This is an old picture in outfits Beky brought back for the kids when we she went to Hawaii with Kennedy but I love it and thought it went with the Hawaiin theme of this post.  Such happy babies, and pretty darn cute if I may say so.

When the grandkids turn 8 and get baptized Matt’s parents take them to Hawaii.  Quinn and her cousin Emory who is 6 months younger than her went back in June (I know – I’m WAY behind in posting this).  These are some of the pictures Quinn took.

These fish were in a pond in the mall and Quinn took a lot of pictures of them, she was very interested in them.

Cousins

The world’s biggest hawaiin shirt with Grandpa, Grandma and Emory.

This is one of the men from the Polynesian Cultural Center.

The girls had books to collect stamps from different people around the Polynesian Cultural Center.  This was one the stamp booths.

They went to a Luau.  Here the guys are uncovering and removing the pig from the pit.

Dancing at the Polynesian Culture Center

2009′s 4th of July was much less dramatic than 2008.  No emergency room visits or motorcycle crashes.  We did have a milestone event though, drum roll please . . .

Jaxon lost his first tooth!

(He’s since lost the one next to it.)  We went to the annual breakfast of pancakes, sausage and orange juice followed by short patriotic program at Matt’s parents house.  Things were winding up (ignore the time stamp on the picture) and we were getting ready to head home for the next party of the day when Bubba brought me his tooth that had just come out.  He was so proud!  My baby boy isn’t such a little guy any more.

Fast forward an hourish or so to the bbq at the Wallace’s.  Upon an earlier visit to their home we decided they had a great setup for backyard bbq’s and invited them to be guests at a bbq at their house. They provided the grill and we brought the meats.  We did classic burgers and dogs of course but I also tried a shrimp recipe that I was told was really good.  Yeah for me – since I don’t like seafood and didn’t try it or know for sure if it would turn out ok.

After lunch we set up the pinata we had brought since the 4th is Matt’s birthday.

Madison knocked the pinata off the rope during her turn so Matt had to re-hang it before we could continue.

Then we let Bubba and Quinn have a go at it.

We saved the last turn for the birthday boy, Matt.  After he broke it open we let the kids at the candy.  That thing was way loaded, especially for only 4 kids being there.

After all the hitting Jaxon decided it was time for the pinata to have some fun.

So he took it for a ride on Mae-mae’s bike.

Then Mike, Mike and Matt broke out the croquet set for some fun out in the heat while us girls stayed inside to chat.

Once things started getting a little later we headed back over to Matt’s parent’s house to go with them to a neighbor’s barbecue and fireworks show.

After even more food and letting the kids do sparklers and the popper things we settle in to watch the show.

Then it was back home dragging sleepy kids upstairs to get ready and into bed.  It was a good day though.  Lots of fun celebrating the freedoms we enjoy in this great country.

This weekend we took the kids to another Portland Beaver’s AAA Baseball game.  They were much better this time than last time.  Unfortunately the Beaver’s lost 1 to 0 to the Omaha Royals but it was still a good game.  Bubba got to practice his umpire calls from the stands.  I wonder if Matt gets tired of us asking him for ruling clarifications.  If so he’s a good sport about it and doesn’t show it.

We like to get the cups of frozen lemonade.  Here Matt is showing it off.  I have some pictures of him eating it too but I decided to be nice and not post them since he really isn’t a fan of having his picture taken, he did good to pose for this one.

The girls

After the game the kids got to go down on the field and run around the bases like the players.  From a photography stand I wish they would have spaced the kids out more so the parents could get pictures of THEIR kids running instead of a mass of little ones but the kids had fun so oh well.

Quinn is off and running on her way to second.

Jaxon is off trying to catch up to her.  Check out that long stride.

Here they are on their way to third base.  Bubba has made up some ground on Quinn but I think he was racing more than her, she was more jogging around the bases.

Running home for the score.  I love how Quinn’s hair is flapping up as she runs.

Jaxon crosses the plate . . .  He’s safe!  (To get the full experience you have to picture Bubba’s arms flapping out as he does the sign for safe.)

Quinn was already talking about how fun it was before she made it all the way up from the dugout.

