Cousins

We have had such a fun couple of weeks playing with all of our Hatfield side cousins. I wasn't very good however at taking very many pictures of all the exciting things they did. I'll blame that one on being extremely pregnant, since I got several pictures on the day or two after Cannon was born.

All the kids spent an afternoon at Kid's Castle, an indoor playground here in Yakima. It was here that I began to suspect that the baby was going to be coming very soon (and he did later that night) so I was glad to have the kids able to run and entertain themselves for three straight hours.

Adventure climbers - Jackson and Jaden

We dinner together just about every night thanks to my wonderful mother!

Jaden and Spencer

My boys with Jacob

Logan, Mackayla and Bradley

My parents with all 12 of their grandkids, soon to be 13 in September!

The kids all love the show Wipeout that ABC airs during the summer. I told my brother Derek that he was in charge of creating a wipeout zone for the kids to do. I was planning on helping him, but had a baby instead.

Jaden was so excited about it and took it very seriously. He insisted on wearing a life vest just like they do on tv. This is him banging on his chest before it was his turn to go through the obstacle course.

Logan's turn

After the kids were done the adult men took a turn in the wipeout zone. It was hilarious to watch and I was able to get most of it on film which the boys have already watched many times.

It's Summer!

Today was the first day of summer and really it was one of the first nice days we have had all year. The boys have been having the time of their lives playing with their cousins and today didn't disappoint when they pulled out the kid pools and squirt guns.

Jaden taking on Grandpa Hatfield and Uncle Derek.

Father's Day was really nice, hopefully Scott thought so too! I have never seen two boys that love their dad as much as mine do. We live for the weekends when we get to see him all day. In case you are wondering that is a slice of banana bread Logan is holding on his nose. I tried to take several pictures, but he did it in all of them. He is a silly kid.

We signed Jaden up for golf classes this summer. He has only gone to one class so far and loved every minute of it. He told me beforehand that he was already really good at golf, but now maybe he will get even better....I think he will! I was actually really surprised at how well it was organized. I wasn't sure what they were going to do with all those kids for nearly two hours, but it went by very quickly. It's nice for him to have something to look forward to each week now that preschool is over.

Logan randomly got some 24 hour stomach flu. I am SO happy that it didn't spread on to anyone else. I cannot imagine kneeling over a toilet at this point in my pregnancy.

I have less than two weeks left until baby #3 is suppose to arrive. I am not counting on him coming early at all so if he does that will be a pleasant surprise. Do you think I could get any bigger?!

The great outdoors

I have the best husband out there. Scott took the boys camping this weekend and left me alone to work on getting things ready for the new baby. It was really nice to have that quiet now since I know as soon as the baby comes in a few weeks alone time will be non-existent. The boys met up with Scott's brother Mark and his family who drove over from Portland but they didn't seem to end up in any of the pictures. My boys loved seeing them however and absolutely adore their little cousin KJ.

Being silly in the tent (they wore these fishing hats the entire trip)

The cutest fishermen out there!

These next few pictures are from the Father/Son campout Scott took the boys on a few weeks ago. I really have been spoiled this month.

Yard Project

Last year we spent the spring fixing up in the inside of our house and so this year it was time to fix our backyard. When we bought the house there were leaves covering the backyard and we didn't think much about it. The day we got the keys to the house we went straight over and started raking up the leaves so that the grass could start to grow. Turns out that the backyard was covered in roots and very little grass actually grew back there....bummer. Our poor kids have spent the last year tripping over roots and unable to run and truly enjoy their yard.

I failed to take many pictures of the process, mostly because there were always shady looking guys working back there when I actually thought about taking a picture. We were originally planning on doing everything ourselves, but Scott just didn't have enough time and I am as big as whale and basically no help at all. We found some really cheap labor and had those guys put in a new sprinkler system, bring in a ton of top soil to raise the level of the yard and finally lay down some sod. Since we got the labor so cheap, the guys weren't exactly professionals and it took them about 3 weeks to complete the job instead of the original 1-2 weeks they quoted us. It was a frustrating process, but in the end I am still glad that we had someone else doing all the hard labor.

We aren't done yet, we are still planning to plant a few bushes and bring in some bark around the trees. Hopefully the sod takes well and will continue to grow. I'm a little nervous because we had such a shady backyard, but anything will be better than what we had!

Jaden's Birthday

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow I have a 5 year old! Jaden is the sweetest boy on earth and we had a great time celebrating just how special he really is. I managed to wrap his gifts a few days early and it drove the poor boy nuts anticipating what was inside. Every morning I would find him sitting on the couch staring at his gifts, eventually I gave in and we let him open one gift a day early.

We spent the day doing whatever Jaden wanted, so like most days we spend a large portion on the morning riding bikes in the driveway.

We went bowling and Jaden was in heaven the entire time.

Finally it got time to have his birthday party and the real fun could begin! I took Jaden to the store the other day and asked him what kind of birthday he wanted. The first thing he saw was Mickey Mouse so that was what he picked. I was really happy that he picked a young innocent theme like that since he is transitioning into all that ninja/big boy stuff.

Logan taking his turn at the pinata. Not sure why he had that backpack on, but he kept it on most of the night.

Ready!

Set!

Swing!

Logan showing off one of Jaden's gifts.

The next morning - still hyped up on all the birthday excitement.