4 de Julio

 Much love to our wonderful Aunt Stephanie the kiddos had a great time doing a few 4th of July crafts to get us in the spirit of the 4th! We Love Aunt Stephanie and all the fun boxes of goodies she is always sending the kids :)

 At the annual 4th of July breakfast at the church. The last couple of years they have had kids bring their decorated bikes and done a bike parade. The kids had a blast. And I have to say their decorations were rockin it pretty good!

 Silly Conner....you will see him making this face...a lot!

 At home the big kids helped me make a cute fruit tray to bring to Grammy and Pa's for our BBQ. They were both Really good workers and were very proud of their finished product.

 Grammy got in on an intense game of ping pong with the kids. It involves a lot of chasing after ping pong balls and fetching them out of the pool, but it was fun and the kids loved it. Usually it is the adults playing so it was fun for them to get to play all on their own.

 As per tradition we made s'mores around the fire. I think the kids look forward to this just about as much as the fireworks. 

 We finished the night down at the local high schools watching the fireworks. It's fun to be close enough to at least be able to hear and fell the "boom"!

1 Month

 Papa taught us many things that we will take with us. One of which is to enjoy and appreciate the beauty of the world more often. I find myself stopping, noticing beautiful roses, watching beautiful sunsets unfold in a way I did not alway appreciate before. There is so much goodness, so much beauty all around us each and every day. We just have to take the time to stop and acknowledge and appreciate it. I am thankful to my dad for teaching me that every day is a beautiful day.

 On a nice Sunday afternoon the kids and I went down to the park and had a great time just having fun, being together, playing and enjoying the weather and fresh air. I just love these special days spent with these little ones. I know it won't last forever and that there will come a day when I don't have anyone at home that wants to go the park and slide and swing anymore. I try my best to appreciate them and soak them up right now.

 Our little Toby-Tob....getting so big!

 Makenna seriously has some natural frisbee talent...something that would make her Papa proud!

 Love these two! This little girl certainly does not lack great big brothers that love her and will do a  great job taking care of her her whole life. 

Who Doesn't Love The Fair??

McKamey children certainly know how to appreciate a good, wholesome, family filled day at the fair. All of them look forward to it all year and are anxious to go as soon as they know that the 4th of July is approaching. Really, even though it hardly changes at all from year to year, I don't think I could ever get sick of the fair. Especially with my kids. It's just so fun...watching them have fun. A few highlights for the kids this year.

 HUGE games for the kids to play!

 Conner was very impressed by the Huge transformer. 

 Grammy (who is a total sucker...) got her teeth a few shades whiter :)

 We enjoyed some stinky, smelly animals. 

 We ate....

 ...and ate...

 ...and ate! (After all, that is what a fair is all about)

 And of course riding the horses! This is probably my favorite thing to watch the kids do. Makes me remember being a kid and how much I loved the horse rides.

 Last year Kellen opted out of the horse ride. This year he wised up and joined in! (make your mama proud little boy!)

 Carys took to the horses no problem at all. She was thrilled with the whole event. She got into the rhythm of the horse and bounced up and down the whole ride. So Cute!

While we were at the fair there was a home made ice cream demonstration where they showed how to make ice cream in a gallon bag. It takes a lot of shaking and some patience, but it actually works. It was fun to come home from the fair and get to try it out at home (well, at Grammy's house). The kids loved it! Kellen by far was the best and hardest ice cream maker of them all. But then again, that's the sort of thing Kellen loves!

 What a great Grammy! We love her more than she will ever know and appreciate all the fun things she does for us, all the time we have with her, all the hard work she puts into our Sunday dinners with them. I know it is something our kids will always cherish.

 And in the end the ice cream turned out pretty good. Carys certainly appreciated it.

And then there is the Con....our silly, silly boy. So grateful for him and his constant comic relief!

S.U.M.M.E.R.

 You know school is out when your weekly trips to target end up looking like this. There are times when we get through to store and back into the car and it feels like I just ran a marathon. I figure this is just the lords way of blessing me with the opportunity to work out since finding time to exercise is a joke!

 We spend hours and hours in our backyard. And I just love the summers and the way it stays bright so late and that we can completely loose track of bedtime because we are swinging and playing and having so much fun.

 2 chocolates and one vanilla.

 Makenna's good friend Katie came in town and was able to spend a couple of days hanging out with us. Those two girls are so great together. Makes me sad that they moved so far away.

 Watermelon. More or less the only thing my kids want to snack on all summer. There is either a cut up watermelon or cantaloupe in the fridge at all time. Summer fruits are the best!

 Working those hands and knees at the same time!!

 Went up to the wild animal park for the day. It is not often we go here instead of the zoo, but I decided it would be a good change of pace and a fun thing to do. So we drove up there and the kids were having a blast. They were super well behaved, we were taking our time, enjoying the sights, stopping to play on everything we passed. Then all of the sudden, about an hour and a half into it, Conner starts to cry. His shoes had rubbed blisters on each of his feet. So JUST as we were getting to the Lorakeets that you get to feed (the highlight of the trip for us every time) we had to turn around and walk all the way to the entrance of the park to get band aids at first aid. So we band aid up and turn around and head back to the birds. We do the bird thing, and then within 10 minutes these crummy band aids totally start falling off. Conner is a mess and is in total melt down mode. The band aids keep pulling backward and he keeps trying to put them back on. It is hot and sweaty. Carys is hungry (needs to nurse) and tired. So we stop at the playground. I send the kids off to play and try to sit and nurse the baby. But the toys are hot and burning everyone. Conner keeps crying about his blisters and I have to try and help him re-adhere his band aids one handed while trying to nurse baby (without exposing myself to everyone) at the same time. It was complete and utter chaos. What started as the best wild animal park trip ever quickly went south. I did have many people come up to me and tell me how brave and amazing I was for coming to a place like this with 4 little kids all on my own. I just laughed and thought "Probably stupid, not brave." Eventually baby passed out while nursing, I put con in the stroller, carys in the baby carrier and pushed the stroller out of that park as fast as we could roll. It will be awhile before we are back there on our own....

 Makenna is going through a real bat loving stage. Actually, she loves everything that has wings.

 Makenna's idea of heaven. The bird were trying to take her pony tail holder out of here hair and makenna thought it was the funniest thing ever. She said it felt like they were making a nest on her head!

 Kellen boy...excited and nervous all at once. Loved holding the birds...at a distance.

 The con...

 When Makenna and Kellen were babies I would have thought bad things about a mom giving a push up to here 8 month old baby. Now that this is baby #4 I have a whole new perspective on the things that are really worth stressing about and those that don't matter as much as I once thought. She loved her push up!!!

 Who doesn't love a nice summer hairstyle? Daddy did a great job giving Kellen's hair it's first buzz. Thought the initial change in look was strange to adjust to, I actually think I like his hair more like this now. Especially since he hated to let me brush it when it was longer, so it always just looked silly.