Pioneer Day 2015!

 

The night before Pioneer Day, Grandma Ce-Ce and Poppy took us to the Ogden Rodeo. It's been a long time since we've been to a rodeo, and a first time for Alanna and Blaze. Every one's favorite part was actually at the end when they had motorcyclists come out doing crazy gravity defying stunts! Paul and I also had an adventure crawling under the bleachers to retrieve Blaze's flip flop and umbrella that he dropped! All of the kids wanted to spend the night at their grandparent's house, Blaze included. He's never spent the night there on his own, so I was a little worried...for me! He's my sweet baby and I love cuddling him in the morning when he bounds into our room...or when he just sleeps in bed with us! I told Blaze he could choose whether to spend the night in Layton or come home with us. When it was time to go, he said "Mommy, will you be alright if I choose to stay here for the night?" I really don't think he would have stayed if I asked him not to! Oh my goodness! That kids just melts my heart!

 

The grandparents and Luke's family came down the next day for some fun in the water. I love how mischievous Max is! He poured freezing cold water on Grandma Ce-Ce a couple of times while she was laying out in the sun!

 

Our favorite part of the beach with Luke is watching him make sand creations. Paul was patient enough to stay still to become food for the giant!

 

I love summer nights of eating on the deck! The weather seemed perfect and we enjoyed some good eats!

 

I was excited to try some new homemade ice cream flavors from my favorite blogs: Strawberry Cheesecake, Luscious Lemon, and Snicker doodle. The winner was Luscious Lemon...SO good. The kids opted for plain vanilla with Magic Shell. I dipped the cones in chocolate and sprinkles so they looked very appetizing.

 

Peter's birthday is shortly after Pioneer day, so we picked out this Spider Man toy to celebrate. I tried to talk the kids into an art project set, but they insisted that Peter would love Spider Man. They were right! Spidey twists around punching while saying his famous catch phrases like "Hey buddy, where'd you go?" And now Peter loves me like he never has before! He gave me a big hug and a kiss, and the next family function we had he let me carry him around for a while (Blaze was jealous, but I loved it!).

Real Game!

I gave James Real season tickets for Christmas. He's had fun taking the boys, and me sometimes! I've enjoyed them much more since the weather has warmed up and we can enjoy the sunsets! It looked so magnificent! And Real finally won a game that night!

Alanna's Cake Decorating Party!

We live in such an awesome neighborhood, and Alanna has many life long friends who have attended parties together since they were old enough to do so! Many of these friends at her 7th bday party are ones she attended play groups and nursery with since they were 18 months old!

We started off by decorating aprons with puff paints. Then, we had to have a pinata. My kids think it isn't a party without a pinata!

These two are the cutest! Zadie is our next door neighbor and all of my kids get so excited when she's out in the yard and run to play with her!

Jackson and Paul were good little helpers!

Heidi was a life saver and helped out so much at the party with 14 little girls and Blaze and my boys! James was mostly cramming to get ready for his fishing trip.

We have this cute cake pan that makes smallish 3 tiered cakes that are just the perfect size for little girls to decorate. It was fun to watch how creative they were with the frosting tubes, sugar paper, and rolled out gum drops. Some of them were so careful and deliberate, while others sculpted the frosting with their hands and couldn't wait to lick it off.

These friends are just too adorable!!!

We should have weighed Kamdyn's cake...I'm guessing with all of that pink frosting it was at least 5 lbs!

Lots of little girl giggling going on!

We played the classic baby shower game of concentration...trying to list a bunch of cooking items on a tray! Kenna won, and I knew she would. She's smart as a whip!

Lucy was so happy to have the cupcake pinata remains...I love it!

This is Kiya from Alanna's class at school. They are best friends, and who would have thought we'd meet another Kiya when we have a cousin Kaia?!

Kamdyn and Kenna

Lucy

Raegan from school. Such a cute picture!!

James did do a great job getting these cute ice cream cone pictures!

Addy

This kid acts as though he's sugar deprived!

Cousin Kaia

Jocelyn...she gave Alanna a huge box of Otter Pops in addition to tons of school supplies. Her parent's love to punk us and give the kids lots of candy and treats to make them crazy. They gave Alanna a huge Costco box of assorted sugar cereals last time!

Kinley

Alanna loved her party and said it was her best party ever! I don't know that she will say she wants to be a cake baker when she grows up anymore though! It's a lot of messy work :)

July 15th 2015!

Poppy came over for Jackson's birthday dinner on his "real" birthday. Grandma Ce-Ce was at work. 

Alanna got her birthday present from them...light up sketchers! Of course, she is in love with them and very protective of when and where she wears them. It's good to see she is learning to take care of her things!

Jackson is finally an 11 year old scout and will be going on camp outs! He also received an Air Soft gun and target...every boy's dream!

My kids have all been obsessed with Star Wars lately and can't wait to see the movie coming out in December. They have plans to see it with the Johnson family and have been watching all of the other Star Wars movies during our babysitting swaps with them.

We also got a Venus Fly Trap! Hopefully we can keep it alive!

Snickerdoodle ice cream in white chocolate dipped sugar cones...the best summer treat!