Finishing up July

Thursday July 16th

 The stake primary was hosting a stake Activity girls activity.  I went to help volunteer for half of the day.  It was fun and they based the activity off of President Ballard's Conference Talk--"Stay in the Boat and Hold On" from October 2014.

 The craft they made was a cute little sail boat out of real drift wood from the coast. 

 Eating lunch with friends.

Friday July 17th

Alex had to fly back to Petersburg really early in the morning, so Garrett let him use his truck so that he didn't have to get up and take him to the airport.  So, that night all of us adults drove with Garrett to the airport to pick up the truck and to have dinner at this great BBQ place that's right there.  We left all the kids at home with a pizza.  

 I guess while we were gone, Sydney wanted to dress Lydia up like a cool greaser. Lydia's hair was full of gel!!  She looks cute though!

 Saturday July 18th

 Today we braved the heat and went to watch the Hillsboro AirShow.  It was SO hot!  It almost wasn't worth it.  Maggie was at a youth conference all day, so she missed it.  

 We usually just go to a park close to the airport and watch it from there. The Blue Angels were there this year, and they are the main reason I go!

Garrett and I left to go on a date (more on that in a second) and Jim and Georgia and Savann took the kids to see movies.  They split up and some went to see "Inside Out" and some went to see "Minions"

 For Garrett's birthday back in April, I got him tickets to go and see the comedian Jim Gaffigan and it was for tonight.  Garrett loves comedians and I love this guy because he is relatively clean.  And he has 5 kids so it's funny to hear his stories about having a lot of kids.  

 I tried to get a picture of him up on stage, but the lights were so bright up there it didn't really turn out.  

 So then I tried to get a picture of him on the screens and that worked a little better.  He was hilarious as usual and Garrett and I were dying!  The only bad thing was that it was SO short.  It felt like he was only up there for like 30 min. It could have been an hour or a little longer, but it felt really short!  I paid a lot of money for the tickets and I was hoping for a bit more entertainment!!  He was great though!

Monday July 20th

Garrett had to work that day, but Savann and her kids really wanted to go to the zoo, so they invited us along.

 Here's our gang

 trying to find the black bears

I really love this picture of Maggie because it's so funny!  We've been taking our kids to this zoo for their whole lives.  The first time we took Maggie, she must've been 3 or 4 and ever since she spotted the foot of this polar bear coming down from the ceiling, she's been terrified of it.  Even now when she comes, she hates going in there.  So, I had to get a picture of her at 15 and still scared of the fake polar bear foot.  She is so cute!

 It's also tradition to take their picture against this bear poster to see where they measure up against various bears. 

 watching the crocodile

 a sleeping cheetah

 goin' on safari

 Up in the Eagle's nest

The Guthries left to go back to Alaska on the 23rd.  

Friday July 24th

I was giving Lydia a haircut and Maggie out of the blue decides that she wants hers cut too.  Not just a trim but a hair cut.  She's had her hair long for so many years, the change was really cute!

 Such long hair!

 Not so sure!

 Before...

 ...and after!  

I thought it turned out really cute!

 I love that the kids like to play up in their "tree house".  They spend a lot of time out there!

Saturday July 25th

For some reason, Garrett and I were gone most of the day, but I have no idea where we went.  I don't have anything written on my calendar, so I guess it will remain a mystery.  While we were gone, the kids decided to have a tea party and a fancy lunch.  

I guess Lydia provided some musical entertainment and they danced around.  

Monday July 27th

 It was Maggie's best friend's birthday today and Maggie made Emma and herself these matching t-shirts.  She was so excited about them and they turned out really cute.

 That night Garrett helped Noah teach the lesson for Family home evening.  They taught about the anti-nephi-lehi's and how they buried their weapons and promised to never fight again.

 They gathered up all of Noah's weapons (and he has a lot!) and buried them in this basket and covered them with a blanket.  

 Noah showing off his muscles for the camera.

 Garrett helping Noah bear his testimony at the end of the lesson.

Wednesday July 29th

 For mutual, the girls were playing basketball, so these two decided to "dress-up" for the activity.

 Friday July 31st

 Playing outside--Paige decided to run through the sprinklers in her clothes.  

 riding his new bike

hanging out in dad's truck.  I'm not sure why the car seats were in the back of the truck.  

And that was our busy month of July!!

Ooh La La...Bella turns 4!!

Just a fair warning...there will be a lot of pictures...

