a little of this and that

Random pictures...

I found this picture on Brian's phone the other day...

Just thought it was a cute one of the original Teson's (without the in-laws) at Chris' wedding,

Such a good looking bunch!

We went out to dinner at our favorite little Mexican restaurant in downtown Liberty the other night.

After dinner, we stopped and looked around the downtown square, thought we'd take a couple of pictures...

a really cute picture (until you look a the reflection in the window and see what crazy things I am doing to get the kids to look at the camera and smile!)

Mags enjoying her new chair for the deck outside...

a perfect fit!

A good one of Len and Mags

Colin driving miss Daisy around the house in his car...

I thought it was so cute that she had her arm around him the whole time (probably hanging on for dear life, but still sweet, right?!)

Sibling love!

Deck (before and after!!)

 The deck is finished!

It took about a week to do, but some days were shorter than others because it was SOOO hot outside.  Of course the weather didn't cooperate and cool off at all.  There were some days that the boys worked from 7-10 and quit because it was already in the 90's.

It looks awesome!

We already had a BBQ this past weekend and we got a really awesome patio furniture set from my Aunt and Uncle as a gift (like a birthday/christmas/anniversary/everything present for the next 2 years)

Our neighbors have been over and we've got plenty of space for lots of people to relax and enjoy our backyard space.  Now we can really watch the wildlife in our backyard.

There's deer, groundhog named Chubby and Chubby jr, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels, birds, etc.

 Before (our little patio slab of concrete)

Day 1 (with all the boys working hard!)

 Uncle Len and Brett (aka Rick)

 Our neighbor Aaron let us borrow his saw (soo nice of him!)

 The deck all framed up!

 The deck with some of the planking started

 Colin helping out Daddy and Uncle Len one night

 All the planks

The final after view

Plenty of room for our gas grill, 2 patio sets, and our smoker grill!

We are so blessed to have such great friends and family to help make this deck part of our house

One final Before and After

Busy Monday

 The guys have been busily working on our deck...

it is coming along nicely, but it's been so dang hot out, they have had to do it in a few hours with breaks in between.  It's hard work out there, and we've had lots of help from family and friends.

We'll have you over for a beer or something when we're done!

We were on our way to Deanna Rose Farmstead when the boys were putting the tools away.

Uncle Len accidentally brushed up against a bag of tools that had all sorts of things in it, including a sawzall blade that was sticking out.

Well, there was blood everywhere, and once we took a look at it - I knew right away we needed stitches.

So, Uncle Len and I headed off to Urgent care and 2 hours later, walked out with around 10 stitches.

It was pretty gross, but Uncle Len was a trooper and was back out working on the deck tonight after a full day at Deanna Rose.

The damage on his leg (GROSS!!!)

It was soooo hot at the farm, but we powered through as long as we could.  The kids thought the cows were awesome, as well as going fishing and feeding the goats.

 Brian and his favorite kids, fishing away!

 Colin caught 3 fish today, but refused to touch the worm or fish!

 Dusty was the big winner, catching the Daddy of all fishes at the farm!

 The kids just loved feeding the goats.

Maggie kept getting attacked by multiple goats at once, and was heard shouting "Hey hey guys, you share!"

 Working hard at feeding the goats

 Colin loved it too, it's such a neat experience for the kids

After a bit, we got some ice cream and piled in our car for home.

Thanks for another fun trip, Deanna Rose

Parkville Carnival

 After an early afternoon Royals game (we only made it 3 innings before the kids and us were over-heating), we headed to the Parkville Carnival for some fun!

We went last year and had a great time, so we knew what to expect.

A group shot of everyone (minus me, the photographer) right when we first got there

We bought 20 tickets for $15, and each ride was about 2-3 tickets.

The problem we ran into was that Colin wasn't quite tall enough to do some of the rides by himself, which meant Brian or I had to pay tickets to do the ride with him on some of them.

It really had a lot of choices for the little kids, plus some really fun looking rides (aka ones that would make me vomit!) for older kids.

Our first stop was the cars.
This turned out being Mags favorite ride, and she would do it 3 more times before we left.

Colin insisted on doing this super fast slide (with Brian)

I just love some of the pics I got of Colin's face on the way down.
He looks pretty scared in some of them, but I would be too!

Like his face in this one... priceless!

 He loved this helicopter ride!

 And he loved this motorcycle one...

And Mags rode the motorcycles with him, and seemed okay at first...

 And then wanted off...

She started yelling "I'm done I'm done!"

She quickly became happy when she got on the cars again!

Uncle Len and Aunt Dusty took us out to Mexican after the carnival.  Maggie ate her weight in chips and salsa.  It was a great night!

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...