....it's a wonderful life...

Children's parade - 24th of July celebration

Our stake was invited to the childrens 24th parade this year.

The children get to walk in a parade, and then their is a free carnival after for them.

We had a great time!

Faces painted!

Eva was SOOO cute, she kept waving at each side like a parade princess, sweet and innocent!

The girls in their gear!

Our ward!

Fourth of July 11'

I LOVE the Fourth of July!

We go to the Hot air balloons early in the morning and watch them rise.

Hit the Provo parade, with my sisters, and this year Josh's niece (who has a baby just a few months older than Sophia).

Then we go to the 'Brick Oven' and get lunch, walk the grounds at BYU.

Then we went to Josh's sister Esther's house. Fun.

At the parade.

Loud! Gabbie and Nicole!

We take pictures at the Indian, every year.

The whole parade group.

The girls on Esther's front porch!

Liv on their tire swing. Quissentially americana!

June - St. George - Jodie' s wedding

My niece Jody was married this summer in St. George.. a great opportunity to take a few days for a small vacay.

She was a beautiful bride!

Notice her head piece. I think it is my favorite out of all the weddings I've been to.

Her dress had pockets, how cool is that.

Her grandfather was able to marry them. Awwww.

The girls love to see 'married girls'.

The cousins!

The bride and family.

Sisters, sister in laws and nieces!

We went a few days early. We took Josh's parents with us.

We took a tour of Bringham Youngs winter home. The tour guides did a wonderful job, my kids were totally interested.

(When we got home, we went to take a tour of his home in Salt Lake; what a drastic difference, they had nothing interesting to say.. knew none of the information you'd be curious about...)

Of course when you go to St. George you HAVE to go to nielsons frozen custard. Yum!

Eva's 7th Birthday

Eva turned 7 on May 25!

She wanted an "American girl" doll for her birthday... that was all she got from us.. pricey-crazy!

So we themed her birthday party around that.

The girls were to bring their favorite doll.

They made RED, WHITE, and BLUE necklaces for themselves and their dolls.

They played a relay game where they had to undress their doll, tag their team mate, and then dress their doll. VERY funny.

Then we played, a kind of "American girl' guess who.

With

Red, white, and blue

Birthday cake!

The relay!

Cake on her REAL birthday!

Eva's Dance recital - May

Eva is really graceful and really knows how to get her body to move the way she wants it, dance is a great fit... To bad it takes a small forture to have your kids in things!

The gang: Eva, Abby, and Jane!

Abualita was a dancer when she was young, we would love for her to teach the girls the dances from Mexico!

Sophia's Blessing

It was a beautiful day.... and this is the ONLY picture I got that day.... Not a pictures with the family or grandparents....

But she does look really, really sweet!

Isabel's 10th B-day

Isabel turned 10 on a Saturday, April 30th.

We woke her up with a sprakler pancake breakfast.

Then as a surprise, I took her to the mall and got her ears pierced. (I had told her she had to be tweleve). She was really excited. Then we shopped to spend her birthday money (she wanted to choose her gifts this year.) She bought a dress and a jacket.

It is AWESOME when they want to spend their money on practical things!

I kept telling her I didn't think a birthday party was a good idea this year, because we were going to have Sophia blessed the next day... but all the while I planned a surprise party for her, they came over while we were at the mall. Josh had the girls hide and they jumped out when we walked through the door. She was TOTALLY surprised.

She wanted a 'Nancy Drew' party.

I sent out invitations par the theme, and had the girls go on a 'treasurery hunty thingy' .

It was fun and I think the girls all liked it. I think I had 22 girls here. Whoa!

You would have thought I would have gotten a picture of them all, but unfortunatly I only got pictures with Bella and each friend with their present, so I am posting at least one of the cute girls so you can see Bella in her birthday attire.