Edwards Family Trip Part I

We all got together at Wesley's parent's house and had lots of fun activities planned. One day we went to Toads which had go-karts, mini-golf, climbing wall, batting cages, laser tag and arcade games. I felt so lucky that Maddie wanted to ride with me on the go-karts. We had lots of fun! Kara and Marilee after riding the g0-karts
Jake on the merry go round

Mini-golfing Wesley's parents went all out this trip. They got a slip 'n slide, jumbo inflatable slide, kiddy pools and a fire pit. Here's Jake and Wes on the jumbo slide
Daddy and Jake on the slip 'n slide

Just a couple of kids hanging out in the pool
We also went to Fat Cats to go bowling. Here's Kara and Maddie
Jake's first attempt at bowling. He didn't get a strike, but a great first try.
We had a baby shower for Lis and Jay. Here's the cute mommy and daddy to be

Candy bar diaper game. We also had the apple juice in baby bottles that the men had to drink.
Alana on the tree swing
Eating smores and hotdogs
Cute baby Tyler

Edwards Family Trip Part II

After the Edwards Family Reunion ended, we stayed through the next day to spend a little extra time and go to Pineview Lake. It was Jake's second time on a lake, but first time to really experience and enjoy it. He did NOT like wearing a life vest. I just learned how to waterski a couple of years ago and it's my new favorite thing!
Our little family riding the tube
Wes and I on the tube
One of my favorite pictures of this boy


Wesley will say he's not good anymore at slalom, but I think he's amazing.
Jake loved being in the water. He was playing catch with grandpa and Aunt Lisa
Wesley's sister Lisa. She's going to have her first baby in September. We can't wait for Dallas to get here!
Jake cuddled with grandma and took a much needed nap. He warmed up to grandma and grandpa really well this trip.

Dessert Night

Any excuse to get together with friends is great, and any excuse to eat dessert is great, too so we had friends over and ate lots of desserts a few Sundays ago. HEre's some pictures of the kids playing in the backyard. Cute Reagan, who is just 2 months older than Jake. She is such a cute girl, I love her!

Here's Van, who is just a month younger than Jake. He's one of the most laid back boys you will meet and he has the cutest smile!
Stone and Hayley playing with potato bugs
Cute Hayley and Maya
This is Maya and Bennet sword fighting, I think

Camping

We went camping with our friends, Tracy and Tag and their daughter Lily to Wellington Lake. We were just off the lake, but it was a quick walk to it. Jake loved the dirt, was fascinated with the fire, which I'm not sure he ever quite understood that it was dangerous. Just before bedtime. Mental note for the future: we will never share our air mattress, or any bed for that matter, with Jake. What a bed hog! We all ended up sleeping the width of the mattress to have more room and by morning, I was kicked out of my sleeping bag and sleeping spot and so Wesley shared his with me, leaving Jake with my sleeping bag and 3/4 of the bed. Needless to say, neither of us got much sleep that night, but Jake was very well rested! Don't let this sweet face fool you
Breakfast donuts. He's hanging out by Lily's princess tent.
Tag and Lily eating/making breakfast. They made a really yummy breakfast with their dutch oven.
The lake was so pretty. The only down side was as we were walking on the shore, a little boy was telling us how he had found a leech in the lake. No, there was not any swimming for any of us.

Slumber Party

Most of you who know me, know that I still haven't adjusted to Wesley going out of town. I have always, (and am sure always will) hate it when he goes out of town. Thankfully, my friend Tracy's husband was out of town the same time as Wesley and so we had a sleepover. Who says you can't have slumber parties when you grow up? We had a blast. We took our kids to Red Robin for dinner. Which I have decided is the best restaurant for families. The noise volume is so loud that you never have to worry if your child gets too loud. Tracy and her girl Lily.
Morning hair and faces
Tracy found a cute recipe from her friend where you bake pancakes in muffin tins and they become cute cups. We put strawberries and cool whip. They were really yummy.

My Little Mozart

You've seen him dance, but he is quite the pianist as well. What a natural.

