My Beautiful girls

I had my girls' pictures taken this summer...I think they are beautiful, but I may just be a little biased :)

Girls Weekend

For my birthday, Jake gave me a weekend away. I am eight months pregnant, so we thought we'd better stay somewhat close. We stayed at the Marriott downtown at City Creek. We met up with Jill and Melissa for dinner and went shopping afterwards. Saturday, we went and got manis and pedis and shopped until our feet hurt! I was so exhausted!! It was so nice to be with my family. We always laugh and have a good time. We all stayed in one room and I felt bad my mom and Angie slept on the floor, but I guess you just make it work! 

Jaymie-due Aug 19th (boy) , Melissa-due Sept 25th (girl), Me-due Oct 4th (girl), and Aubrey-due Dec 23rd (boy)

Happy 5th Birthday, Avery girl!

For Avery's birthday, I finally convinced Jake that we needed something for the kids to do out in the backyard. We either needed a trampoline or a swingset....well, we got a tramp for Avery's birthday. Josh and Jake put it together the night before and we surprised her the next morning. She was so cute and so excited!

Being pregnant, the thought of doing a birthday party sounded like A LOT of work. Needless to say, it was! I wanted to go somewhere where we could just have the party and they would take care of all the monotonous things and we could come home to a clean house. Well, there are just too many little kids in our neighborhood, and I didn't want to leave anyone out and the cost of taking a lot of little kids would have been way out of budget....so we stayed home and had a Despicable Me party! You would think that because the second one had just come out, they would have party supplies with the logo on it...ya, not! There wasn't a single thing. And because I had left it until the last minute, shipping would have cost just as much as the supplies itself....so....I made them myself! My ankles were so swollen and I was so exhausted from being on my feet all day, but hopefully she will enjoy it!

My little Minion army! Yes, Pintrest to the rescue!

My attempt at a Moon.

We bowled and hit Minions

We also shot the alien....

And played pin the goggles on the Minion.

Their gift bags to go home with...phew!

Avery's cute friends
Back row: Claire Trimble, Rylee, Grace VanLeeuwen, Avery, Ella Hagen
Front row: Carter Anderson, Luke Payne, Reagan Lund, Kiara Shurtliff, Madison Jackman, Rylee Blackwell, and McCoy Johnson

After the friend party....the family came over...we opened presents and had cake and ice cream. I was so exhausted but had so much fun celebrating my sweet little girl's 5th birthday! Happy Birthday Avery girl! I love you to the moon and back!

First Day of Kindergarten!

Rylee wanted in on the action too!!

I thought for sure I would be a wreck today. In fact, I told Jake the week before that he needed to be the one to take Avery to school and take her pictures and all of that. I was a mess the Friday before. I was mortified to send her on the bus. We have had a little boy in our neighborhood who has had a rough childhood, but has done some naughty things to girls around our neighborhood, and I am feeling so protective of my baby. I called the school to see if he rides the bus and they couldn't tell me either way. I just don't want anything to happen to my sweet little girl. I feel like I can't protect her from everything but the one thing I can protect her from, is not letting her ride the bus. I can prevent anything from happening on the bus if she doesn't ride it. I think all of my neighbors think I'm a little crazy, but if that's the one thing I can control, why wouldn't I? But she wants to ride the bus SOOO bad. That's all she talks about. We talked about him and if he rides the bus and she knows that if he does ride the bus, she isn't to sit by him. AHHH...I'm not ready for this. I feel like there are so many emotions right now that I haven't experienced yet as a parent and it's kind of scary. I hope I have taught her right from wrong, I hope she is smart enough to stand up for herself. Lots of crazy things go through your head with all these new milestones. I guess this is part of growing up. 

