End of July...

We flew in so late from Alabama that we just went straight to bed. The next morning when I went in to get some laundry done, I was TOTALLY shocked to see these two new beauties in my laundry room. Can you say best husband ever???!!! :) Laundry just got a whole lot better around here.

We came home to our awesome raspberry bushes brimming over with berries! We had so many yummy berries! And...Carter and Chase were still in town from before we left, so we got a few more days with them before they left!!! Carter helped us pick raspberries...

Next year I need to do some serious trimming to those bushes, there were a ton of berries, but even more dead vines and bushes intertwined...

Of course, we had to get some cafe rio before they left! We love crushed ice from Cafe Rio! Also, we love to wear gymnastics leotards all day long!!! :)

Selfie with my little snuggle bug:

This guy's birthday is at the end of July. We love this guy so much! We are so lucky that he is so close and we get to see him all the time. What would we do without Papa around??? We got to celebrate with him at our favorite, Rancho Viejo...

Jackson was excited about it! :) ha ha

A few days after I got back, they asked me to take some pictures at our Stake Pioneer day celebration. It was a beautiful day. I love our stake. As much as I always talk about how I would love to go somewhere new and exciting, (which I would) There is always part of me that loves how much this feels like home to me.

Good thing Heather and Jevon were there to help me with the littles, as I had to take pictures and was running around everywhere, they totally took care of and fed my children for me!!! Taylor wasn't as excited as I was to be there! :)

This year they had their first annual 5k run. It was so much fun to get pictures of! Maybe next year I'll be ready to run it, but for this year, I was happy to be at the finish line behind the camera!

The Appletons in our branch crossing the finish line! woo-hoo!!! Nadia is one of my most favorite people ever!

Brett and Natalie Clark crossing the finish line. It's so fun to have so many friends in our stake.

After the Stake celebration, we had a baby shower for Carmen in our branch. I love our branch family so much! Hna. Cabrera made us some El Salvadorian food that was delicious!!! I want to say they were Pupusa's but I could totally be wrong! I have the worst memory!

The gang:

We played a game about the things in our purse, to see who had the most junk in their purse. Melissa won by a landslide! :) It was hilarious watching her pull out all of these random things. I really think she had almost every single item on the list!!! Here is her one article of clothing, a sock! :)

We got back into the swing of things with gymnastics, after being gone a few weeks, we had a few classes to make up. (they made me pay for the month of July but let her make up the classes she missed.)

And Jackson, the ever so devoted brother watching her from the sidelines, in his pose, of course!

Tucker went to play with Owen one day and came home with this. He said that one of their neighbors was having a yard sale so they went over to take a look and she got this for Tucker for a dollar!!! I was totally annoyed at first thinking I didn't want any more toys in this house, but after we put it together and saw that it really worked and is totally COOL, I was glad she got it at such a steal! It still is a favorite! I love finds like these! And it plays music which my music loving kids love!

We had to borrow Papa's truck so often this summer for random car problems, that this was one of the times we had it. Jackson is making himself at home! :)

Getting ready for church:

We mostly just relaxed and tried to recover from our trip the last few weeks of July. I love me some lazy summer days!