Barrett & Collin's Birthday Bash

June is FULL of birthdays in our family.  In an effort to decrease the number of weekends reserved for kids birthday parties, Julie and I decided to do a joint birthday party for Collin (6/6/06) and Barrett (6/27/08).  Matt and Julie offered to have the party at their house and our boys were super excited to go to Collin's for the party!  They have a few acres of land surrounding their house and the boys love to have the space to run and play!

 

Seeing as Barrett wants to imitate everything his big brother does, any guess as to what he wanted his birthday cake to be?  Yep...Texas Rangers!  Julie (with the help of cake decorator Collin) made a monster truck cake for Collin and then we bought (*gasp*....yes for the first time ever I bought a cake) an ice cream cake for Barrett.  This way we had cake and ice cream without an abundance of cake!

 

Matt has a huge smoker on his gazebo out back that he used to smoke some yummy chicken.

 

While waiting for the chicken to finish cookin', Luke entertained all the adults with his cup stacking skills.

 

 

Daddy Steve wanted to take a picture of me and Ann before Tyler and Ann left....and it turned out so cute!  I love this girl so much!  Hardly a day goes by that we don't spend at least 1/2 an hour talking on the phone.  I'm so thankful my brother married such a beautiful woman (inside and out)!

 

Oh...and here's that cute brother that married one of my best friends ;)

 

We missed Caleb, Audria, & Axton (they were camping with their small group from church) and Jon, Cindy, Bella, & Emma (they were busy moving into a new house in Austin).  Our hearts were also heavy with Sissie's deteriorating health....but it helped lift our spirits to spend a day together as a family laughing, telling stories, and watching the enthusiasm of the children.  I'm so blessed to have such a loving family!

Oh....and the boy who never thinks he needs a nap was asleep before we even got to the highway!  He was clutching one of his new toys as he slept and at one point he suddenly screamed "NO!" and threw the monster truck at the back of the seat.  We all looked at him with startled looks on our faces...and then laughed when we realized he was sound asleep.  He didn't remember the incident at all when we got home.