 Luckily, Avery was so excited to go to school, that it was actually really fun to take her. As we were walking out to the bus stop, she told me "I'll go by myself"...I'm thinking..um, no...this is for me more than it is for you!! It's hard to believe I have a kindergartener already. Time goes by so fast. She is so ready to go and thinks she is so big. She goes in the morning from 9-12, she is on A track and her teacher is Ms. Calhoun (she is so cute!). Hopefully kindergarten will be a good experience for all of us. It will give me time in the morning with Rylee and the new baby and it will be a good break in the day. 

Waiting at the bus stop: Hayden and McKoy Johnson, Avery, Sydney Searle

Playing before the bell rings!

Okay, this picture totally cracks me up! The girls went to the first day, which happened to be on a Friday, which happened to be short day. Yes...a total of 2 hours of school....Well, we wanted an after picture and NONE of them wanted anything to do with it!  So DRAMATIC!!!

Summer of Fun!

Oh my heavens! Summer has been so fun this year. My girls are starting to be more independent and we are able to get out and do more. Here is a little of what we have done....

Swimming at Evergreen

Park City getaway

My grandma had the week up at Park City, and no one was using it, so my family took advantage of it and spent the week up there. We went swimming and kind of just hung out. I was feeling like I needed to get out since Jake has been working really long hours and my kids needed a little break too. My girls stayed for two nights and then I was able to take them up to Idaho and leave them with Jan and Bruce. I went back to Park City and spent the day with my mom. We went to the outlets and did a little school shopping. We ate lunch and went back to the condo. It was so relaxing and nice to spend some time with my mom. It was a nice getaway.

The Children's Parade

Beckee and Ben's stake was able to walk or be in the 24th's Children's Parade they do downtown. We loaded the kids up and headed downtown to watch them. Jake wasn't very impressed with the parade but I thought it was fun just to be doing something as a family. The Becker's were pretty cute in their little matching shirts. After the parade we headed over to the fair they had at the park. It was a little crazy and I am so hot being pregnant! I can't stop sweating!! We made a couple helicopters at the Home Depot table, had their faces painted, learned to dance and had a great time! 

Blackridge lake in Herriman

I feel like I'm not a very fun mom sometimes and being pregnant it's even worse. I want my kids to remember having a fun childhood and not that their mom was so ornery! I took the girls up to the Herriman Lake and took Avery's friend, Chloe with us. It is actually a really fun lake. I love that my girls will just play in the sand and water. It's very relaxing. On our way up there, our friends, Carlynn and Amy were up there as well, so we hung out with them and their kids. I love summer!

Chase Trimble, Luke Payne, Avery, Chloe Brown

Shaved Ice

Apparently, this is the place to be this summer. Everyone had said this was the best thing they had ever had, so we HAD to have one as well! I mean, you have to at least try it right?! Jake was working late, so we called uncle Josh and asked if he wanted to go with us. We headed over and got one of these things! They were huge! After waiting for a half an hour, yes...a half an hour, we finally got our shaved ice. It has ice cream on the bottom, shaved ice and then topped with evaporated milk. Ya, not so low fat!! It was good, it just wasn't anything to die for!! Not sure what everyone is talking about!! Maybe we got the wrong kind, who knows. It was good, just not really anything spectacular. A little disappointed but at least we tried it!

We had to stop and grab some "smarshmallows" (what Avery calls them :)) while we waited

Neighborhood Fireworks

Some of our other neighbors do fireworks for the 24th, a couple days before. They roasted marshmallows and then had fireworks. We do it down at the Zuni Park and actually quite a few neighbors show up. I think it's fun to be with everyone. 

Avery, Hannah Van Leeuwen, (Van Leeuwen's cousin) Emma Van Leeuwen

Rylee was nervous with the fireworks over her head

Playing in the water

Neighborhood Root Beer Floats

I've decided doing this blog, that we have quite the neighborhood. We do so much with our neighbors and it's seriously awesome that we all get together! I love it!!

Crystal Albrecht, Amber Anderson, Me, Kristin Brown

Swimming at the Rec Center

My Little Fishes