Savannah's boyfriends!

We are lucky to live in a neighborhood with lots of kids for Savannah to play with. These are her little boyfriends: Braden came to pick her up and take her for a little ride. He thinks he is Evil Knievel and shows off his skills by driving with no hands!

Porter and Savannah just kickin' back with some sippies and a treat.

Doesn't this remind you of when the bride and groom shove cake in each others faces? I'm just saying...

Maxwell

People are giving me a hard time for never posting, so hopefully this week I will be able to get caught up. I never did a post for Max for his birthday so I will start there.
It just makes me a little sad that he is growing up so fast. I still feel like he is my little baby.
Newborn Max

1 month old

2 months

4 months

5 months

7 months

Max is 14 months now and still not walking, but he has taken several steps. He says a few words including mama, choo choo, horsey, goat, ball, dog, and more. I think I have mentioned before that he has been a really fussy kid which has been hard. We finally realized that most of his problems have been from his ears. We now have an appointment to have tubes put in, and from what I hear, it will work wonders for him. I feel so bad that he has had ear infections a good portion of his life, and I have just thought he was a fussy kid.
Max does the craziest things that always make me laugh. He has had a pretty funny crawl, and when he gets excited or mad about something he will pivot on his bum in a circle. It is so funny. He also has an obsession with pillows. He loves to raise up on his knees and just throw his body down on a pillow. He will throw his head down on anything and loves to give head butts. He loves being outside, playing in dirt, slides, water, cars, balls, and any kind of animal. He loves to wrestle with his sister and be chased around the house. He can throw a pretty impressive temper tantrum which makes me excited for age 2. Lately he seems to love the car and is most happy when we are out and about.

We sure do love you Maxwell!

Camping

We have really been wanting to go camping all summer, and it just hasn't been working out, until finally last weekend we went up Hobble Creek! It was a lot of fun, and the kids loved it. My camera battery died at the beginning of the trip, which is unfortunate because I look smokin' hot when I camp. I did happen to get a few shots of this though: They really wanted to go swimming, but we didn't have suits, so of course they just stripped down. It was so cute to see their little white bums walking up the creek. Savannah has been telling everyone how she went skinny dippin' in the mountains!

24th of July!

Mapleton has a parade every year for Pioneer Day. All of the Primarys in the area make floats for it. This is ours for this year! Matt pulled the trailer, and I walked along behind it with all of the kids.

Some kids rode on the float. Most of them rode their bikes behind it. It was fun, and I'm glad all of the planning for it is over. Afterward, we had breakfast with some friends, then headed to Leamington for the weekend to ride horses, play in the river, and light some fireworks. It was a fun weekend!

Savannah is into being a cowgirl lately and loves her boots and hat. I thought this was cute when she fell asleep with her hat on.

Kolste Family Reunion

I'm trying to get caught up on all of the stuff we have been doing this summer. Early in July, we went to Montana for a family reunion. I have never been there in the summer, so it was a lot of fun!
We stopped at Bear World on our way up. It is right outside Rexburg. There were, in fact, a lot of bears at Bear World. Savannah loved it! She kept wanting to get out to see the bears until we told her they would eat her!

They had a big petting zoo area that the kids loved too.

Next, we headed to Yellowstone. Our kids are a little young for it, but it sure is pretty. Turns out kids don't think waiting around for an hour to see water spray out of the ground is all that cool, but you can't go to Yellowstone and not see Old Faithful! I kept wondering when a bear was going to climb on our car, but apparently that doesn't happen much anymore.

This is my favorite picture! Matt is just thinking he is funny, but he really is the best at spotting things far away. I can't tell you how often we are driving, and he suddenly pulls over because he saw something clear out in a field he wants to check out. He is a good person to have with you at Yellowstone!

We saw lots of buffalo and elk, but no bears on cars or bears eating elk. Darn.

This baby fawn was in a field right outside of Great Falls. Like I said, Matt can spot anything from the car. He happened to look over, and see a baby deer nursing, so he pulled over. We walked out into the field and took some pictures. He was so cute!

We eventually made it to Matt's home town, Belt. It is a pretty cute little town!

We went to play in the creek. It was too cold even for Savannah, so I knew I didn't want to get in. I've turned into quite the sissy when it comes to cold water, but Matt had a good time with the kids.

It was fun seeing all of the family. Too bad Max is such a Mama's boy, because he had quite the fan club that was willing to hold him if he would let them!

A bunch of the cousins playing at the park.

The whole family minus Darrick and his family, who couldn't make it. 9 kids and 30 grandkids so far.

The reunion was with Matt's dad's side of the family. We went to visit the property where they grew up, then went to visit the graves of his Dad's parents and two brothers. It was really nice to be able to visit.

All together, we had a great time, and our kids were exhausted from all of the fun!!

Rockin' Birthday Party of 2009!

Savannah and Max had a double birthday party early in July! It was a pretty sweet party despite the rainy day! Birthday parties are all about the cake for Savannah! She talked about it for weeks in advance and insisted that she wanted a horse cake! I have to admit, I am pretty proud of this cake I made for her! She loved it!

Max had his own mini football cake! He is a big fan of just about all food, so having his own cake was pretty exciting stuff!

He polished off the whole thing with a little help from his dad!

It was a water party, and they thought the slide was a lot of fun, but eventually it was too cold even for the kids, so it didn't last too long.

And the highlight of the party was Savannah's new pony! Really? What 3 year old needs a pony? Her uncles think they are funny and all pitched in to buy her a pony for her birthday. They came to borrow our horse trailer the morning of the party, which I thought was a little fishy...then they showed up with this! Of course Savannah is thrilled! The girl is obsessed with horses. She named him Skittles! Isn't he cute? Our kids are so spoiled!

Just enjoying some cake!

All of the kids got to have pony rides. He is pretty wild now, so they had to have some helpers.

Max had plenty of helpers when it came to opening his presents! I can't believe how fast this year has gone for him! I am planning on doing a whole other post of his first year! He seemed to enjoy his birthday party as much as a one year old would!

More pony rides!

Happy Birthday to Savannah and Max! I told you it was a rockin' party! Thanks to everyone that came!

Bees!!!

The other morning, I was looking out my window and saw a thick swarm of bugs in my back yard. I couldn't tell for sure what it was, so I stepped outside, and could hear a loud buzzing. I called my neighbors to come and check it out. It was so crazy! We thought they were going to get us, so we ran inside. Eventually the bees all settled in one of my trees. You might have to enlarge the picture to check it out, but there was a whole lot of bees! What my camera didn't pick up was the hundreds of bees that were still flying around the air. It really was creepy! I found some bee keepers that were happy to come and get them for me.

It was pretty crazy to see these guys grabbing handfuls of bees and tossing them in a bucket. They thought they got most of them, but the next morning I still had a ton of bees, so they had to head back to get the rest of them. Pretty crazy huh?