July...

In July we also celebrated my dad's birthday. We are so lucky to have a Papa and dad like him! He is the best! Seriously, I don't know what we'd do without you, daddy! Love you!

This little man became a ninja master; and he will show you any chance he gets!

Tucker has so much personality and imagination, I love it!
It wouldn't be a summer in Spokane without some trips to the lake. :) Since June was so cold, and we were gone a lot in July, this was our first trip out, on Nathan & Angie's boat.

Taylor didn't seem to like this life jacket very much, I'm not sure why! :)

Ben got up for the first time wake surfing...(and so did I, but luckily no pictures!) :)

And then Johnny and Ben decided to just be pulled by the wake boarding rope. Good times! :)

I think that somehow those are Johnny's hands actually holding on to the rope!

And of course, posing! :)

It was this little lady's first trip on the boat.

Although, I'm not really sure she was impressed by the whole experience, here is the proof:
(after we found her a new life jacket that fit a little better!) :)



It bored her! :)
We love the summer!

Happy Halloween!!!

Ben got attacked by a vampire!
Ok, really it was a dog! But yikes! Can you believe that?! I can barely look at it!
Ben decided to go on a run on Saturday night, which he does often by the way, and about 5-10 minutes into his run I get a phone call from him saying he had gotten bitten by a dog and was on his way to the ER with the owner, to get some stitches! The dog had just come along side of him and then all of the sudden ran in front of him and Ben, being the animal lover he is started talking to it and it lunged after him. It grabbed onto his hand and Ben shook him off, then it tried to lunge again but Ben kicked it that time, and then Ben followed the dog home and knocked on the door and told the guy that his dog had just attacked him. The dogs owner, being smart, told Ben he'd take him immediatley to the ER because it looked so bad. That's when Ben called me and we met him at the ER!

This is when we first got there, and he was still in the initial shock and we were playing around a little, because seriously it took like 4 hours for the doc to come in!
These pictures are after his initial clean up, but he was covered in blood, his legs, his socks and shoes were all REALLY red. It scared me at first, I thought it was a lot worse than it was.
Then after awhile the good feelings were gone and the pain kicked in. Ben started to go white and wasn't feelin' too good! :)

I got sick of entertaining this one in a tiny little ER room, so the kids and I headed home before he even got the stitches and the dog's owner brought him home!

It was quite the adventure; I'm not one for blood or dogs, so I'm just glad it wasn't me! :) Ben is doing well now, although he is going to have a pretty cool scar from it, which he's excited about! :)

Papa's Harley...

Every month I take pictures of my little nephew, Carter. We try to mix it up a bit, and go to new places each month; in July we decided to take some pictures of him on my dad's Harley. My dad is a Harley man and he has two of them. Tucker thinks that they are pretty cool! :) So, since we were out with Carter, we decided to get my dad on the bike with his grandkids (not all of them) and take some quick pictures. Tucker had just had his oral surgery the day before and wasn't too 'into' getting his picture taken. :) And really, what kids are? :)
Anyway, I thought that they turned out cute.

Carter trying to take a bite out of Tuckers head. :)

Meh bebies...

And I think you've seen this one before... :)

Tucker lovin' on his little sissy...

One day, captain tank-top, one day...

Grandpa's visit...

Ben's dad flew home to Spokane with me and the kids after our two weeks in Alabama. It was nice having some help on the way back. The long trek across the country is tiresome when you're flying solo! :) My mother in law still had company at their house, so he came solo, with out her! We missed her, but still had fun with grandpa, while he was here. I secretly think it was because he couldn't get enough of little Taylor Rae. Seriously, I don't think a grandpa can love a little girl more than he loves her! :)
A few things we did while he was here:
The 24th of July celebration! Our stake has a huge 24th of July celebration honoring the pioneers, and we had never been. My father in law was in shock at how big of a festival it was, they certainly don't do anything like that down in Alabama. A wonderful pancake breakfast, and horse rides, and cart pulls and I forget everything else but seriously, like a TON of activities, and some people were even dressed up in pioneer garb! :) It was so much fun, it makes me sad I missed out on so many years of this celebration! :)
Anyway, here is Tucker at the horse ride, giving the peace sign! :) Like father, like son. He learns from the best! :)




We took grandpa up to Manito park one day for a picnic. The weather was beautiful and we had the best time just relaxing in the afternoon. The Pyper men...

