Dinner!

Braeden's birthday dinner was at Chili's. We met Mark there and I told Braeden we had to wait to open presents with daddy there.... so we opened them while we waited for our food. 

Braeden wanted a few simple things... basically anything that will keep him busy for a while.

Money Origami

This is what he wanted the MOST... Balloon Twisting. Now we have balloons and balloon animals all over our house.

And he lost his other origami book... so he got a new one and he was SOOOO excited about that!!

Caleb wanted his picture taken with his chocolate milk!!

When we got home, we had cake and ice cream!!  This is his "Oreo Cake" Pretty YUM!!

And thanks to his cousin Drake for getting him into the Magic Treehouse Book Series... I ordered some more of those books for his birthday, but they didn't get here in time for his bday. But he is constantly reading books now. Even Elli is into them now. They will walk to bus stop reading books. It's pretty funny! I love that my kids LOVE to read!! We are lucky because neither Mark or I are big readers!! 

But I think he had a great birthday!! Grandma Harper took him shopping and he got what he wanted!! My kids love that tradition that my mom has started!! 

Braeden's Bday Party

So my Braeden turned 9 this past week! Can't believe how big he is getting. (And how old he makes me feel) But he wanted to go to Rhodes Jr. High and do the Flow Rider for his birthday this year. We only invited his cousins his age so it was a small party. 

We got there and the guy said that we had to wait an hour to get on the flow rider for the next turn because the other time was full. So the boys swam for an hour and I could tell they were getting bored and anxious within a half hour. They were excited to go on the flow rider.

I didn't get many pictures, but here's Drake and Cade showing off their handstands.

FINALLY!! The boys waiting in line to have their 1st turn.

The boys were sweet and let the "birthday boy" go first.

Caden

Carson

Drake 

Trevor

Mark working it on the other side. 

Braeden was SOOOOO excited that he was able to stand up on the boogie board.

 Trevor and Carson were tall enough to go on the other side and ride the stand up flow board.  They did great!!

After a few tries, Trevor was able to let go of the rope and ride for a few minutes!

Instead of bringing a cake to the school, we went to Baskin Robbins and let the boys choose their own ice cream. It was pretty fun!!

And we had Emma with us that day. The girls had a lot fun together!!

It was a crazy, but FUN day!! It's always fun watching your kids do things that they enjoy... swimming and eating ice cream!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAEDEN!!  We love you soo much!!

Sleeping Babies

I went to wake up the kids for school one morning. I couldn't believe they were still sleeping. I hardly ever need to wake them up. But this is how I found Elli. She put this over her eyes and was totally out cold. It says "Do Not Disturb" on it. I couldn't stop laughing at her for doing this!!

Then one day, Caleb was being SUPER cranky. So I sent him to my room to have some quiet time and I let him read books on the ipad.  Well, about a half hour later, I found him totally asleep with a movie playing.  And what made me laugh was that he set the movie up himself and placed the ipad like this.  Funny little guy!! (And yes, it was about 1:00 in the afternoon and he still had his jammies on. That's how we roll in this house somedays)

First Day of School!!

So Braeden is now in 3rd Grade and Elli in 1st Grade...... CRAZY!!!!

The traditional 1st day of school picture!!

I didn't go to their school to take pictures because I was feeling lazy.  But at least got them getting on the bus!!

They have great teachers. Elli has Braeden's old 1st grade teacher... Miss Lambert. She is super fun! And Braeden has Miss Oblinger. Don't know anything about her, but he seems to really like her so far. 

Can't believe summer is over, but it is nice to have structure again!!

Happiness is a JOLLEY REUNION!!!

We went to our yearly Pinetop Reunion the weekend before school started!! It's always nice to go up there and chill in the cool weather!! My parents rented a really nice cabin and we stayed there with my parents, Ryan & Melissa and Cody & Rachel.  Kara and Ryan weren't able to make it since Kara was a Bridesmaid for her friend's wedding!! And Lisa and Paul got a cabin not too far from us.  Good times!

Here's how the kids wanted to keep busy.... until we would kick them outside to go get dirty and play!! Dang ipads and ipods.

But they had fun paying scrabble for a little bit!!

Caleb sporting his Buzz Lightyear underwear!! Sexy thang!!

Rachel brought up her bow & arrow and the kids shot a few rounds.

 

Ryan brought up his guns and the kids spent a lot of time shooting them

 

Cute little blondie! But Caleb will tell you that his hair is yellow.... not blonde!

 

Lazy times!!

Found this little bike in the garage.  Kids had fun riding it down the little hill.

 

Ryan and Melissa got new puppies a week earlier and brought them up. Cutest littlest pups. But my kids wouldn't leave them alone. Elli wanted to keep one... the boy one because the girl one got mad at her one time :)

ANd yes... I was told to take a picture of her doing this.  She had this all planned out. 

 

They were always worn out by bed time! Love these kids!!  

 

They were singing Lion King songs on the swing.

 

At the reunion picnic.  Mark was trying to get Caleb to eat!

 

This little guy can get himself wrapped around any finger with this look!! He knows how to work it!!

 

Miller boys

 

The Harper Clan Boys!

 

These shirts were made in honor of the days when we were little kids. My aunt made reunion shirts just like this when I was a kid and my brother Ryan wanted to bring them back. So we had them made.

The shirts say HAPPINESS IS A JOLLEY REUNION!!
 

Back in the day... my dad, mom and Grandma Luella Mae (Mom's mom) then Ryan, me and Lisa.  Lovin Lisa's hair, my mom's hair and my dad's sideburns!! CLASSIC!!

 

As a tradition... we have to stop at the go carts and do a few rounds of that.  I just posted all the pictures I had because I was the photographer. My mom and I were the only ones who sat out and so I took pictures of everyone.  So now everyone can download if they want... it's easier than emailing!!

This was Drake's first year being tall enough to drive by himself.  He got a littl confused and then stuck.  I love the look on the workers face... "Where in the heck are you going dude??"

And this is where we found Ryan that night.... sewing some oven thingy. I'll have to look at the final product to understand what this is and what it is supposed to look like.  But I love how he posed for this picture.

 

And then he's sticking his tongue out for real concentration. Nice Ryan!!

 

We were all sad to leave. The weather was so nice up there and we enjoyed being together!! Definitely a grand ole time!!