WELCOME BABY MEGAN!

Our best friends, the Cassidy's, just had their 3rd beautiful girl in Cincinnati on June 19th at 10:22 am. Megan Elizabeth Cassidy was 7 lbs. 14 ozs. and 20 inches long. Welcome to the world little one, you are such a precious gift from God and we can't wait to see you grow up!!!

Grant, surrounded by the 3 girls (from l to r, Alexis, Megan and Taylor
Okay, I know I'm supposed to be married off to the beautiful Taylor, but maybe Blake will switch me for Megan, she's pretty darn cute!
Mom and her girls!
Don't you just love baby kisses?!?! Okay, so maybe she was just hungry, but it was so adorable!
Megan and me - I mean, where else do I get to hold someone with PINK on???!!!

Fishers Freedom Festival w/our Life Group

What better way to "do life together" than to hang out as a group, eat and watch some fireworks . . . wait, aren't we doing that AGAIN on the 3rd?!?!
We had a great time, and the kids had a blast playing together!

The gang of kids (minus the Backie's - they met us later on in the pics below)
"Ohhhhhhh Sophie, you're pretty hot - can we date in about 16 years??? I can get you more free ice cream!"
How cute is this mom/daughter pair???
Grant and Nathan: Our moms always said we resembled each other.
Emma agrees that a festival just isn't a festival without a big ole' sno cone!
Just chillin' in the shade with my frozen lemonade!
So when exactly are these fireworks going to start??? Guess we'll just take a little nap until they begin...
Some of the gang hangin' out. "Hey Mr. Lingle, can I keep poking you in the face with my light-up necklace???"

End of Baseball Season - THANK GOD!

Okay, so it was a good season and all - just BUSY!!! Unfortunately for Grant, I got his team picnic pictures on my phone - and I have no idea if I can download them onto our computer or not, so for now, here are the pics from Evan's picnic. They had a Parents vs. Kids game, ate some pizza, then received their trophys. Pretty cool!

"Hmmm, think we can take these kids of ours?"
"I don't know you old timers, but Evan's pitching, so you better watch out!"
The team eating their pizza
Evan receiving his trophy. They all even got baseballs that everyone signed to put in their trophy.
A boy and his trophy!

Happy Hour Returns!

Well, it's been about 2 years since we've had our bi-weekly neighborhood happy hours, so Shawn and I decided to resurrect them. For those of you who don't know, Shawn has finally decided to start up his DJ/Karaoke side business. Soooooo, with the purchase of the equipment, we thought what better way to test it all out with our neighbors! Granted, we gave the neighborhood VERY short notice (I sent out the email around 10 am Friday morning), but by 7pm we had a pretty large crowd hanging out, eating, drinking, dancing, playing cornhole and yes - singing! It was a great time - now if we can just find those darn pink flamingos for the next house who hosts. . .


Some of the neighbors and kids reacquainting themselves - man it's nice to come out of our houses back into the warm weather!!!
So Cornhole is always a big hit - but Dave Salathe has to show off his muscles after he throws a perfect shot! :o)
DJ Shawn was a big hit - especially with the kids!
I think the kids had more fun with the karaoke - they had a blast singing and dancing to all the colored strobe lights and smoke from the fog machine.

Grant's Pre-School Graduation

Well, my middle baby has graduated!!! Okay, so not from high school or college or anything, but from Pre-School at our church. It was the cutest thing ever too! Enjoy the pics...

The processional - Grant hummed Pomp and Circumstance all week as he practiced at home, we got a kick out of hearing that!
They sang a lot of songs, but this one was particularly funny. It was called the Surprise Song, and the teachers said we would understand why after it was over. It basically tells you how to go poo poo and make it amusing!
Grant receiving his Diploma.
The Graduate!!!
Grant and his life-size drawing he drew of himself that was posted in the graduation reception area.

12 YEARS TOGETHER!!!

For our anniversary every year, we celebrate with our best friends who we met 10 years ago when they lived across the street from us in Cincinnati - our anniversaries are 10 days apart. So, when they moved here - we followed them. Now they've moved back, so the big question is . . . when are WE moving back. Well, that question has yet to be answered. We love our life here in Indy, but we miss the Cassidy family beyond words! This year, Linda and I were planning on surprising the boys with a trip back to Puerto Vallarta (where my uncle has a beautiful home - there are a few pictures below), but since Linda is due in about 6 weeks with her 3rd girl, that plan has been postponed temporarily. So instead, we drove down to Cincy and hung out with them for an evening WITHOUT the kids!!! It was awesome. We had a great dinner at one of Jeff Ruby's Steakhouses then went walking around to see some of the new developments around town. Then we headed back to their house for a night of euchre and catching up!

The 4 of us before heading out to dinner
Notice our adult husbands mixed in with the kids and teenagers!!! They truly are "kids" at heart!
So you know they just HAD to get in on the action, so they volunteered themselves for one of the magic tricks.
A view of our beloved "Skyline" and Ohio River
Boys and their beers at some German brewhouse (that I can't remember the name of) - I just know it's the only one of it's kind in the entire USA.
Memories...

Okay, so now you can see why we need another anniversary vacation at my Aunt and Uncle's house right?
From the infinity pool and beyond (okay, so Buzz Lightyear I'm not)
The Palapa, where we ate, drank and played euchre every night!!!

Okay Cassidy's - April 2008 we're THERE!!!

Opening Day

Finally we're back to some nice weather - and it was a perfect day for Opening Day festivities! The boys were pretty excited to put on their uniforms and get their pictures taken - but I think they were more ready to play for prizes in the games area (not to be confused with "baseball" games - this area was like being at a mini-fair with ring toss, tic-tac-toe, bean bag throw, etc...). For some reason it's always about the prizes (and food if you're the daddy - haha).

The two brothers wearing two very cool numbers. Evan is wearing Aunt Melissa's favorite number (3) and Grant is wearing Mommy's favorite number (4) - if you want to know why, it's because I have "4" boys who all have a number 4 in their birthdates.
Grant with his team getting ready to be introduced and run the bases.
G's baseball pose.
Evan's team getting their team pictures taken (Evan's sitting in the bottom row at the far left next to one of his coaches).
Evan and some of his school friends found each other while playing the prize games.

Easter 2007

What a great weekend - especially for the boys. My parents came up as did Shawn's mom and sister, so needless to say, the boys had WAAAYYYY too much candy. Here are a few pics of the easter egg hunt in the backyard (despite the freezing cold temperatures). We hope your families had a great Easter celebration as well!

The "brief" family photo on the deck - the kids couldn't stay still for long, they were dying to get out into the yard to hunt down the eggs!
Evan was the quickest to climb up into the playset.
Grant searching through the tree limbs and mulch.
Blake with his "wait, my basket is still empty" look.
But all he really wanted anyway was to dive into his candy buckets.

The Boys' 1st NBA Game

So our friend Doug HOOKED US UP for the boys' first trip to Conseco to see the Pacers play last night (you ROCK Mr. Dawson). We were literally on the floor, about 4 rows back from the court/basket. Even though we lost to Detroit (of all teams), we had a great time with Evan and Grant (Blake stayed home with the babysitter, he would've tried to be on the court with the players otherwise). Here are just a few pics of the experience...

My parents would've been jealous of the Wright Brothers performing the National Anthem - that was very cool! I just happened to take this picture of the jumbotron at the right moment to get this cool shot (my pics of them on the court didn't turn out so great).
Evan and Grant with one of the mascots - Boomer
Evan and Grant with the other mascot - Bowser
The view from our seats.
Slam dunk!!!