She's HOME!!!!

Can you tell that we were so excited to see this girl!!!!!

Me and the kids headed up to my parents to get ready for her. Sam and Seth were on High Adventure in the middle of no where so it was just the 4 of us to represent.

The whole family was originally going to be at the airport but after many delays and a final time of 2am it was just a select few of us. 

The kids DID NOT want to be left home with a sitter so we tag along super sleepy kids but they eventually woke up and got super excited to be there.

We had to come up with some creative ways to keep those kiddos busy though.

Good thing no one else was in there at that time of night!

Played video games,

took selfies,

played ninja,

Played duck, duck, goose

and practiced holding signs. But then.....

we saw her!!!!!

YEAH!!!!!!! 

Mom got the first hug and then cute Sarah.

Emily wasn't far behind and the rest of those grandkids.

All of us that came to the airport.

It was so fun to be all back together. Everyone was there at some point in the week and it was awesome.

All 5 of us sisters were together again. So, so fun!!! We all went to the Temple one night, which was so good to be there.

We picked,

and shucked,

and cooked,

and froze everyone's corn (which means an entire truck load of corn). That is so the way to do it though, all together!

Seth and Sam joined us for one evening and morning. Just enough time to pick 1400 ears of corn and haul it back to Twin for Seth's fundraiser to go on High Adventure. Boy were those boys sweaty and tired!!

We also had to take a pop run the very next morning (well after she was released anyway) with all the girlies. Have I said how much fun it is to be with all my sisters!!

Natalie came home on Aug 7th and her birthday was Aug 6th. So of course we had to have a party!!

Luke and Kathryn wanted to make presents for her so they spent several hours creating some masterpieces; Kathryn a purse and Luke a pillow. So cute!

We tried to re live old memories in the grocery parking lot. Haha....

There was also alot of this going on...cousins do not equal sleeping.

We also got to hold Charlotte, which the kids loved having a baby around.

There was also a lot of beauty shop going on also. I love having sisters that pluck all your stray hair. They are the best (:

Uncle Brad was good to give the kids ride on the 4 wheeler. They kinda loved it!!!

This girl loved having Shera around. She is absolutely massive and Sarah thinks it's wonderful to play and hang out with her.

Awww....girl cousins. Love these girls!

So happy to have this girl home with us even if she does make weird faces!!

It's My Birthday

Yep it's true...I turned 34 and so proud of it!! What a selfie (:

 I felt like I got to party for 4 days straight...oh wait I did!! Sam and Seth were going to be out of town for High Adventure with the scouts on my actual birthday so we celebrated a little early. We had gf apple cinnamon pancakes with cinnamon syrup. So delicious!!

 Then Sam surprised me with a date on the river. He told me to get ready and we were off. We canoed up the river to Pillar Falls and had a fabulous time.

 It was gorgeous that day. We enjoyed the calmness of the river, people bridge jumping, beautiful birds, and wonderful sights. Most importantly we just talked and enjoyed the time away.

 What a great afternoon.

 When we got home Sam started on dinner for me. My parents were driving through and were able to stop and celebrate with us.

We had delicious chicken taquitos and then introduced my parents to Culvers shakes. So fun to talk and hang out with my kids and my parents. These cute girls got matching necklaces for all 3 of us and were so excited about it they could hardly stand it. So cute!!

 Sunday the kids and I made gf strawberry shortcake (love learning how to make my favorite recipes. Sam gave me the best cookbook for gf and I am in love. I have been trying everything under the sun!!) We ate it with friends and enjoyed their company.

Monday Sam and Seth left at 3am for their trip so it was me and the kids until my bestest friend came to town so we could celebrate my official birthday. We went to lunch together, ran errands, went grocery shopping, drank pop, talked, talked, and talked. So grateful for old kids that can babysit and for old friends who are the best. What a fun day we had!!

We ended the day by going to Culvers for $2 meals for everyone so no one had to cook and talking until bedtime. Love it!!

Cousins

We had the oppotunity to watch my brother's kids for 6 days!!! They have 4 kiddos and crazy thing is that they could of all been my own because of how they we were all spaced out. We had a 14, 11, 10, 7, 5, 3, and 2 18 month old twins. See!!

 Boy we sure had a great time with them. It was wonderful to have older kids to help. I sure couldn't of done it without them.

 We also had beautiful weather so we olayed and played outside. Their kids LOVE to be outside so it was a good thing the weather co-operated!!

 We played in the sprinkler (don't mind the ugly grass, we are killing it and starting over).

 Sarah and her friend helping me get sunscreen on everyone.

 Jumping is so fun.

 Captain loved us being outside so much with him. He was in heaven and the girls even dressed him up so he would fit in.

 We also played in the pool at our friends house.

 The kids thought it was the best to jump into that as well. It sure kept them busdy for a couple hours.

 This girl ended up getting sick Sunday morning and didn't feel better till Wednesday. So she laid around a lot, watched tv, read books, and slept. Poor girl. Missed out on some serious fun!

 The twins didn't want anything to do with the pool but they loved the sand box and were in heaven.

 One night we headed out to Dierkes to play there and have a change of scenery. It was such a pretty day and perfect for swimming.

 They have the perfect kids area so the twins were happy to run around and get all sandy.

 We even packed up a picnic dinner and ate it their so we could play longer.

We even found some fish and fed them bread crumbs we had left over. The kids thought it was awesome to see all over. 

 We played bubbles outside one afternoon.

 And Heston taught Luke how to ride his bike so much better. Wow!! That is so awesome. Luke is now totally comfortable on his bike and no we can go on family bike rides again!!

 The twins were really mad because they wanted to hold the bubble container but kept dumping it out everywhere. Silly babies!!

 Trying to make some big bubbles.

 Luke and Heston are big buds and played from morning till night. And were super crazy sometimes!! But what a great thing to get to know cousins better and have so much fun.

We loved having those little peeps around. So tiring, especially church, wow!! But so much fun. Thanks Brad and Jill for letting us watch them (: