I've decided any day above 90, means a trip to the splash park or pool, so we're looking forward to a summer full of playing in the water.

I have a bunch of posts to do and photos to share, but I have been so behind on blogging lately.  Partly because I am so busy doing the things I'd like to blog about.  And partly because, although Paige is still an angel and hardly ever cries, she is a little terror that gets into and sucks on everything - including the usb ports and power button on the computer when I'm trying to use it.  She can be very destructive when she wants to be.

She is also getting to be very mobile, and she's really close to walking.  She will stand up on her own for a few seconds before she realizes what she's doing and sits back down.  Lately, though, we will clap for her which makes her excited so she's been doing it more and more without getting scared.
She really does get into everything!  She knows where we keep the teddy grahams, and she goes and gets into them all the time.  She can even open the box and grab crackers out.  If she doesn't find teddy grahams, she'll just suck on whatever else is in there, and get all our boxes of food soggy.
She also loves to get into the bathroom, and suck on shoes.  We try to keep her away from those ones, but she's getting quick!

I haven't done a recipe in a while, so I thought I'd do one.  This is Ryan's new favorite meal.  We both really like fettuccine alfredo, but for some reason it just never turns out like I want it to.  Like every 3rd or 4th try it's really good, and every other time it's lumpy and weird.  This on the other hand is perfect every time.  It is delicious and so easy!  I can usually make it in like 15-20 minutes if I have everything together and the kids don't start screaming.  It looks and tastes way fancier than it should for how easy it is.  I've had a few people ask for this recipe so I'm just going to post it on here for them to find, and for anyone else that wants to try out a new easy dinner recipe.

Creamy Bacon Carbanara

Sauce
2 eggs
¼ cup Milk or Heavy Cream
⅓ cup Parmesan
Fresh diced Parsley or dried flakes
¼ tsp. Salt

⅓ lb. bacon, fried crisp
½ lb. chicken, cut up and sauteed
½ lb. Pasta

Start out by putting a large pot of water to boil for the pasta.  I like to use linguine, but you can use pretty much whatever you want.  Now, on to the bacon...I like to chop up the bacon before cooking.  It's easier to cook, and then you don't have to chop it up after.  Set the bacon aside and keep the grease in the pan.
Chop up the chicken, and then fry up in the bacon grease with salt and pepper.  When it's done, set it aside with the bacon.
Mix all the ingredients for the sauce.  I usually just do it in a measuring cup like this.  I like it best when we have heavy cream, but I use regular milk in this all the time, and it turns out just fine.  I actually add a little more heavy cream when I use that, because I like it to be saucy.  I stick with the 1/4 cup, when I use regular milk.
Once the pasta is all done, strain and put back in the pan.  You can set aside some of the boiling pasta water to use to temper the egg sauce, but I usually don't worry about it and it turns out fine.  Add the sauce to the pasta while it's still hot, stirring vigorously while you add it so that the mixture doesn't stay in one place for too long so the eggs don't cook.  If you're worried about raw eggs, you can turn the burner on and cook on low heat for a bit.  Since the pasta is hot when I add the eggs, I usually don't worry about it, but I'm just kinda lazy.
Once that's all done add the bacon and chicken.  You can also add some sauteed onions or mushrooms, but Ryan likes it best when it's simple.
Now just serve it up and eat.  You can sprinkle some extra Parmesan cheese on top.  We like to have a nice cesar salad and some garlic bread with this.  I hope you guys like it.

 Paige really loves going down slides, and she had a blast climbing on everything and going down the slides at Super Franks.  I kept trying to take pictures of her at the tops of slides, and she would scoot her bum to go down them all by herself instead of waiting for me to help her.  She is getting to be way too grown up.
 Here's the three older cousins getting ready to jump into the foam pit in the glow in the dark room.  This is my favorite room at Super Franks.
 Madoc and Lucas dressed up as Firemen.
 Lucas loves riding this zip line.  The first time he got on it I was really worried he would freak out and try to jump off mid-ride, but he loved it and rode it like 15 times.
 On Friday, Ryan and my dad took the day off work and we all went down to the beach in Santa Cruz.  Ryan was actually sick and took the day off work cause he wasn't feeling well, but I convinced him he could sleep on the beach just as well as he could at home.  While Ryan was relaxing on the beach, I took Paige and Lucas with most everyone else over to see the tide pools.  Lucas liked holding hand with my dad so he could get close to everything without falling in.
 There was this little sort of island with tide pools on it too.  Neil climbed up and took turns showing the kids around on top.  It was hard to get to cause the waves kept coming in and blocking the rocks to climb up on. And the water was FREEZING so you did not want to get too close to the waves.
 The kids didn't seem to mind the cold water and they ran in and out the waves the whole time.
 Sarah rode in our van with us and Olivia and Paige held hands in the back.  They were so cute together.

Lucas got new church clothes for his birthday from his grandma and grandpa Crapo.  I can not even believe how handsome and grown up he looks.  He is so dang cute!
And I can't help but also post a picture of Paige in her church dress.  This was the very first pony tail we ever did, and it was darling!

I can not believe Paige is already 9 months old.  I feel like these last few months have really flown by.  She is starting to be really independent and wanting to pull up on stuff and walk.  Don't be surprised if she is walking by her next month post.

Another milestone... the pony tail.  It is ADORABLE.  She has this long wisp of hair left over from the hair she was born with, everything else fell out except for this patch of stuff at the top and it looks ridiculous.  I've wanted to chop it off so many times.  I've always said that eventually I could just pull it up into a pony tail, but I never did.  Finally for church on Sunday I decided to try it out.  At first I thought it looked pretty ridiculous, but then I added a bow and now I think it's the most darling thing I've ever seen.  I know in another year when she actually has enough hair for a real pony tail I'll think this tiny one is ridiculous, but for now I love it!
She has been really loving the park lately.  She likes to climb around and even go down the slides.  She thinks she is way older than she really is.

 He was really good at adding the sprinkles.
 I thought they turned out pretty cute.  I've gotten better at using frosting tips.
 We went to a park with a huge slide.  It was a lot of fun.
Later that day, which was his actual birthday, he got to open presents from some cousins...
And from grandma and grandpa George.
The next day we had a party with my family.  My brother Neil and his family were in town, so we had extra cousins to play with.  We went to another park in the area.  Lucas LOVES parks.  He also loves his cousins.
I love this picture of him.  He was sliding down the slide and I took the picture at just the right moment.
Daddy and Paige are happy it's Lucas's birthday!
Scott and Becky are too!
There was a rock climbing area that he kids really liked.  We have a bunch of monkeys in our family.
Even the babies got in on the climbing.
The park we went to is also a splash park.  It was a little too windy and chilly for getting wet, but the kids didn't seem to care.
The babies decided to swing rather than get freezing cold.
We had some pizza, fruit, and cute mini bundt cakes that grandma brought for dessert.
Then we opened presents.
Our present to Lucas this year was a new big boy bike.  He was pretty excited.
He has ridden his bike almost every day since he got it.  I think he likes it.

We had so much fun celebrating Lucas's birthday this year.  We're glad so many of our family and friends could come to party with us.