Shawn's New Adventure!

Since Shawn is now 8 years old, he gets to start out in a new adventure....the Boy Scouts of America! He has been so excited to be in scouts! The minute he got his book he was looking through it to see what he could do! {As a mom I am excited for him too, and really hope that his excitement about it all continues over the years.}

At Pack Meeting this last week, Shawn was awarded his "Bobcat" - the first award you can get as a scout! Him and three other boys his age were awarded this and got to have their faces painted (each mark symbolizes something different with boy scouts.) They all thought it was pretty cool!

Being a mother of three boys, I always knew that someday Boy Scouts would end up being a big part of our lives....and that day has come! I think it will be a fun new adventure for Shawn and then for each of our boys after that! Hopefully he will have fun and also learn some important lessons for life through the Boy Scout program!

Larry Fitzgerald!!!

Saturday, July 17th we were able to have a fun experience with our boys. Mike had heard that one of the Cardinals {football} players was going to be at the Paradise Valley Mall at the AT&T store for a couple hours in the afternoon to sign autographs and meet people, so we decided it would be a fun thing to see if we could go see/meet him! And see him we did!!!!!

Mr. Larry Fitzgerald himself!
(what a good lookin' guy, don't you think?!) :)

When we got there, there was a LOOOONG line waiting to see him, but we stood in it anyway since we were already there. He was supposed to leave at 2:30 and at that time we were still a ways back in line. Well...they said he was leaving so almost everyone got out of line and left. Then...they said that he decided he could stay for a little bit longer. So we jumped back in line as fast as we could and were actually able to meet him! The boys were so excited! {That includes Mike of course!} I even found myself really excited about it. I love football, although not quite as much as my hubby, so it was really cool to be able to meet one of our very favorite players!

He gave each of us a picture of himself with his autograph, shook the boys hands, and then it was over. All that line standin' for a few mere seconds of meet n' greet, but completely worth it!!! I think our boys will remember this day for a long time!!!

Legoland!!! (day 3)

On Monday, July 5th we took the kids to Legoland! We have always wanted to take our boys there (they all love legos) but we wanted to wait until they were old enough to enjoy it and tall enough to actually go on most of the rides. So when Mike's brother said they were taking their kids we decided to go too! {It helped too that we had coupons for all the kids to get in FREE!!!}

So here we are headed into Legoland for the day:
(yes, the people except for us are all made out of Legos)

The kids all got a kick out of everything made out of Legos - so many things! Way cool!

And, of course, rides are always a hit with everyone. :)

Family Race down the big slide! Ready, Set, Go!

Mike quickly pulled out in front....

But they all made it to the bottom safely.

The Lego horses:

There was a play area that all looked like giant Lego houses, etc. The kids all had fun running around playing in it/on it for a while.

We even got to race Lego Fire Trucks down the street, spray the fire out with hoses, and race back again! It was really fun, but crazily a lot of work! :)

The boys with the "fire house dog" - of course out of Legos.

Brady thought this Lego man sitting on the bench was pretty funny.

And Connor had fun flying the Lego airplanes!

We also went to the Legoland Waterpark that was there, but I didn't get any pictures of it. I should have because it was cool, but we didn't last there for too long (too cold!) so I didn't ever bother to get it out. Oh well!

Another part that the kids (and all of us) thought was WAY cool was this part called "Mini Land USA" It was cities from all over the U.S. made entirely out of Legos! It was really neat! I can't believe some of the things they made! Here are a few "scrapbook style" pictures of it all - there was so much I didn't want to bore you with a million pictures! :) Remember that ALL of it was built out of Legos and they were huge! (Notice height difference between people standing in front and the actual buildings!)

We had such a fun time! So glad that we were able to take our kids and go! The whole weekend was a lot of fun. After Legoland we jumped in the car and drove home through the night since Mike and I both had to work Tuesday morning. So even though it was a quick little vacation, it was still a great time!

4th of July & Connor's 2nd Birthday!!! (day 2)

4th of July brings two holidays for our family. The first, of course, is the birthday of our great country! The second, is the birthday of our sweet little boy Connor. This 4th of July happened to be his 2nd birthday!

Here are the boys in our hotel room dressed up in their Red, White & Blue and ready for the holiday. We sure are proud to be Americans and live in this GREAT Country!!!

My kids can almost never take a serious picture, so I have to promise them some funny ones in order to get a couple good smiles out of them! :)

And the Birthday Boy himself - Connor David McDougal!
{I can't believe he's TWO already! I am continuously amazed at how fast time goes by!}

We all sure love this kid! He brings so much happiness, laughter and joy into our home! He is the center of attention from all of us and he fully enjoys every minute of it! His latest loves are cars, dogs, and books. He LOVES to read! Especially when his daddy will read to him, but he'll take it from anyone! He has the funniest personality and even teases people (yes, at 2 years old!) He is also starting to repeat EVERYTHING that anyone says. Which is good, because that's how they learn now to talk, right? But it also makes you have to be a lot more careful what you say because he repeats it all right back to ya! :) All in all, we just absolutely love this boy and can't imagine our lives without him!!!

We spent the morning of our holiday just kinda walking around and relaxing. It was pretty chilly outside (it was cold all weekend to us, but that could have something to do with the fact that we are from AZ where it is 110 + degrees and the high there was only 68-70.)

That afternoon we spent some time at the beach there in Oceanside. There were people everywhere and booths set up for the 4th of July holiday so it was very crowded, but a fun atmosphere! The kids love the beach. They love to play in the sand (Connor's favorite part) and Shawn and Brady love to play in the ocean.

(This is my niece Kamree who just played in the sand like Connor)

And this is what dad does on the beach:

Shawn and his cousin Jaricka buried Connor's legs in the sand - he wasn't sure about it at first, but then did it over and over again! :)

Later in the evening we went back to the hotel, got cleaned up and ready for the evening. Then it was off for the "Birthday Party" portion of our day. We went to dinner at a place called Angelo's (recommended to us by my friend) and it was yummy! Greasy goodness of burgers and fries and onion rings!

We took Connor's presents and cake with us to have a little Birthday celebration while we were there. Here he is opening his gifts.

And getting ready for some cake (a Toy Story one).

He was SO FUNNY about his cake! He could hardly let me get a picture because he just wanted to eat it so bad! He kept trying to look at us, but at the same time was poking his finger into the frosting just to try it! :)

And boy did he sure love it! He completely cleared his piece of cake all gone!!!

After dinner we headed back to the Pier at Oceanside Beach to see if we could catch some fireworks. They didn't actually light any off there, but from out on the pier we could watch some from all along the beach in the distance. Here we all are hanging out on the pier.

It was a super fun 4th of July, and I think a fun Birthday for Connor! If you're going to have your birthday on a holiday, the 4th of July isn't a bad one at all! Besides, you get fireworks every year on your birthday!!!