happy birthday katrina :)

On my birthday, Kenton took my on a date to El Toritos. My parents watched the kids so that we could go to the Cantina for Happy Hour & enjoy a relaxing dinner.

We used to go to El Toritos all the time before having kids, so it was a nice treat to go again.

I love their chips & salsa! I was careful not to spill anything on my new dress from Finland - thank you Kevin & Outi!

We had fun ordering 4 different appetizers for dinner - half price! What a deal! :)

After dinner, we invited everyone over to our house for dessert. Becca made a special ice cream cake with lots of yummy, chocolately goodness + espresso. It was SO tasty!

Mama & Cedar

Aaron & Cohen. I think it's funny that Cohen was ready with his mouth open for that bite, but Aaron took it himself. :)

With my mom & sisters

Everyone gathered around to watch my open gifts. Notice the fence in the background - in the process of being built. Our neighbors replaced their fence, so we got a portion of our fence replaced for free! It's all done now & looks so nice!

Sleepy Cedar with Aunt Becca & his usual groupies of cousins + Finn. :)

happy birthday sadie!

We celebrated Sadie's 6th birthday on July 18th! She had a fun craft station set up & Finn chose to paint a little plastic snake (actually a snail) light-catcher thing. :) He did a great job & didn't want to be done...but there was more fun to be had!

Sadie, the birthday girl, painting so very carefully.

Ronan was pro at climbing the cherry tree...I supposed it used to be his tree (the Chases bought the Ruddicks old house).

A pinata!

All the kids got a turn taking a shot at the pinata.

Waiting patiently with candy bags in hand.

Score! With a little help from Aaron, the candy was scattered. :)

Sadie & Cedar

With Papa & Memaw

11 weeks old!

Big cousin Tyler is always excited to hold Cedar. He's usually the first one to ask for him once he wakes up. :) He does really well with Cedar too & is always able to get some sweet smiles.

the boys

Cedar at 10 weeks - sweet smile. :)

On July 10th, we watched Ronan & Griffin so that Josh & Gretchen could go on a date for their 10th anniversary.

Those boys had a great time! Finn & Ronan started the night with a little light saber action!

Dinner time

We spent most of the time playing outside. Kenton kept all 3 busy with swords of all sorts + some paper airplanes.

Cedar & I spent some time laying on a blanket. This is a funny angle - I was on my back with Cedar resting on my shins. I love to see his sweet expressions.

Don't forget a little bit of tree climbing!

What a good time we all had with the Ruddick boys!

last group with the millers

On Tuesday, we met as a group for the last time with the Millers; Sandy, Nicole & Addi are moving to Walla Walla, Washington. :(

Sweet Addi in the swing

We've known the Millers for 5 years & have been meeting as a small group for about 4 1/2 of those years.

Macey on the slide

Finn kept asking me to take a picture of him jumping. :)

Emma, Addi & Nicole

Nicole & Addi

We made an attempt at getting a photo of all the kids. Not too bad for a photo of 6 kids 2 1/2 & younger. :)
Emma, Ethan, Addi, Cedar, Finn, & Macey

It got a little chaotic but we had to get one last photo. :)

Our group
Greens, Millers, Gibsons & Henrys :)

The two-year-olds piled into the same car. :P

We're going to miss the Millers so much! It's going to be so strange not to see them every week on Tuesday evenings & Sunday mornings. We're excited for the adventure that awaits them in Washington...but we're sad to see them go. :(

smile

Cedar's sweet smile has been warming our hearts! He is such a happy baby. It's so great to hear his sweet voice. He gets so excited when we talk to him. His eyes light up & you can see the wheels turning as he tries to say something back to us. We're hearing lots of oohs, goos & squeals & we can tell he's trying to figure out how to imitate us when we click our tongues or blow "raspberries." He's 9 1/2 weeks old now & has teased me with one 8 1/2 hour stretch at night. I know he can do it now & am so ready for him to sleep that long every night (especially since I started back to work this week)! It'll happen soon enough... :) But for now, I'll take what I can get & enjoy every sweet smile & coo!

independence day

Red White & Blue
Cedar was also wearing blue but he was sleeping. :)

We spent the evening with Uncle Brian, Carolyn & Jesse & their friends, Brian & Helen. We swam in the pool, barbequed shish-kabobs & walked to Alton Baker Park to watch their fireworks show.

We only bought a handful of sparklers because we knew lots of people would be lighting their own fireworks at the park.

Finn was very into using the sparklers as "lightning" swords!

Fighting Dad!

My parents met up with us to watch the show. Cedar woke up just in time for some cuddles before the fireworks started.

Finn was very patient, letting Kenton light each sparkler & he handled the duds really well too. :)

Papa & Cedar

Two at a time!

It's getting darker! Almost time for the show to start. It didn't actually start until about 10 pm! It takes so long for it to get dark enough in Oregon.

Carolyn, Jesse & Kenton had fun messing around with the settings on our camera during the show. Not sure who took these photos, but they turned out pretty cool.

The show lasted for a lot longer than we expected. It was great! We were all pretty tired but Finn had skipped his nap & was kind of out of control. He had a really hard time sitting still but he loved the fireworks. He & Cedar both stayed awake during the show but they fell asleep in the stroller on the walk back to our car.