Stand for Spencer

I took this information from an article in the Kansas City Star...

The remains of Spc. Spencer Duncan returned to New Century Airport on Tuesday morning. As the family welcomes his body home, community group members are making sure his return is special.

Hundreds of people lined 151st Street between Ridgeview and Murlen in Olathe for the event called "Stand for Spencer."
Three years after enlisting, Spencer Duncan was deployed to Afghanistan. He had been there for less than three months before his Chinook Helicopter was shot down by Taliban forces.

Twenty-nine other Americans perished in the incident on August sixth. It's considered the deadliest attack on US troops in the wars history.

Three of the men killed, including Duncan, were from the Kansas City area

These pictures are from the "Stand for Spencer" facebook page.

It was an amazingly quite, very somber, but awesome mood along 151st as the procession drove by. 

You could see the family riding in their cars behind Spencer's casket and they all just looked at us and cried as they passed by.

In one picture below, you can see one of the Patriot Guard members wiping away a tear as he was riding.

I remember seeing him with his hand over his face and that was one moment that definitely choked me up for sure. 

It was very emotional to see all these people standing on the side of the road for this soldiers ride to the funeral home. 

But, it was also very neat to be a part of.

These are a couple of the pictures that I took.

We stood at a less populated area.  I didn't want to take the kids into that crowd especially since they were expecting protesters.

It did end up getting pretty crowded by us though.

We stood in front of the hospital and a lot of employees came out to stand.

It was so awesome...if you don't mind me saying that again.

Really awesome.

I was glad to take the kids and stand for Spencer.

Cash kept asking me where the solider was.  I tried to explain, but he didn't quite get it.

We were there though and that is all that matters.

Down By The Bay...

This video is of the kids and one of their new favorites...singing Down By The Bay.

Cash gets the rhyming for the most part even though his words aren't always real words.

Riley doesn't seem to get the rhyming point of the song.  She just thinks it funny...like, really funny.

You will have to excuse my less than stellar singing voice.  I swear after I had my kids my voice really changed.  Not that I was some awesome singer or something, but I could at least carry a tune while singing to my preschool class without too much thought. 

Now...not so much.

The End.

Fun Times

This picture is of Riley and her obsessive need to wear my slippers around all the time. 

She wears these, Cash wears my black ones and they pretend they are in ballet.  Kind of funny because I don't even know how they know what ballet is or how they know that these slippers do look like ballet slippers. 

 Adam and Rachel brought the girls down to KC for a little summer vacation.  My parents came also and took us all to the Great Wolf Lodge which is one of those hotels with the water park inside. I wish I could have taken some pictures, but too many kids and too much water around made me leave my camera at home where it was safe!

All the kids (and the adults) had a great time.  Grandma and Grandpa bought the kids "pup passes" so they could get glitter tattoos, make a stuffed animal friend which was like Build-A-Bear, make pillowcases and more.  They loved the water slides and playing around the hotel.

They also were able to experience a fire alarm at the hotel one night!

Darin and I missed it because we were at home with Tripp and Drew.  Everyone else stayed at the hotel and spent about an hour out on the lawn at 1 am with firetrucks all over the place.  There was a grease fire in the kitchen of the hotel.

I was told that they were sitting on the lawn and Cash was excited because "we never had a picnic before!" and then he decided, after seeing the firemen, that he wanted to be a fireman...because he doesn't like it when his dad is on fire. 

Smart boy.

They also went to the Kansas City Zoo one day. 

I stayed home with the babies, Drew and Josie, because it was too hot for them to be out there all day. 

So no pictures of all our fun adventures, but I did try to get a couple of the kids together.

 Cash, Libby, Becca, Riley and Tripp

 Grandpa with Josie

 Drew and Josie

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa! 

We had a great time and you spoiled us all as always!

We love you!!!

7 Months Old

I can't believe Drew is 7 months old already!

I put her hair up in a pony tail so you could see how light it is getting.  Everyone comments on the color of her hair. It was so dark when she was born and she had a lot of it so now that it is coming in blonde, it does look pretty crazy.  It is like the reverse of me and my dark roots when I need to get into my stylist! 

Her hair also seems like it might have a little curl to it so we will see!

She is sitting on her own better now.  She still needs someone close by or the boppy around her, but she does pretty well!

I think I can see her two bottom teeth coming in so maybe on her 8 month post there will be some photos of her first tooth (or teeth)! 



6 Months Old

Here are pictures of Drew at 6 months. 

I realize she is now almost 7 months old, but I was waiting until after her doctor appointment so I had her stats.  And then it took me a while to sit down and get it all together of course!

She weighed 15 lbs 10.5 oz which is in the 40%.  She is a little one.  Especially considering Tripp was 15 lbs 12 oz at 2 months!

She was 28 inches long which is in the 95%.  So maybe she will be tall like me!

She has been introduced to cereal, bananas and peaches now and doesn't like any of them.  We will see how she does with some of the other foods over the next few weeks.  I hope we find something she likes!

She has rolled over a few times and can sit on her own for just a little bit.  She doesn't get a whole lot of time on the floor to practice with all her other siblings running around.

No teeth yet!  I keep waiting.  I swear I have been saying "oh, she must be teething" for the last 2 months!  Soon, soon...



Mishmosh

These are a few pictures from our last couple weeks. 

The picture of all 4 of the kids is from 4th of July. 

We took the kids to the parade and spent the rest of the day at the pool.  It was really hot that day and the kids were worn out.  We did not make it to fireworks because we were all so tired.  Darin and I were even in bed by 9 pm! 

That mixture of hot sunshine and pool time just does us in!

My Aunt Linda and Uncle George stopped by for a visit on their way through KC.  Tripp was a little obsessed with George's glasses and George, very bravely, let Tripp try them on.  You see...Tripp is a destroyer of all things.  But, he took very good care of the glasses.

Riley and Tripp being sweet to each other...gotta get pictures whenever moments like those arise!

Blueberry Farm

Our trip to the Blueberry Farm...

 Riley loved picking blueberries.

 Tripp loved climbing on the hay bales.

Cash loved the berry train.

 Tripp did not.

 If you can see him in this picture, he is crying with his hand up and saying "stop mom, stop".  And if you can see the driver, she was probably like seriously lady, you put him on here for what reason? Ugh...I felt so bad I put him on that thing, but you know if I hadn't, he would have had a major fit because he didn't get to go.  I thought he would be okay and then I saw the train disappear!  They were not just going around the parking lot.  They went all through the fields and were gone for a while!  I was a little nervous, but they finally made it back and Tripp was okay.  Won't do that again!

Eating our cookies that we bought in the country store. 

They had blueberry everything!

It was a cute place and we all had fun.

Too bad none of us like blueberries! =)