Belly shot

As I was looking at my dear friend Krista's blog who posted her 40+ week belly shot (yes, she is overdue and somehow still has a good attitude?) I was reassured that NO, I will NOT be posting a pic of MY ever-growing baby bump. She is just one of those cute pregnant girls that still looks good and like themselves and somehow only gets big in the belly region. As my belly gets bigger so does everything else....And although I am happy or should I say willing? to go through this to get my sweet little baby here I don't think it is necessary for me to show the world my enlarged butt...ahh I mean belly. So for now, yes, I am still prego. Yes, everything is going well. I am not at the terribly uncomfortable stage yet although I am in my final trimester now! Yay! I do promise however to post LOTS of pictures of this baby girl once she arrives!

They start young...

I was putting Ella to bed and as I was leaving the room she said:

E: Mom?
Me: Yeah?
E: I think I am going to dream about a boy tonight.
Me: Oh really? A boy?
E: Yes, a handsome boy!

And then she started giggling.

Is she really starting with the boy thing already??? I am in for it.

4th Festivities

I didn't think that we would be able to do fireworks this year because we were camping all weekend in the mountains where fireworks of course are not permitted. But when we got home Matt informed me that yes, we WOULD definitely be doing fireworks because he had stopped in Moapa and bought a ton of not-so-legal fireworks that he was really excited about. So we had our own little fireworks show. It was fun because Whitney and Ryan stayed the night with us so they were able to be there too.

The kids loved throwing the "poppers."

Kash liked the sparklers, but that was about it. He was terrified of the fireworks. He would run and hide in the garage and every now and then we would see him peaking around the bushes!

Here you can see him keeping his distance.

Ella on the other hand is a little pyro like her Dad! She wanted to be right up in the action at all times.

The first firework that Matt did wasn't going off so he ran up and kicked it and ended up burning his flip flop to his skin! Smart, right? We were all laughing watching him jump around yelling. Luckily it just burned his callous off so he wasn't sore the next day.

Ryan and Whit

These 2 could light fireworks every night and never get sick of it.

Ella and Kash love Uncle Ry Ry.

Pure delight watching the show...and the red mustache is awesome!

This is the part where I literally almost peed my pants-which isn't hard to do these days:) Matt and Ryan had a Roman Candle fight! Here they are in their goggles before the fight...

You can see the fireworks are horizontal as they shot at each other.

Ryan taking aim..Matt had burn marks on his shirt afterward!

Matt going after Ryan...
I couldn't stop laughing and Whitney couldn't stop screaming! It was good entertainment.

Once the fireworks were over Kash ventured out of the house again. He was happiest riding his little car with no loud noises going off.

The kids got to sit on the dirt bikes for a while which they thought was pretty cool.

Ella sang, "I'm proud to be an American" for us which ended our night perfectly.

McLaws Reunion

Every other year the McLaws family has a reunion at Jacob's Lake. This is the only time we see most of these people so it is a lot of fun to camp for a couple of days and catch up with them. We played games, ate tons of good food, had good conversations, paint balled, played lots of horse shoes, and enjoyed the awesome weather!

These 3 spent so much time playing in this trailer.

Everyone loved playing horseshoes-this is Derek who leaves on his mission on Wednesday to Nicaragua so I made sure to get lots of pics of him!

Ray and Matt

The paint-ballers emerging from the woods.

Uncle Mike let Ella shoot the gun and she loved it.

Kash and Adam had fun with the croquet set until they started hitting each other and breaking the sticks in half...

Adam spent hours playing in the water and getting soaked.

Derek getting fire wood.

Ella loved following her cousins around and cried when it was time to go.

I am so thankful for family members that take the time to plan and organize family reunions, I think its so important to keep in touch-and it's fun of course too. I wish I would have gotten more pics of everyone:(