Oh What A Beautiful Morning............

Well school started about 2 weeks ago for Tanner and this week for Cooper and Carter and it really couldn't have come sooner!!
The two younger boys have been restless for awhile and were needing something to do. Tanner was just glad to be going back to socializing with his friends! He didn't want any pictures taken.....teenagers!!! :)

Cooper 5th grade

Carter 2nd grade

Cooper Carter Walker and Kennedy getting a group picture. While taking pictures at the school Coop kept not smiling and wanted me to hurry up and be done. I told him if he would just smile real quick for a picture then we could be done before any of his friends saw us....sure enough a quick smile came and I left him to be COOL with his friends and went to the little kids area with Carter who still wants his mom to hang with him!!!

Afterwards the two little ones and I met Daddy at McDonald's for breakfast. Kenna was loving her orange juice!


Then we went home and the rest of the day was filled with two little kids playing nicely together. Awww I love when the bigger kids are at school!!!

Wow Time flys when you are having fun......

In July Rob and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary!! Sometimes it seems so hard to believe that we have been together that long already. It has been a fantastic 16 years. Yes we have had our ups and downs over the years but I can honestly say that they have not had to do with our relationship. It has always been just "life" kind of stuff. You know bills, kids, in-laws, sickness and death. I can honestly say that we have only once gotten in an argument and that was at the time when we were dealing with both of Rob's parents having cancer and him working 70-80 hours a week and trying to deal with the emotions from a recent miscarriage. Can you say STRESS!!!


Marrying Rob was the best decision I have ever made.....well maybe next to having that last baby of ours!!! Just kidding....they are tied!!LOL He really is perfect for me and treats me so good. He even puts up with my crankiness, not that it happens that often! We almost always agree exactly on everything.

I had to take a picture of our wedding photos so the pictures aren't the best but whatever! Also we tried to get Tanner to take our picture before we left to go out that evening and every single one of them was blurry beyond recognition. So this was the best picture I could take with holding the camera out in front of us!! LOL

For our anniversary we went to Farrelli's Dinner theater in Scottsdale. We had never been. I have always wanted to go but Rob has never really wanted to drive that far or the times when he has agreed the movie choices sucked or we didn't decide in enough time to make a reservation. So we went and it was wonderful. The ambiance was great for romance. The food was delish!! The movie was enjoyable too! All in all we plan on going again soon. Here is to another 16 years Rob I love you!!

I have a family Tree...........

We had our William Joseph McCain family reunion this summer and although it was not the best turn out it was nice to see family. On Friday night we all went to Amazing Jakes. We had a really fun time playing together and enjoying each other's company. I rode the twirly teacups with Carter and lets just say I will not be doing that EVER again!!! I guess in my old age I can't handle the twirly rides anymore. :( The train and carousel were fun though. Somehow I didn't get any pictures there....bummer!!

On Saturday we all met at a church building for a potluck luncheon.





Here is my lil ol' Granny. She doesn't get out much anymore so it was a nice that my Mom was able to get her to come.


My Mom and Dad washing the dishes. I had to get a picture to remind me that my Dad CAN wash the dishes.....he was not amused by this statement!!!!!! LOL



The kids and some adults had fun playing tag in the dark in one of the over flows. It was DARK, HOT and SMELLY in there!! The kids LOVED it!!



Tanner was not to excited to go because there was nobody his age there but he was a good sport and helped out with the lil kids......he did NOT play tag in the dark!! He is to old I guess......but I can promise you had his friends been there he would have! He is such a teenager.

Cooper and Kennedy.


That evening we all went to Shepard Aquatic Center. We had it rented out so we had it to ourselves and it was nice. So we swam, visited and had ice cream afterwards.
Kennedy had a fun time playing in the water.


Kennedy getting ready for her Sports Illustrated debut in a few years..........NOT!!!


Walker

Carter

Tanner and his friend Kennan that he had come along with him.

All in all it was a fun few days. It would have been nicer had we had longer to be together.

It was a night to remember..........

Kennedy went on her first date! It was with a man she referred to as her "Sweet Prince"! She was all excited about it the weeks leading up to it! On the night of her date she could barely contain her excitement!



Her "Sweet Prince" took her to the "Daddy Daughter Dance" at church where she had a ball!!



Our awesome Activities Committee had the night centered around lil princess'. They even had a carriage...modern day style...they had a Excursion Limo there and the girls and their fathers got to pile in and go for a ride. They had dinner, dancing and activities planned out to do.



Here she is practicing her dance moves/twirls as she is going from one activity to the next.



Kennedy and Addy! Every Princess has to have a sidekick and she was pleased that one of her two Best Friends was there.



Story time! The stories were read to them by Cinderella herself!!



The girls enjoying the stories.



They made magical wands! The wands were rice crispy treats shaped as stars that they put on the end of a dowel rod! So they were a cute idea and delicious too!



