July

I believe this is when Benson was watching Lego Friends, a show about female lego characters, geared toward 7 year old girls. He is very secure is his boyhood. I love this sweet side of him.

Papi got this motorcycle for Benson for Christmas. It has been such a fun indoor riding toy for the kids!

cute little monkey is started taking a few steps the beginning of the month.

 bike gang! These three will ride up and down the hall ways (usually Annika is bouncing on the donkey). It's my favorite thing to watch these days.

Uncle Zack drove up from Utah on his motorcycle! He took Benson on several rides. Benson was in heaven!

just posing for a picture. Annika did go for a ride but Esther never did. But Esther didn't mind hearing it rev up.

she could ride circles in our driveway on her "horse" all day! Sometimes she brings the bike on the grass and says she needs to feed it (her horse). :)

making pizza dough. You can never have too many hands in the flour bucket.

Saturday morning, before Zack headed out of town, he rode behind us and Annika and I met him at a yard sale and then we went for our traditional McGriddle breakfast. We try to go to McDonald's for breakfast every time he comes. 

pre church cuties

4th of July pancakes! Annika loves to celebrate all holidays. She is so fun because of her enthusiasm for all celebrating things.

4th of July Parade. We go to every parade we can!

Keenan, Annika, and I went to the city fireworks. It was a late but fun night.

beanie hat in July. Perfect.

I went on a hike with the YW to fulfill a girls camp requirement. It was up radar hill, towards Mattawa. We hiked along the Columbia River. I really enjoyed it!

While I was straightening up inside, I asked these sweet kids to carry all of the outside toys over to the shop. We were cleaning up for a house showing. I came outside and smiled as I saw that they had lined up all the toys so nicely. Not exactly what I had in mind but they worked hard and were proud of their work.

Then they carried many of the items into the shop while saying "team work." #meltsmyheart

Keenan drove off the road and had some serious repairs to do to his car. Benson loved watching him.

Benson sweetly putting rocks in Esther's shirt pockets. #meltsmyheart

Benson snapped this picture of us waiting outside the dentist office in Moses Lake for daddy. 

We had a dinner at Heather and Nathan's with all of Clark and Margaret's family. I just love watching my kids become friends with their cousins.

Annika, Brynlee, and Brooklyn. Such cutie pies!

beautiful sisters!

This was right before Esther took like 20 steps across the driveway! Up until this point, she had only taken 3 or 4 consecutive steps. Watching a baby learn to walk is such a proud parenting moment!

Our wildlife researcher :) I wish I could remember what she actually said she was doing in this get up.

all of the kids loves baths. It took Esther until like 8 months old to enjoy bath time.

I went to girl's camp as the stake nurse this summer. I was really worried about not having enough knowledge or experience for the job. But the most serious incident was a sprained ankle. I handed out meds for headaches and helped out a girl in our ward that was just diagnosed with hyperthyroidism (she shouldn't have come to camp!). I missed my family like CRAZY. It was painful to be away from them for 5 days. But, I have to get my nursing practice hours and this is the best way to do it. I'm planning to go to camp once every three years to take care of hours.

We went to the park for a little soccer camp that the library put on. Annika was so excited. She loved it and I was impressed with her skills :) She was good at throwing the ball in and shooting the ball into the goal.

Great Grandma Kuttler came to visit for a few days! Benson and Annika played a marble game with her. They sat across from each other at the table and rolled the marble to each other, trying to keep it on the table. The laughter was continual and genuine. Esther wasn't too excited to sit on her lap. But, we had to get a picture! 

Keenan doing his thing. He sanded down the side of his car to get some scratches out before he painted it with spray paint. Bare foot, or course.

At Time Out Pizza, the kids always look forward to riding the horse.

french braid practice

She was hungry. I was busy. So she got a stack of tortillas out of the drawer and then the bag and went to town. She is Miss Independent!