Emory Comes for Dinner

Darren, Natalie and Emory came over for dinner tonight. We had a fantastic visit with all three of them. Emory loves playing with Cade - she’s one of the only people who plays with him as rough and tumble as he likes. This photo was taken at the end of the night - she was obviously sad to leave, and we were sad to see her go: 

The kids think that staying up a little later means building beds in the playhouse and catching lightening bugs after their visit with Erin and Cara. They bring all their blankets and pillows out and build beds together. Tonight, they also focused on how high off the ladder they could jump. Lyla was particularly proud that she can jump from below the top. It is pretty impressive for her sweet, little legs. She’s becoming more and more daring these days.

It’s such a wonderful blessing to watch our children chase lightening bugs. It’s one of life’s simple pleasures that I absolutely relish every moment of as it was such a huge part of my childhood. Lyla was so proud that she caught 2 and successfully let both of them go. She wanted to keep catching them, but they are gone after such a short period of time. 

Arms open, trying to catch another one...

I love this photo of the girls - notice the chocolate on Lyla’s lower lip - she just had a s’more.

Another brilliant summer night at the firepit. So glad to spend time with such great family that double as our friends. 

Happy 4th of July

We hosted this year's Hottman Family Gathering for the 4th. We had a great day celebrating, despite the dreary weather. The only thing missing from our celebration was Aunt Rebecca, who was working. We were all very sad that she couldn't be a part of our day. 

Our original plans included sprinklers and swing sets, so we had to make some amendments based on the weather.  The kids loved working on some crafts together: 

And, Uncle Kip is the Hottman family's new self-proclaimed face painter. All the kids were thrilled to make use of his artistic skills: 

Eli, we're so impressed with your dinosaur! 

Cade was feeling particularly patriotic today: 

And, we were thrilled that Aunt Kay put together the cutest 4th of July parade in town: 

We were happy the girls figured out a way to enjoy the kiddie pool, in spite of the constant sprinkle: 

And, we think these are the cutest "Bat Men" in the history of "Bat Men": 

Lance & I think that this may just be the weekend we witnessed Cade's transformation from "Baby Bro" to becoming a little kid. He was so happy to run around with all the kids and to show off his newest skills. There was just something different about him today - watching him grow up is one of our greatest joys. 

 

"Baby" Emory is also becoming her own person. We love her!

And, the 4th was complete with one more Hottman Family Photo (minus Aunt Rebecca & her belly - next year there will be one more BOY in this photo!). Note the fam's newest addition: Baby Van!

It was a special day - we're so happy to create the memory in our home!

Cousins Fun Day

Today was Cousins Fun Day at our house - we had a great time getting everyone together for a day of fun, sun and a little water. Here is (almost) everyone - it's very difficult to get 5 kids under 4 in one photo, but we were successful here:

Here's another attempt - you can see that Lyla & Isabella are quite engaged in a pretty heated conversation here: 

Here's Van - the only cousin not in the picture - he's still spending most of his time with Mommy: 

Cade loves hanging out with Cousin Emory…well, he will love hanging out with her as soon as they surpass parallel play: 

Lyla loves nothing more than being with all her "Big Girl Friends". She had such a good day she really didn't want for it to end: 

Cade loves swinging on the swingset, and invariably, when he's in his swing and settled, he asks for his "owl". He loves nothing more than to sit in his swing and drink a few swigs of water in the sunshine:

Here are Isabella and Blaire attempting to swing on a baby swing that is much too small for them both:

What a magical day! We had so much fun that Lyla was disappointed we weren't doing it all over again the next day. Can't wait to do it again!