The Cookman's come for a visit!

We were so blessed to have our good friends, Dale, Betsy and Cael come and see us in August! They were moving from CA back to MN and decided to come by way of the Durkee Ranch. We were so excited to see them and to finally meet their son, Cael. He and Hope hit it off and had a great time together...they are now great buddies! Cael got to experience some "firsts" at our place, too...horseback riding, jumping in a bounce house and riding on a tractor. We had a wonderful visit with them and look forward to many more visits!

Dale, Betsy, Cael and our 4 kiddos Grace, Cael and Hope hanging out in the Bounce House
Dale, Oden the dog and Nolan...Nolan LOVED Oden! He would follow that poor dog all over the yard! Oden never got his usual naps with Nolan around...

Hope and Cael playing Super Heroes...very funny!

Guy and Cael

Dale and Cael on Cael's first tractor ride

Hope was very excited that she got to give Cael his first horseback ride

Cael and Hope...new friends

Betsy during dog feeding time!

Hope and Cael playing Yatzee

Hope turns 5!

Hope turned 5 in August...it's hard to believe that our little girl is getting so big! She got to experience her first "friend" party. We have always just had family parties for her, so she was very excited to be able to invite a few friends from church this year. We first celebrated with Mamaw and Aunt Tammy a couple of weeks early. Then she opened presents from us on her actual birthday, followed the next weekend by her friend party...I was partied out by the end of it! :-)

Hope and her friends She wanted a Minnie Mouse theme, so we had Minnie ears for the girls and Mickey ears for the boys.
Hope and her Minnie cake

Her Big Wheels from Mamaw

Very excited about her Princess trash can from Tammy for her room!

Hope and Mommy with the first Minnie cake I made...I forgot Minnie's eyelashes on this one! The second one was better...

Celebration of the Razorback

Only in Arkansas would you have an afternoon devoted to Celebration of the Razorback! :-) Seriously, the U of A was celebrating a hundred years and had a fun family day of autographs, music, balloons, face painting and picture opportunities with coaches and mascots. We had a great time!

Head Football Coach Bobby Petrino

Joy with the girl mascot
Nolan couldn't get enough of this guy...he wanted to take him home with us! (Grace wouldn't take a picture with one of them...once again they are opposites!)

Mommy and Hope

Hope with some of the cheerleaders

Daddy, Nolan and Hope with Tusk

The only picture I got of the day that has Grace in it in...sort of! Posing with our awesome balloons!

Nolan got a basketball

Hope got a pink razorback...surprise, surprise!

Joy 30 -35 weeks

Joy is growing up so quickly. She loves sitting up now and grabbing anything and everything she can get her hands on!

35 weeks

34 weeks-first time swimming

33 weeks-Father's Day

32 Weeks-just too cute!

31 weeks
30 weeks

July 4th Fun

July 4th is always fun...we have a church fellowship time the Wednesday before...lots of food, volleyball, egg toss, balloon toss and of course fireworks. Then on the 4th, we went to the Springdale parade and then that night hung out with the Chamlees to do sparklers and watch some more fireworks. Nolan tossing Daddy and egg...that silly egg didn't break until after the fireworks!

Hope doing the egg toss

Volleyball fun

Twin hugs

Nolan enjoying the fireworks...he kept asking for more!
Grace liked them too

All dressed up for the parade
Waiting for the parade
Our cute little cowgirl

Hope having sparkler fun Nolan's first sparkler

Grace's sparkler

Garden/Outside Fun

We have been enjoying the outdoors at our house. Here are some pics of the kids playing and also some of our garden.

Grace and Nolan cooking me a meal in their playhouseHope and Joy on the swings
Hope going down the sprinkler slide...Grace and Nolan not too crazy about it as you can tell!

Slip and Slide...again Hope was the only participant!

Grace getting her shoes back on

Nolan loved to supervise

We love to have lunch on the picnic table

Our cucumber and squash garden that has gone CRAZY!

The main garden

Now just waiting on the veggies!