July 4th Randomness

 I got some great pictures on the 4th today, but while uploading the pics, noticed I had some other pics that I wanted to get posted on here...

So there are some random ones, such as

This one of Mags, after giving her a marker (washable, thank goodness) one morning while I was trying to fix breakfast.  It was the morning of our family pictures, so I was not pleased.

Mags was pretty proud of herself though!

 Colin finished up his soccer for the summer.  

He didn't really enjoy it, he might've been too young still, but at least Brian and I got our feet wet in terms of what to expect with youth sports.

 So proud of his medal

 It has a flaming soccer ball

 The only picture I got during Chris and Caitlin's wedding rehearsal.

I had a little girl on my hip that wouldn't let me put her down, so I didn't get any others.  Darn it!

 Colin and Olivia - The ring bearer and flower girl

 Two of my goofy family members

 We got our lumber delivered for our deck today...

Here's a before picture (just because I ALWAYS seem to forget "before" pictures)

 The big truck full of our decking lumber.

The kids were equally excited and terrified by the size of the truck

 The kids were distracted by the huge truck in our street

 My little loves

 Happy 4th of July!

Actually, that is exactly how Colin feels about this holiday.

It terrifies him!

He doesn't like the loud noises and gets very scared.  So, therefore, his little monkey-see monkey-do sister also feels the same way.

 He spent most of the time indoors at Grammie and Grandad's house because he didn't like the noise

 Or just covered his ears

 Such a cute pic of Mags and I

 Silly faces!

The whole gang!

We are so blessed!

Happy 4th of July America!!!

Family picture preview

We got our family pictures taken 2 weeks ago, but this time, it wasn't 107 degree outside like last time.

I picked the middle of June so we could get Maggie's 2 year pics and Colin's 4 year pics

(side note, I am still getting a grip on the idea of having a 4 year old!)

We went to Loose Park, in KC, MO.

Neither Brian nor I had been there before, and it was a beautiful park with lots of unique photo shoot locations.  There was a wedding reveal going on, plus a few other families getting engagement photos and such done.

The kids cooperated fairly well.

Yes, we bribed them...

with a promise of ice cream.

It worked!

Here's a few of the pics the photographer sent us immediately following the photo shoot.
We will get the edited CD with pictures in about another 1.5 weeks.

Sooo excited to see the rest!

 I love how this one turned out...

(even though I have a slightly goofy smile, because I am clearly saying "look at Alicia and smile, if you want ice cream!")

 My big guy!

He looks so handsome and grown up!

What a doll!

I just love her curly blonde hair (which she obviously gets from me!)

She is such a diva...

I will try to post some more when I get the CD a little later...

Crazy summer time

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted last...

that means we have been busy!

Both Brian and I have been really busy at work, and Colin still had soccer, and the kids ask EVERY NIGHT to go to the swimming pool, and I've had Corporate Challenge at work (where I swam every night this past week representing my employer, Children's Mercy), plus pre-wedding festivities (bachelor party, golf outings, last-minute scrambling for outfits, etc) for Chris and Caitlin's big day TOMORROW!

In all of this hectic-ness, I have been very forgetful about taking pictures.

I promise to take a lot of them tonight at the rehearsal dinner and tomorrow at the wedding reception.  We are so excited to have Caitlin join the awesome Teson family.  

Then, as an added bonus, we have my Aunt Dus and Uncle Len coming from Vancouver to visit for a couple of weeks.  We have some projects planned, plus lots of relaxing and enjoying each others' company.  I have the entire week of July 8th off of work (YIPPEEE!)

Here's a picture that a fellow swimmer took at the swim meet last night...

I know I'm not as fast as I used to be...but I had the cutest cheering section at the meet last night!!!

Soccer time

 Well we have a soccer player on our hands (the "player" being a very loose term)

We have had 3 practices, and this week, we will start our games against the other 3-5 year olds.

Colin is on the Purple Panthers, and Brian is the coach.  I think I accidentally signed him up for that when I enrolled Colin.

Brian took it in stride and we are having a great time watching Colin be a part of a team and learn new skills and techniques.

He isn't very aggressive (no shocker there), but is always smiling and having fun while playing.

We are trying to get him pumped up to play in his games, telling him to go after the ball no matter who has it.

We'll see how that goes!

Colin and his team with Coach Brian!

Look at that determination!

The  soccer field has a park nearby and Maggie just loves to play there during practice.

She will intermittently yell "go bubby, go!" during her play time!

Getting warmed up on the field one day.  This must've been the day that practice got "rained out"

I love this picture, my 3 loves!

Waiting for his turn

Zooming down the field!

Only 1.5 weeks of soccer left, and then next week I have Corporate Challenge at work.  I am swimming every night of the week.  Plus, that's the week before Chris & Caitlin's wedding, so there are many pre-wedding festivities (a.k.a. bachelor parties, golf games, etc) that Brian is participating in, so we will be stretched thin for a bit.

Oh, and that's vacation bible school week, as well.

Happy Summer everyone!

Party at GG Rita's place

 Our family headed off to a get-together at GG Rita's house tonight.  

The kids had a blast!  There was a bounce house, face painter, live musician playing nothing but the oldies, cotton candy, sno cones, and tons of food!

The kids got loaded up on sugar, that's for sure!!

GG Rita and Maggie Mae

Grandad and Olivia & Johnny

 Maggie and I, with Mags proudly displaying her "futterfy" face painting

 The best one that I got of the great-grandchildren and GG Rita,

I got about 5 other shots that included NO ONE looking at the camera

Colin just couldn't get enough of the cotton candy.

He's definitely got a sweet tooth like his mommy!

We had such a great time hanging out and enjoying each other's company.

