Calling Dr. Jones

While in Kansas, Coop was complaining of his foot hurting, here is what ensued.  

 Aunt Alli rounded up anything resembling doctor gear and took him in as a patient.  He totally loved it and they recruited more patients...

 Uncle Rusty apparently needed chest compressions.  The hospital staff grew...

Because every good doctor and nurse wears a hair cap, right? :)  This was just night one, there were a few more hospital nights and Cooper was requesting to play it every 4 minutes.

Apparently Laney was in bad shape.

Thank goodness for Band-aids!  Thanks Aunt Alli and Uncle Rusty for all the hospital fun and providing all the gear.

Laney Language

This post is overdue as Laney has been saying Lola for about a month now.  However, whenever I try to video her saying it she freezes up!  So, these days she is clearly saying ma-ma, da-da and Lola.  

Enjoy...you have to hang around until almost the end to hear Lola, in the meantime enjoy her spinning:)

Almost 1

How does 11 months go by so fast and how did Laney Faith get to be so big?

 the day we came home from the hospital

11 months!  Anxious to hear her stats at 1 year well check-feel like she a giant next to other babies her age.

Smile Fridays -week 10

The Summer Olympics are here, yay, my fave!!!  Swimming and gymnastics will be on my top watch list-what's on yours?

 Happy Olympics~Stella and Dot style :)

love this...who doesn't love these ridiculously funny cards from Pinterest!

On another note, I have joined the world of Instagram!  Follow me, I am ashsoudersjones.  Really, I don't know what I am doing yet!

One more random note, we became CostCo members tonight, feel like it is a rite of passage being in our 30's with 2 kids :).  Nothing like a Friday night at CostCo, oh yeah!

Blueberry Picking

My friend Jenny invited to us to go blueberry picking and we are so glad she did, it was an such a fun field trip and it was only a few minutes from Grandma and Grandpa's house!  I can't believe we hadn't been there before.  It has a great family history and is a perfect family outing if you are in KC...here's the link to their website, http://www.theberrypatchonline.com.

Fields of berries

It was already pretty hot out at 9am, Laney kept shaded and hydrated.

Our pickings-minus the 372 that Coop ate while he was picking.

Nothing like some shared blueberry lemonade after some hard work!

The fruits of his labor :)

Visit to Mama Kelly's

One of our many stops in Kansas is always to my Grandma's house and I think Coop enjoys going for many reasons, but I know these 2 for sure...

 Jack the donkey was extra friendly today, totally calm-let Coop pet him...probably because it was so stinkin' hot and he was miserable.  Jack didn't hee-haw for us today :(.  See that church steeple in the background?  That's where we were married, our kids were baptized and where everyone else in my family for generations has gotten married and baptized.  

 Here's another reason my kids love coming here...Mama always shares her Pepsi.  It is like a rite of passage for all the babies to have their first pop out of Mama's Pepsi and it is usually much earlier than Laney's 10 1/2 months.  Actually, they have probably snuck it to her before now without me knowing :).  Either way, she loved it.

Cooper was not going to miss out.  In fact, the first thing he usually does when he sees Mama is check her hands for the infamous Pepsi cup.

I know I have said it before (a lot), my kids are pretty darn lucky to not only have 2 amazing sets of Grandparents but 2 incredible Great Grandmas that love them so!

Birthday Twins (almost)

I was so happy to be in town for Gunner's first birthday!  I can't believe he is 1!  This trip seems like just yesterday.  

We happily shared this cookie cake :).

Sibling Love

Coop and Doodles are starting to interact more and more.  Laney is proving to be a tough little girl and already throwing her weight around with her big brother.  Adam and I just laugh and love to think how their relationship will develop over the years.

Laney was loving the tunnel and Grandma and Grandpa's and one afternoon Coop joined her...

 She was not about to be pushed around...bring the rough housing on.

 Seriously, she was not bothered at all and totally fought back!  Let's just say if the roles were reversed, Coop probably wouldn't be taking it as well.

My sis and I were dying laughing watching them!

Overland Park Gems

From the lake, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a long visit.  Dad was going to be out of town most of the next 2 weeks, I had a couple trips planned, so it was perfect timing.  Who needs to be home during the summer anyway, ha!

We made our first visit to the Overland Park Arboretum.  I can't believe we hadn't made our way there before, I have heard great things about it and we drive past everytime we visit the Jones' cousins.  It was a sunny and hot morning, so we didn't hang out too long.  We mainly went to see the train setup and stopped a few spots in between.

