For the birds

Mack has a newfound love for turkeys. My dad has cage full of them and Mackenzie loves to feed them things ( after all, turkeys will eat just about anything) as she chatters away to them. She will do this for as long as you'll let her.

Papa also found a little birds nest and he couldn't wait to show Mack:

Mack learned that you can look at the eggs but you can't touch them. We didn't want the mama to reject them:


Everyone came to take a peek:

Old school

" Back in the day" we three girls ( who lived too far from the rec center to make daily trips) used to " swim" using one of my dad's old horse troughs . As " hill billy" as it was, it was the best way to beat the heat and we spent many summer days lazing away in the water.

With the weather heating up here ( and still being too far from the city for daily drives to the pool), the horse trough pool has resurfaced!

Mack's favorite part was filling up the coffee can and dumping it on those around her:

Some appreciated it more than others:

A sweet face after the fact:


There's only one way to dry off after a dip in the trough:

My little reader

While we were waiting in line at the grocery store, I decided to add a little twist to your usual game of " I Spy". This time, I said a word that could be found on near by objects and asked Mackenzie to find that word. I was surprised when she found the words " home" , " store" and " Sprite". After a few minutes, she said " Mommy! I see the word " pet! " " I looked around and didn't see it. She pointed to the sign that hangs above the aisle and sure enough, there was the word " pet" on the list of the items to found in that aisle. And just to be sure I was ultra proud, she also read the word " baby" on the same list.

A day to remember

A few months ago, through the magic of Facebook, Carley found our brother , Clay, with whom we'd lost contact with many years ago. We were all so excited to have found him and immediately, we all began to get to know each other again through texts and messages on Facebook. We also got to know our sister-in-law, Katja. When we found out we were moving to Colorado, I was completely excited that I'd be close enough to really get to know them. Then, with the Hansfords surprise visit, the timing seemed perfect to round everyone up for a BBQ.

Here's our family pic with everyone except Mike who was sleeping before work and Ben who had another commitment. This was taken just before Mark and Carley needed to leave. Clay and Katja have two kids- Anaka, who's 11 and Cameron who's 10. They are both great kids and so much fun! They fit right in.

Grams and Papa with all their grands:

My bro and me:


Mack was pretty overwhelmed with all the commotion and she kinda stuck with the other kids until Uncle Clay and Aunt Katja were about to leave. Then she ran after him , grabbed his leg and squeezed. Clay is 6 ft 5 in so you can see why she'd be a little intimidated at first:

The Hansfords are coming!

Ben surprised Nikki and the kids with the news that they'd be traveling to Colorado for Memorial day weekend! We had not seen Taylor and Cole for almost two years and were beyond excited to see them!

Taylor and Mack going on a walk to the mail box:

Nicole and Taylor. I am loving seeing all these toothless grins around here! Currently Brook, Taylor and Cole are all missing one or more of their front teeth!

Mack hanging with the boys:

Count it!

My dad manages an auto shop that also crushes " junk" cars. As he works, he collects coins from the cars that are to be crushed and saves them for the kids. Each Sunday they are together, they count it out and put it in their banks. Mack is happy to be apart of this tradition:

As they were counting, Brooklyn said " What's two plus two?" Mack quickly and proudly responded " Four!" leaving Papa a little surprised!

Girls gone wild...

I spent most of last weekend with my good friends Samantha, Cass and Jenny celebrating Cass's upcoming wedding at a fantastic tea party bridal shower. It was so much fun to be together again with out the sadness of saying " Good-bye" at the end of it. Instead, there was lots of excitement over upcoming play dates and mom's nights out!

Take two....I'm not exactly sure what was going on, but it made us laugh:


The beautiful bride: