July little things

July was jam-packed full of fun and travel, but there were definitely some little things to remember in the midst of all the bigger things.

Why do I even buy toys?  A few kitchen utensils work even better!

 This girl is pretty attached to her blankies. 

 Striped dress, crazy striped socks, princess heels, and a Fancy Nancy bag.  Stylin'.

 "Look mom! There's Snow White! I'm on TV! Take a picture!"

 Lucy was begging for her own umbrella and since we had had a lot of rain, I gave in to some that we found on sale.  The love them more as a toy than for their actual purpose.

 They really do love each other. :)

 I tried something on in a dressing room and this is how they sat the whole time.  Lucy was really trying to be a good helper!

 They love to be swaddled like babies.  It's cute, but the blankets are getting a little small. 

We went down to Louisville, Kentucky to the Tobler's for Spencer's baptism.  It was fun hanging out with Ryan's cousins, swimming, going for walks, playing games, and having fun!

 The day of the baptism, I had to go grab something from the car and Claire had a cute little meltdown trying to get in the car herself.  It resulted in some impressive pull-ups!

Straight up pinterest fail in the presentation aspect of this cake, but taste-wise, it was right on the money with how it tasted!  Ryan has a marzipan cake every year for his birthday, but for some reason, it costs so darn much out here so I attempted to make my own marzipan, which I've heard is quite hard.  After a bit of experimenting, Ryan and I got it right on the money!  Now we just have to improve the look of it! Yikes!

 These two cuties were my tag-alongs for an activity days night while Ryan was out of town.  They were in luck because we had a fun pool party at the Gaston's house!  The red stuff ALL over their face, hands, suits, towels, everything is just from some red vines.  Who knew they were so messy?!

 We love the Scioto mile splash pad and fountains in the summer and on this particular day we went with our neighbor Hudson (and his mom, Lauren). It was a blast!

I love watching this little one explore water.

Painting is a big deal around here because when it actually happens, everything gets painted: the paper, the plates, the table, and even faces and hands, and up noses. :)

These girls somehow got Claire squeezed into our little play shopping cart without it falling over and breaking a leg. Ha!  They thought they were pretty funny!

I thought these girls looked cute just sitting there kicking their feet in the water, so I told them to say "cheese!" for a picture and Claire started cracking up and opened her mouth wide to show me her entire string cheese shoved in her mouth (that I thought she had already eaten!). haha.

Ryan got free tickets through work for a Columbus Clippers baseball game, which also happened to be "dime-a-dog" night.  So we went to the game for a while on a beautiful night with a beautiful sunset, ate dinner for less than a dollar, and swung by McDonald's on the way home for an ice cream come.  Perfect summer night, if you ask me! Lucy even got a squishy baseball that they threw into the crowd, which made her pretty excited!

Messy Mess

Usually I am pretty strict about trying to keep the messes to a minimal and quickly cleaning up spills and washing hands, etc. but sometimes you just have to give in and let the mess that has already started keep going.  So glad that's what I did this day because the girls thought it was hilarious making this mess!  They both went straight up to bath right after, though!

Sunday walks

Sometime in the spring we started a tradition of going on a Sunday walk every evening after dinner.  It was one of our favorite times of every Sunday!  Family time spent out in fresh air... always seemed like a perfect way to end our weekend.  

Father's Day 2015

I can't remember the details of Father's Day this year, but here are some pictures of Ryan with the cute little girlies that made him a dad!  We are so lucky to have this guy in our lives! (And these pictures make me laugh because it just goes to show what it's like trying to get two toddlers to look and smile at the same place and time.

Goodbye to the Madsen's

The Madsen's have been some of our closest friends here in Columbus and they lived i the same development from us, which made it easy to see them and run into them around the neighborhood a lot too.  I don't think I would have survived the beginning of motherhood without Marci, seeing as her kids all have reflux as bad as mine and she was a wealth of info, way more than the doctors will give you.  Anyway, we knew they were only here for Adam's residency, but it was still a sad realization when the day came for them to move.  A few days before they left, we watched their kids at night while they went to graduation ceremony stuff, and then we spent the morning of their move helping them finish things up at their house, and going out to lunch one last time.  So sad to see them go!!

 Not our best picture, but we had been working all morning and trying not to cry as we say goodbye!

 Ally and Claire were only three months apart (to the day) and such great little friends! 

A visit to Cleveland to see Great-Grandpa

My mom was in town for a while from Utah up in Cleveland helping out my grandpa Walz who was sick and in and out of hospitals all of the time.  Once he got into a nursing home, Lisa and I piled our girls in the car and went for a trip up to see everyone.  This turned out to be the last visit seeing grandpa before he passed away a couple of months later, but it as a good one since he was still mentally together and happy.  Four rambunctious little girls certainly wore him out fast though, so we didn't stay for too long!  After our visit at his place, we went with grammy to McDonald's for happy meals and ice cream cones and playing in the play place with grammy.  After that, we t=made the long trek home while the girls slept/watched movies in the car.  It was a long, but fun day!!