Family Trip to Joplin!

Very excited to go to Joplin

And to see their family there!

Fun with water on a hot day!!

Briana played piano with Great Papa Bare

Looking at photo albums with cousins, Mama Corinne and Great Mama Bare

Time for S'mores!

This was really yummy, made in the dutch oven!

Cousin Twins!

Cora gave Alexia a shirt that matched hers!  

They coordinated this by themselves!

So blessed to have cousins!

We all scream for ICE CREAM!

Beautiful Iris Plant at Great Papa and Great Mama Bare's house

Little Cowgirl!

Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Bare with their three adult children

Big Happy Family!  

Missing a few faces though!

On the road again

I posted the pictures from my iPad, but had to get on the PC to write the actual blog post.

We had a wonderful trip to Joplin to visit family!  We got there and checked in to our room at Fairfield Inn, then headed to Great Papa and Great Mama Bare's house for a short visit.  We stopped at Academy (a sporting goods store) to look around, specifically to look at bows and arrows for Blake.  We met up with the rest of the family at our cousin Dan and Delicia's house and enjoyed spending time with them, their 5 kiddos, Uncle Geoff and Aunt Jane, Great Mama and Great Papa Bare, Mama Corinne and Papa Mark and Uncle Liam.  We had a great time grilling burgers, playing in the water, jumping on the trampoline and making s'mores and a wonderful Cherry Dump Cake!  When the evening came to an end we were sad to go.  Saturday we had fun at the gun range and the farmer's market!  We enjoyed eating at Culver's and all of the kids enjoyed Ice Cream cones thanks to Grandma Jane and Mama Corinne!  We then took the kids to the playground, they ran around and played while the grown-ups supervised and enjoyed conversation with each other!  Dinner at Ruby Tuesday's with Great Papa and Great Mama Bare was great!  We had lobster for the first time!  Yum!  We closed out the day swimming at the hotel, then off to bed!

Sunday we packed up the vehicles and went to Church with the family, after Church we went to eat at Ryan's with the Filbeck family.  The Filbecks served with Great Mama and Great Papa Bare when they were missionaries in Thailand.  It was nice to finally meet most of them and to be able to put a face with a name.  After lunch we parted ways and headed back home.

Our visit was short, but wonderful!  Can't wait to visit more family later this year!

Feeling very Blessed!

Busy, but fun week!!

What a week we've had!  

The kids were very excited for their Grandma and Grandpa 

and their Great-Grandma to come to town!

To start off our busy week it was Blake's last week of school, so we made things special for him!

Tuesday was Alexia's rehearsal for her dance, which was a lot of fun!

Wednesday was Blake's last day of Kindergarten!

Wednesday evening was Alexai's dance recital!  

Mommy and one other dance Mommy volunteered 

to hang out with the girls before they went onstage!

We had fun waiting our turn!

Lex is ready to go dance with her friends

Watching a video on our portable dvd player

Lex with her flowers from Grandma Jenny

after the recital!

After the recital!  

We are missing a couple of the girls, but they all sure were adorable!

So excited to walk as team Cure ALL for Blake!

It is our 4th year walking as a team and we are very thankful

for all of our friends and family members who walked with us

and also for all who donated!  We passed our fundraising goal this year!

Blake with Mommy and Daddy 

Holding our team sign!

Most of our team!  

We sure love all of these people!

Blake receiving his survivor's medal!

Lots of Cancer Survivors, all so young

Later Saturday afternoon we got to watch 

Blake's very first baseball game!

The kids were all so great!

It was rainy and wet, but wonderful!

iPad photos and a brief update

Well, here we are adding some photos we have taken using our iPad!!!

Can't believe he is only 2 days away from being done with Kindergarten!

They sure love each other!  

Lex picked out these matching outfits at the store!  

She loves planning what both of them are going to wear each day!

This is Briana's attachment item

She is the first one of our children who has one

We must always have "Brown Bear", no other bear will do.

Ready to play!

Our sweet youngest child!

They were playing, "Night-Night" time

Lex is so good with Briana!

Blake is showing off his pumping skills

Riding Bikes

At Parent Day at Blake's school, this was our fishbowl craft we did together!

Loved that the Kindergarten teachers got together and did this for the parents!  

Little cool girl!

Sure love this kiddo!

She loves her baby dolls!

Our little gymnast got her first medal!

Blake's first baseball practice!

Love!

Blake's biggest fans watching him practice

On Blake's school field trip to the zoo

we hung out with one of Blake's friends and his little sister

We had lots of fun!

Ready to go hang out with the family!!!

Just a sweet girl and her wonderful daddy!

Driving Miss Briana

Time is always well spent when it is spent with cousins!

Yum!

Saw some pretty cool fireworks on our way home from the family gathering!

Memorial Day

Spent remembering those we love and have lost

Fun and Busy times!!!

Well, we have been very busy lately!  Still on the hunt for our perfect home, getting ready for Blake to complete Kindergarten!  Celebrating Mother's Day, getting ready for Father's Day and all the fun times in between!  We just got our first iPad, we are learning all sorts of cool things to use it for!  We used facetime for the first, second, third and fourth times, will be facetiming again soon I am sure!  :)  It is a blast to watch the kiddos chatting with their Grandma and Great Grandma, it is also fun for mommy to have a long distance cup of coffee with an old friend!  The kids are loving the educational (and the not-so-educational) apps that we have already added to our lovely family iPad!  What a great buy!

Mommy and Alexia have been cooking freezer meals with a friend every other week and that has been going great!  We made some fun Mother's Day gifts for the Grandmas and Great-Grandmas in our lives!  We are in the process of producing some AMAZING Father's Day presents for Daddy and the Papas!  We have been spending tons of time with family, especially cousins lately!  We are gearing up for our annual walk that we participate in, couldn't be more excited about that!  T-shirts have been ordered and are on their way to us currently!!!!

I am going to figure out a way to get the pictures from our iPad on here, but for now I will leave you all with some of the non-iPad pictures we have taken in the last few weeks!

Feeling Very Blessed!

These pictures were taken when we all had lunch outside at Blake's school!

Blake and Daddy fight over the Mango smoothie

Mommy and Blake

Daddy and Lex

Lex and Blake

Briana (our little ham)

We love Daddy!