Summer Fun

We've had a great summer so far. The heat has been a bit much but we have found some fun indoor activities to occupy Jake. We went to the Wildlife Experience nearby with some friends, Becky and Rachel and their kids. It had mini golf which the kids loved. The kids dressed up in fun outfits. It was so cute. There's Maya, Bennett, Ellery and Hayley. I didn't even try to put Jake into a costume, though I was tempted.
Since it's been so warm, we don't go out much unless there's water involved. Jake loves playing in water and we went to Tracy's house so Jake could play with her daughter Lily in her pool. This is Jake "sampling" Lily's popsicle.

It's kind of strange, but I love experimenting with food in the summer, and detest cooking in the winter. Probably because grilling is involved so much in the summer, which is Wesley's job. I love trying new recipes in the summer and this one was a hit. For any of you who've seen Robin Miller on Food Network, she makes multiple meals out of the same meat used in previous meals. This week was roast. So we had roast, asian beef salad another night, tacos and empanadas. The empanadas tasted pretty good b/c we used the leftover sauce from the roast. The presentation of this avocado dish looked way better than it tasted. It just called for lime juice and cilantro. I must have over done it with the lime juice, but it looks pretty!

And this is where you will always find Jake if Wesley is around... right by his side.
Wesley has had a few chances to go hiking this summer. This time was with our friend, Mike, they hiked a 14er. Wesley said it was fun but challenging. Here's a picture of them at the top with the gorgeous view. I'm glad I got to experience the view without having to do the hike!

My cute hubby

We've been trying to be more consistent with family nights on Mondays. It's been hard since Jake is still so young. But we decided to have a picnic at the park one night and it was a success! I got all the food ready, we ate and then my 2 boys went off to play. They are so cute playing together.
Here they are holding hands about to go down the slide.
Jake's favorite summer fruit is watermelon. We have to strip him down to his shorts b/c he makes such a mess and eats so much of it. But this picture shows his pure enjoyment.

We trade off dinner every Sunday with Clint and Kara. This particular week was at our house. Ella really is a natural in the car.
Jake is pretty clingy to us, BUT he does a few other favorites, and that's Clint and the boys. He gets so excited when he sees Clint, David or Max. David is Jake's favorite play friend.
I just thought this was cute!

Fourth Of July

We had a great 4th of July this year. We started out by taking a hike with Clint and Kara's family (Wesley's brother). It was a lot of fun, Jake loves being outdoors and was such a good sport!

Daddy and Jake on the hike. He loves the new carrier backpack we got for him, but I think he'd love anything that had him attached to daddy. He's Wesley's #1 fan!

We went to a fireworks show nearby. They had the armed forces band playing all sorts of fun music. Aside from patriotic songs, they played Mama Mia, Beauty and the Beast and Jivin' music. The singers were great. Jake was dancing his heart out! He was quite the entertainment in our section.

The fireworks show was great! It lasted for what seemed like forever. I can't say whether Jacob loved it or not but he was quite content sleeping...

Cleaning Housewife

I am in the process of re-evaluating my cleaning supplies. Most of the ones I buy are very convenient, for example, I use the disposable pledge wipes, flushable scrubbing bubbles wipes, flushable toilet scrub brush,etc. Mostly everything disposable or flushable. But, last week as I spent 2 entire days deep cleaning my house, I wondered if there were better products that I just don't know about. Can any of you help? If there is any cleaning product you swear by or love to use, please let me know. I'd love to enjoy cleaning more and I think with some new and improved products, I just might want to clean more... or not, but it'd be nice to have the good stuff just in case! Thanks for your help!

Future "So You Think You Can Dance" Star

By far, dancing is Jake's favorite thing to do. He dances to any and every music, including church music. We'll be sitting in the pew at church and he'll dance to the hymns, it's really cute and funny. We were watching one of the morning shows today and Miley Cirus was on, he immediately busted out in dance. I've been keeping up with 'So you think you Can Dance' this season and I have so say that I think we have a future star in our midst!

Overly Excited Jacob

All I can say is that Jacob can get REALLY excited at times, and I'm so happy I got it on video. Funny how he's completely alone and able to entertain himself. This is from Memorial Day weekend at grandma and grandpa Edwards house. He loves being outdoors and it shows.