August, September, Birthday, Back to School!!!

 This is what happens when Maddy gets a hold of a pom pom! Thank you Maddy! Good thing she's cute!

 Our family got to go to AZ for a week in August and visit family and friends! It's ALWAYS so fun and so nice to be back there! My mom got tickets for all the grand kids to go see Snow White at Hale Theater! it was so fun and the kids LOVED it! Here they are in the theater posing for a picture after the show!

 Bay found the evil witch's face/mask and obviously, from the look on her face, thinks it's pretty gross!!!

 Here is SWBy and grandma after the show! SWBy sure enjoys being in AZ and staying at Grandma's house! He was invited to stay another week with Grandma when we left to come home. It was a quiet drive without him and we only had two potty stops without him! He got to fly home with Grandma the following week for Bay's birthday. I thought he might get a little homesick being in AZ without us but he couldn't shove us out the door for alone time with Grandma fast enough! And then he didn't want to come home! I'm not sure if I should be worried about that! He had a fun week with Spencer's family and my family!

 I wanted to get our family pictures done while we were in AZ! Spencer's cute cousin (syrellaphotography) took our pictures! These are them! I think she did such a nice job and she was willing to suffer the 105 degree weather with us! We were all so hot and sweaty but it was worth it! I just love them! Maddy was kind of a mess that day...which I wasn't expecting. She usually cheeses it up for the camera, but of course the day I want her to she doesn't!!!

 Such cute kids!!!

 Happy 7th birthday Bailey!!! Grandma and SWBy flew in on Bay's birthday! Above, our cute neighbors and Bay and SWBy's friends came to celebrate Bay's birthday with us!

 I love this picture of Bay and Grandma!

 I also love this picture of Bay and Maddy! Such cute girls!

 Bay chose a giant Tangled chocolate chip cookie for her cake! I thought it was  so cute!

For Bay's birthday I told her she could invite one friend and I'd take her and her friend to do something fun. She chose to eat lunch at the Garden Restaurant and then go to Discovery Gateway. The girls had so much fun. Because my mom was still in town she got to come with us as well. It was so fun and Bay sure had a fun time!

I didn't know the Garden Restaurant did this, but for Bay's birthday they stood her in the middle of the restaurant, gave her a balloon, had everyone wish her a happy birthday and then they opened the roof and told her to release her balloon and make a wish! It was so cute and so fun!

Here is Bay with her cute friend!

 Here is Bay climbing the rock wall at Discovery Gateway.

 The following Sunday we had our family party for Bay. It's always so fun to get together with them!

 My niece has an August birthday too and because we were in AZ for her birthday we wanted to celebrate her with Bailey. This is their giant Barbie cookie cake. This was a mistake!!! It was supposed to be decorated like Brave but the lady misunderstood which decoration I wanted and we got Barbie! I felt so bad because she did such a nice job decorating the Barbie cookie that I just took the Barbie cookie-cake instead of correcting her and having her make another one.

 First day of school for Bay! Big 1st grader and is at school all day now! She loves school!!! She has ridden her bike to school a few times and loves it! She loves to ride bikes now that she can finally ride a 2 wheel bike! She didn't want to learn to ride a 2 wheel bike and was afraid but I figured she better learn before she gets any older!!!

 SWBy's first day of preschool! He was so excited! He didn't want or need me to walk him up to his classroom. He just hopped out of the car and said, "bye mom" and that's all I got! He LOVES school and actually started crying one Friday when he couldn't go to school because there is no preschool on Friday's!

Poppi came for a visit! The kids LOVE when we get visitors and were so excited that Poppi got to see their very first soccer games!

Here is Bay at her first soccer game! When she wants to and isn't complaining she does really well! Her first game she was so nervous and her attitude stunk so I told her that and she replied, "Really, well I think it's really cool that my attitude stinks!" I had no idea what to say so I just walked away and let her figure it out. She did really well in the game, but when she came in at half time we told her she was doing great and she just lost it and started sobbing! Not sure why that made her cry! However, she was able to pull herself together and play the 2nd half and do a great job!

SWBy was kicking his ball in the net during Bay's half time and somehow managed to get his head caught in the net! This was so funny! We were all laughing and every time I see this picture, I can't help but laugh! Good thing SWBy has a good sense of humor and can laugh about it because I e-mailed this picture it to our family and friends!

Here is cute Maddy during Bay's soccer game!

Here is SWBy for his first soccer game! He LOVES playing and gets so excited to play every Saturday. He is a good hustler and follows the ball wherever it goes! He has scored at least one goal every game so far. His first goal he was so excited he yelled, "I won!" and ran over to Spencer and me thinking the game was over! He was so excited and was even more excited that he got to keep playing!

April, May, June & some of July

Once again time has passed by all too quickly! It has been a busy few months but a fun few months as well.