When she got home she was so excited to tell the boys and me all about her evening! She just glowed with enthusiasm! Rob enjoyed the evening too. He loved spending time with his lil princess and said the whole evening was well planned out and fun! Thanks Activities Committee for a great night!! Hope this becomes a tradition. I am glad Kennedy and her "Sweet Prince" had a great time and I am glad that her "Sweet Prince" is my "Sweet Prince" too!!

What we did while the bigger boys were away.......

Well I am behind in blogging....DUH..... but I wanted to post this anyways.
Back in May Rob, Tanner, Cooper and Carter went on the Father and Sons Camp out! Yea!! So I would looovvvveee to show you pictures of how that went but ummm I wasn't there to take the pictures and Rob didn't take any. I was told it was alot of fun!

Walker, Kennedy and I had a nice time together though and WE DO have a few pictures to share. We started off our afternoon after they left by running to Target and looking at toys and of course picking out goodie snacks for the evening and a new toy. Walker got a Star Wars action figure and Kennedy got a princess movie-or two!:)

Then we went to Costa Vida for dinner.




The kids enjoyed it so very much.



Walker loved the queso and chips best.



Kennedy was pleased to get a cheese crisp/quesadilla and share Walker's queso and chips.



After dinner we went to Dunkin Donuts and picked up donuts for breakfast for Saturday morning. Of course they both agreed that this was a great idea too! When we got home we snuggled up all together in bed and watched movies together till they fell asleep,yes they were the new Barbie movies of course!! They were happy not to get kicked out of my bed to go sleep in their own rooms! It was nice to be able to sleep-in the next morning with my two favorite snuggle bugs!! We had a relaxing and enjoyable time together. Kinda makes me sad that next year Walker will be going with them instead of staying with us at home but I guess it will finally be a "real girls weekend"!!

Oh a swimming we will go......and go...........and go....

This summer we enrolled Carter, Walker and Kennedy in swim lessons. A lady in our ward was teaching the lessons and we thought what the heck even if they wound up not learning anything at least it would give them something fun to do. They had lessons Tuesday - Thursday June and July 45 minutes each class. I was so impressed at the progress they all three made in the short time!



Carter can swim now...he is not a strong swimmer but he has the basic concepts and tries to do it. He has pretty good form for diving too!



Walker is not as terrified of the water as he was and he tries to swim but he will still need more practice....but the concepts are there to now work with at least.



Walker was so funny EVERY time his teacher would tell him to hold his breath he would puff his cheeks out like a frog the whole time. It was so exaggerated looking he cracks me up!!








Kennedy last year would not even go in the pool area now she is just loving it. She is still timid but she enjoys the water and she also has the basic concepts that we can work on.




I am glad we were able to do this even though day after day of sitting out in the heat was draining and it seemed like I got nothing done most of the time. Thanks to Jaime we are on our way so that next year maybe all of the kids will be able to swim!! Thanks Jaime for putting up with my ornery wild children!!

Father's Day 2009

So a few years ago while Visiting Teaching a friend of mine in my old ward she showed me the cutest idea her Daughter in law had done for Father's day. I have wanted to recreate it ever since and this year as I was browsing other blogs and saw other people doing it for Fathers Day too I knew this was the year to finally do it. So I made the signs up while Rob was sleeping and hid them in my purse (thank goodness for a big purse) then the next day I got the kids gathered and told them we were taking pictures because we have so many empty walls in our house and I wanted more of their pictures on my walls which was in part the truth! We drove around for a lil while looking for a good spot and as I drove I told the kids what we were really doing and they were so very excited!! I reminded them it was a surprise for Dad and not to tell him when we got home. I had waited till the last minute because they can't keep a secret but I am happy to say that this year they kept it for the whole 2 days leading up to Father's Day!! So I got the pics I wanted then put them in the following order in one long black 6 opening collage frame!








Rob really liked it and thought the idea of it was really fun and cool. I am so lucky to have him as a husband and the father of my kiddos. He is a great Dad and a great example to the boys. We love you Daddy!!!!

Lil Tumbling Girl

Kennedy started doing Gymnastics a few months back and LOVES it!! We are lucky enough that a gal in our ward was a gymnist and now teaches classes from her home.

Here she is doing her back bends/bridges.



Learning the placement on how to do cartwheels.



Kenna likes the balance beam work alot! She likes baby crawls on the beam and bunny hops on the beam!



She likes just the regular walking on the beam too! Overall she enjoys the beam.



One of her favorite things is the CHALK!



She loads up her hands of chalk to get ready for the bar work!



She plays with it too!!

Here she is on the bars. Her teacher has to do most of the work for her still but she thinks it is so fun.




She enjoys the tumbling part maybe the most but all the pictures I took were too blurry. I am glad she enjoys it all so much.