Summertime get-togethers are so much fun!

pictures from Tiff and Chad's house

 Tiff sent me some pictures of the weekend with Colin and Mags. 

She said they all had a lot of fun, and instead of sending me the 2,485 pictures that were taken, I made her choose only a handful.

Well, she sent me 25 or so, and I just chose some of the ones that looked really fun!

Chad working with Colin on his ball-skills

 The really cool swing at the park

 Apparently Colin found some mud...a nice splashy, awesome mud puddle.

Mud was EVERYWHERE (clothes, eyes, hair, etc.)

Colin probably had a blast just being a little boy playing in the mud...

 Mags doing some climbing at the park...

 Meemaw made some awesome clip-on earrings (from a stash of jewelry making supplies that was at Great-Grandma Rice's house) that Mags has just been loving lately

 Colin enjoying some special time with Uncle Chad.

We have started to encounter difficulty putting Colin to bed the same time Maggie goes down.  It just might be too early for him.  So we instituted "special time" for Colin, which is about 30 minutes of one-on-one time after we put Maggie to bed.  We usually play Crazy 8s or Old Maid, sometimes read books, etc.  

It has worked really well...

 The big slide at the park

 Loving on Scooter!

 A couple of cute kids

 Zooming cars with Meemaw

Having some sidewalk chalk fun in the driveway.

Everybody got a turn...including Tiff and Chad...and even Scooter!

Scooter's turn!  Notice the yellow lines near her rear end...that is her tail, of course! :)

 Colin climbing the wall

He seems to have gotten really coordinated and brave lately...

And one of my favorite action pictures... Hopscotch time!

The kids had a great time and will probably go visit Tiff and Chad again sometime so Brian and I can get some work done (not kid-friendly, like tiling and painting) around the house.

conference, vacations, and more

 Sorry for being slow to blog lately, but I've been out of town for 10 of the last 11 days.  Part of it for fun, part of it for a work conference.  But, I'm back home and trying to catch up on life and work.

I went to Chicago over Memorial day weekend to visit my old college roommates.  I flew in on Friday night and we drove up to New Buffalo, Michigan for a weekend of winery tours and fun.  I had such a great time, and it had been a year or so since I had seen lots of the girls (there were 5 of us total).  Nothing like a good girls weekend to get you relaxed and rejuvenated.  

A blurry picture taken by the winery guy, but here we all are!

Karla, Jamie, Angie, me, and Deidra

I was home for one day, then headed off to a work conference in Indianapolis.  

The one day home, Brian worked at the Royals game handing out the give-away prizes at the door.  Colin came too and had a lot of fun.  He got to see Slugger again, which just made his day!

Colin and his buddy Slugger!

I just love work conferences, especially the ACSM annual conference, being able to see my undergraduate professors and advisors, as well as my graduate degree professors and the most important, my friends from college and graduate school.  There were a lot of cool presentations and lectures directly related to work I encounter on a daily basis, so that was nice.

 Nicole, Mel and me - Buddies from undergrad at Truman State

Brian was home with the kiddos for the first part of the week, then came up to Indianapolis on Friday night (well, technically Saturday morning since he got to the hotel at 1 am!)  I headed to the last day of the conference Saturday morning (it is over by noon on the last day) then we spent the next 3 days exploring and touring the city.  The downtown area is really cool, plus it has walking and biking trails all over and is very pedestrian friendly, which was nice considering we didn't have a car there for us to use.

On Saturday we headed to the NCAA Hall of Fame and looked around there.  It was awesome, with the first floor dedicated to the 23 collegiate sports, and the second floor full of interactive games.

Truman State was all over the swimming area, I just wish I could've gotten there to see the display when we were 6 time national champs!

Former NCAA athletes

Also on Saturday, we decided to hit up Game 6 of the NBA playoffs that just happened to be in Indianapolis that night.  We bought some nosebleed section tickets and had a blast!  We got a free t-shirt at the game, and spent some time out at the $3 beer garden before the game.  Brian and I just love going to sporting events, even if it's not one that we normally follow.  The Pacers ended up winning (yeah!), but then lost in Game 7 in Miami on Monday (boo!).  

Our view at the Pacers game!

We had so much fun!

On Sunday, we got up and ran around the canal in downtown Indy, went to church, then hit up a local winery.  We had a nice dinner and spent some time in the hot tub at the hotel.  So relaxing!

We left on Monday, but not before we did more touring of the city, going to City Market, taking a nap, and doing a little kayaking on the canal.  The booth attendants told Brian he might get "soaked" on the kayak cause he was heavier than I was, but we didn't really comprehend this until we had to stop 3 times to dump our kayak because Brian was just sitting in puddles of water.  Luckily, we weren't far from the hotel and had a change of clothes handy.

We got home on Monday in time to watch Colin at his first ever soccer practice.  I signed him up through the YMCA Bitty Sports program and he had  a lot of fun.  He has a total of 6 practices.  Just the right amount.  I'm officially a "soccer mom!"

Meanwhile, the kids were being watched by Tiff and Chad for a couple of days, and Brian's parents the other couple of days.  

Tiff is going to send me some pictures of their adventures, but the kids had a lot of fun in Belton.

Brian's brothers and parents sent us pictures throughout the weekend.

Olivia had her 3rd birthday party on Saturday afternoon at a gymnasium.  The kids were in heaven!

 Mags and cousin Johnny

 Colin couldn't get enough of the rope swing!

 Weeeee!  We love that you can see his huge smile in this picture!

Mags and the birthday girl, Olivia!

We sure missed the kids like crazy when we were gone, but it was so nice to have that time to spend with Brian.  We held hands, stayed up late, laughed and joked around, took naps, and really connected again after what seems to be a never-ending cycle of day to day busy-ness.  

I sure love that guy and appreciate him more and more each day!