Cowen's 1 year pictures

I LOVE this face!

and those cheeks.....

and his little facial expressions.

so handsome.

here's a little sneak peak at Madilyn's 3 year pics. We are gearing up to celebrate this feisty little lady's 3 years of life. More pics of her to come soon ;)

and we got some amazing shots of the 2 of them together. We are just a little proud of these two. Now we are off to the pool for some Sunday afternoon swim time.

!!!!!!Cowen's 1st Birthday Celebration!!!!!

We celebrated Cowen's 1st birthday yesterday. He doesn't officially turn 1 until July 27th at 1:01pm :) So he is still my little baby for a couple more days. I don't know why, but it is so hard for me to believe that Cowen is 1 already. Maybe because he is our last baby? We have had such a great year with him.
The theme of his party was "caterpillars, snails, and turtle tails" and we decorated in bright greens, orange, turquoise, brown, and white.

This little man couldn't wait to eat dinner, so he had to have a few appetizers first :)

Then, he decided that he wanted to play in the water. This is one of his most favorite things to do and since it was his day, we let him be in control of the hose. He was thrilled, as Madilyn usually gets to do this.

Then we ate. Cowen enjoyed all his very favorite foods: shredded chicken, guacamole, beans, and, cheese. He just couldn't get enough and was so happy the whole time he was eating.

He did stop long enough to play with his balloons a couple times though ;)

Madilyn was dreaming of cupcakes and it was hard to hold her back---but we watched Cowen's 1st year video and opened presents....

Cowen LOVED this car and had to sit in it while he and Madilyn opened his other gifts. He just wouldn't get out of it!!!

Opening books from Aunt Jaime. He was thrilled!

This little happy face says it all!

Playing with Thomas the Train toy that Aunt Jess got for him. The kiddos LOVE it.

His first cake before he destroyed it!

Madilyn with her puppy cousins Esi and Eli (Aunt Jaime and Uncle Joe's new puppies). She adores these puppies and is such a good little mommy to them.

Oh yeah baby! He loved his cake and when it was gone he kept saying "more" over and over..so we gave in and he got to have a 2nd one.

Cowen made out like a bandit! Thanks everyone! He enjoyed his celebration so soooo much :)

This week.......

has been pretty busy already. We are preparing for Cowen's first birthday and are busy pulling everything together. Plus, Cowen has a little bit of a cold that he is trying to fight. We spent this morning at Antelope Island taking pics of the kiddos for their 1st and 3rd years. I think we got some good ones. We will share them soon :)

Water Babies

We are in the dog days of summer and sometimes all you can do is get out the sprinkler and the pool to get through 100 degree afternoons.

these 2 have so much fun playing in the water. Cowen wants to hold the sprinkler and just get drenched and Madilyn wants to jump over it....you can probably imagine what kind of problems this causes.

Cowen kept blasting Madilyn in the face while trying to hold the sprinkler, so Madilyn decided that it was time to put her goggles on. How cute is this?

Pretty sure that there will be a lot more days like these coming up for us this summer.

A night at the race track

I uploaded these pics in reverse order, so I will start at the end. Here is Madilyn with her prize that she got from Rocky the Racoon mascot at the track. She absolutely loved him and was so excited when he came over to her and passed a ball back and forth with her. It made her night even better!

This is a picture that Madilyn took of Rocky.

Aunt Jaime and Uncle Joe invited us to the races with them and we could not pass it up! We used to go to this race track a lot when I was growing up and it was so much fun. It was neat to take Madilyn and Cowen for the first time. They both had so much fun.

We were a little skeptical about the kiddos keeping their ear protection on, but they actually liked wearing them! I am pretty sure that they felt special in them :) So cute. Madilyn was so excited to wear them and didn't want to take them off.

I LOVE the expression on Mad's face. Pure magic. She loves cars (especially race cars) so much and actually getting to see them up close was so magical to her.

another great pic taken by our budding photographer Madilyn.
We had such a fun night and can't wait to go back!

:::::::Wonderful Weekend:::::::::

We had a wonderful weekend that began with finally finishing our backyard. Paul and his brother Brian layed all the sod Saturday morning/afternoon and it looks amazing. Saturday evening was amazing. Paul and I went up to Deer Valley and attended the Ben Folds concert at the outdoor amphitheater. It was a gorgeous evening and such a great concert. We relaxed and enjoyed cake and just being able to talk to each other without interruption. It was a great way to celebrate our 8 year anniversary.

Saturday evening was date night. Paul and I went up to Deer Valley and attended the Ben Folds concert at the outdoor amphitheater. It was a gorgeous evening and such a great concert. We relaxed and enjoyed cake and just being able to talk to each other without interruption. It was a great way to celebrate our 8 year anniversary.

These babies LOVE the water. If they had their way, I am pretty sure that they would both live in it 24/7. I can't blame them :)
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We began our Sunday with going out to breakfast at our new found favorite place and then we relaxed and enjoyed our new yard and our adorable babies. We are so excited for our next weekend, as we are celebrating Cowen's 1st year of life. Where did that year go?