More Birthday Parties

We have a ton of babies our ward right now who have turned 1 or are turning 1 in 2011. Avery's mom decided to share Avery's birthday on the 28th with all the babies and had a little party for all of them. There were actually four babies missing from the party. We had a present exchange and then cupcakes. Everyone had such a fun time!

Back: Tristian, Emmitt

Front: Ziva, Avery, Liam

Tristian also had a party on Saturday that we went to. It was so hot and humid, but Mila had tons of fun. There was a baby pool set up, a tasty taco bar, the kids did a little treasure hunt, and we had cake pops for dessert. Yummy! All the kids also got a live fish to take home. Mila was so excited!

We have a book that we read almost every night that has a flamingo in it, so Mila was thrilled to get to play with this one.

 Mila is so silly! She would not get into the pool until all the other kids got out. Well, I guess it was actually quite smart because she got all the toys to herself. 

Mila got to catch her own fish out of the pool. The first one she caught was dead. The second one she caught didn't last more than 10 or 15 minutes after we left the party. She didn't know it was dead, and she carried it around the rest of the day!

My Birthday Boys!

Emmitt is 1! His birthday was June 22nd. We had family over for a little party. I made dirt cake for him like I did for Mila cause at this age they're always eating dirt anyway. He LOVED it! 

 

Then

Now

Hmmm. This is curiously delicious. 

 SO CUTE!

 Don't worry it came right out of his shirt :)

 Mila helped him open presents. She has had a bit of a hard time on everyone else's birthdays because she wants it to be hers so badly.

I printed these letters for Mila to color while I got everything ready. She was so happy to be doing something special for Brother. 

 He started walking the week before his birthday. He is an incredibly busy boy. I can't believe all the things he gets in to. He is very creative at getting to what he wants, and the boy has AMAZING strength!

Sam turned 28 on July 2nd! I can't believe how old we are getting! He really just wanted money for his birthday to go to the outlet mall that's about an hour away. So the Saturday before his birthday we left the kids with my mom and sister and went to the outlet mall for the afternoon. Sam really wanted to go to the Puma store. Their selection was pretty disappointing, but he did get some really nice shoes (I'll refrain from calling them "cute" because he hates when I say his stuff is "cute") at the Nike store and some other stuff. It was just so nice to spend a bit more of an extended time just the two of us.

 He keeps asking me why his kids don't look like him. Ha Ha Sam.

For my gift, I made him a nice copy of his Priesthood Line of Authority. I think it will be a good thing to have in our home so our children will be able to see that the Priesthood their father holds comes in a traceable line from Jesus Christ.

 I know that many women say they're married to the most amazing man in the world, but sorry ladies, my man really is the most amazing man in the world! I love you so much, Sweetheart, and I'm so glad that I'm making this crazy journey through life with you!

Oh, what do you do in the summertime, when all the world is green?

Well, this is some of the stuff we've been doing...

 Helping Papa plant and take care of the garden.

 Harvesting lots of cucumbers!

 Emmitt ended up eating about half of this little zucchini!

 Eating rocket pops. Yum!

 Celebrating the 4th of July

Last year's 4th of July. They have changed so much!

 Picking grandma's flowers and finding little green worms.

 Feeding goats at Young's Jersey Dairy.

 Playing Princesses with Maisie and Tanner. Yes, Tanner is a boy :)

 "Mormon Night" at the Columbus Crew vs. Real Salt Lake game in Columbus. It literally was Mormon Night. They did it as a promotion. You could tell who a lot of the Mormons were because the women all had long shorts on, of course, there's always the tell-tale signs of G's, and lots of the couples had babies. We were lucky enough to get to leave our babies with grandma and Tori, who even put them to bed :)

 A trio of Elders sang the National Anthem for the game. I think that's about all they really did for Mormon Night. There wasn't any mention of anything about Mormons that I heard, and they did not allow the Elders to hand out any stuff. 

 Splashing in puddles at the bottom of the driveway after the rain.

 Swinging at the park. My kids can't get enough of the swings.

 This swan was HUGE!

 Feeding the ducks at the park.

 Eating corn on the cob. Summer isn't summer without it.

 Swimming on a super hot and sticky day.

 Playing "Penguins." We had the box of swimming gear out and Mila came up to me and said, "Look at me mom, I'm a penguin!"

 Riding in the wagon.

We've been having lots of fun this summer! I know this isn't all that detailed, but it's the best I can do to catch up right now. I am also posting about Emmitt's and Sam's birthdays. Hope everyone else has been having a great summer too!