Happy birthday Charity!

Charity just turned seven years old!  I am always amazed at how quickly kids grow up.  Charity had a fun birthday.....here are some pictures to highlight it!

 Her favorite gift- an American Girl Doll!  We've always said
that she couldn't get one until she turned 8.....

that made her surprise all the sweeter!

 She really wanted Isabelle- the American Girl Doll of

the Year.  She's a ballerina just like Charity.

 I had to smile when I saw the ballet class in session

with Charity, Rachel, and Lydia's dolls.

 Charity really wanted me to make a layer cake for her

with a "7" on it.  She wanted the bottom layer to be

lemon cake, the top layer to be chocolate cake, and

the whole thing covered in lemon frosting.  She decorated

the cake with candies that she had picked out.

I always love to post a baby pic because it

reminds me just how much they've grown!

We love our sweet Charity!

Hyrum turns 4!

I seriously have a hard time believing that my youngest is now 4 years old!  Hyrum had a great birthday!  It was his first year to have a party with friends.  He loves monkeys so we had a monkey-themed party and it was a hit! 

He was such a handsome baby...

 Now he's such a handsome boy!  

He wanted me to make him a clown cake.

He wanted to try out all of his new presents-

here he is trying out the new scooter 

 

 And roller skates

 

Hyrum's friends playing "Jungle Parade"

at his monkey party 

 Cupcakes I made to stick with the monkey theme

Hyrum whacking the monkey pinata

We love Hyrum so much and we couldn't
 imagine our family without him!

Spring Break Family Trip

We had a great time getting away as a family during spring break!  We saw a lot of neat things during a short period of time.  We went to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, Dead Horse Point State Park, Four Corners, and Mesa Verde National Park (in southwest Colorado).  We did a ton of hiking, walking, and driving and the kids were troopers and did great!

 Running down a giant sand dune in Moab

Mesa Arch in Canyonlands

Can you tell it was crazy windy at Canyonlands?

 Dead Horse Point

Ready to hike to Delicate Arch- We brought along

our kid carrier for Hyrum but he did 

great and hiked most of the time..... lucky

for us because he is getting too big to carry around!

 Taking a break

 Petroglyphs

Landscape Arch at Arches

 Our two little buddies headed to Double Arch

Four Corners-  All of us (except Hyrum) wanted

our own picture straddled across all four states

Mesa Verde National Park- Indian cliff dwelling ruins

Inside the Spruce Tree House ruins

We had a great time!  Our only glitch was Charity getting sick our last night in the hotel.  The poor thing must have eaten something that upset her stomach so she was up throwing up during the night.  Having six people in one hotel room gets tricky in a situation like this, so we set up a bed for her in the bathtub.  She slept there the whole night and I just wish I would have taken a picture so we could remember!  I spent a good portion of the night sitting on the bathroom floor with my head propped against the wall....not ideal, but luckily she felt better in the morning for the long drive home from Colorado.  That aside, we really did have a fantastic trip!

Rachel and Lydia Turn 9!

Nine years?  Seriously?  I can't believe it's been nine years since we embarked into parenthood.  Lydia and Rachel had a great birthday.  They seemed to enjoy the extra attention they received.  Hyrum and I went and ate lunch with them at their school.  For their birthday cake, they wanted a giant brownie with strawberry frosting (decorated by them with candy) that was shaped like the #9....much easier than some of their other cake requests!  We went as a family to see the movie "Frozen" and enjoyed spending time together.  Happy birthday to my sweet girls!

 

They've grown up so fast!

 

 

Trick or Treat!

The kiddos had a great Halloween!  Kenny and I enjoyed helping out at two of the kids' class parties at school.  And of course, the kids favorite part was trick-or-treating!

Every year we go to the local pumpkin walk and see the scenes

created out of pumpkins and gourds.  I am always so

impressed at what creative people can do!

 Pumpkin carving

 We couldn't get Little Man to smile!

The Astronaut

The Native American

 The Witch

 The Leopard

Back to School!

Once again I have fallen way behind on my blogging!  Summer somehow slipped away from us and the kids are back in school!  I just wanted to post pics of them on the first day of school.

Charity the First Grader

 Lydia the Third Grader

 Rachel the Third Grader

 

 Hyrum the Preschooler

 I made some back-to-school cakes

and the kids loved them!