Summer fun!

Yummy snow cones!!!



Feeding the ducks at Wheeler Farm




It was a really hot day so we blew up our kiddie pool and let the kids splash around! They were hilarious!









Easton and cousin Mitch



Elle and Sadie are so cute together



They set up a table to do doll hair for the neighbors and sell bracelets she made. So funny!



Playing dress-up



A night out at the Drive-In movie to see Cars 2--Easton, Drake, Elle, Sadie, Ava, Mia, Jayne, Ila



We went to check on Easton one night and apparently, he fell asleep having a party with his stuffed animals



Breakfast time!



I think Jayne wanted to go swimming-- she had goggles on, arm floaties and sunscreen all over--so we went swimming!



One of my best friends from high school, Melanie, came into town and we went swimming one day. It was SO fun to visit and spend time with her. Elle and had fun with her little girl, Ashley.


CHILDREN'S DISCOVERY GARDEN

We went to the Children's Discovery Garden at Thanksgiving Point and had a great time!
(Jayne and Izzie, Easton and Cooper)


Easton loved feeding the fish

Great to be Eight!

Elle was so excited to turn eight years old so she could...


Get her ears pierced!

But when the time came, she was really nervous. I kept telling her that she didn't need to get them pierced, but she wanted to. She must have asked me a hundred times how much it would hurt and what it would feel like and what they would use to pierce them. She was scared but she was determined to do it. We went to glamorous "Icing" in the mall, picked out some cute diamond earrings and she did it! Quick and pretty painless. She was so happy and couldn't stop smiling!



And more importantly...

Elle was SO happy she could finally be BAPTIZED!

The week leading up to her baptism, I could tell she was trying really hard to be extra good. She was so helpful and happy all the time and when she would say her prayers at night, she kept asking that her baptism day would come sooner. It was really cute! She was very excited!



Don was really happy that he got to baptize her and confirm her a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Those that helped with the confirmation were Grandpa Don, Uncle Ken, Uncle Glenn, cousin Nate and Bishop Witwer. I gave the talk on Baptism and Grandma Diane gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. Elle chose the song "When I am Baptized" for us to sing because it reminds her of her first best friend, Ashley, that passed away a couple of years ago. Everything went great!

Elle looked so beautiful in her white dress! She said she felt warm and happy after being baptized. It made it really special to have so many of our family and close friends there--Foxes, Fletchers, Hanks, Hansens and two of Elle's sweet babysitters (Claire and Melissa) even came to be there on her Baptism day.






Elle with Grandma and Grandpa Adamson and with Grandma Irene



Me and my little girl in her pretty white dress that she couldn't wait to wear!



Elle was so happy to have her cute cousins (Nate & Lindsay), Aunt Tami, Uncle Glenn and Grandparents there



We had a small luncheon at our house after--BBQ pork sandwiches, fruit, salad, and lots of yummy treats!!! (Huge thanks to Tanna and Jill for leaving early to set it all out so it was ready when we got there.)



Elle had fun with her friends, Hadlie and Ellie, and all the kids enjoyed the backyard.



She got some fun little gifts for her Baptism--new scriptures from us, a neat book and white bracelet from Grandma and Grandpa Adamson, a CTR necklace from Tami & Glenn and a ring from Grandma Irene

It was a special day for Elle. We are so proud of her and the choice she made to be baptized!!!

Happy Birthday Elle!

Our little girl is eight! How crazy is that? Elle has grown up so much in the past year and is such a good girl. Elle loves anything American Girl Doll, Star Wars, ballet, arts and crafts, playing on the monkey bars, swimming, playing house or dogs with Easton and Jayne and playing with friends.

My favorite things about Elle:
-She is so helpful and is a great big sister to Easton and Jayne.
-She is so creative! She loves to write stories, make books, do crafts and hand stitch things for her dolls with scrap material.
-She is kind. She likes to make people happy with little notes and homemade gifts. She will often ask if she can do "secret service" for people. She likes to sweep all the driveways on our street and even helped clean out our neighbors garbage can. Yuck!
-She is strong willed and determined and wants to do her very best (Sometimes she can be a little hard on herself though.)
-She is our little entrepreneur. She is always trying to "sell" something--from setting up "Etastic" (she and Easton's store) in her bedroom selling little treasures, to setting up a table outside for doing the neighbor girls' dolls hair, to the Super Duper summertime sale she did with her friend, Sadie.
-She always tries to do what is right and is a happy girl!

