Crew's first fish!!!!!

After dinner the other night Tom said, "let's go fishin!" So we did and here's what happened. (Lucky I was there with the camera.)

(Who looks more excited, Tom or Crew?)

This is a huge milestone in our family. Sure the kid can walk and talk but has he ever caught a fish? Well it's official this cute kid has! He can now call himself a McDowell.

p.s This kid LOVES rocks. He found this one at the pond we were fishing at. He has two of them on the step just outside the garage that he keeps there to play with whenver possible. Who needs toys right? I think he was saying , "rock" when I took this pic.

Camping Weekend

We went camping last weekend to celebrate Kya's bday and Father's day. We planned on staying 2 nights but only stayed 1. It was way to hot for tent camping. We should have gone to the mountains. That's the kind of camping we're used to. We were not prepared for the heat! We had a good time though and resumed some of our outdoor plans at home.

This pheasant was just sitting there waiting for me to take it's picture. So I did.
These wild turkey were running away from me trying to take their picture.

This little frog had no choice wether he had his picture taken or not.
I love that the kids had dirt to play in. A landscaped yard is nice but sometimes you just need to play in the dirt!
Collecting fire wood
snack time!
Dutch oven Berry cobbler and ice cream. YUMMY!
Our cute little camp site. If only it weren't 90+ degrees and maybe just a couple million less mosquitoes in the morning so we could have cooked our dutch oven breakfast. We seriously woke up to a cloud of mosquitoes surrounding our tent. There were so many we could hear them. We've never seen that many mosqitoes all at once! It was shocking and kind of freaky.


We went to a little splash park that has a pond right next to it. We invited our neighbors and we played in the water while Tom and Conor fished. They attracted a bunch of kids who were fighting over who got to throw the fish back that Tom and Conor were catching so Conor told them to get in line and they each got a turn to throw one of the blue gill back that Conor would catch for them. Conor told me this story when we got home. So cute!

Conor was planning on making us dutch oven biscuits and gravy for breakfast one morning while we were out camping. Instead he made it for dinner in our backyard. He's such a good little scout!

While we were outside Crew decided he'd had enough of the heat and decided to cool himself and his siblings off.

Time to turn the water off.

We made handmade gifts for our daddy's for Father's Day with our neighbors.

"Dad Rocks," rocks painted by each of his kids. Crew was so proud of them.

She picked out these bike essentials for her birthday.
The cake didn't get made until the day after her birthday but hey it got made right? And in my defense, not that I need any, but Tom wanted pecan pie so I made that for him on Sunday. Therefore the cake really needed to wait another day. (Tom and I decorated the cake together I had had an exhausting day and he came home and made the frosting and helped me decorate it. Thanks Tom you're the best!)

Summer Fun

Here are a few of the fun things we've been doing this summer. We went to the zoo with Kindy, Briley and the Hammonds. We haven't hung out with them for a while and I think the kids chatted almost as much as the moms. We seriously need to hang out more often.

Kindy got us free tickets to ride the train. It was so fun! Conor said it was an experience he'll never forget. Thanks Auntie Kindy you're the best!

Conor's first cub scout day camp. It was two days long and they........made rockets, played marbles, made pet rocks, shot BB guns, played flag football, made and ate ice cream, made tie dye hankerchiefs and slides, made 100 years of scouting pins, had an obstacle course, contructed a container to put an egg in and firefighters dropped them from the top of their ladder (Conors egg broke). They might have done more but these are the things Conor told me about. I was amazed! What a great district we are in.
These are the wolves, bears and den mothers from our ward on the last day when we picked them up. Looks and sounds like they had fun!

June 20th 2004

On Father's Day 2004 Tom recieved what he refers to as the best Father's Day gift he'll every get. His baby girl was born. I always say she meant to do that just to confirm that she would have him wrapped around her little finger. She of course had a struggle starting to breath as all three of our babies have, so they wisked her off to the nursery to observe her. My mom was with me so Tom went with Kya to make sure she was not alone. While being poked and examined she grabbed her daddy's finger and held on tight. I think it was at that very moment that she stole her daddy's heart and has had control of it every since.

Today and every 6 years we get to celebrate Kya's birthday on Father's Day. We had a fun filled weekend and I'll try to post about it later but this morning I took a few pics of these two right before church.

Kindergarten

Kya loved Kindergarten. Tom took a longer lunch break and was able to be at her graduation. She earned her much anticipated "T-time teddy" for reading or being read to for at least 100 hours a week all during the school year. We kept track on little time cards that the teachers sent home each week. Conor also got to participate in this awesome program. It wasn't very hard for us since we read to our kids a lot anyway. There were some weeks when it was tough though. Kya love love loves school and can't wait for first grade. One day in kindergarten a kid in Kya's class asked her if she was his friend. Her reply was, "everyone's you're friend in Kindergarten." What the world needs: more Kindergarten, less politics.

Happy Birthday Family!

Our Anninversary was on Memorial Day this year. Tom and I got a sitter on Saturday and went to lunch and a movie. On Monday morning Tom asked the kids if they knew who's birthday it was today. He then told them that it was our family's birthday. He said that 9 years ago today our forever family began. I thought that was a sweet way of explaining it to the kids so we went out for ice cream to celebrate our Birthday! I'm so happy we chose to start this family 9 years ago I can't imagine my life without them. They make my life beautiful. I love you family!