just because

My camera was in my car so I took some pics of the kids on their way to school. Cooper is obsessed with the crops and the water in the ditch. Everyday he comments on how the crops are growing bigger. haha.

Finally

We have had some issues with Cooper going #2 in the potty for the past year. It has been a nightmare!!!!! We bribe him with everything we can think of. Nothing was working. I knew that 90% of it was his stubbornness, but I finally took him to the doctor because I though something was wrong. Well we think we figured it out and I am happy to report that this kid does ALL his business in the potty now! He goes twice a day now too!!!!!! I am in heaven. And look at that smile. He is pretty proud of himself too. And dad pulled out his trains from when he was little and they set up the track.

Excuse the nakedness of this picture. Just be warned if you come to my house, this is what you will see. The second he walks in the door from school he takes off all his clothes.

I don't get it

Daisy cleaned her room on Saturday afternoon. It was completely spotless. And this is what it looked like Sunday afternoon. Seriously? It drives me crazy.

chalkboard door

I have wanted one of these forever. When we moved into our house the pantry door was missing. Well it only took us 2 months but I finally got my door. I painted it with the chalkboard paint. I love it. I thought it would be so fun to write grocery lists, or menus, but my kids have completely taken it over. Oh well. It's still fun.

2nd day

My kids go to school out of district so we drive about a mile down the road to catch the bus. Some members of this family, who shall remain nameless, don't love where we live. Well this is one of the main reasons I like it. I love that we live in a "small" town and have farm fields everywhere. The kids love watching the fields get planted and watching the new crops come in.

First Day of School

All 3 kids are in school all day. I've gotta say, I was not looking forward to this day. My baby started kindergarten and I'm a little sad. Daisy started 6th grade. I cannot believe it. One thing that makes me happy is our school is K-8 so my kids get to go to the same school for 3 years. I don't know how Daisy feels about not going to "junior high" but it makes this mom happy.Lindsay is in 3rd grade this year. She loves school. I took pictures of the girls and when I turned around, they were off with their friends.

I was fighting back the tears like you wouldn't believe walking this boy to class. He was super nervous, but also very excited to go to kindergarten. He went to summer school and loved it, but it was only 3 hours a day. I'm so nervous for all day.

He found his name on his desk and saw that there was playdoh. He sat down and started playing and said, Bye mom! Here is my big kid at his desk.

Party!

We had one last party on Sunday. Granpa Ben came over to the Hall's for dinner and cake. Here is a picture of him with some of his great grandkids. We love Granpa Ben.

Build A Bear

Jeff got to spend his birthday at the movies watching Cars 2 and then going to Build A Bear. What a nice dad. Cooper got a gift card from his cousins to go to Build A Bear. He was so excited to finally go and actually buy something there. He chose a dalmation dog and some Lightning McQueen pj's. He had a hard time picking a name. But he ended up choosing Lightning McQueen! haha.

Then we went back to Grandma and Grandpa's and Cooper helped Jeff with the irrigation. As you can see he had fun.

FoRtY

This guy deserves his own post. He was not too excited to be turning OvEr tHe HilL but we still celebrated anyway. He always said when he turned 40 he was going to get a Harley. Well that didn't happen. So he got some new arrows and a target for his bow. Super exciting. We are happy Jeff puts up with us and he's lucky we still put up with him too. :)

The other birthday boy

It's not as fun to have a birthday when you get older, and share it with other people, and turn 40! haha. The weekend was absolutely crazy. We seriously went from one thing to the next all weekend. I hope Jeff didn't feel to left out. I tried to have a party for just him. My family met him at Costa Vida, one of his favorites. Then we came back to my parents for cake and ice cream. I made him a german chocolate cake. It totally fell apart, but it tasted good. We also sang to Jamee, Cooper and Preston who had a birthday earlier in the week.

Celebrate!

We went to Mesa/Gilbert for the weekend to party hard! We celebrated Cooper, Avery, and Jeff's birthday at Heather's. We had pizza, cupcakes, and went swimming.

July 21st is Cooper's birthday and his girl cousin Avery. July 22nd is Jamee's birthday and July 23rd is Jeff's birthday. He also shares that day with Grandpa Ben. Needless to say, there are alot of parties happening this weekend!

FIVE!!!!

How can this be? My little baby boy is five today. He was so excited for his birthday. He told us that we had to wake him up and yell Happy Birthday. But that's kind of hard when he wakes up at the crack of dawn. He came into my room and said he was awake. I told him to go back to his bed and pretend he was asleep so I could go wake up the girls. He is so silly.

He got to pick his birthday lunch. We weren't surprised when he picked McDonald's. Then we had cake and ice cream when dad got home. It was a fun day. But his celebrating is just getting started. We have a crazy weekend ahead of us.

Having fun

We set out one morning to collect sea shells. There is an area on the beach we always go. Well it had totally disappeared. The tides have been kind of crazy the last couple of years. We got a little soaked by the waves so we had to get up on the boardwalk. And how sad that was the only family picture we took. That's attractive.

Lindsay

I got Lindsay all ready for her pics. I took 1 and the next thing I knew she had changed into her souvenir pajama shirt. Oh well. She's still a cutie.

I have no words...

This kid is as crazy as they come. Never a dull moment with Cooper. I was trying to take a nice picture but he kept posing crazy then he'd tell me to take his picture. But I did get at least one cute/normal picture.