Summer Pool Party

It's become a tradition to have a backyard pool party right around Sadie's birthday and I love it because it is a potluck and everyone brings lots of yummy food and we all get to hang out and socialize. This year Sadie had a pinata for her birthday and decided she wanted to save it for the party. It took forever to crack that thing open!

 Emmy was so fickle and couldn't decide if she wanted to take a turn. Finally she got the hang of it and gave it a few smacks. I love that her face is covered in frosting!

 I handed the camera over to Jodi and she took some awesome pictures. This one turned out especially cool!

Family Pictures

This last Friday night we did a family picture swap with the Snedaker and I am so happy to have a picture with Bree in it that I can't print big for my living room. I think it is just amazing that Natalie and Chris got Bree to smile so big. I wish I would have been looking to see what Chris was doing, but I was just cheesing it up for the camera and never looked. It turned out to be a really fun night because the girls were acting really good (for the most part) and we had prepared for a lot of fits.  

Bree's sad face cracks me up in this one. She was definitely done for the night!

Happy Birthday to Sadie

This cute girl turned 4 and wanted a mermaid birthday. She had been talking about and planning her birthday ever since January. It's really too bad that I didn't really get around to planning things until a few days before because Sadie was really adamant about it not being an Ariel birthday, but just a mermaid party. Stores don't just sell generic mermaid things  around here so I tried my best and did an under the sea party.

 I was so worried the night before that she was going to be upset that there wasn't mermaid's plastered all over the place, but she seemed really happy and content with what you see here. Yes, Ariel still did make her appearance...

 

Sadie was really laid back and even tempered the entire day which is such a great change from the 2 and 3 yr birthday parties we've thrown in years past. I love how this little girl is maturing.

 Sadie's birthday fell on a Sunday and she was so happy that the primary sung to her and she got to stand in front of everyone.

 Thank you to Walmart for providing a delicious icecream cake and to Zurchers for having fun edible under-the-sea candies and a mermaid candle. After my Rapunzel tower cake disaster at Emmy's birthday I've decided it's just not my thing! 

 Smiles all around...the cake was a hit :)

This girl really wanted Marlea from the Barbie A Mermaid Tale. She already had two barbie mermaid outfits, but not the official doll so I guess this made her birthday dreams come true.

 

 Sadie's first scrap-booking creation. For the next week we did one page a day, but at this point it has fallen by the wayside. I'll have to pull it out again and do a few pages with her. She got a little wild with the sparkle glue on this page so she had to wait quite awhile to do the next page.

 Do you see Brian here in the background? For almost an entire week Brian was hung up with some major back issues. It was so hard to see him in so much pain and he couldn't do anything...and I mean anything without it hurting. He even had to miss work. We were all glad when it finally started feeling better.

 Little Breezy slept through it all. I love that just seconds after waking up she always has a smile for us!

Bear World

 While everyone was in town for the 4th of July/Bree's blessing/ and the family reunion, the Stewart's took us to Bear World. We all packed into our cars and drove through the park where bears, deer, and wolf are walking along your car and the only thing separating you is your window. Sadie was really frightened about it all until we got into the park and then she realized she was not going to get eaten by a bear :) We haven't been for at least five years so we were excited to go see everything again.

 The white elk looked very majestic.

I think you had to pay for all of the rides separately a few years ago, so it was a nice surprise to get to ride everything as apart of the admission.

4th of July

After the Firecracker run we got ready for the day and took the girls to the parade. We went about an hour and a half late and went to the end of the parade route and still caught way more parade than we could handle. We left after about an hour. It's just so hard to sit out in the heat with such young girls. I'm sure one day they'll be in the parade and have to stick the entire thing out, but for now it is nice to just catch a little bit of it.

Sadie and Emmy spent a good amount of the time chasing and knocking eachother to the ground to wrestle. They seemed like they were being so rough, but they just kept laughing and thought they were having a grand time.

Emmy spent the rest of the parade picking off her shellac nails. I am glad they lasted a few hours so she could be a little festive.

After a nice long nap we went to Papa and Grandma's house for a yummy BBQ and cousin time.

We then of course watched the never ending Melaleuca firework show. I love it, but I was pretty tired at that point. I must be getting old!

1st Day of Preschool

Just seeing Sadie's smile makes me happy. I love how she wrinkles her freckled little nose. This girl has grown up so much and has taken the big sister role and ran with it. It is almost sad to think she is going to be gone a few hours each week just because she is such an awesome helper and keeps Emmy entertained. But on a different note, this girl need the crafts, songs, business...so this is going to be such an awesome experience for her. 

Even this morning when Emmy woke up she was so worried because she couldn't find Sadie in the top bunk. That girl just adores her older sister. Sadie's teacher sent her a countdown two weeks before school and I couldn't believe how excited it made Sadie. She thought that was the greatest thing and remembered each morning to put a sticker on. 

Next thing I know there was another countdown up on the door next to hers. She had made Emmy her own countdown with squares to fill in with stickers and everything.

Sadie was ticked off with me because she wanted to go see if her friends were home and I told her she had to take pictures first. I got her all ready and pictures taken two hours before preschool because now having three kids I have to do things way in advance if I actually have to be somewhere at a certain time because it seems like you just never know what is going to come up!

I never got a good picture with Sadie and her joyschool group so I wanted to make sure we got some preschool pictures of the group. I think I'll have to take a last day of school picture with the group too to see how much they all change. There are six kids from our ward in Sadie's class (I'll just count Kyler too because he used to be :)

 Everyone LOVES Mrs. Anderson. And when I say everyone, I mean you have to call January 1st at 6am to get into this preschool, she is that awesome. If only she'd let me put Emmy on her waiting list two years from now.

 Of course we had to get a silly one!