Evie and Liddy

My kids finally have a cousin on my side of the family! Sweet Liddy is about 4 1/2 months younger than Evie. Whit and I just know that they are going to be the best of friends. We had to take a few pictures of them side by side to see the size difference. I know Evie is twice as old at the moment but I'm pretty sure she is quadruple the size!

Ella the photographer

Ella and Kash both enjoy taking pictures with my camera. I usually don't know about it until I am downloading them and there are 20 of a doorknob. Well, the same thing happened with these pictures, but I guess it was a photo session of Kash on the trampoline. I don't know what she said or did to him but as you can see he starts the session literally jumping for joy and ends completely distressed.

The Family Party

We had a small family party for Ella and we were lucky to have some of my family in town for it! My mom, Whitney and Liddy, and Nikki were all there. Kim and Heidi and their kids, Robin and Braden, and my grandparents came too. We made yummy Mexican food for dinner, the kids played on the slide again while Matt had fun spraying them with the power washer, and we just hung out in the backyard!

Ella of course loved opening her presents.

Karlee and Jaren got her a dress.

Kash got her this gift...
And then attacked her with a big hug!

The highlight was her new bike!

She has been wanting a new bike for awhile now, so she was pretty happy about it.

Her cake was supposed to be a giant cupcake but ended up being more of a mushroom. Oh well.

Happy Birthday sweet girl!

The Friend Party

Ella's party with her friends was CRAZY! I was planning on about 9 girls but we ended up having 17 kids! All of the siblings and neighbor kids saw what we were doing and wanted to join so we just kept adding more and more kids. We had a giant water slide which was the main attraction....kids of all ages have fun on this thing! We also had our little pool set up to swim, the trampoline with the sprinkler on it, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and a treasure hunt. It was pretty much chaos but lots of fun. Luckily my mom, Whitney and Liddy, and Nikki came for the weekend so I had lots of helpers. With the heat from being outside and the stress of 17 kids yelling at me for drinks, towels, toys, etc, I guess I got a little stressed out and ended up breaking out in fever blisters all over my lips! But other than that it was a success. After everyone left the only thing Matt said was, "I think we are going to have friend parties every other year."

Ella is SO excited to finally be 5. She is the youngest so being the only 4 year old has taken its toll! Now she says, "But mom, Lily is 5 1/2!" Ahhh I just can't win.

Warming up in the sun with Ella Kate.

London and Megan blowing bubbles.

Sidewalk chalk was great for a break from the water.

Lining up for the treasure hunt. Matt hid a TON of rocks in the sandbox. They loved this part and got to take home their bag of rocks.

Evie came outside to check out the action.Opening presents

Ella loves flowers so we made these flower pots for dessert.

Singing happy birthday

Blowing out her candle. I can't believe this little girl is 5 and will be going to kindergarten. She is small for her age and will be one of the youngest in her class so it just seems like she is too little to go to school! She is really excited about it though. She is very smart and very curious and I think she will do great. We love you Elle Belle.

Ella's Birthday week

Ella had more of a birthday week than a birthDAY. On her actual birthday she awoke to balloons covering her entire room. She thought it was so great! When Kash woke up and walked by her room I heard him say in a tired confused voice, "What the!?" I think they could have played in their all day. Then we met friends at the splash pad and had cupcakes. And we went to a dinner at the church where they sang her happy birthday and gave her a plate of pink cupcakes. A couple days later she had a friend party and a couple days after that a family party. It was birthday overload.

chubby wubby

Chubby wubby is what the kids often call Evie. She just keeps getting chubbier and chubbier and we love it! At 8 months she is about 20 lbs. She sits up by herself but occasionally loses her balance and tips over. She still wakes up sometimes during the night....I'm about ready to let her cry it out! She has two bottom teeth so far. She loves food! She prefers real food over baby food. She is still an easy going baby but can definitely throw a tantrum these days. She gets up on her knees and rocks like crazy so she will probably be crawling soon. I'm in no hurry for this to happen though. She loves her dad and her brother and sister so much!

Yes this is a roll on top of her knee cap!

Sydney's Baptism

We were able to go to Cedar City for our cousin Sydney's baptism. She looked beautiful in her white dress that my grandma made for her! It was fun to spend this special day with her.