WATER FUN AND SATURDAY MORNING ANTICS

It was 95+ degrees this weekend. I am NOT complaining about the weather....LOVE the warm weather...but it was rather warm. After running around all afternoon we finally found some pools. Everywhere we went the pool/water fun toys were sold out and on clearance. This morning in the Sunday ads was an advertisement at a craft store for Christmas crafts. I didn't even look at it. I folded it up and put it at the bottom of the recycling bin. Are you kidding me? We just barely started having nice weather. Did I mention it rained non-stop for weeks in addition to a special treat of 45+ mph Idaho winds.....

So warm weather is welcome at my house anytime!

Cole and Carter....Chris is trying to convince Cole to jump into his pool. The water was pretty chilly and Cole is not convinced. We filled Carter's pool up with warm tap water. Ah...yes...he is so the baby of the family!

Cole jumping into his pool.
Cole and Carter in Carter's pool.
Mom, Cole, Carter....notice the red ring on Carter's head. Carter put that on his head and then laughed and laughed and laughed...he thinks he's a comedian!
Cole and Carter....having tons of fun!
Saturday morning.

We had a pretty lazy weekend and lounged around the house until 1 on Saturday. Then we went to the Brownstone for lunch (a local brewery) and walked around the river. There was an artisans show and we bought a really neat planter made out of river rock. It was a steal at 19$.

Anyways...I cleaned the house and Chris and Cole played all morning. Here's Cole with his lego creations. He puts whatever his "favorite" toy of the day on his bed's headboard. Right now it's the lego's and license plate frame from our last trip to SLC to see the Subaru show. He is so Chris' kid!
Um...he's such a little boy here. Where is my baby?
Perfecting his lego launcher....
I was folding laundry and after putting a load into the washer and coming back this is what I found!
He's such a little stinker!!! (p.s. Notice the Notre Dame jersey...he would eat and sleep in this if we let him....he wears it all the time....Thank you so much Aunt Julia!....and I don't need to say that Chris LOOOOVES that!!!)

WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO

Chris' cousin Sarah and her family (husband Brian, daughter Kaelen and Graysen, and NEW baby Logen....very beautiful family) were visiting from Washington. They drove to Butte, MT to visit Chris' grandparents and stopped in IF on their way back through Idaho. It was sooooo much fun! Between our kids (Cole and Carter) and Ryan (Chris' brother) kids we had 6 cousins together. The kids played and played and played. The older kids played with squirt guns and the slip-n-slide and Carter found the water table. He is almost walking...not quite...but close. I'm not ready for him to walk. At night I fold him up into a little bundle of baby and stand in his room forever holding him. He's very chubby and wonderful and this is my favorite time with him. He snoozes away and I just can't believe he's almost 1 year old. So walking....seems unreal....but I guess he must grow up...and keep up with Cole!

Back to the water fun....so here's Carter.....

Here is Kaelen, Graysen, Cole and Carter (notice Cole has goggles on...they are from Grandma Kathy...he wears them all the time when he's playing in the water....)
You may recognize Graysen from the Fred Meyer ads....she's a baby model....and she is cuter than cute.
The little red haired guy is Henry...Ryan and Melanie's son (Chris' brother and his significant other)
Carter and Henry and boats.
Slip-n-slide in action. Cole is a pro.
"That was sweet dude!"
He goes so fast...and little Graysen is watching....
Here is the slip-n-slide pro. Cute swim shorts! Thanks Aunt Anne!
Everyone took a break to enjoy some homemade lasagna from Grandma Kathy.

It was very delicious....like 2nd and 3rd helping delicious.....yummmmmy
All smiles at the kids table. (BTW....the kids table is AWESOME!....what a great idea!)

In addition to the water fun.....I haven't really had alot to report about so I'm sorry for the week of silence. We've been doing our normal day to day stuff and it just hasn't been too exciting. We have had some family gatherings so I thought I would share the pictures here.

My Dad and Tamara are moving to California in a few weeks so we'll see them later this week. I'll have more pictures after that gathering as well. I'm going to miss my Dad like crazy! But I'm very excited for him too.

Here is Cole driving Uncle Frank's red tractor. Cole was so excited! When they started driving however Cole was "all business" and was incredibly serious. I have a video of them as well I'll post it as well.

One more little story....about Frank and Jamie's Faye....

