not the correct pronunciation of "comfortable". (I stopped correcting them because for some reason, they just keep learning!)  As much as I look forward to them growing, I would definitely be okay with time slowing down, just a little bit!


Mr. Baby is into EVERYTHING these days.  His favorite thing is to splash in the toilet, and with two older siblings who can't seem to ever remember to put the seat down, he gets to indulge himself more often than I'd like to admit!  I feel like between all three kids, I can never keep up with the messes!  If I'm cleaning up Legos or beads from the older kids, I walk out to the shoe rack or diaper bag all over the kitchen.  If I'm cleaning up Harrison's latest escapade into the bathroom trash, the older kids have trashed the garage while making "a boat". It never ends!






As I was driving home from the grocery store a few nights ago, I rounded a corner and was met with a huge Supermoon.  I've never seen one that big; it looked so close to the ground, too!  Eerie and beautiful!


There have been lots of little toads all over our yard and neighborhood.  Anthony caught one while the kids were at a birthday party, so they came back to a little "pet".  We explained that we were just going to keep him for the day, then let him go back to his family.


As we were releasing him, it was almost like a funeral.  Alaina, in a wistful voice, said, "Always remember...he was a part of our family".  Hilarious and heartbraking at the same time.  These kids need a pet, but this Mama does not!!


Woog now thinks that he is a big kid and should be entitled to everything his siblings do, especially going outside.  We have uncovered window wells (hopefully not for long!), so if I can't keep my eyes on him at all times, he can't come out.  When he does get to come outside, he just wants to put the rocks in his mouth.  He knows the word "No", so he has started turning his head and body away from me in hopes that I won't see him eat them, little stink!


Harrison's favorite thing is to play on the bed with his siblings.  It gives me a heart attack every time, but they all love it so much, I have to allow it.


Clapping (or doing his sign for more...they're hard to distinguish) as he's being manhandled.


 I have to go on record and say that his first word with real association is "Dada".  Not fair, but it is totally cute than whenever he sees Anthony or hears his voice, he says it.  Harrison isn't nursing much anymore these days (but wants to get up at 4 AM for a meal, just like Alaina did!) , and while I will miss the cuddles, I will be excited to have my body back.  We'll continue to nurse for another month, even though I don't think he's getting much, just to give his body a little bit more time to get ready for the bigger proteins of whole milk. Almost there!  Also, I have to point out the bruise on his head.  He is my first baby to hit his head against the crib to self-soothe, and his most recent teething episode was a doozy.  He needed lots of self-flagellation to get through it, I guess.



That made a pretty good dent in my backlog!  More to come!