Here are the girls getting ready for Church in their Easter/Wedding dresses!

Here, Maddy is helping me go through her drawers, to put away clothes that were too small and fill them with the summer clothes and clothes that fit. What a great help she was!

As we were going through her drawers we found this cute hat from her Aunt Kristy...she wore it just long enough to take the picture! I can't ever put anything in her hair because she instantly pulls it out! 

May 9th we went down to AZ for a super exciting occasion.  Spencer's younger brother was getting married! Above is Spencer, his brothers and aunt preparing for Ev's Groom's dinner.

Here is the happy couple and parents at the dinner.

Spencer's sister was in charge of the program for the evening and came up with a song for the nieces and nephews to sing! It was so cute and the kids did such a nice job.

Before all the speeches and tears the brothers and brother-in-laws sang a very special song to Morgan..."You Light Up My Life." It was pretty funny.

Here are my cute kids at the reception.

Here are all but 2 of the kids at the reception.

Here is newly married Ev with Spence and Jan.

Maddy was content to sit at our reception table...so long as she could eat all the ice she wanted.

We got to go swimming at my mom's house the next day. The kids always look forward to spending time at Grandma's house and swimming in her pool.

The next day we went to visit my mother-in-law's gravesite. The grandkids decorated her headstone and we all wrote letters to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, attached them to the balloons, and then let them go. My sister-in-law began this tradition a few years back and I think it has been so great to be a part of and remember them.

When we got back from AZ we had Bailey's Kindergarten performance. The performance was so fun to watch and Bay was so great and did an awesome job.

Maddy LOVES to dress up!

Here we are celebrating my 31st birthday...I guess it's official, I'm in to my 30's and there is no going back! I had such a fun birthday week. My mom came up for a visit and as always was so thoughtful and generous. My mom took me to a spa for my birthday, where we were pampered. It was so great and then later that night we had a free babysitter so Spence could take me out. It was a really fun day! That weekend our family from Perry came down to celebrate with us. I'm lacking in pictures that week as this is one of the only pictures we took.

Here is my 6 going on 16 year old before one of her dance performances. She is growing too fast!

SWBy and Maddy of course had to have their pictures taken too!

Maddy loves to be with Bay and do what she's doing and Bay loves to have Maddy with her. It's really quite cute to watch.

Here are Bay and I at her Lagoon dance performance. They performed such a cute number and Bay did AWESOME!

In addition to being in dance this last year Bay was also in a cheer class. Here she is with her cute friends at their end of the year recital.

Here's Bay after the recital. She did so great and was so fun to watch.

We FINALLY planted trees this year. Here is SWBy helping dad secure our baby trees. He was so cute helping Spencer with "his tools."

In addition to planting trees we also planted a garden this year. It has been so neat watching it grow and eating the stuff we've grown. This year we did peas, zucchini, spaghetti squash, lemon cucumbers, slicing cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes. We planted watermelon but that died and we replanted our cucumbers 2 and 3 times. It paid off though because we are getting cucumbers! Because the grass next to our garden struggled to grow we expanded our garden so it is now double the size. So next year we can plant even more!

Here we are after picking peas. Everyone LOVED eating the peas except for SWBy, which isn't surprising. Bay and I almost had him convinced to taste a pea and he even had it in his mouth but he spit it out at the last minute. I offered him a quarter and told him it tasted like candy and still he wouldn't budge. Maddy, I think, liked the peas the most. If she saw them that is all she would eat! I even found myself hiding them from her so she would eat something more substantial for lunch and dinner before offering her the peas.

Here we are at Bay's end of the year dance recital. She did so great and was so fun to watch!

Bay and dad

One of the things my kids look forward to every summer is swim lessons...they LOVE their swim lessons.

Here's SWBy in his class with his teacher.

Here is Bay in her class.

The last day of swim lessons the kids could jump off the diving board and Bay couldn't get enough! She loved it!

Here are Bay and SWBy the very last day of their swim lessons.

This is what Maddy would do during the kids swim lessons. Just sit in her stroller and hang out with me! She was great!

Here is Maddy...enjoying her pizza!

Some of our AZ cousins came up for the month of July, which was so fun for my kids. Here are Bay and her cousin at the Book of Mormon exhibit at the Church museum.

Here are SWBy and Maddy at the Book of Mormon exhibit. They've loved this car, it was hard to tare them away from it so others could take turns.

I had some extra time before Church one day and Bay was willing to let me try something new with her hair. So I looked up a criss-cross braid online and this is what I found! I thought this was so cute! Who knows if she'll ever let me do it again!

Maddy gets so tired on Sunday's because Church is right in the middle of nap time. Because of this she has fallen to sleep at the table a few times during dinner or after eating. Here she had just finished dessert!