Father's Day and Birthday's

June is a very full month at the McDowell Casa. 5 years ago I was ripe with Ky-pie and due to have her on my birthday. She of course decided to come on Father's day instead. Tom says he had no idea how much his little girl would own her daddy's heart. Watch out any future boyfriends or even dates. Tom is already planning and getting ideas of how he is going to handle it. His latest idea is to say to the guy who takes his daughter out, "Remember, whatever you do to my daughter.....I do to you (from The movie New in Town). I already feel sorry for the poor guys.


So first of all Happy Fathers Day to the best Daddy to ever live,

I love how you wish you could be the stay at home parent yet assume your role and allow me to stay home.

I love how you watch movies with your kids just to get extra snuggle time in.

I love how fun and crazy you are with our kids.

I love the great spiritual example you set for our kids.

I love that you teach them that it's more important to have fun than to be to cautious.

I love that you have a mission box that you pull out every once in a while to show the kids.

I love that you will take the kids fishing, golfing and sledding, not just to give me a break, but because you really love hanging out with them.

I love that you make us my grandma Rosemary's pancakes or my moms waffles on the weekends.

I love that you make the best cookies ever and let the kids help.

I love how excited the kids get when you come home, even Crew screams and reaches for you.

I love that you know how to put Kya's hair in a ponytail.

I love that you have given me three amazingly beautiful children!

I love the way you love our kids.






Crew's new thing is to lick Tom. I can't figure out if he just wants to taste what Tom is eating or if he's kissing him, but he kept licking him later that day while we were at the grocery store. Sweetest thing ever!

These are some pics from Kya's Birthday. We can't believe she's 5 and will start school this year. She amazes us and makes us laugh everyday. We're so lucky to have her in our family. So for her b-day she wanted to have a party and go to Build a Bear Workshop. So we had a small party with our backyard neighbors and then went to Build a Bear with Auntie Kindy and Briley. Grammy and Papa surprised Kya and came for her Birthday instead of in July as planned. She loved having them. What a fun b-day surprise! That evening we walked and rode bikes to the mailbox and there was a fun birthday package from Grandma and Gramps McDowell. Talk about perfect timing. Kya loved it! This was an early present from Auntie Kindy and Uncle Nate. It's her own miniature greenhouse. Cool gift!




Amazing Auntie Chell made this adorable tutu for Kya. It is so beautiful. We love it!







Lastly, my birthday was great. I got to hang out with my favorite people. Kya and I made hairbows for the neighbor girl. Conor and I finished reading a chapter book. Crew clung to me most of the day, which I love (I think he's about to pop out a tooth, I can see it just below the surface). Then Tom brought home an ice cream cake and real fireworks to celebrate. For those of you who know Tom, the fireworks are typical of him and the pyromaniac illness he has. The 4th is my favorite holiday so I'm sure thats why he did them, right. Gotta love him. Thanks my sweet family for such a great day. No pics, sorry my camera battery was dead. But here's one of me on Kya's Birthday with two little cuties.

Enjoying Colorado

Besides the amazingly beautiful miles and miles of farm land and cool weather these are some of the things we're enjoying about Co.

These pics of Crew and Briley are actually from right before we moved to Colorado. Tom and I and Crew drove up for a few days to find a house and we stayed with Nate and Kindy. Crew and Briley were so cute together. The Hardy family is definately the best part of Colorado. We love you guys!

Crew loves grabbing at Briley's bows and face. This girl is gonna be tough. Sorry Briley we just love you soooo much!

Cousins! Yeah! We have waited a long time to have cousins on this side of the family. We are beyond excited to get to live by the first one. Can't wait for more.

On our Anniversary Auntie Kindy and Uncle Nate watched our kids so we could go to our traditional Red Lobster Dinner. That morning Kya picked out this outfit and asked if we could call Kindy and ask if Briley could wear the same thing. She loves Briley tons. Thanks Nate and Kindy, for watching our kids and for giving them a cousin.

Tom and I both grew up with gardens and want to teach the importance of it to our kids. We have had some type of garden every year since we've been married, even if it was just some tomatoe plants in buckets. We moved just in time to get a garden in but were dissapointed that the house we're renting didn't have a place to put a garden so we decided it would have to be a container garden this year. Then at church I was reading the announcements and it said to call the Welfare Farm Manager if you're interested in space in the stake garden. They already had it plowed and ready for planting and they irrigate twice a week. They just require that we plant weed and harvest our own crop. Not to be cheesy but this was like a dream come true. The next night for family home evening we were out there planting. We have 3- 125 foot rows. We are growing tomatoes, green beans, peas, corn, turnips, radishes, carrots, bell peppers (red and green), and a few pumpkins and cantaulope. Our dream has always been to someday have a huge garden in our backyard. I want to can the food like I remember my mom doing when I was a kid. Canned green beans from the garden are heavenly.
Notice Crew tasting the dirt. I guess he heard us talking about how good the garden would taste and he thought he'd try it out. He seemed to like it because when I tryed to dig the dirt out of his mouth he yelled at me. Aunt Shannon this pic is for you.

Kya taking her job very seriously.

We went for a Sunday drive a couple of weekends ago and found this cool tower. Crew was asleep so I told Tom it was my turn to be the cool parent and take the kids up it. He got to stay in the van with the sleeping baby. It wasn't long before Crew woke up and Tom joined us. Hmm now that I'm telling this story I'm beginning to question how Crew woke up. Tom? anyway it was fun.





This was actually before the Tower. See what I mean about him always getting to be the cool parent. After this I got to take the kids to a stinky bathroom which turned out to be way to stinky and we had to go find a gas station to use their facilities.

Cold Colorado water. We were wondering why all the fishermen we saw were wearing waders. Tom usually just wades through the water in his shoes. The water was freezing. Tom now needs more fishing gear.

We have our milk delivered from a local farm. My kids say that it tastes better. I have to agree. It's all natural and definately worth the little extra it costs. Good thing our daddy makes amazing cookies so we can truly enjoy our quality milk.