4th of July, Train, Goldilocks & Announcement

Wow, I sure do get behind fast.  This is going to be a bunch of little things in one post. 

First off...The 4th of July.  We decided to make some shirts for the 4th of July.  We had fun painting the shrits and seeing how they turned out.  Then on after I had gotten the boys dressed, Bauer walked into his dark room and when I looked in on him, I was surprised to see that the blue paint glowed in the dark. 

We have been having fun telling people some great news lately.  We sent this picture out to our family a little over a week ago.  We are just so excited!

The first Sunday in July a train was parked at the Boise Depot and they were celebrating 150 years of the Union Pacific Railroad.  We decided to take our boys down there after church.  They loved it. 

Deker and Bauer looking at the brochure of the train. 

They were giving out these cute visor hats and flags as we waited in line to get into the museum car. 

There was also a mini train that we could ride on which the boys LOVED. 

This past Saturday, I rode in my very first Bike Ride.  It was the all girls Goldilocks Bike Ride.  My sister Vera came down from California to join me.  She choose the 100 mile option (her 5th 100 mile bike ride since last October) and I choose the 40 mile option.  I LOVED it and I am so glad that I was able to do it.  I finished the ride in 4 hours (including rest stops) I was originally hoping to get it done faster, but since finding out I was pregnant and being told by my doctor to be careful and not feeling the greatest, I am just glad that I was able to do it.

Here are Andrew and the boys cheering me on as I came into the finish line.

Vera and I before her ride started. 

I wish I had gotten a picture of me, Andrew and all my boys, but I didn't think of that until after Andrew and Bauer had gone home for naps (Andrew had just gotten back from work and was up since 1 am.)

We all had such a Wonderful time visiting with my sister Vera and getting spoiled by her last week and we were all sad to see her leave on Monday. 

Deker's Birthday

Last Tuesday was Deker's birthday.  He turned the big 4.  He has been planning his party for about 2 months now (since we started planning Keagan & Bauers birthdays which were the beginning of May).  Some days Deker wanted a tractor party, some days it was a John Deere Tractor party.  But we finally decided on a Construction theme party.  We had his friend party on Monday morning because Andrew is home on Mondays. 

We bought those plastic hard hats and personalized them with their names.  We also got Home Depot tool belts for each kid.  We played "Dump that Dirt" (this was Deker's idea).  We have a little trike that has a bucket in the back.  We put dirt in a sand box and then had a tarp on the other side of the driveway.  Each child started at the start/finish line, rode the trike got a shovel of dirt and put it in the bucket, rode around the end of the driveway and dumped the dirt onto a tarp and then rode to the finish line. 

After that, we played "Pin the Dirt in the Dump Truck".  Andrew drew a great dump truck for that.  Then we had cake and Ice cream.  Had a Dump Truck pinata and then played outside until it was time to go.  We also set out a lot of the tractors we have for the kids to play with.  Deker loved his party and the great presents that he got from his friends.

Here is Deker in his birthday shirt that we made for him. 

The Bulldozer cake that Andrew made.  I found the idea on Pinterest, showed it to Andrew and he used his building skills to cut 2 9x13 cakes and stack them into this.  We used fun-size Kit Kats for the tracks and a big Symphony Bar for the blade. 

We used Caution tape & yellow and black balloons to decorate with. 

Here are all the kids in their construction hats and tool belts. 

On the morning of Deker's actual birthday, I made him a number 4 pancake. 

Deker had to wait until Tuesday after dinner to open his presents from us, which was really hard for him.  It was just going to be our little family, but it ended up being a little impromptu party.  A friend of Neals came over, our good friends, Brandon & BarrieJo stopped by as well as Andrew's sister Anna and her husband Chris stop.  We all ate more of the Bulldozer cake and ice cream from the day before.

All the pictures from Deker' opening his presents that night turned out really blurry.  But, Deker was super excited to get a combine & a jack hammer (something he has been asking for for quite some time now). 

Happy Birthday, Deker.  We love you tons!

Camping & Fishing

The Monday after Keagan got out of school we headed up by Anderson Ranch Reservior for camping and fishing.  We stayed 3 days and 3 nights.  The boys had fun having lots of places to dig, explore and do a little fishing.  Andrew had fun fishing and I had fun doing lots of reading.  Here are some pictures of our adventures.

The fishing boys.

Exploring in the tall grass by the water .

Keagan wacking the weeds with a stick he found.

Our place we choose to camp did not have tables, so this was our makeshift table.  It worked well.

Andrew and Keagan fishing.  None of the boys lasted very long fishing, but Keagan lasted the longest. 

The last day fishing, Bauer decided he wanted a turn.