Here we go again...

Well, this has been our life for the past week...I'm sad to report that we have taken our SECOND round of the stomach flu here at our house. It starts with one child and every other day another takes their turn. Oh the joys! Seriously, I'm beginning to think I feel non-stop sick because I'm cleaning up and and smelling the blasted smells from this sickness....gag....these are the shining moments of motherhood. Alayna was #4 this time, so hopefully we will be on our way to health and happiness soon!!!

Baptism Day

Her special day has finally come....Baptism day....

She was so excited. Honestly, she had to wait until 1pm and the time couldn't come fast enough!

Cute Daddy with Alayna

 

Yup, I was there to witness it all.

In the orientation they were so cute just holding hands....From start to finish it was a very special day. Taking the time before hand to "Be Still" was the best thing I ever did. It prayed with all my heart I could truly be in the moment. To allow the sacredness of this special day not be drowned out by the hussle and bussle of the other three kids, visitors, house, lunch, etc....but my prayers were answered. It was quiet, still and just what we all needed. I loved it. We took the time later that night to both lay on Alayna's bed and write in our journals. It was a moment I'll always remember. I hold dear to my heart many tender and sacred feelings. One I will share is when I asked Alayna how she felt after it was all over and when she "recieved the Holy Ghost." She put her hands to her heart and said with a deep sigh and BIGGEST smile ever..."I felt so special when Daddy said that to me, "I say unto you recieve the Holy Ghost!"

Her sweet girly friends that came to support her on her great day.

The big girl cousins.

All the girls...

One proud grandmother of any girls.

Imagine we got a great family photo...and one with my eyes open...but man alive what a great family!

The best Great Grandparents.

An awesome set of Grandparents

My great parents which make Alayna's awesome grandparents

Special baptism girl

(Yes, Jared has a black eye. I will explain that with pictures in another post.)

 

Happy parents

The next girl cousin ready to be baptized! So exciting for these little kids....

Grandma Denny was even able to join us for this very special day! We were so happy to have them with us.

Birthday Girl - Birthday Party

The morning of Alayna's eighth birthday has finally come! She couldn't be happier!!!! She's looked forward to this birthday pretty much her entire life.

It helps that she has presents to open too!

 

Thanks to the best Aunt and Uncle in the world for sending her the best presents a second grader could ask for....

She ended up getting like her "favorite shoes EVER!" not to mention her BFF has the very same ones. She was SUPER happy about new shoes!

Also she LOVED her white baptism towel....Ash, honestly you are the best Aunt ever. We just love you.

And Ben loved the box!

We gave her a bike! Yeah, now she doesn't have to borrow her friends older sisters bike each time we go on a family bike ride.

Nothing better than chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast!

Happy as can be...what do you think, I think her favorite color is green or something? ha

She got a best friend necklace from her cute friend.

The next day was birthday party day...We were LUCKY to have it at the park with warm great weather. IT was awesome.

 

We played a bunch of minute to win it games...the kids loved every second of it. Toilet paper mummy roll game.

Cereal box puzzle game....

Cupcake pinata...

This was awesome!

Presents...always a birthday girls favorite thing...

Donuts...yeah, it was SUPER easy and honestly kids do not care at all!

We did other games, a parachute and ended it with four wheeler rides. Seriously the kids were loving the warm weather and all the fun activities. What a fun birthday party!!!

Spring Break - St. George

For spring break we headed down to St. George. It was beautiful weather and such a needed break from the regular life of house cleaning!!!

Check out Shan's sweet hat to cover all her battle wounds.

Caleb and Blake LOVING the park. 

Conner and Jake figuring out how to hold up their fingers for how many times they walked up 66 stairs!

That's 34 for Jake and 44 for Conner....More pictures to come.

 

12 for Kierra and 10 for Shan...I did it 11 times and my legs were shaking!!! We had already ran 3 miles that morning, and showered so I wasn't about to keep going like those crazy kids!!!

These are the stairs....all 66 stairs for them. Yup. We had been playing at the park and the kids were hungry for lunch. So Shan said, "If you walk up those stairs as many times as old you are then I'll buy you a hamburger!" So off Isaac and Jake went....they ran up and ran down 5 times up and 5 times down. So they earned their hamburger...then all the other kids joined in. But it didn't stop after that. They did it again, and again to earn fries, a drink then an ice cream cone! Jake was the SUPER overacheiver and did it 34 times...when he only needed to do it 20 times. He was an ANIMAL. 

Ben LOVES parks. 

And slides.

Pointing out the dreaded stairs!

 

The FOUR tough kids that completed the FOUR different challenges. 

Yes, they were EXHAUSTED!

After Caleb did his three flights of stairs I found him resting on here singing a song...so cute.

Day two, new park.

 

Sad baby face...I think he had allergies really bad down here because he was always swollen and puffy eyes...

 

The park was TOO busy so we headed to a pioneers house in St. George. His first name was Jacob...but  I can't remember the rest. Thanks Clint and Judi for housing all these WILD monkies!!!