{it's all about the fried food baby}

 

 

I hate to admit it but-- it's pretty much the only reason why we look forward to going to the Iowa State Fair each year, fried food heaven baby!! Sad but true. If you'd enjoy a nice deep fried Oreo cookie, sprinkled with some powdered sugar or chocolate covered bacon on a stick....you have some to the right place my friends.

 

 



 

I myself, enjoy a plate of deep fried cheese curds. Serious they are A.mazing!! It's a good thing I only eat them once a year :)

 



 

And Steve of course cannot say no to the fried Oreos.

Could you??

 



 

Of all the food that they boys could have chosen to eat at the fair, these two weirdos picked cotton candy!! Dang, they don't know what they were missing.

 



I actually do enjoy seeing all of the smelly animals too believe it or not.

And only in Iowa, can you go from seeing a real cow......

 

 



 

to a cow made from butter.

Behold the famous butter cow!

{32}

 

 

:Look who turned 32:

 



 

:and lovin' every single minute of it:

 

I celebrated my 32nd birthday yesterday. Wow! Really, I'm 32 years old now--can that be right?! Most days I feel like I am still 23, and I can't believe that so many years have passed by. But, it is true. My birthday came and went--and it couldn't have been a more perfect day. I was SO dang excited when I opened up my brand new tablet yesterday morning. Thank you Steve! I have been wanting one for some time now, and already love it. My kids also got me one of my soon to be favorite movies: Hunger Games. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, since seeing it in the theaters when it came out, and can't wait to see it again. 

 

We went out earlier in the week (minus the kiddos) on a date to dinner and a movie--which was so fun. But yesterday, we all went out to dinner at one of my favorite Italian restaurants to celebrate.

 

 



 

Glad I had two little boys to help me blow out my candles.

 



 

 

 I ended the night with two of my favorite gals by hanging out and watching Downton Abbey together. LOVE that show!!!

 



{4 months}

 

Mia Kate had her 4 month check up this week.

Dang this girl is getting so big. I started rice cereal this past week, and no big surprise here--she loves it!! She is such a happy, smiley baby and is just an absolute joy to have around. I feel half guilty that she sleeps until 8:30 every morning. Her brothers still dote on her, her dad likes to squeak at her, and I can't get enough of those kissable little cheeks of hers.  

Sadly, along with every check up comes the inevitable shots.

She was not lovin' it one single bit. Poor little boo face.

 

Weight: 15 lbs 9 oz {75th%}

Height: 27 in {99th%}

Head: {45th%}

 

 

 

 





{back to the beehive state: smelly pirate edition}

Last year, my sister planned the coolest treasure hunt for my kids. Ever since then, I knew that I absolutely had to do a hunt with my nephews this summer. I told them back in Feb to get ready for a pirate treasure hunt and to be prepared to dig up some buried treasure. 

Thanks to Steve and Kyle, we found the perfect spot to start on our adventure......

They had to read all of the clues that led them to different landmarks on the pirate map.

 

Those boys definitely worked for their loot. There was a molten hot volcano to climb, a dark and abandoned cave to explore, and many other obstacles along the way.

Luckily we had two smelly pirate guides to keep them on track.....

And after a loooong journey, it led them to the X down by the beach. A pirate ship had sunk off shore thousands and thousands of years ago.....

And sure enough, they dug up 4 wooden treasure boxes that were filled with diamonds, emeralds, jewels, precious stones, and pirate's gold. 

:Smelly Pirates:

Treasure Hunt

2012

{back to the beehive state: Morris edition}

After a fun-filled week spent at the Stewart's, we were able to spend a great week in Utah at the Morris'. Steve flew into town for a couple job interviews and scouted out some different jobs in the area.



Oh how I love this pic above--the 4 cousins. Carter and Braxton just so happen to be the only cousins my kids have, which makes them extra special. Plus they are pretty dang cool kids too, and crack me up with how funny they both are.

One of the days, we all went to a new place downtown called City Creek Mall. It is all outdoors, and really beautiful. My kids favorite shop of course was the Disney store.

Grandma and Mia at Tony's pizza.
One of our favorite places to eat while in Utah. Soooo good! And a trip to the Mercantile store for Farr's icecream--yum!

Mia and grandpa.

She loved to smile and coo at him :)

Mia and uncle Scotty

Mia and uncle Kyle
These two became pretty attached to each other over the past two weeks. Mia definitely knows who her uncle Kyle is.

 

Kelsey (Kyle's girlfriend) came over one afternoon, and did crafts with the boys. She is the best, my boys adore her. This is a pic of them all making sock puppets. They actually turned out pretty cool I must say.

Kelsey is so thoughtful, she bought this cool spin art kit for the boys, and we had a lot of fun (although a bit messy) haha, making different art work.



The last night before we headed back to Iowa, the boys had a sleepover in the front room. Looking at this pic, makes me sad that these boys only get to see each other once a year. They are such good friends to each other.

Love them!

{back to the beehive state: zoo edition}

After a week full of nonstop fun, we ended our time at my parents house by going to the zoo, and celebrating my sis-in-law Jessica's bday. Steve was able to get a flight in later in the day, but sadly he missed out on our little trip to Hogle Zoo, and Hire's for lunch.



This pic cracks me up every time I see it, haha. My chubby little Mia needed some major cooling off from one of the mist machines after being in her stroller all afternoon in the hot sun.

Coming up next...our week at the Morris'.

{back to the beehive state: friends and family edition}

One of the things that I look forward to the very most on our yearly trips to the Beehive State--is just hanging out and spending time with our friends and family. The time always goes by far too quickly, and before I know it--we are back on the road headed back to Corn Country Iowa. I tried my best to pack in as much during those short 2 1/2 weeks as I possibly could....and here is what we got!

One of my dearest and closest friends from high school days is Jamie.

She and I have remained besties throughout the years, and honestly I don't think I could ask for a more loyal and true friend than her. She is such an amazing friend to me, and I admire her in so many ways. Her talents are many, but her character is even more. We were able to hang out for a couple hours one afternoon, and then later she was kind enough to take some family photos for me before we left. So glad I got to see her. Love that crazy cat.

A very unexpected treat, was getting to see one of my absolute favorite people, Jennifer. We met almost 6 years ago when both of our husbands embarked on this very loooong journey, that is medical school. From the moment I met her, I knew that we would be very good friends. She is one of the funnest, kindest, most thoughtful people that I know. Oh how I love this girl. And her kids are some of the coolest kids around. Some of my fondest memories are hanging out together with our families, and talking for hours into the night. So, the timing just so happened to work out that she was in town visiting family the same time I was, and we got to catch up for a few hours. Can you believe all of those kids belong to us??



Another reason why this trip was so fun, was that we got to introduce everyone to miss Mia Kate. This is a pic of Papa John meeting his newest great granddaughter for the very first time. She thought he was hilarious and kept smiling and cooing at him.

Four generations of women. My grandma, mother, me, and Mia.

My grandma Stewart is a retired school teacher, and this is a pic of she and Hunter going over his school work book for the summer. My grandma and grandpa were able to come down from Logan for a little BBQ with all of us. It was so fun to see them and spend some time visiting with them.

 

 

Erika with Mia.

 

My brother Zac took some time off work to hang out with us while we were in town-- and this is a pic of the day we all went to Boondocks to play.



Tanner and my dad going for a bike ride. Can you tell Tanner thinks he's pretty cool?

Proud grandparents