Maybe next time I’ll purposely have them be towards the end of the line so I can get pictures with fewer random children . . . hmmm,  we’ll see. 

Ready for construction

Hard at work

The goggles were making it hard for him to see so he took them off.

Getting the numbing stuff injected into her eyelid so the stitches wouldn’t hurt was probably the worst part of the ER trip.  Quinn was trembling and squeezing my hand so hard.  She would curl her fingers so her nails would dig into my hand and I would try to relax her hand but she would just dig her nails back in again.  (She thinks this part of the story is entertaining when I retell it.)

This is after the stitches were put in.  I had originally guessed 9 stitches during conversation trying to distract Quinn during cleaning and numbing of the eye.  Quinn had guessed 5, I told her we’d see and  . . . . . surprise!  She guessed right.  5 stitches total.

This was when we were paying the copay on our way out.  She was tired and I had been playing with her hair while everything else was going on so she kinda has crazy/bed head.

The next day I stopped in to see her at school and have lunch with her.  She was told to stay out of the sun for about a week to minimize scarring so she played in the classroom during recess.  This picture she is inside her class’ big cardboard space ship they had been working on during their space unit.

The next week we had to go back to the doctor to get the stitches taken out.  The first one or two were okay, didn’t hurt too bad.  The scab had grown over the last few stitches so the nurse had to pull on it a little more to get those out which Quinn didn’t like.  Jaxon went with us for this adventure and during the first one he ran out of the room, he coudn’t stand to watch the nurse take them out.  I think it was mostly because he didn’t want to see Quinn hurting.  The nurse let Quinn keep the stitches in a test tube.  They look like little bugs.  Quinn was all excited to take them to school to show everyone when she was buzz group leader.

What better time to wear fun socks then when unloading the dishwasher?

He was trying to tell me to take the picture when his swing was “here”

Here’s his batting stance . . .

and here’s the swing.

This is the one I got a 10 x 13 of.   I love how it looks like Bubba is jumping up in the middle of us.

I liked this one too so we ended up getting two family pictures.

My two favorite most adorable boys.  Go ASU!

Quinn is so photogenic.  I LOVE this picture of the two of them.  It turned out so cute!

While we were waiting for the kids to get posed on our backs and around us we were just being us.  After being married for almost 9 years now I still love him more and more each day.

Boys + baseball = fun times.  Jaxon is so obsessed with sports.  Currently he’s all about the baseball.  He loves to set up his bases around the house.  Usually home plate is in front of the door, first base in the kitchen, second in the dining room and third in the living room.  Last weekend after Matt got home from umpiring a baseball game Jaxon set up the bases and they got to playing.  I of course grabbed the camera to capture the fun.  They stayed up after bedtime playing, hence the pj’s.  It was so cute to watch father and son playing together I didn’t have the heart to make them stop for bed, especially since it was a weekend night and there wasn’t anything Jaxon needed to be up early for the next day.

Quinn was passed out in the living room chair and totally missed the fun.

Jaxon and Matt played as all-in-one teams, with the help of ghost runners of course.  They would keep track of balls and strikes and outs.

A nice hit by Bubba.

Then he switched to a right handed player. For a southpaw he actually hits pretty well this way.

Tagged for the out.

Jaxon goes for the windup.

And Matt gets a nice hit of his own.

I have some good videos but they aren’t uploading right so I can’t share them right now.

Eventually we wandered to the part that was for the kids.  They LOVED the fire house the fire department had there.  They watched a little video and got some good fire planning info from the fireman then went upstairs and when the fire alarm went off they got to climb out the window and down the ladder and meet up at the mailbox which had stickers and erasers in it.  The kids also got to plant a green pepper seed and play hands on at the science booth.

Quinn so proud of her planting.

Jaxon adding dirt to his pot.

I found a book on square foot gardening that was inspiring.  I’ve been wanting to plant a garden for a while I’ve known for a long time I* should* have one but I didn’t really think that was feasible on with our little backyard.  After seeing the examples in the booth at the show and reading the book (and of course looking at several people’s gardens online) I feel like I’ll actually be able to do this.  The below picture is just an example of the concept from someone’s website.  Once I get mine up and going I’ll post pictures of it.