Happy 4th Birthday London!

London just had her 4th birthday!! She is such a great helper with Bentley and is so sweet and sassy. She has such a sensitive soul and really lets you know when something is NOT how she wants it. If London suddenly bursts into tears it usually because she asked me for a drink and I forgot to give it to her, I'm afraid sometimes she suffers from "middle child syndrome". She absolutely LOVES baby's and baby dolls and anything mommy like. She is a master puzzle girl and can do puzzles for an hour straight. We have been so blessed with London, things are pretty easy going of her. Since Macy has gone to school she's a little needier with needing something to do, but I expected that and it's nice to have some one on one time with London while Bentley and Alli (The little girl I watch) are down for their naps. She has such a cute sense of humor and really tries to make people laugh and giggle. We are so lucky to have her in our family. I got a little nostalgic and posted WAY too many pictures, but they will all look cute as a collage in my next Blog Book. :)

We love you, Lou Lou!

London's Frozen Party

This past Friday we have London's birthday party! She loves Frozen, so we threw her a little Frozen party. I found some printables off of Pinterest and the cups, plates, and napkins from Dollar General. For this party I chose to try out cake pops instead of cake or cupcakes and I was pleasantly surprised! I've never eaten them or made them before so I was a little nervous to start, but I think they turned out well. I told Kyle my plan and was all set to make them and he asked how she was going to blow out candles; good thinking! We left out a little piece of the big cake that went into the cake balls so she could blow them out. I asked her if she wanted a cake pop or the piece of cake and she chose the cake. As always, she licked off the frosting and was done. That's why I wanted to try something different then cupcakes or cake- the kids just eat the frosting and their done. They didn't really eat the cake pops too well either, I'm still in the search of something to serve at a birthday that the kids will actually eat!

 I found these cute printable hats off Pinterest and the girls loved them.

 The little boy loved them too :)

 We had the Humes and the Miller's, Marie, My Mom, and the Smith's over for the party. We had more friends planning on coming but they got sick :) We missed you guys! We first tried out Duck, Duck, Goose and then headed over to the kitchen and the kids could build a snowman out of play dough.

 Then we busted out the bubble machine and let the kids play in the bubbles. The Humes boys decided it was way funner to play on the playhouse then with bubbles :)

London got lots of candy, a baby doll, an outfit, a pony, and some frozen dolls. She had a blast and loved her party.

Labor Day Camping 2014

Last weekend we finally got to go camping again! It was the usual crowd plus Stormy and Spenser this year! I'm so happy they got to come and hang out with us, we always have fun when we're together. I love that we married boys that get along and like to hang out together. Camping is always one of my favorite things to do. I love hanging out by the fire and just enjoying nature. We got a different spot this year and it was SO much less dirty then the other spots we use- that was REALLY nice. I didn't come home and feel like we brought half of the forest with us!

Here we are on the first day, all nice and clean!

Aunt Steph brought the stuff to make "creepy snacks" for the kids. They are kind of creepy huh!?

 Kati and cutie Preston. We had Preston, Hudson, and Easton all crawling around in the dirt this year. They were so cute and all pretty content with the dirt and rocks.

 Getting some card action in!

 Awww. Stormy, Hudson, Spenser, Kyle, and Me!

 We had lots of shooting going on this year. I got to shoot my Dad's AK 47 and it was pretty fun! I like it!

 Most of the kiddos wanted to go help Grandma take the dogs for a walk. Nathan, Travis, Wesly, Macy, Brelee, Bentley, Emali, and one of John and Sarah's little girls joined in on the fun.

 Bentley and Emali!

Our kids have never slept very good camping, so we tried something a little different this time. We usually just let them stay up until whenever they start acting tired/grumpy and this time we tried to follow our normal home schedule as close as possible. At home, our kids are in bed by 7:30 but the sun wasn't quite all the way down so we let them stay up until the sun went down and then off the headed to bed. Kyle did story-time and down they went. It worked pretty well for the girls, but Bentley got to come and talk with us at the camp fire. We was cracking everyone up, little goof ball.

 The next the girls found a flower patch a picked all the moms some flowers.

 Some more shooting!

The next night London came up to me around 6:30 and asked if she could go to bed. She was tired! Next was Macy and then we finally put down Bentley. We came in around 10 when we were tired and Bentley had crawled into our bed and had been playing with my phone for 2 hours! We took away the phone but I let him stay in bed with me. He looked so cute in the morning.

London was nice and patient waiting for everyone else to wake up so she could get out of bed.

We had an awesome trip. I love camping!

Picnic at the Park

Every year Kyle has 2 Saturday's that he has to go to a Teacher Development Day. The kids and I decided that just because Dad had to work didn't mean we had to :) We did our normal Saturday chores in the morning and then headed over to Mickey D's for some Happy Meals. We took our lunch to the party and had a nice picnic. Afterward the kids went and played and I hung out under the tree in the shade. It was a beautiful Saturday.

Route 66 Festival

 Holbrook had our first ever Route 66 Festival. It was held down at West End Park and they had everything Route 66ish. The kids favorite thing was "the noodle man". Actually, as I'm typing this I have London and Bentley next to me saying "can we go see Noodle Man?!" They loved to go hug it and punch it, it was a love hate relationship.

 Along with vendors, a potato derby, and entertainment- they had a burn out. I had never been to one before and it was pretty fun to watch all the rubber burn off the tires.

 That night The Roxy Theatre showed "Cars" in correlation with the festival, for free! Macy and London loved it and Bentley got pretty restless.

 The next day we went back over to the festival for free hotdogs and to watch Kyle's friend Lane play in his band. It was a fun family day!

Bentley's 2nd Birthday Party

Last Thursday we decided we should probably do SOMETHING for Bentley's birthday- so we invited some friends over the following evening for some cake and ice cream. Bentley loves trains lately so I found a super cute -and easy- train on Pinterest to make. It was the perfect little project for London to help me with during nap time.

 We used cupcakes, grahmn crackers, oreo bites, frosting, mini m&m's, and fudge sticks to make little train cars! cute huh?! And so easy.

 This little boy was a little bit of a grump! About 2 hours before his party he starting coughing and had a super runny nose. Poor guy. He got a little happier as friends arrived, but he was kind of out of it.We had Grandma Gardner, Emily and Jason and their boys Justin, Kaden, and Logan, Lorin and Lisa with their girls Bella and new baby Hannah, Amy and Justin with their girls Bella and Lucy, and Kathleen, David, and Kaleb come to celebrate with us.

 We took all the little kids outside and let them play in the backyard for 45 minutes or so and then headed back inside for cupcakes, ice cream, and presents. The kids were pretty excited to dive in. Here is Kaleb, Macy, London, Kaden, and Bella checking it out.

 The sang to Bentley and then he got to blow out his candles.

 Just as we were getting ready to open presents it started POURING outside. Bella was too excited and just had to play in the rain. This girl LOVES the rain, she was drenched!

 Bentley opening his presents...

 I think he was most excited for his Cardinals Hat. He opened it up and got SO excited "HAT!! It's a HAT!!".

 His big gift was a train! He has been loving his "choo choo train" and plays with it daily. The girls also like it, so that's a bonus!