Red, White, and Blue

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. My cousin was born on the 4th of July (just 5 weeks after me) so we have always had huge celebrations. We used to get all decked out in red, white, and blue clothes and decorate our bikes, wagons, strollers, dogs, EVERYTHING and walk in my aunt and uncles neighborhood parade. Then we would spend the day letting off firecrackers  and just enjoying the holiday.

My cousins and I when we were little. Getting ready for the parade!

Last years fireworks. We spend wwaayyy too much money on these things but it turned out great!

 

Things have not changed and I am happy that Derek’s family enjoys this holiday just as much as us. We went to my aunt and uncles last year so this year we are heading to Derek’s hometown for his aunt and uncles 4th of July pool party! I met his family for the first time at this party 5 years ago. It was here that I quickly learned his family likes to drink just as much as mine. This was the first time I had seen someone soak their fruit in liquor.

Now I’m in the 4th of July craze and have been getting some ideas for what I want to take to the festivities this weekend as well as some other 4th of July party pics I have come across and love.

I want to throw a 4th party after seeing this!

Thinking about making these this weekend. I better soak the strawberries in liquor first!

Or we could just have these yummy beverages

SO cute! Making this next year

I’m on a rice krispie treat kick

Don’t really fit the holiday but look ssooo good

Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend!

Phone pics

Pics 1- 2: Ian and Gage playing on their deck

Pic 3: At their neighborhood pool

Pics 4-6: Running around Deanna Rose Farmstead

Pics 7-8: Aiden and my brother playing a game at Buffalo Wild Wings

Pics 9-10:Jumping at Monkey Bizness

Pics 11-16: Pool party at my dads girlfriends house. Elsie got a swim suit for her 1st birthday and Aiden LOVED playing in the pool with all my cousins friends.

Pics 17-18: Splash park!! They love it!

Pics 19-22: Kansas City zoo. We got lucky and got to see some of the animals very close. The boys loved it and we were there for 3 hours and still didn’t see all the zoo!

 

*I watched the twins for the past 1.5 week because their summer nanny went back to Indiana for some job interviews. Hopefully she gets a job and I get them back before August!

House Hunters

House Hunters is one of my favorite shows and I am attempted to sign up for the show because we have officially started the search for our first house!!! We actually started about 2 weeks ago. Our lease isn’t up until November but my brother is a realtor so he has already set up a search for us that is updated daily with new houses in our price range and area we are looking at. We’ve already been approved for the price we were looking at and have gotten all the information on down payments, interests, etc.

We were lucky that they counted in Derek's commission checks and also accepted my Nanning job. They would like you to be working at the same place for 2 years but since my nanny job and Wichita job (family educator) are so similar, they excepted it. I am so relived that my nanny family was taking taxes out because we would have been screwed if I didn’t have a W2. Problem now…I don’t have a job! It makes no since to get a summer nanny job because the family more then likely wouldn’t take out taxes so it wouldn’t benefit us other then the money.  Derek called our financial guy yesterday and told him our situation and he said I needed to get my original nanny job back ASAP or have a good reason why I wasn’t working for them in the summer. We might have told a fib and told him the mom was a teacher It seems as though this might work for a good reason as to why I’m not working.  Hopefully, the twins summer nanny gets this job she has a 2nd interview for and then I will get them back soon and we won’t have to go through writing a letter of excuse to the bank.

So there you have it. This is what we are up to nowadays. We both fell in love with a house today but need to wait another 2 months so we have a down payment and can hopefully just move in around October when our lease is almost up. We have our fingers crossed that this house will still be on the market! Out of 120 houses on our home search, we love 40 of them and 15 are possibilities. So either way, I don’t think we will have a problem finding a house. I’m loving this house shopping!

Busy Busy

These past 3 weekends have been very busy. Let me take you back to Memorial weekend/my birthday weekend.  Derek, mom, Aiden and me went to El Dorado Friday night. We hadn’t been there since November so it was a long overdue trip. Amber and Mike came down Friday and we spent the 3 day weekend playing outside, grilling, drinking, and playing the Xbox 360 Kinect that Derek got me for my birthday. He got me the Michael Jackson dance game with it and then Amber and Mike got me a multi sports game. We had ssoooo much fun with these games that weekend. Derek scored lots of points for that birthday present!


Pizza at 10 am

Filling up the pool in their PJ’s (it was 8am)!

Aiden decided to take off his pajamas and get in nude!

Derek had some alcohol in him

Fun corn hole game…and summer beers!

Our tunes for the weekend

Sisters and summer beers!

Intense game of Kinect…videos to come

Water baby. She went down that slide into the FREEZING cold pool 1,000 times that day

Someone thought it was HIS birthday

Oh yeah baby girl has enough hair for a bow!

Aiden is ssooo sweet with Harper

Watching Cars before bed

These trunks were way to big for the little fella
The next weekend Amy came up to KC to run a 5k with Amber. I know, I know, I’m the lazy sister that didn’t do it. Next time! I’m so proud of them both for completing it. We did a lot of grilling, swimming, eating, and hanging out that weekend too!

Dad’s girlfriends awesome pool. We will be going there LOTS this summer

Way to go sisters

Last weekend we went to Milford for the 4th annual Long Family Vacation. You can read about last years here. We got there late Friday night so just drank on the deck overlooking the lake with the family. Saturday I was up early and spent the morning playing outside with Pax because little miss Harper decided that when we all went to bed at 2am, she was ready to be up for the day. Amy and Josh were up till 6am with her so I let them sleep while I watched Pax.  Once they were up, Josh, Derek, and Pax headed out fishing with the rest of the family while Amy, Harper, and me went down to the “beach.” The lake is up 10ft so there wasn’t a beach this year but we didn’t mind. We grilled out that night, had s’mores, and drank with the family on the deck once again. Sunday we did a little fishing before heading back home. It might not be the most ideal vacation for most people but we have a great time and I hope we can keep doing this for many many years.
(I failed to take any pics so you get what I took on my phone till my sister uploads hers and I can steal them)

Poor girl wishing there was sand to play with

Elsie passed out under Amy’s coat

S’mores!!

Yummy! (My flash was bright)

I don’t even remember why she was throwing this fit but it sure was funny

Tequila shots!!