 Laney Faith was along for the ride and kept entertained by my water bottle most of the time.

 Of course we had to stop and play with the trucks.

 Here's what we came to see.  Trains run on those tracks you see, Coop thought it was pretty darn amazing.

 Navigating the train with Grandma.

My absolute favorite place to take the kids in Kansas is Deanna Rose petting zoo.   I know I have posted about it a million times, but this place seems new everytime because the kids are at different stages.

 Laney really noticed the animals (or the big ones anyway) this time.  Um, how cute is she in that pink bow!!???

 Cousin Will joined us for the field trip.  These 2 make quite the pair.

loved these sunning turtles.

Each trip he gets more brave, really loved feeding the goats this time.

This was the biggest change...he went down the slide!  Each time we talk about it, but he has zero interest.  I think Will was the main factor in this step.

I remember going down this slide as a kid...actually, it is probably been updated since then :).

Grandma and Doodles!  It was another hot one in KC, poor Doodles was sweating her thigh rolls off in that stroller!

Smile Fridays-week 9

 I just got home from spending a couple days visiting one of my favorite people-my bff Julie!  She lives in Ohio, so we usually just get to catch up at friends' weddings, holidays back in KC, or over the phone.  This was the best!!!  A whole 2 days to catch up and relive our crazy fun college days.  Thanks to Adam's American Airline miles for the flight, a huge thanks to my family for keeping the kids so I could go worry free and to Julie for hosting me!

No explanation needed!

Happy (belated) 4th of July!

Let's pretend it's not 2 weeks past the 4th...clearly I am waaay behind on blogging, but catching up one post at a time.  I couldn't let this post pass since it was Laney's 1st 4th of July!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Happy Fourth Laney Faith!  Of course, big brother wanted no part of pictures and it just wasn't a battle I was willing to fight.

Cousin Fun at the Lake

The cousin count is at 8 with one on the way-so put them all in the same house for 1 week and there is sure to be fun, fights, trouble, and most importantly memories made.  Here is a little of each...

These 3 were left alone unsupervised for 5 minutes max and this is what we found.  As much as they shouldn't have been doing it, how can you do anything but laugh?

Thankfully, they were washable markers.

post marker debacle~decorating 4th of July brownie cupcakes!

shucking corn in the laundry room??  they told me that uncle aaron said to do it before dinner...completely false story, but i 100% fell for it!  they were actually doing a great job and it was keeping them busy, so we just let them be :).

Awww, sweet cousins holding hands.

Doodles wanted to be all over Brynn!

Family Dinner!  And no, that isn't Kellen's beer :).

This picture is only possible because Maggie was holding Doodles off from attacking Brynn ;)...either way, it's pretty cute.

I had grand plans on getting all the kids bathed, dressed (in something other than swimsuits and pjs), and on the dock at sunset for some fun grandkid pics.  Well, that was a next to impossible task.  Just getting this one was a chore-someone was always sleeping, eating, cranky, out on the boat, you get the idea.  The way I look at it, this is them in their most natural state and the little boys smiles are priceless.  

Can't wait for the next time we are all together.  A gigantic thanks to Uncle Aaron and Aunt Cami for being the most gracious hosts for a week-we were a crazy group to shack up with!

Lake of the Ozarks - part 2

Organizing these pictures from our week at the lake into blog posts is driving me crazy!  Please excuse the randomness of these posts.

All the kids were so sweet to Laney.  Emily definitely played the mother hen role well.  See those stairs in the background, that was Laney's favorite thing to do.  Thankfully we had a gate to block them and make a "cage" to let the kids play in or trap our escapee Lola :).

Em was totally taking her in the cage like a dog, so cute! 

Laney totally fell for it :).

Balcony view

This was how the boys could keep Doodles from terrorizing their toys.

 We were so happy that GiGi decided to join us!  She was the stair guarder, helping Laney up and down, up and down.

Proof that my kids or at least Laney did get actual baths and not just "Lake rinses" :)

 Is this fun or what?  Aaron and Cami bought their wave runner while we were there and I think Adam had the most fun with it.  

Cami and I are almost birthday twins-July 7 and 8.  Since it was our birthday week, Mamaw and the girls made us ice cream desserts and we got birthday serenades, so fun!