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:(

Little Fish

We put Ella in swim lessons for the first time. She has always liked the water but was kind of timid and never wanted to get her face/head wet. I think the main thing that the lessons did for her was give her confidence. She definitely isn't swimming, but she just has so much more confidence in the water. She now goes under ALL the time. She constantly wants me to watch her as she goes under, and she puts her little fingers up out of the water and counts how long she holds her breath. Her favorite thing to do is to play in the shallow end with NO floaties. As long as she knows she can touch she is fine. She jumps around and will go under and "swim" to you. We just need to work on the kicking and moving her arms when she is under so she could actually get to the edge if she needed to.

They would have the kids float on their back while they sang the ABC's.

They would sing ring around the rosies and then "fall down" into the water. They would also hold their breath for 5 seconds.

She loved getting the diving sticks from the bottom.

I think they called this the "sandwich" where they would put their face in the water and then roll onto their backs.

In no time she was saying, "teacher watch me watch me!" And would swim across the jacuzzi even if it wasn't her turn.

On the last day of the 2 week session they got to go down the water slide. This is Adam at the top. He was all for climbing up there and then once he got there he realized it was really high! He was so funny with his death cry/growl...the first few days Gina and I hid around the side of the house listening to his bellows...but he always did what they asked and after a couple lessons he was totally fine.

Ella on the slide....

and at the bottom you can tell how much she wants to be caught!

Now I really wish I would have put Kash in as well. He is just as advanced as Ella, but has absolutely NO fear. They both play in the shallow end of the pool all the time, but Kash (with his floaties) will jump off of the diving board in the deep end all day and scream "WATCH MOM!" over and over showing off his tricks. He really looks like a skate boarder or something as he tries to grab his feet in the air. The other day he jumped into the deep end and went under and for once I saw some fear in his eyes and I was so HAPPY. I thought, yes! He is capable of feeling fear! Now he will be more cautious! But as soon as we got him out he jumped right back in. They are both actually at a really dangerous stage because they think they can swim but really they can't. It's a little scary for me but they are so dang cute to watch. They are both FISH!

Scolded!

I was scolded by my doctor. At my latest doctor appointment my O.B said, "Well, everything looks really good....except for the weight gain." Ahhhh excuse me! What did you just say to me?! I am growing a baby inside of me! I know that doesn't explain my ever growing booty, but still. I reminded him that this is my 3rd pregnancy and I have come to accept that I am going to gain my 50 lbs no matter what. I get it all off...it takes me a while...but I do it. It was depressing though seeing that I have actually been working out more so than I did with the first two. I know I can work on my eating habits though, it's true. He explained to me that I really need to watch my carbohydrates because when your pregnant even a healthy piece of whole wheat toast gets converted to sugar. Blah Blah Blah... I actually really like my doctor and know he is just looking out for me but I really didn't want to hear it. I felt like a little kid who got scolded as I waddled out of the office with my head down. Oh well. I do hate when I see these cute pregnant girls that are super skinny everywhere and then they have this cute little basketball belly. I am just not one of them. So watch out everybody, I am only 25 weeks along but I am massive and could easily take you out!

Party Part 2

Ella's party with our family was really fun. The best part was that my mom and my sister Whitney surprised her by coming for the weekend! All of her cousins from Cedar City came, her great grandparents, and Aunt Robin and cousin Braden were all there.
She has been obsessed with watermelon this summer, she could eat one all by herself I'm sure. So we made her this fun watermelon cake which she loved.

Blowing out the candle...

Of course her favorite part was opening presents.

She was spoiled rotten!

She requested goggles for swim lessons.

Kash got a couple of things so he wouldn't feel too left out. He kept asking when it would be his birthday.

They both got wiggle cars which were a big hit.

Kash spent most of his time in the backyard with his cute cousins playing baseball.

She is already asking when she will be 5!

Ella turns 4!

On June 8th my little girl turned 4 years old. In some ways I think 4 seems so old, but then I think how I am going to have 3 kids 4 and under and I think I am crazy because it is still like I have 3 babies to take care of!
But Ella was fun this year because she was really excited about her birthday. She kept telling people that her birthday was on June Eight. She is to the point where she knows how birthdays work and she was ready for those presents!
So that morning we had a little party for her at the splash pad. It was definitely the easy way to go, I didn't have to plan a thing I just let the splash pad do all the entertaining! So with pink cupcakes, pink punch, and pink princess balloons we were good to go.

She loved her #4 candle.

I gave up trying to keep Kash out of the cupcakes-I think every one of them had a fingerprint in the frosting.

Gina and Emily

Showing off her cute tutu from Aunt Gina.

This is Ella posing with cute Ella from across the street. We have to call them Ella Grace and Ella Kate so they know who we are talking to.

For dinner we let Ella choose anywhere she wanted to go and where would that be? McDonald's of course! Matt and I were sneaky and brought in food from a different restaurant for us! So we let them play and then headed to the promenade for Cold Stone.

They found a new favorite flavor: cotton candy.

They both had so much fun throwing coins in the fountain and getting soaked.

We had a family party for her that weekend, so more pics to come!

Camping

Because I love my husband, we went camping. He was super excited to go camping with a bunch of friends...I on the other hand, was not. I was nervous to take the kids for the first time, and I was nervous to take my pregnant self. I wasn't very happy about it until we were actually on our way there. Then I got excited thinking maybe we would actually have a good time. And we did. It was really a lot of fun, and we are going to try to do it at least one more time before the baby comes.

We went to Enterprise which is only about an hour away so the drive wasn't bad at all. We were right by the reservoir so we were able to walk down and go fishing. Matt and Kurt even took Ella out in the canoe. He didn't dare take Kash, thinking they would for sure tip over! The weather was really nice too which was a bonus. I think Ella's favorite part was her custom made potty. Matt duct taped her dora potty seat to a 5 gallon bucket lined with trash bags and ta da! Her very own potty, which she used way more than she needed to because she thought it was so cool.

The kids loved the fire. They had fun roasting marshmallows and eating smores. It got a little cold at night but we bundled up and drank hot chocolate and the fire kept us nice and warm. Ella and Kash actually slept in the back of our car because we didn't want them getting too cold. They had the most comfortable bed by far! With a memory foam mattress and all of their blankets they were set! We gave them each a flashlight and for a good hour we could see the lights flashing around like crazy in the car. They had so much fun in there.
Hopefully the next time we go will be just as much fun. We might even try a 2-nighter! Wish us luck.

memorial day

On Memorial Day we went out and bought the kids a little pool. They thought it was the greatest thing ever! They loved playing in the water and being pushed down the slide on the boogy board.

We also went and visited Matt's parents grave which was interesting with the kids...they didn't quite understand. Ella kept wanting to know why we bury people under the ground and how do we open this up?? (pointing to the headstone.) But its really neat going to the cemetery when there are so many people there with their families and all of the graves are covered in flowers.

My sister Karlee came for the weekend so we had a lot of fun hanging out and playing games. It was really nice being able to lay out in the backyard with her and watch the kids play. It was a fun weekend.