The 4th

The 4th of July is one of our family's favorite holidays.  It's so fun and festive and we love being patriotic.  We settled in for another wonderful day at the beach since driving anywhere was out of the question.  It was a great day of sand digging, BBQing, and watching fireworks.

The girls LOVED being buried in the sand.  The Hobbs family joined us on the 4th and we were so happy they came down to visit us.

Ryder and Will were looking for some beer.

Watching the fireworks is my favorite part.  We almost put Ryder to bed because it was past 9 o'clock but I'm so glad we kept him up.  He was our entertainment.  He OOHED and AHHHED at every firework that went off.  It was a moment we'll never forget.

Bruiser

We all know that Ryder is crazy.  He climbs on everything and is such a boy.  We brought one baby gate with us to the beach house to keep Ryder & Will safe.  We really needed 4 gates.  He fell off a chair when Jess & I were standing right there and smacked face first on the tile.  At first I was concerned about the bump on his head but then his black eye started to really show up.  Huge mommy guilt on this one. I am so glad he's okay, but now I'm having a hard time relaxing because I'm constantly worried about Ryder and where he's at.

 Peek a boo!

My poor little guy :(

July 3rd

July 3rd was such a busy day at the beach and we decided we weren't going to drive anywhere.  It was a great day to park it at the beach and play and that's just what we did.  Our neighbors rented surboards so they could do the new craze of stand up surfing.  They took the girls for a few rides around the bay and they had tons of fun doing it.  I was pretty impressed with their balancing ability.  We cooked a nice dinner at the condo and the kids tuckered out early.  It was a fantastic family day.

 Ryan doing her stand up surfing moves.

 Hitching a ride with the neighbors.

 SO tired after a busy beach day.

Ryan and Uncle Jared playing Angry Birds.

Our first day

Our first day was so much fun.  The weather was amazing, the entire family was together, we cooked a great meal.  It was awesome  Alexa & Justin drove down from LA with Lexington and their hotel was in walking distance to our beach house.  We are in love with the beach house.  It's right on the bayside in Mission Bay and we couldn't ask for a better location.  The kids are having a blast in the sand and water and I know we are in for a week of GOOD times.

 Beach bum :)

 Me, Aunt Carol, Wendy, and Alexa.

 All the girls--Me, Aunt Carol, Wendy, Alexa, Mom, Jess.

 Reese loved making sand sculptures.

 Trying our best to get family shots.  Someone is always looking away.

Ryder boy, pre-black eye.

Road trip

We are heading out for San Diego and it's already been an adventure. We are packed to the gills and we're only going for a week.  Cory and I were up at 3am and we hit the road at 4am. Let me tell you that it was a great way to travel.  The kids slept for 4 hours and we woke up just outside San Diego in time for breakfast.  The kids ate a ton at a local diner and we headed straight for our friend's house since our condo wasn't quite ready at 9am.  Here we are having oodles of fun on our road trip. 

"Are we there yet?"

"Are you really taking my picture?" 

Pearly whites

We visited the dentist and it was another fun outing for me and the girls.  They love the entire staff and have so much fun when we go.  I'm always so grateful that there is no apprehension or fear of getting their teeth cleaned. 

Reese was the first to go and she was a champ.  The hygienist discovered that her top right tooth is loose.  I told Cory that if we think her top gap is big now, wait until that tooth falls out.  She guessed that the tooth would fall out some time in the next 6-12 months.  Agh!  I can't believe they are old enough to start losing teeth.

 Ryan needed something to do while Reese was in the chair.  She and I played 'dentist' while we were waiting.

 Then it was Ry's turn.  Look at those dimples.  She was chomping at the bit to get those toofers cleaned.

 Our good little patient.

 All done!

Cereal

This kid loves cereal.  It's so random to me because I feel like the girls didn't even begin eating breakfast cereal until they were over two years old.  This little guy begs for a bowl of it and will double fist the spoons to get as much down as he can.

 He also loves to sit on the counter and eat.  Drives me bonkers but we let this kid get away with murder.

 Who me?

Father's Day

I'm a little late posting about Father's Day but I wanted to talk about it because we had a really nice day. I would consider Friday-Sunday of that weekend as Father's Day weekend because Cory was recovering from the V surgery and I was on full kid duty for three days straight.  We made Cory some really cute tiles with everyone's handprints on them and they turned out SO cute.  The girls also made homemade cards with stamps and markers and he loved them.  Cory always says he doesn't want presents but at the last minute I caved and bought him 2 new outfits at the Nordstrom Men's sale.  He looks really sporty in his new clothes.  Somehow I have fantastic taste when it comes to picking out clothes for other people.

Lucky Cory got to sleep the morning away while the kids and I took my mom & dad out for Father's Day lunch.  Then we rested some more in the afternoon and headed to Cory's parents house to eat dinner and catch some fish.  They live right across the street from the neighborhood lake and the girls loved catching the fish and then throwing them back in.  It was such a fun relaxing day and we love celebrating Cory and the wonderful dad that he is.

V-day

It's official.  The Whyte House will not be adding more children to the mix.  Cory went in for his vasectomy today and it's a little bittersweet, but we know our perfect little family is complete.  The appointment went really well and he was in and out in about an hour.  We got his prescriptions filled, drove through Starbucks for a treat, and then headed home.  He's been taking it easy most of the day, but now he's up and ready to eat some dinner.  I think he'll be back to running around and playing soccer in no time.

If I had my way...

I would L-O-V-E to live in my Gammie's house.  It's such a neat old ranch house that sits on over an acre of land right in the middle of Chandler (which used to be the country).  The backyard is amazing and the kids have so much fun running around when we get together.  There's so much room to roam and we're all in heaven when we're in that backyard.  We think the little spool is pretty nifty.  The kids are still trying to figure out what it is.  Is it a spa?  Is it a pool?  It's a spool!

 There is oodles of grass to play freeze tag and some rounds of ring-around-the-rosy.

 Her rosebushes are something out of a gardening magazine.  So beautiful!

 

It's the type of place that puts a smile on these little faces.

Chuparosa

We went to Chuparosa park with my brother and his family this morning.  It was a nice morning and the kids had fun playing at the splash pad.  I love how the playground area is under a big canopy so there's lots of shade.  It was twin day at the park because there were two other sets of identical twins at the park.  One dad was there with his 2 year old twin boys and was telling us how much work it was and how tired he was.  I hear ya, buddy.  If we had twin Ryder boys I would be one tired mama.  Look at our little long haired boy who's so full of energy :)

The sand box and splash pad are always a hit.  I finally started bringing our own sand toys so we don't steal from other little kiddos.