chalk festival 2013.

we made the annual trek down to the gateway to go to the chalk festival 2013. so much fun as usual. the kids always love the area where they get to draw with chalk. we saw some beautiful drawings, chalk art, or whatever they're called. we found out they have a theme each year and this year was "best in the west". there was even a beautiful drawing of an owl we couldn't resist taking pictures of.

here's some pics of our previous years...

{2012}

{2011}

{2010}

{2009}

{2008}

...mini cheerleaders...

a few weeks ago, mabel and elsie went to a mini cheer camp at the local charter school. they totally loved it! originally we thought that we'd just put mabel in it, thinking that elsie was too small and it'd be cheaper. well, to say elsie was crushed when the morning came for mabel to go would be a major understatement. she was devastated! it pretty much cut me to the core listening to her tell me in her cute, deep voice, "but my a big girl..." it was one of the saddest things. we've been telling her that she is such a big girl since she's been going on the potty, so this was too much! 

so we drove over there and signed her up the morning of! luckily they had extra t-shirts and pompoms so we could. yay!

worth. every. penny.

our baseball boys.

connor just finished his all-star baseball season. that boy loves his baseball! it has been so much fun to watch him do something that he loves. he started playing catcher and has LOVED it! we got him a catcher's mitt and he said to me at least 10 times, "i just can't believe i have a catcher's mitt!" to say he was excited was an understatement!

cory was able to help coach and that was fun for them to spend time together. plus, he got to wear those awesome baseball pants that he was so excited about! ;) cute, cute boys.

{still loves to slide}

we are so proud of him and his determination and hard work! 

you are awesome baseball player connor!

our owl babies.

anna gave us a sweet gift last night. a book entitled, "owl babies." the cover looks very much like this first photo. we continue to follow and document our "owl babies". we see them every other day or so. sometimes 2 days in a row if we're lucky. we usually see any number of the 3 babies and the dad. the mom hasn't been seen for a couple weeks now, but we found her this morning. one of the first things the kids do every morning is go and check to see if we have any owls and how many there are. 

i'll have to check, but i think we've seen them for almost 5 weeks now. it's been a highlight of the summer for sure. we've collected feathers and have even checked out their pellets. we haven't had the magpie problem (lots of squawking and obnoxiousness) that we'd had all spring, to which we credit to the owls. the robins don't like them at all. the robins will come and try and squawk to get the owls to leave, but the they aren't bothered and the robins eventually give up and leave after a few minutes. 

we think it's pretty amazing and have invited many family members and friends over to see them. 

i think we'll call it "the summer of the owls."

the last 2: photo cred goes to my uncle dave

our "birbay" girl.

cute little else had a wonderful birthday on friday. she could hardly wait for it to finally be her "birbay". she was lovin all the attention, completely ate it up! we went to the zoo thursday night because connor had a baseball game on her birthday. but her day was still pretty special, filled with everything yellow and rapunzel. yellow is her favorite color and tangled her favorite movie at the moment. cory worked half day and we had a mini water world that afternoon, then headed to the game and then back to roast hot dogs and have "yellow cupcakes with yellow frosting" per her request. she has worn her crown, new rapunzel princess gown and her very own pair of glass slippers (thanks ry, sara & kids) every day and night since... i finally snuck it away from her this morning and it's in the wash...hopefully she doesn't notice! there could be drama if she does!!

will was jumpin like crazy during water world.

he loves his jumper!

our cute "herd"

elsie sure does love her daddy!

happy birthday sweet girl! we love you!

our big "yittle" girl.

our sweet elsie potty-trained herself last weekend!! 

{yay} {hallelujah} {wahoo} 

as she is the third child, we {cory & i} were trying to be patient and not force it {we learned with the previous two that this, potty-training, is one of those things that you really can't force without a lot of frustration} ...but she turns three this month & preschool in the fall and so we were kinda antsy to get things going! that and changing two kids' diapers throughout the day is the pits! so we had talked about it for the past couple of months, and she'd humor us every once in a while and sit on the toilet, but she wasn't ready to fully commit. when we would ask her if she wanted to be a big girl, she'd tell us "no, my yittle."

but...last thursday was the day! she was finally ready. can't say that we haven't had any accidents...only three to be exact...but she has done amazingly well! even through the night, she refuses to wear anything but unders. she is one cute, determined girl!!

we love you sweet else!

and thank you for making 

our lives just a little bit less stinky easier! :)

our owl friends.

last friday we had on of the coolest experiences! while cory and connor were having batting practice in the backyard. cory hit a ball into the big tree and spooked a bird out and onto another branch.  cory went to look and found a little grey owl looking back at him! then they started to look around the tree some more and more and more owls popped out. turns out we have the cutest little owl family in our back tree!! we have a mom and dad and 3 babies, which we are pretty sure are western screech owls. they are about speckled grey and 6-7" tall.

it has really been such a cool experience! they are so majestic even with their small bodies. they are content to just sit and watch. all but one are not easily spooked. the kids love to go look for the owls every morning and throughout the day. we've seen them since then twice. we've been reading up on them and read that after the babies take their first flight, they will stay for about 5 weeks. so we are hopeful that we will get to see more of them!!

2 of the babies.

this is the daddy. he's much smaller than the mom and babies.