This is Faye's cat (one of them...they have baby kitties too) and he's a tom cat...usually tom cat's aren't so nice....however....this cat looooooves Faye. He let's Faye carry him around and they go on all sorts of adventures together.

After lunch I looked over and Faye was carrying the cat around by his arms and he looked perfectly happy. He must be flexible!
Sitting together....

Big HUGS....
And then......they wrestled and played....he looked perfectly happy. Jamie says that Faye feeds him vitamins too...Faye opens his mouth and will put the vitamin down his throat...and Mr. Kitty doesn't mind....that's a NICE kitty. It's sooo funny to watch Faye carry him around.

Apparently this cat can also slide down the slide in Faye's playhouse.

The McClure cats are quite diverse. Faye is quite the animal trainer....

Until next time....

SUNDAY FUN

Carter eating shredded cheese. He can't get enough!
Cole and Daddy enjoying some oven baked pizza. Chris cooked!
Carter again....he's just so cute.
Cole and the Momma. We have asked him a few times if he wants a haircut and he says no. He wants to grow his hair....he has awesome hair (thanks to Chris! Chris has the BEST hair in the world) and Cole's hair is starting to curl a little in the back. For now we'll leave it. He really likes combing it and getting his hair ready for the day in the morning (hm....sounds like someone I know....CHRIS!) He is just such a good looking kid!

I better close now...Cole and I have a mean game of "I spy with my little eye" awaiting us before bedtime stories and bed for him.

SIPPY CUPS AND OTTER POPS

Carter has two new FAVORITE items in life....

Otter Pops...and

Sippy Cups!
and fat little legs that are the absolute best.

THIS WEEK

It seems every Thursday night we take the kids out to dinner. I think by Thursday night I'm tired and Chris is as well so it's a nice treat. We don't usually go out on the weekends. It's been a while since we had a "date night" out of the house. My favorite "date night" is ordering pizza and getting a good movie on pay-per-view. We have also been watching re-runs of Entourage in preparation of the new season that starts on Sunday on HBO. If you don't watch this show we highly recommend it. It's FUNNY! My favorite character is Ari Gold....Chris loves Drama....seriously awesome show! Anyways....back to what I was saying...we have gone out a few weeks in a row now on Thursday night. It just seems to sound good and it's a nice break from my many Martha Stewart pasta creations. Everytime I go to the store I buy at least 2 boxes of pasta....but that's a different story. I have 12 boxes of pasta in the pantry right now. I must stop myself!

Back to my point (focus...Catherine...focus!)

We went to Brownstone (again) and then got a sno cone for Cole and Cole ran up and down the hills around the green belt...see below... (my pics are out of order but I hope you can understand)

Sno Cone time. Cole ordered "shrek" flavor. He LOVED it.
Me and Cole at dinner. I'm having a Pepsi...the one time a week I drink pop. I'm trying so hard to stop and have been doing very well. It was a nice treat.
Oh this little gem jumped in there...this is the 4th of July and Cole is proudly holding his monster truck firework. It was LOUD!

Here it is blowing up....
Coel with his sparklers.
Here's Mr. Cole running around the greenbelt. He's full of energy!
Cole at the sno-cone place. It's an old caboose. He LOVES it.
Carter and Dad at dinner. Carter was in a hi chair and he went crazy when our food came. He's now learned when everyone sits down at a table it's time to eat....and he loves to eat...

Cole's special dessert treat from Grama Kathy and Grandpa Bob. After he finished his dinner he enjoyed his candy. He is soooo spoiled! But I LOVE it.

THE ZOO

Idaho Falls has a pretty nice zoo. We visited this afternoon around 3:00...the BEST time to go. So many animals were out! Cole loved it. Chris' allergies started to act up a little bit and then dark clouds moved in so we ran to see the new sloth bears and red panda bear....and then sprinted to the car. Here are the pics from the afternoon. It was alot of fun and we are so excited for the 4th of July! Darn...I didn't get the kids matching red, white, and blue flag shirt shirts....but I'm hoping to find some face painting tomorrow...we'll get the kids decked out for the festivities!!!

We have a pretty nice zoo for a smaller city. The baby camel was super duper cute. He was trying to hide from everyone...which was a little sad and slightly disturbing but...he's very cute regardless.

Don't forget to check out the cutest kids ever HERE (click on the word...HERE)

Taa daaa

*****