horse races

a huge thanks to grammie and poppa for volunteering to keep edy and lucy while i escaped to minnesota alone for the weekend with jd. it was super nice to get to spend time with each other without kids for a change. we worked, bbq-ed, went on the town, golfed, visited with friends, shopped and went to the horse races. i missed my girls terribly, but it was such a fun trip!

today we went to canterbury park to the horse races, what fun! i've never really been to many horse races before so this was like new to me and i really got into it. we picked up our books and went to watch as the horses parade past while we critiqued every one. jd looking for the horse with the most muscular looking rear, i with an eye for the one rearing to break loose on the track. don't ask how we came up with this strategy! you go inside and place your bets and then the race begins! we stayed for five races. jd was the big winner with $616 and my good ol' horse cc tat won me $75. not bad, eh! we're just getting geared up for kentucky...ha!

jd with his big winning ticket before he knew it was a winner! ryan, brian, jd and corey.

rush creek golf

golfing today at rush creek in maple grove, mn. it was a beautiful course and i mostly enjoyed the macked out golf carts and drinking wine, so much fun.

my husband annoyed that i asked the cart boy to take a picture of us, ha!

tiger, corey, drew and jon

happy birthday to grammie!

july has been one busy month! tonight we celebrated grammie's birthday with dinner and ice cream cake, delish! happy birthday grammie. thanks for all you do. we love you.

nicole's couple shower

i'm disappointed in myself for not taking more pictures because this shower was really adorable, but i was too busy gabbing.

sip and see

sip and see in honor of baxlee josephine.

bathing beauties

attendees today: bonny, rylie, leslie, lucy, me, edy, nicole and ashlyn (in the belly!)

lucy jumping in the pool. i'm so proud of how her swimming has progressed this summer. she's doing so great in the water!

happy birthday jamie!

today we celebrated jamie's 25th birthday. i thought it was only fitting i make my 4th of july pie with sparkler candles, so yummy.

lucy playing in her new bubble blower from uncle matt and jamie. as matthew says it has 10,000 bpm-bubbles per minute. wow is that a lot. lucy especially likes to stand right in front of it so it drenches her in soap and then puts it on her chin as if to make a beard! good times here!

finally grammie and poppa are home!

my mom and dad had been on vacation when we celebrated lucy's birthday so when they finally got back from their three-week stay they came right over to see us and give lucy her birthday present...A POP-UP TENT!!! and some other stuff! the girl thought she died and went to heaven when she pulled this thing out. what a clever idea for a two-year old present, it was great. lucy and edy had a ball climbing in and out, in and out of this thing. when it was time to go to bed she didn't want to part with it. so we agreed that she could camp out on our floor which i never thought would last past me turning off the light switch. she definitely proved me wrong when she didn't budge until morning, it was the cutest thing.

etc., etc., etc.

on lucy's actual birthday we went to bonny's to swim with some friends, which is always so much fun. we try our best to go as often as we can. you just can't beat the kiddie pool! from left to right and from oldest to youngest, lucy, rylie, brooker, edy and baxlee.





lucy letting me know exactly how old she is today ;-) i just love her to pieces!

note to self: clear counters before leaving cake unattended

so i left the room for a few minutes and when i returned i caught the cake monster red-handed! lucy had spotted the remaining birthday cake on the counter in reach so she dragged her chair over and dug in bare hands. edy caught wind of what was going on and joined in on the fun. lucy was taking handfuls of icing and sharing with edy who couldn't reach the cake. what a sweet sister she is!

happy birthday lucy!

i'm baaaaack! since i'm so behind i'm going to make this and the following blogs short and sweet until i get caught up.

for lucy's birthday we had dinner and cake at holly's house. uncle matt, jamie and jena, granny great, holly, kait, myself, jd and edy were all there to watch her blow out the candles. it's been quite awhile since she's had practice with this so she was looking to everyone else on instructions ;-) she was so cute when we were singing happy birthday, it was like she was wondering what the heck was going on but didn't know how to ask.

aunt holly gave her her very own special bowl of blueberries, YUMMO!
daddy and the birthday girl

edy was very excited to see what she was going to be able to snatch from lucy!

lucy acting too cool for her new barbie jeep.
waiting ever so patiently for the battery to charge so she could drive it. little does she know 18 hours is a heck of a long time!

edy is so excited for lucy to take her for a ride!