Elle's birthday didn't turn out quite like we planned but I think she still had a fun day! Jayne was still in the hospital with HMPV, and even though she was doing a lot better, her oxygen levels were still too low to send her home. I was there with her and Don was home with Elle and Easton. I wanted to be there with Jayne but I felt so bad not being there for Elle when she woke up on her birthday. Thankfully, that afternoon, Diane and Tami came to the hospital to stay with Jayne so I could go with Elle to her party we planned at the Lion House.



LION HOUSE PARTY

Elle was so excited for her party and couldn't wait to see her friends. They got a tour of the Lion House, played some games pioneer kids used to play, and pulled their own taffy. They had cute little sandwiches and lemonade and then opened presents and had cake. Elle was really excited that she got to pick a doll to take home too. It was a cute party!






They got to wear cute pioneer bonnets while on the tour of the Lion House



Playing "Button, button, where is the button"


Elle with her birthday cake and doll that she got to bring home



Elle with her cute friends


After her party, we came back to our house and Elle got to open her presents from us before I went back to the hospital.


Easton had wrapped up some of his own little things to give Elle



A new ballet outfit her her American Girl Doll and the book "Libby Boom"



She was definitely most excited for her new wardrobe for all her American Girl doll clothes and couldn't wait to fill it



Elle with her doll, "Hannah" and new doll wardrobe

We love you, Elle! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Easton!!!

Cute little Easton turned 5 in June! He is growing up too fast. He is still our sweet little boy. He loves Star Wars, Super Mario Bros, doing crafts, playing soccer and baseball, building things with his tools with Dad, doing Legos, playing the Wii and playing with his sisters, Elle and Jayne. He also LOVES exploring outside and catching bugs. We've gone through a lot of plastic cups with air holes for grasshoppers, ants, a dragonfly, a bee, a preying mantis, and even a locust that Don got for him in the desert. He is all boy!

My favorite things about Easton:
-He is really silly. He makes us laugh all the time and loves to tease!
-He is cuddly. He gives the best hugs and still wants us to lay by him before bed at night. Sometimes when I hold his hand, we play this little game where I squeeze his hand 3 times to mean "I Love You" and then he squeezes mine 4 times to say "I Love you more." We get in a contest back and forth to see who loves who more. It is pretty cute!
-He is easy going. Even if he does get upset, he gets over it very quickly.
-He likes to try new things and does his very best.
-He is kind to others.
-He loves his sisters and is so cute with them.

Easton was so excited for his birthday and was counting down the days. So, when he woke up on his birthday and didn't feel well, we felt so bad! I knew he was sick when I offered to make him chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and he said he wasn't hungry. He said his throat and his tummy hurt and he just wanted to lay on the couch. Poor little guy. I told him we were going to have to postpone his birthday party and he was so concerned that if we didn't celebrate that he wouldn't turn 5. I assured him that he would still turn 5. He ended up laying on the couch, watching movies and resting all day. By that evening, he was feeling a little better and so we had him open his presents from our family.


He was so excited about his new remote control truck



Elle couldn't wait for Easton's birthday and had a whole pile of Star Wars gifts she had made for him, including some books she made about Star Wars.


And some paper masks, light sabers and paper figures from Star Wars.



Easton was excited to try out his new car track and loved the Super Mario Bros movie from Jayne too!

The next morning, he was still complaining about his throat so I started to suspect that maybe he had strep throat. I took him in and sure enough it was strep. The good thing is that with a little antibiotics, he would be feeling a lot better and not contagious within 24 hours, so we could still have his birthday party that we rescheduled.

The day of the party came and Easton was doing great! Thank goodness for medicine! We told him that this way his birthday lasted longer. He kept telling Elle that he got to have two birthdays. She didn't know how she felt about that.

Birthday pancakes


STAR WARS PARTY
What kind of party did Easton want? You guessed it. Star Wars! It turned out to be a lot of fun! We played games to test their Jedi skills, did some training with light sabers, and even had a surprise visit from Darth Vader. Easton was so happy to be with all of his friends and had a great time!


Jedi Easton



Playing Vader-Yoda (Red Light, Green Light) to test their listening skills





Pin the ship in the galaxy to see how well they could use the "force" to get their ships on the right spot



All the young Padawans earned their new Jedi Robes and swim noodle Light Sabers and then got trained by Jedi Master Don.



Darth Vader made a surprise visit and got attacked by all the newly trained Jedis. Yep, the Jedis definitely won that battle! Sorry Don... I mean Vader!









Pinata fun



Cake time



Me and my big 5 year old Jedi! I love you Easton!