Terrific Thatcher

Our Thatcher is now ten and will soon be heading to 5th grade. He had a great birthday celebration with his best friend Tyler and the rest of the Shields family. We call them TNT because together that is about what they make. :) To celebrate we went to see The Secret Life of Pets, then returned home for pizza, cake, ice cream, and presents. We ended this particular birthday with a sleep over bash because the following day Tyler and his family moved to Germany. It was a wonderful few days to celebrate Thatcher and spend some quality time with great friends. Heavenly Father knew exactly what He was doing when He sent down our little boy. Thatcher's tender heart is just what our family needs to balance the many emotions of four sisters and a mama. Happy 10th Birthday Thatcher boy!

Summer So Far '16

We L.O.V. E. summer. No schedules and no one telling us where to be and when. Its just so wonderful. I know you all feel the same way to and so of course we must make the most of it because there's 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it. So the annual problem for this generation is finding a good way to spend it, right?! :) Well, so far so good. We've skated, twice. Gone swimming multiple times. Learned how to Geocache (I think that's my favorite activity thus far). Haley enjoyed Daddy/Daughter time at the butterfly gardens. Youth Conference came and went without a hitch. Movie night to see Finding Dory, of course. Kadyn rocked her summer theatre camp as James in James and the Giant Peach and Haley crushed her role as Veruca in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Countless play dates and even more evenings playing our new favorite board games of Mascarade and Super Fight. And a wonderful, quiet July 4th holiday to celebrate the great blessings of independence and freedom that our Heavenly Father has granted upon this nation. I'd say not to shabby for 3 weeks of summer. 

Great Wolf with GREAT Friends

We kicked off summer right and enjoyed an awesome weekend at Great Wolf with our wonderful friends the Shields. They will be moving in a few weeks to Germany and our kiddos are heart broken. We're not really sure how to console them since such is the life of a military family. As friends who have become family move away we are vividly aware of how lucky we are to live in this great day of technology.  Between email, face time, and phone calls, the blessings of these great friendships  continue on and our kiddos experience the true meaning of forever friends.

Azure is Five!

Our youngest kiddo is now five years old! The entire thought of that is absolutely crazy to me. It seems like she went from a baby to a little lady overnight. Azure spent her day getting "makeups" along with a mani/pedi. We then spent time at one of her favorite spots, Fun Fun Fun, where her siblings scored some major tickets and used them to buy the "girly pink penguin" she has always wanted. We ended the evening with ice cream cake and presents. Azure is a little ray of sunshine. Her giggle brightens our days and her teasing streak (with included awesome facial features) keeps life absolutely joyful. She loves to comfort and make people happy. She hangs pictures of our family all over the house, including our bed. My first instinct was to take them down, thinking clean house, clean bed, etc...but for some reason I didn't touch them. The "baby" is growing up so quickly. Now each night as we go to bed and view her collage of pictures surrounding us, I'm grateful to hold tight for just a moment longer all of those wonderful stick figured, over sized headed family portraits! 

Disney Cruise '16

Hands down our best Disney cruise yet. The weather was absolutely amazing, the kiddos were absolutely the most perfect ages to enjoy each club/activity, and every one of us had absolutely the most amazing week of rest, relaxation, and memory making fun!