Bella's birthday is on Apr. 30, so we had a little family celebration that night and then had her friend party on May 5th.  We went out to IHOP for her birthday dinner (she chose where to go, with Paige's persuasive suggestions) and then we opened presents.  This girl was SO excited for her birthday.  Every day she would ask if it was her birthday yet.  So, when the day came...she was "super excited" as she would say.  I wish I took a video of her opening her first gift.  It was from my parents and it was Polly Pockets and it was so cute to watch the excitement and her reaction.  It was priceless and I missed it. 

I did get this cute picture though.

Whenever I try to take Noah's picture, he automatically squints his eyes shut, smiles and says cheese.  I think I've got him trained.  :)

I love this picture...showing off her new dress up shoes.  These are her favorite pants and wears them all the time with any type of shirt.  She loves to pick out her own outfits. 

Since we were having cake at her friend party, I got donuts to stick candles in. 

I love the way she eats donuts...eating only the frosting and the top layer. 

I love sweet little Bella so much.  She is my constant companion throughout the day and she is always so happy and extremely helpful.  She is so loving to everyone and is such a sweetheart.  She is coming out of her shyness more and more and even her teachers comment to me about how much more she is talking in class and participating.  She even says the prayer by herself in her sunbeam class.  She is my sweetie pie and I love her so much.

Fancy Nancy Tea Party Birthday

When I was trying to come up with a theme for her birthday, I would ask her what she wanted and she would say something different each time.  One time it was Dora, one time it was princesses and half the time she didn't know.  So, I came up with the idea of doing a tea party and she liked the idea.  But she has a little friend that she plays with a lot, who is a boy.  So, I was trying to figure out how I could do a tea party and still have David want to come participate and be comfortable.  So, Fancy Nancy came into my head (we love those books) and it just so happens that one of her books is called Explorer Extrordinaire.  And basically the book is about Nancy and her fancy friend Bree who have an explorers club and they talk about how it's fun to go exploring while still being fancy.  So, I incorporated that into the party. 

So on May 5th, we had her party at 2pm.  Garrett was just getting home from the Father/Sons Campout around noon, and he had free tickets from Intel to go see the Avengers.  I told him he could go, but he had to take Noah with him, because I couldn't run a party and take care of Noah.  So, he took him even though I knew he'd be scared, but fortuneatly, he slept through most of the movie.  Crazy, huh?  I had each of my older girls be helpers again to one of the party guests and had Paige's friend Brooke come and help her brother David. They were a big help. 

Bella and I made the butterfly shaped placemats.  And I bought most of the tea cups at goodwill for $1 each.

I made cute little tea/garden hats for them to wear.  I discovered an awesome online store called halo heaven.  They have really cute things for really cheap and they are good quality things.  I found the hats there and these ballerina skirts that they could wear and some of the flowers I used on the hats.  I would highly recommend them to anyone.  So, I hotglued ribbons, flowers and fake butterflies onto the hats.  I thought they turned out cute.

(Everything is fancier in French!)

Our butterfly and flower themed decorations

The buffet table for the tea party

While the guests arrived, I had them coloring pictures of Fancy Nancy, then when everyone arrived we gave out the hats and the skirts and some pearls to wear so they could be fancy.  Then we took pictures and put them in with the Thank You notes.  I love the way they turned out!

Then we had "tea". (Really strawberry lemonade.) David wasn't really into it, so he just watched.  I guess I don't blame him. 

This one is kind of dark, but it is cute. 

Maggie and I in our hats

Lyd and Maggie

After tea, we decorated our goody bags that we would be using for our exploring.  They just decorated the bags with foamies and stickers. 

Then, we went through the book, Explorer Extrordinaire and I handed out the things they'd need to go exploring and what they were supposed to find.  (pretty much just a scavenger hunt)  They each got a notebook and a fancy pen and a magnifying glass. 

 The instructions were in the notebook.  They had to find  and collect 8 things that Paige had hidden around the yard.  Then they were supposed to draw them in their notebooks with their fancy pens, but they weren't really into that.  The things they were supposed to find were fake insects (everything they found was from the Dollar Store), a bird, a butterfly, a leaf and some fake flowers. 

And they are off...

Cute little Ji-Su checking out a bug

Paige helping our neighbor Hollie and Lydia helping Bella

David was definitely more into this.

Then we played "Pass the Butterfly" (Like hot potato)

Then we had cupcakes and the kids got to make their own parfaits.  Yummy!

Present time!!  Bella and Ji-Su

Brooke, Bella and David

Katie and Bella (Katie is Emma's little sister and Emma is Maggie's good friend.)

Our neighbor Hollie, and Bella

All in all it was fun, but I think I should've planned more games and made the party a tad bit longer.  There were so many other fun things we could've done, but I guess they all had fun.