Here's a short clip of Cooper hitting the baseball.

So, its been way too long since we've posted, but we've had a lot going on. Time is seriously flying. Here are some highlights from the past little while. Enjoy! We're pretty isolated out here - so we can easily say we love and miss all of you!

Let's start with Carsey...
She cut 6" off her hair a while ago... against her mother's wishes, but its still so cute.

She recently won Best Poetry Book for 4th grade. Here are some of my favorites:

Carsey did her science fair project on the food preferences of her new guinea pigs. She found they like romaine lettuce the best!

Cooper turned 4 in January. He's been teaching himself new tricks on his scooter (thanks Ryan and Mindy who gave this to Carsey years ago... well worth the money) - Also, it should be said that we use "Grandma and Grandpa" as a generic term in our house - its easier that way. Cooper knows the differences between the two sets based on what they have at their houses or what they gave to him last time we were there. Gpa Campbell is "chocolate milk grandpa" and Gpa Richards is "four-wheeler grandpa". I'm just impressed by how good his memory is and how much he loves all of them even though he hasn't seen them very much!

Mila is fitting in well with the older kids. Her vocabulary is growing every day. You know when they're little and you wonder what their babbling about? Turns out she's just been bossing us around. Also, we've (hopefully) bought our last pack of diapers!!!

This is Mila and Cooper after going to Andy's Frozen Custard.  yummmmmm....

 Crawfords came to visit. We LOVE having visitors (hint hint)! It was so fun to see the cousins together. We hope you guys liked your trip to the "Queen City".

Jon bought WAY too much candy for Easter, as usual. I seem to be the only one who minds...

Jon was a good sport and volunteered to be a subject for some of our research. He just got a new job with the state of MO doing vocational rehab... and he just turned 34! We're VERY proud of him. His old employer was pretty bummed when he left and he's already been called a "prodigy" at his new job. I know he's a great counselor!

Jon's birthday party was small, but he got a lot of love! We had his favorite dinner - spaghetti with sausage and banana splits for dessert.

I just graduated from Respiratory Therapy school. Put simply, for those of you that are wondering what that is, RT's are in charge of the ventilators and aerosol therapies in the hospital as well as resuscitation in code blue calls. It's been a crazy year. I made a lot of great friends and learned so much. I start my job at a hospital here called Mercy (formerly St.John's) any day now. I couldn't have made it without Jon by my side!!

Yay the 4th!!

We had a great 4th of July weekend. No choreographed street firework show, but we did make it out to our favorite lake beach. We also headed to an exhibit called "Our body, the universe within". Very cool stuff. We lit off fireworks all weekend. I'm so glad artillery shells are the legal and cheap here. Best firework ever made!!!







I finally got in a picture! I have very few pics with the kids since I'm usually on the other side of the camera.

Carsey's birthday!!

The memories of baby Carsey are fading! In spite of her crazy parents, she's the coolest girl I know :) We love being around her and listening to her wit and ideas. She's been watching a lot of discovery health channel (she likes Dr. G Medical Examiner). She said she might want to be a doctor when she grows up, "but only for dead people".


She got some super cute Converse high high tops...


And bought a skateboard with her birthday money...

Of course Cooper thinks its his too (since he asked for one at Christmas and has reminded us every month since then that Santa forgot his skateboard)...



Mila's just glad Cooper's distracted so she can sit on his bike...

Fireworks!

Things are super busy these days. I'm in summer school while Jon's holding down the fort. Really the kids are running things...

However we have been able to fit in some summer fun. Our latest adventure was a trip to a local "animal safari". We forgot the camera, but if you can imagine a 7ft tall water buffalo with a 2ft long tongue (including drool) aiming for the alfalfa pellets in the front seat of the car, you've got the picture. We were sure to wash the slobber off the car windows when we got home.

Here are some updated pics of the kids (minus Cooper's haircut pictures which most of you have seen).






And for the finale, Jon made the BEST ribs the other night. He's been perfecting a recipe of his favorite dry rub. This batch was so good that even our picky little eaters were fighting over the last one! I guess it helped that he tempted us with the smell of sweet hickory smoke for 5 hours... yummm!