The Drive-Out

Tim has been planning to take James to see Cars 2 as his first movie in the theater since last summer. James' random and unfounded fear of movie theaters was going to throw a major wrench in this plan until I came up with the genius idea of taking him to the drive-in! Our friends the Haleys wanted in on this amazing plan as well, so we planned a whole night of festivites for the boys for Saturday night. As with most plans involving a 2 year old, a 3 year old, a 4 year old, an 8 month old and a newborn; the dream is often much better than the reality. We packed our cars full of pizza, snacks, treats and activities and got to the drive-in in Ft. Collins right when the box office opened t 6:45pm. It was a gorgeous night and we had a blast tailgaiting and pre-gaming as we waited for the movie to start.

The boys were so excited for the movie to start!! What we did not anticipate was how late the movie would actually begin. By the time the previews were done and Cars 2 actually started, it was after 9:30pm! Thank goodness James took a much needed 3 hour nap that afternoon.
All the toy cars lined up to watch the movie.
Daddys and boys killing time before the movie.
Even more ready for the movie to start-all changed into pajamas with popcorn!
Having 3 overly tired, excited and talkative boys in the same car trying to watch a movie didn't really go as planned (who would have thought?!). Once the boys were separated and situated on laps, things went much smoother. We had a very exhausted crew by the end of the movie! James actually did great for staying up so late and was definitely excited about his first movie going experience. He talked about the "drive-out" and Cars 2 all day today, so I think we can consider it a success even though all the adults had their doubts at various points during the movie :-) Although there are no photos of Cormac or Emerson from the drive-in, they were both dream babies. They nursed and/or slept the whole time and neither one of them made a peep the entire loooong night. I couldn't completely leave them out though, so here they are on their baby date earlier in the week when all of the big kids were at summer camp.

As you can see, Emmy is already a big fan of her first boyfriend, Macky.

Summertime

We have been thoroughly enjoying our summer so far. James has been busy testing the limits of the baby swing in the backyard...

Playing hide and go seek...

(how a 3 year old hides)
(how a 3 year old covers their eyes to count)
Going on bike rides....(Mac's helmet is meant for 3-5 year olds-yikes!)
Mastering the Strider bike...
Eating popsicles...
Mac has been busy as well trying to figure out how to crawl-he isn't quite there yet, he mainly just lunges forward and spins in circles...

And growing new teeth (he now has 4). The only problem is that when he smiles you can't see them, and he is very well trained and usually smiles as soon as he sees a camera...

But we got them!
Trying out new hairstyle with his rapidly growing hair-his first mohawk...
And working on the alphabet....C is for Cormac!
Hope everyone else is enjoying their summer as much as our two boys are!

Father's Day

Tim likes nothing better than spending time with James and Mac and it makes me so happy to see whan an amazing father he is. James is in a 100% Daddy mode right now and loves Tim more than anything in the world. Tim never tires of playing pretend, wrestling, reading stories or doing anything and everything else that James wants him to do. What a lucky kid.

We made Tim breakfast on Sunday morning and then spent the afternoon in Ft Collins for Father's Day dinner with Dave, Katie, Steve and Amb. All the Nichols dads and kids.
Chloe loves Cormac so much, I think she is pretty excited to have a partner in crime as soon as he can walk.
James and Taylor were put in charge of passing out dessert after dinner, their area of expertise.
Dessert round #2-popsicles!
Happy Father's Day to all the amazing dads in our family; my own dad, Dave, Tim, Steve, Ian and our Grandpas!

Drumroll please.......

Today marked a HUGE milestone...James got his first "big boy" haircut with clippers. Aaahhhh! I am still in shock that I finally let it happen. I was sick of not being able to see his eyes and his head gets so sweaty in the summer...I had a moment of weakness this morning and Tim jumped on it. Haircuts are not James' favorite thing, so he was allowed to watch an episode of Super Why on the iPad (a big treat).

Tim didn't get too far before I was starting to have an anxiety attack and we headed over to Great Clips to let the professionals take over. The iPad joined us.
Picking out a treat from the treasure box. A lollipop AKA a "popsicle" in James' talk.
I think any last lingering bits of toddler that he had left were clippered right off of him. He is 100% big kid now.
James looks SO much more like Tim now with his short hair. I think he looks super handsome and if nothing else, it will mean we can probably make it through the summer without needing another haircut.

Photo Overload

I have a random assortment of pictures that I just uploaded that are too cute to not share. First up is Macky with all of his fellow Swanson-alumni babies. There are 5 of them born within about 6 months of each other. I made the 4 boys matching tie onesies-Timothy, Cormac, Gus and the newest addition, Mark.

Stella is the only girl of the bunch.
Mac and Gus-future BFF's.

The best part about the Mont is definitely the friends we have made (well maybe tied with the excessive parades). We invited our Mont besties over to celebrate Tim's birthday which included; Mexican food, ice cream cake and a poetry reading of Ode to Tim poems that everyone wrote. The kids: John, James and Mal with babies Cam and Mac in the background. Not pictured: Colin and Emerson.

Lindsay, Kelly and I with the newest addition, Emerson. Lindsay and I were both honored to be at Emmy's birth.
The whole gang.
The first harvest from our garden!
My two handsome boys:
We are having such a great start to our summer. It is hard to believe that it is almost July!

Family Togetherness

My whole family has been in town since last week and we have been busy, busy, busy. Melanie, one of our dearest friends from growing up got married on Saturday and we had a shower for her on Thursday at my house. Here she is with Macky.

James has loved having the company and has soaked up every second of having so many people around to play with.
We headed up to the mountains on Saturday morning for Melanie's wedding. It was a beautiful day for a wedding. Tim takes '21 means 21' very seriously.
James giving a bouquet of dandelions that he picked to the beautiful bride, Melanie.
My fat, happy baby and his Aunt Jenny.
A decent photo of the whole family!
With the bride!
Toasting marshmallows in the fire pit at the wedding.
Two tired boys at the end of the reception.
We spent Saturday night after the wedding at the cabin and spent Sunday morning enjoying the perfect weather at Dillon Lake and in Breckenridge.