Camp GiGi Pops

The end of June was an exciting time for the family!  My sister, Aunt Jana (or Nena as Crosby says) came for a visit!  She got to play all sorts of games with the boys and the LOVED every minute of it!  We even took her to the water park with us.  She swam her tail off with Carter and really all the kids!  We really enjoyed her visit!  Can't wait until the next one!
My parents had to take Jana back to OKC to the airport so they took Caden home with them! WOOHOO!  One kid down!  It's crazy how much one less kid changes the dynamic of the house! 

While Caden was gone, I took the next two oldest in for their dental checkup!  I love this dentist!  They can watch cartoons while getting their teeth cleaned and they never really know what's happening...can you say ZONED OUT!  Ha!
While Caden was gone, Pops did a great job of keeping me posted with pictures and such!  Caden got to go fishing just him and Pops and caught some great looking fish!  Look at that face, he is LOVING life!
After a couple of days alone with Caden, I met my mom halfway and dropped off two more.  Camp GiGi Pops was beginning!  I stole this idea from a friend and my Mom thinks it's a great invention!  The boys go to her house for several days without us and get all kinds of attention from their Grandparents, a win-win for everyone!  But my mom said they have to be potty trained so Crosby and Miss C stayed home with us! 

While the three boys were gone, Crosby was missing them badly!  He plays really well with C but he LOVES his brothers.  So thankful for FaceTime and technology!  He got to talk to each brother for a bit!  I love the smiles on each of their faces as they see each other!

While the boys were in Duncan with my parents they went to Kiddie Land!  I don't remember going there much as a kid, but I was in 8th grade when we moved there.  But they take my kids ALL THE TIME!  And everyone has a good time.  Riding the planes, the train, or even Tilt-A Whirl!  Then they of course had to get snow cones!

When camp was over we met my dad in OKC to pick them up.  Cory thought we should celebrate and have a little movie time with the crew!  So we took all 5 kids to Brave and they all enjoyed it!  I snapped this picture while walking to dinner after the movie. 

As most of you know, I am not really sentimental, but this struck me and I had to get a picture.  Cory took me to dinner in Bricktown and then we walked around for a bit and he proposed to me.  As we walked down a familiar path there I was overcome with the emotions of how blessed we are now and how far we've come!  I thought this picture captured all of that so perfectly!


So this week was a blast!  We played and loved on Aunt Jana, Caden got alone time with GiGi and Pops, then Carter and Cole joined in the fun, and it was a breeze having only two kids here at home, capped off by an ending with movie and dinner in Bricktown!  WOOHOO!

Slumber Party

One night we had family movie night in the living room.  I love how Crosby just fits right in with the boys and will actually watch most of the movie.  Pretty good for not even two yet! Miss C didn't watch so well and ended up going to bed :)
Of course after the movie, they conned Momma into letting them sleep in the living room for a slumber party!  This was the scene the next morning!
Crosby was so worn out from staying up late with them, that he crashed the next day while eating lunch!  Oh the joys of summer!

Basketball Camp

Caden attended basketball camp this year again and LOVED it!  This year the WHS coach partnered with Keiton Page and his dad and had a Keiton Page skills camp.  For those of you outside Oklahoma, Keiton was a point guard for the last four years for our OSU Cowboys!  Great story, a local Oklahoma boy, pretty short (and dare I say it, white) who didn't get many offers from outside schools.  But OSU gave him a scholarship and he was great fun to watch for four years!  So Caden was thrilled he would be at camp!

After Caden started camp, we realized that my dad had coached several camps with Coach Page (Keiton's dad) so that made the camp even more fun for Caden!  He was pretty pumped each day to go!


This is blurry because I had to zoom in from my phone :( But here he is getting his certificate from Keiton himself.  He was really proud of that piece of paper!

Branson 2012

We went back to Branson this summer but I didn't get to post daily about our trip.  We really pushed the limits this year and went hard all day and crashed when we got home!  Grammie and Papa went with us and we took our Becca with us for her graduation gift!  It was a BLAST! 

The pictures are somewhat out of order, but if you want to see them ALL in order, come check out the photo book I made of our trip :) 

Becca and I got our dance on in an arcade!

Becca, Caden, Carter, and me ready to ride Thunderation at Silver Dollar City.

Here are the 4 boys at Bass Pro in Springfield, MO on our way to Branson

The three older boys got to go the the Butterfly Palace while the little two napped in the car.  Don't worry Papa and Daddy stayed with them and drove around to check out things!

They even talked Grammie into buying a souvenir!

One of my favorite pics of Silver Dollar City...a rare occurrence of Crosby holding hands!  He loves his Becca!

Go-karts were driven!

We saw Joseph at the Sight and Sound Theater, but took the kids picture with Goliath!  While they LOVED the show, Joseph, David and Goliath is one of their favorites Bible stories!

Becca talked me into doing the flying swing, (100 ft in the air, around 70mph) CRAZY!  But what's even crazier is that I talked Caden into.  It was NUTS!  I can't believe I did it.  It wasn't even fun, but I think my cool meter went way over full in Caden's eyes!

This is one of my favorite pics of the last day...they really do love each other :)

We had  long but good week!  Can't wait to go back next year! 

PS- we missed the Merritts!

Summer Cuts

After bible school we decided to do the summer buzz...everyone got involved!  If you know my family well you should be able to identify each man/boy's hair in the sink!


We went pretty stinking short with the older two as usual, but even buzzed Crosby's pretty low too!  Cole got a bunch cut off, it's just not as short as the others.  He has such  "special" hair!


They are all still handsome though no matter how I trim it!

Baby Deer

Our friends raise deer out on their ranch and they allowed the kiddos to come take a look at the newborns!  They were precious and the kids LOVED seeing them.  Crosby must have said "baby deer" about 1000 times on the way there and for several days after!

Piano Recital

Caden has been taking piano lessons for about 3 months now.

 

Here is the song he played at church a few weeks ago and at his recital.  He did a great job both times.  For the church performance he had to stretch it out and repeat several sections.  

 

Professor Long Ears

Caden's class at school did a play the last week or so of school and he got to play the part of Professor Long Ears.  His teacher had them perform the play complete with costumes.  He was a pretty cute rabbit :)