Every little bit helps

Please click on the icon above to find out how you can help the Sullenger family and learn more about what they are going through. Last Friday their 18 month old girl fell into a canal and nearly drowned. She is still in critical condition. This is a family from my home town and for those of you in Memphis, this is Kash Sullenger's niece.

4th of July

I wasn't so sure about how much fun this 4th of July would be having a kid but I was wrong.  Declan seems to make everything a lot more fun than it was before!  We are so lucky to have an easy going, funny baby.  We started out the weekend by going to driving range and Jerry's Sno Cones on Friday.  Declan loves to sit in his stroller and watch his mom and dad hit golf balls.  Really, he laughs the whole time. 

On Saturday I started the day by running in a 5K with our ward.  I am not a runner but I met my 2 goals I set for myself - I didn't want to walk at all and I didn't want to come in last. :)  Afterwards we came home and watched Argentina lose in the World Cup...Zach was upset about that.  We had an early dinner with some of our friends and then we headed over to watch the Bartlett fireworks.  We got there about 2 1/2 hours before the fireworks started and I was a little worried how we would keep Declan entertained but again, I shouldn't have worried about it because he was entertained with all the other kids and grass. :)

Declan, Levi, and Macie

I took Declan to get his face painted and Corrine got a few photos of the process.  It was pretty funny.  I asked the girl to paint a baseball and this is what we got....

He did not like that girl touching his face!  ha ha

Lately Declan has been pulling an "old man" face.  He sucks in his lips so that it looks like he doesn't have any teeth and it cracks me up every time.  He usually says "ohhh" while doing it.  He's in the process of making that face in our family photo.  

I wish we would have gotten a picture of his face while we watched the fireworks.  I was worried that he would cry because he doesn't like really loud noises but once again I was totally wrong!  He loved them.  He sat in my lap the entire time and was awestruck by them.  He never took his eyes off of them the whole time.  It was awesome!  

On Sunday we had a few friends over for dinner and then we went to the Welshes to light off some more fireworks.  Declan wasn't as happy with these fireworks since they were closer and louder but he only cried once. 

Jesse and Zach figuring out the fireworks.

Declan and Emery

Zach had the day off on Monday so we went to a little splash park in Midtown with the Welshes.  It was pretty fun to see the babies react to the water shooting out of the ground.  Declan didn't like it at first but then Zach walked him through a bunch of them and he ended up really enjoying them.  We weren't planning on going to a splash park though (we were going to go to Mud Island but it was closed) so Zach was in normal clothes and he was soaking wet.  I'm sure the workers at Holiday Ham Company were excited to see us walk in for lunch. :) At least he was mostly dry from the hot sun!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures from Monday but we did get some great video but it's all too long to put on here!  Overall, it was a great weekend and the best part was it wasn't insanely hot!

oh so random

With the big move approaching (6 weeks!) I have been doing quite a bit of packing.  The other day I came across a wonderful treasure that we received in the mail during the first few weeks of moving to Memphis.  I just had to share it with y'all. 

In case you can't tell what it is I'll explain.  It's a DVD of a music video.  We actually were brave enough to watch it and it's a rap song that goes a little something like this, "It don't matter where ya from, it's where ya at."  It talks about how it doesn't matter whether you are from the North, South, East, or West - it just matters where you are right now.  A good message actually, making sure we live our lives wherever we are!  It was our "Welcome to Memphis" gift.  I have no idea why it was sent to us but we've received many random things in the mail while living here.  Including postcards that have our names on them saying that someone from a certain church was praying for us specifically by name.  Nice, but kind of weird since we're not sure how they know who we are and where we live. 

In case you were wondering, I packed the DVD so it will be moving to Utah with us!

We took Declan to the mall on Saturday to get him out of the house.  He hasn't been feeling too well the past few weeks so he's been couped up in our apartment and was starting to go crazy...and so was I!  Here's a pic of him riding the dragon on the carousel.

He didn't quite know what to think when it actually started going around and the dragon went up and down but he seemed to like it! 

He loves being mischievous in the kitchen.  As soon as the dishwasher or fridge is open he comes crawling full speed to try and catch them before we close them back up.  It's really cute.  Yesterday I was unloading groceries and as I was putting them in the fridge he would take them back out.  I also caught him with a few grapes in his mouth that he tried to sneak while I had my back to him.  ha ha

I took these pictures last night when he was supposed to be getting ready for bed.  He's had a hard time lately winding down for the night and has been fighting his nightly routine.  He was just too cute last night though, I had to let him play just a little longer.

This picture is random but I just wanted to show y'all how curly his hair can get in the back with a little humidity!  We went swimming for a second time a couple weeks ago and got this picture of all the boys who had the same swim shirt.  Declan is the furthest on the left.

We started giving Declan a sippy cup when he was 6 months old while he ate meals and he caught on pretty well.  Well, the last month or so he's realized how much he likes sucking out of straws.  I have a water bottle that you have to bite the straw to open and then suck up and he loves it.  Zach and I couldn't believe he could actually get water out of it but he does!  He refused to take his sippy cup if he ever saw my water bottle around so we decided to get him one of his own.  He was really excited when he realized that it was just for him and he didn't have to share with me anymore!