calvin

we sure do miss this little guy (and his mommy and daddy too). the girls had so much fun playing with their cousin from utah!

a fun week...

this past week dan's sister grace and her husband travis and baby calvin visited us. we had a great time hanging out and playing. we went to moody gardens-rainforest pyramid, rainforest cafe, took the kids to the splash park and did a little shopping. we love ya'll! thanks so much for coming! here's a few pics from moody gardens. it was elayna's first day of school so she didn't get to come :(

dan got to ride around like an old man in a wheel chair because of his broken foot.

the kids loved watching these huge fish from the amazon!

eight!

elayna was baptized on her birthday august 23rd. what a special day! the baptism was beautiful. we are so thankful for all the family that came and for those who participated in the program. afterwards we had a little family birthday party for elayna. she is such a sweet girl and we are so proud of her and her decision to be baptized. we love you!

minivan

we finally did it! we desperately needed something bigger, especially with baby #4 on the way. we are absolutely loving our new odyssey. it is so much fun and has so much room! i went to my first doctor's appointment today and i am about 12 weeks along and due on the 5th of March. but my doctor said she will for sure induce me early so that i won't risk having another 11 pound baby!

the color is called nimbus grey metallic- i know it looks black in this photo

she is so happy to have her own seat and not be smashed up against 2 baby carseats any more.

olympics and other stuff

i love everything about the oympics- the stories behind the athletes, the national anthems, the opening ceremony. we have been glued to the tv every night. our favorite event so far was the mens swimming 4x100. wow! that was so good. and we loved watching men's gymnastics last night. in other news, dan broke his foot playing soccer on saturday. so he has been hobbling around on cruthces with a big cast on his foot. he'll be like this for about 8 weeks! other than that, we are super busy getting ready for elayna's baptism and birthday. i asked her to make a gift list and here's what she put together. haha. i want $100,000 for my birthday too!

that last item says mummy books- she loves stuff like that.

just finished...

...reading this. i had a really hard time putting it down and finished in two days. it was pretty good, but i was a little disappointed in a few things. but i don't want to give anything away to those of you who haven't read it.

weekend with the cousins

we spent the weekend with my sister emily and her family. the girls had so much fun playing with their cousins. we had a fun pool party complete with popsicles and watermelon. then we took the kids to chuck e. cheese and they had a blast. the four oldest cousins stayed up waaay too late talking and laughing in the bunk beds. we watched a cute little movie called penelope after the kids were in bed. emily made her delicious seven layer dip and we had root beer floats and lots of candy to go with the movie. yum! thanks for the fun weekend emily and brian. we should do it more often.

cute little aiden. he didn't get to swim much because of the stitches in his head

avery and ava. avery loved the froggy float and stayed in it almost the whole time.

lemons

i love lemons! love the taste and especially the smell. love slicing them and putting them in ice water. i made some delicious lemon bars a few days ago. got the recipe here, but i forgot to take photos of them for the blog. darn it. so here's a pic of kyla and her lemon eyes.

peek

i love this funny face she always makes with her lips

from this week...

the girls outside enjoying a little summer treat. elayna just finished up her swimming lessons and did a great job! but boy am i glad i don't have to sit out in the heat for an hour everyday with avery constantly asking "where my swim suit?" she couldn't understand why she couldn't get in the pool too!

avery

she is at such a cute age and growing up so fast!

music...

i am a huge music person. i listen while doing dishes, laundry, bills... couldn't live without my ipod! just some random music i've been listening to lately, mostly mellow stuff. the new coldplay album is awesome by the way!

july 4th weekend

our fouth of july was spent with lots of family, swimming, yummy brisket and fireworks at the park. dan's sister's husband joined us for the weekend. we loved having uncle travis stay with us! the girls had tons of fun with him. the fireworks were actually pretty good this year! i wanted to take a few photos of the awesome finale, but avery fell asleep in my lap. i don't see how she could sleep through all that noise!

saturday we went to the beach with all the family. we had a great time! these two are so cute playing together

the kids spent a lot of time digging a huge hole in the sand

even uncle travis enjoyed digging in the hole.

avery stayed away from the waves and played in the sand.

kyla loves her mermaid tail!

reading

we've been taking lots of trips to the library and all three of the girls joined the reading club. elayna loves reading to her little sisters.

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