And here is Taylor Rae, being her usual lady like self...

The reason we took grandpa to Manito is for him to see the Japanese gardens. He served a mission there like 40 years ago and I wanted to see what he thought about our Japanese gardens here in Spokane, Wa :)

All I had was my little point and shoot camera, so the pics aren't that great. bummer.

The boys went out for a nature walk and Taylor and I stayed behind and relaxed on the blanket. We had a little photo shoot.

I love that fat face! :)

Another day we went out to the bowl and pitcher. Spokane has the most beautiful parks! This is one of our favorite spots and we had to take grandpa there!



Tuck and gramps posing on a rock. This is who Ben and Tucker get their beautiful bronzed skin from! :) ha ha

I turned the camera on Taylor as I was walking. This is what I got! :)

Tuck and gramps just taking in the beauty! :)





Ben had to impress us with his ability to fight the current and get out in the middle of the river.



Then Tucker had to do some posing like his dad.

I'm not sure if you can see Ben all the way up there, or not, but he climbed the big rock. He wanted to do it last time we were there, but it was the winter time and too slippery, he was excited to finally be able to do it!

Grandpa winning the rock skipping contest. Feats of strength are always involved with Ben! :)



We also enjoyed a nice day at the lake with grandpa, and many delicious meals out and of course, lots of good shopping! Rick is like the best shopping partner, ever! He loves to go and it's so fun! :) Thanks for the good times, grandpa!
We had such a great time with you; and can't wait to see you in October! :) Come again, soon, ok!

Tuckers new teeth...

I will be the first to admit that I am not going to win any mothering awards for this next one. And I feel awful that my sweet innocent three year old had to endure something of this nature so young in his life due to my lack of parenting, but it is what it is and there is nothing I can do about it now, right?! :)
Yes, Tucker had to get two new front teeth! I took him in in April for his very first dentist appointment. We brush his teeth every night before he goes to bed, so I wasn't expecting anything TOO bad. wrong. He had a huge cavity in between and on the back of his two front teeth that went into both teeth, almost over half of each tooth! Tucker did awesome at his appointment back in April, but we had schedule an appointment for July to get what is essentially a baby root canal on his two front teeth and cap them both. No, not big silver caps, luckily they had nice porcelain covered ones. And because he is just a little guy they had to put him under. They asked me if I thought he would do ok with just laughing gas, or if his personality was such that he would put up a fight and make it hard for the procedure to be done. I thought it was best that he be completely knocked out. It was the saddest thing ever having to hold him while they put his little mask on and then having him go limp in my arms. He did great though! A few hours later, we were home and recovering. He was a little groggy at first and threw up a few times when we got home, so I made him a little bed on the couch and put in some movies, and we had a movie day for the rest of the day. But he did great, and he enjoyed his day of being treated like a king and having me at his beck and call. :)
Here he is on his throne...

I was a little nervous at first because there was a huge gap between the teeth and they looked so much bigger than his real ones did, but his dentist assured me on his follow up visit that they were done like that on purpose to make room for growth and for when his big ones come in.
For a better look at his new teeth, here is a better photo; taken the very next day:

I am used to them now, and he still has that cute smile; but now we make sure that Tucker brushes twice a day and flosses, too! :)

Family pics...

My in-laws have the most beautiful home and property. Nestled in the corner is this pergola and lots and lots of greenery. I've been wanting to take some pics with the kids there for a long time. But is is just so dang bright and hot down there when the kids are up and at 'em. Regardless, we headed out one afternoon for a little family photo shoot. It was after church so the kids were in their Sunday clothes. It didn't last long due to heat and bugs, but we got what we could! :)

Here are my two babies! I just played around with photoshop a little on this one.

Noah & Jonah...

And beautiful baby Kaiya...

Atlanta Aquarium...

The Atlanta Aquarium is the best! Seriously, I love Aquariums and this one is the best I've ever been to! It was amazing. It is like all around you.

Noah, Jonah and Tucker...

Walking through the tunnel..

Mr. Stingray smiling at me...

A Shark!

The boys thought it was pretty cool! :)

The whole gang...

The big viewing area, it was amazing!

Even Taylor enjoyed it!

Tucker and Jonah, best buddies, in front of the baby beluga whale. Tucker thought he was pretty cool because he loves the song, baby beluga.

And petting the sting rays with grandma...

We were there for hours and still didn't make it through the while thing, can't wait to go back! :)