4th of July weekend!

Friday, July 3, Brent had the day off for the holiday, so we decided to take advantage and go to the St. Louis Zoo. We had a lot of fun. The zoo is really big and beautiful! We don't have many pictures, but here are a few of Leila on the carousel and sitting by a butterfly. I do have a cute video of Leila and Ben, but I can't figure out how to crop it down to a few seconds... if I figure it out I will post it later!
For the 4th we were invited to a BBQ where they had swimming pools and slides set up! Leila tried the slide once and enjoyed it, but didn't want to do it again! :) Here she is showing off her new swimming "soup", as she calls it.

She and Brandon LOVED the brownies and here they are sharing one ... precious!


After the BBQ we went home and did our own fireworks with Jordan, Chelsea, Katie, Brandon, and Lyndee.
Brent and Jordan went and bought a TON of fireworks! As you can see Jordan was our fireworks man... he did most of the show for us. Leila's "FRavorite" fireworks were the sparklers and the Roman Candles.
Here is Leila getting ready for some of the loud fireworks, which turned out not being as loudas we thought, but she was ready!And no post is complete without this cute little man's smile!! Isn't he CUTE!!

Two posts in One Day!! I know, I know...it's a miracle!

This weekend my aunt Shauna came out to St. Louis for a conference, so we wanted to do something fun with her while she was here! We kept debating whether or not to go to the Gateway Arch. I'm glad we went because it was amazing! It was really neat to see why they made the arch and how they made it! We went to the top, so here are a few pictures of the view looking down....

and of us!

These next two are my favorite!

This was a model of the little tram that took us up to the top... not much room... only 5 people could ride in one and even then it was tight!


It was a great morning, but we were so tired when we got home-- we all crashed!! Thanks again Shauna for the visit... come back anytime!!

Oh and P.S. we are making our blog private within the next week or so... SO if you would like to still look at our blog (I will TRY to keep it up-to-date) then please leave your e-mail address or send us an e-mail!! Thanks!

Since we have been here...

Well, I'm horrible at keeping the blog updated--I know and you know--so let's not dwell on that. Let's just play catch up! A lot has happened since we have been here in St. Louis, and because of this, some of the pictures and events may not be in order, but at least they are here, right!?

So to start...Memorial Day. We went to Jefferson Barracks Cemetery the Sunday before Memorial Day. It was absolutely breathtaking! There are headstones EVERYWHERE you look!

For Memorial Day they had a flag by each one!! We heard that they asked ALL the Boy Scouts in St. Louis to help put flags up, so the scouts in our ward went to Sacrament meeting and then left to go help put flags around!


The next pictures and video clip is of Ben's first time eating cereal! I know this isn't very exciting to most of you, but this one is mainly for Papa, Nana, Grandma, and Grandpa!

He was SO ready for something more in his tummy!



And He LOVED it!

Since that was a first for Ben, we will also put up a first for Leila (and Mommy/Daddy)--
POTTY TRAINING! Leila has wanted to be potty trained for some time now, but the first time she showed interest when Ben was due. The second time she showed interest was when we were getting ready to move, and I did NOT want to worry about potty training across the country! Call me crazy! So, I told her when we moved into our new house she could use her potty chair!


She was so excited ad has basically done everything herself! I have a feeling she will be the EASIEST child I will have to potty train! She is doing GREAT! We have had a few BIG accidents, but nothing that I didn't expect!

Another very exciting thing for us was our nephew David was born while we were here!

Oh, it was such a joy for me to be here!! I was so excited to see that little boy! I was probably more anxious than the kids! On the way to the "hostible" (as Leila calls it), the kids were asking some of the funniest questions. One of my favorite questions was, "So did Daddy help Mommy get David out?" For some questions I told them they would have to ask their parents!! SO CUTE! Heather, Matt, kids, we miss you guys so much! We have been very bored without you and hope you are doing well! We LOVE you! If you want to see more pictures of David that we took at the hospital you can look here.

Now here are just some random pictures that I really don't need to write about. They are just some cute pictures we've taken since we have been here! Hope you enjoy!

Finally in Missouri!

We finally made it to Saint Louis! We left early Tuesday (May 12) and arrived late Wednesday (May 13). The trip was fairly uneventful, but we did drive through some awful winds from Denver to Saint Louis. We are happy to have arrived safe and sound. Leila was fantastic riding in the big truck. She rode the whole way in the truck, entertaining both Grandpa Eddington and daddy while she made up songs about silos, radio towers, birds, etc. Ben thought he would be living the rest of his life in a car seat and was not very happy about it--he had a harder time with the trip, but he made it okay as well. We were happy to see Matt & Heather, along with Jordan & Chelsea when we arrived and the kids had a great time playing together. We've gone into the city a few times, checked out the history museum and the botanical gardens. Here are some pictures of the adventures of the past few weeks!

We posted some recent pictures of Ben's blessing, Easter, Leila's birthday etc. here.