Family Get-Together

What a fun weekend!  We got to get together with Aaron's cousins from Illinois and their families!  It was fun to see everyone and have all the kids get reaquainted.  The best parts were the food and the swimming.  And since I got zero pictures of food, here are a few swimming.

Along the left are the four oldest of the eight second-cousins around.

The huge splash in the above collage was made by Aaron's cousin J tossing both his youngest son and Evie into the air, giggling into the water. 

Here's Uncle D and his bride, L.

Aaron' sister and her family. 

Aaron's cousin and his wife .

Mom, manning the grill.

A cousin and her son. 

A little random, but I loved this.  A butterfly few past, then got interested in Mom B's flowers.  (The random picture at the bottom is the cat.) 

Featuring Evie and Hello Kitty

When Evie took her school shopping trip with GrammaB, all this pretty girl wanted was PINK and Hello Kitty!  (Luckily, Gramma's pretty sensible and made sure she got a few milder things, too.)  Today, we took her to a sister in our ward and got her a cute little haircut!  These, with the upcoming schoolyear beginning, made excellent reasons to go take pictures in the backyard!!  (Sidenote: I LOVE the willow as a background!  And the tons of grass so I have room to move around!)

So excited for school, she's jumping for joy!

Absolutely my favorite picture of the bunch. 

I told her to spin around to I can show off how adorable the layers in the back are. 

Bun in the Oven

It's true - we're expecting another B baby in March!  We are so very excited!

Primary Activity Day

Evie had her first primary activity day on the 19th.  It took her a little bit to get into all the water fun, but when she did, she was so silly!  The activity was held at a ward member's house (HUGE lawn!) and there were several water games to play.  I had fun as a photographer - it can be SO fun to take pictures of a water balloon fight!

It was such a fun day!  When I called 'time to go!',  Evie was swinging on the swings with another girl and the other girl said, "Evie, wait!"  then ran to her and gave her a huge hug and said "I love you!  I'll miss you!" and Evie said it back.  She has since begged to have 'Kyla' over - and it's taken me a couple of weeks, but I finally figured out who her mom is so we can invite them for a playdate.

Water Park!

I knew there was a fun water park less than a mile from our new house, but yesterday was the day we finally went to check it out!  All three kids loved it, even if it was a little chilly (in the 70s!).  We happily met there with our closest ward member and Evie's newest friend, K and her mom.  The girls all three loved jumping into the water and splashing together, as well as going down the slide repeatedly.  Carson was content to walk as deep as he could (in the zero-depth pool) and to splash in the fountain.  All in all, a very fun day out, and a place that we will for sure visit again soon!

Happy 29th Birthday, Aaron!

The week of Aaron's birthday, we took a family outting with our friends the Mortons.  We let the kids play in the sand, had some pizza, and then hit the water!  First the girls went out with the dads.  Regardless of Lizzie's passive face, she was happy to go out and, from Aaron's story, enjoyed even going out on the tube behind the boat!  Then we moms and Jake took the little guys and Sadie out for the second run.  Carson and I took a turn on the tube, but he was far happier to drive the boat with his buddy Jack!  After we were sun,sand, and boated out, we enjoyed some cupcakes.  In my happy foresight, I had thought to bring jammies, so at the van, I towelled the kids, removing water and sand, then got them ready for bed.  Hooray for that, because they were all out within five minutes!

On Aaron's actual birthday we went over to his parents' house for swimming, barbequing and cake.  Aaron got the added bonus of walking the bottom of the nearby pond with his dad to take out masses of water weeds.  Tired and sunburned, he still enjoyed his cake and icecream, even if we couldn't find the number '9' in Gramma's stash of candles.

Tired Much?

One day, I was tidying up in the kitchen and I turned around, nearly missing this.

Did you see what I saw there?  I'll give a closer look.

Oh, my tired boy just cracked me up!