Birthday Camp Out

Our little Ricky turned 3 years old yesterday! Months ago he'd requested to go camping for his birthday so that's exactly what we did over Memorial Day weekend. We all had a great time. How can you not when there's a camp fire with marshmallows & hot dogs, a four wheeler with a plethora of jeep trails, a baby backpack with lots of ground to walk, a wall tent & a camper with tons of delicious food, friends & family, & an adventurous, energetic, superhero birthday boy?!

Yesterday we spent some lovely time with grandparents, Ricky got to open quite a few birthday presents, & we went to Burger King for dinner so the boys could eat ice cream & play at the playground. It turned out to be a nice day for our boy! So, a BIG thank you goes out to ALL the grandparents for their contributions in making Ricky's birthday quite grand. You are all simply wonderful!

Cedric has grown so much in the last year in many ways. His speech has improved immensely & he is getting quite tall. He loves to do EVERYTHING his brother does to a point where it rather irritates me at times. This next year Ben will be starting preschool & I think it will be really good for Ricky as well to hopefully start developing a bit more of his own interests. Ricky loves to play baseball & catch & has become quite good at riding his balance bike. He is an awesome helper to Brian & I when we do projects around the house & is a hard worker (when he's in the mood). He can be a bit fussy at times but is usually surprisingly good at controlling himself when we ask him to stop & take a deep breath. And more often than not, he's very willing to share his toys (even his new birthday presents!). One of his greatest struggles this past year has been staying seated in his chair while we eat... this boy can NOT sit still!! He's always got to be moving! We are incredibly thankful for our sweet boy. He brings so much joy & spunk into our lives!

Happy Birthday, Cedric! We thank God for you every day.

Now, before you scroll down any further, I'll warn you that there's a good possibility of your drowning in pictures!

Grandma Parker visited yesterday!

So did Grandpa & Grandma G!

The camping trip:

The whole crew.
Some friends of ours from church came, too.

"We love our Grandma!"

"Sooo big!"

Papa & his girl.

Our birthday boy

Dad Schultz was quite the chef with his dutch oven!

The boy's quarters

We were singing "Happy Birthday" to him... he was thrilled!

Ricky requested a train cake... so he got one!
The boys made sure that no details were missed.

The boys enjoyed the cake.

Mmmm... Cake & ice cream for Evie!

Opening gifts

A real super hero!

Evie had a ball crawling around in the dirt.
She didn't care one bit how cold or dirty she got!

Ben resting on the cot. He thought it was quite cozy!

Roasting hot dogs & mesmerized by the fire.

Even Evie got a ride on the four-wheeler!

"Oooh... Not quite long enough for me to pull. "

The boys loved climbing the rocks.

"Here I am!"

This girl was a mess, but boy did she have fun!

What We've Been Up To

Ben started soccer a couple weeks ago and absolutely loves it! He has one practice a week and one game a week. Unfortunately, his game this passed weekend was cancelled due to heavy smoke in the air but we're hoping to have it rescheduled. It's been a lot of fun watching him and Ricky has been enjoying it too. He gets to have snacks and play outside while we're at practice and games! 

Last week there was a day when neither of the boys took naps and as you can imagine they were pretty wiped out by the day's end. After dinner we gave them a bath and as tradition I wrapped them up in a towel and put them on the couch in front of a short movie. As usual, I took that as an opportunity to get jammies and clean out the bathtub and also feed a hungry little girl who refused to wait a second longer. By the time I came back into the living room to get the boys ready for bed this is what I saw accompanied by hearty snoring from our littlest! It was quite precious.

Yesterday we decided to make a bit of a retreat to Great Falls for a few hours. We had been cooped up in the house nearly all week because of the terrible smoke and thought a bit of fresh air and time out of the house would do us all a bit of good. So after church we drove for roughly one hour to our destination and walked around the mall for a bit (they have a huge Scheels Sports Brian was interested in) and also took them by the falls and to the fish hatchery after all of which we went to dinner before heading back home. We all had a great time and enjoyed the smoke-free air! 

And now for a bit of randomness... 

Lots Going On

We've had a lot going on as of late and have only been home a handful of days in the last month. At the end of last month Brian's Mom was hit by a pickup as she was walking in a parking lot and ended up having to get three large screws put in her hip. As a result she has been forbidden to put any weight on her right leg for 6 weeks! Thus, we packed up and headed over to Butte to stay with them and help out for a while so Brian's Dad could get back to work. I won't get into all the details but will mention that she is a very strong woman and is healing and doing remarkably well. The boys and I really enjoyed getting to spend some good time with her.

In addition to spending a lot of time in Butte, we also made another trip to Billings to see our doctors and get an update on how our sweet baby girl is doing. Praise the Lord she is growing beautifully and we were given the OK by one of our doctors to deliver her in Billings rather than having to travel to Denver. If all goes well with her transition into life then we'll actually be able to bring her home before her first surgery which could be postponed until between 1 & 2 months! We were quite excited and encouraged by this news. For this trip we brought the boys with us and stayed with my sister and her husband. The boys did great and for some out of the ordinary fun we took them to Chuck-e-cheese for the first time... they had a ball!!!

Here are some random pics from the last month.

Mom and the boys snuggled up to watch a movie.

Chuck-E-Cheese:

Our handsome boys at breakfast one morning:

Evelyn's bed!

In the little time we've been home, we've managed to start getting her room put together. It's really fun and a little weird seeing little girl stuff being introduced into our home!

Life is Busy Busy

Yes, I realize it's been a while since the last post and for that I apologize. It seems we've been really busy with all kinds of random things. As there have been to many things happen in the last month to tell you all about them one by one, here is a brief summary of what we've been up to.

The boys waiting patiently for brownies to come out of the oven after helping me bake them.

Having fun throwing everything out of the toy box!

"Giddy-up horsey!"

"Whooaahhh!"

"We love our Grandpa!"

This picture was taken outside of Absarokee when we drove over to visit my Great Aunt who was visiting from Alabama.

The boys and I went and stayed with my sister and her husband in Laurel at their new house for a couple nights and while we were there we took them to Zoo Montana. Here are a few pics from our time at the zoo: