Birthday Party

Lindsey wanted to have a swimming party, so that's what we did.  We opened presents when everyone got there.

Madelynn, Ashlynn, Lindsey, Abi, Courtney, Taylor (holding Sydney's sister)

Maggie, Sydney

 Ryan grilled hot dogs for the girls while we swam.

Then we had cake and ice cream.  Lindsey loved her cake even though it wasn't how we thought it would.  So since she was happy, I was happy. :)

 Courtney was so happy she got to hang out with Brandon too!

I'm so glad it worked out for both sets of friends Greenwood and Fayetteville to come to Lindsey's party this year.  She is so blessed to have sweet friends and we are thankful!

Lindsey's 8th Birthday

 Lindsey woke up and got to have her favorite breakfast: breakfast burritos!

 She has been at Winshape camp all week and was excited to get to go on her birthday.  It was parent day as well, so the other girls and I got to go experience camp with her.

She got to have 3 different activities for the week.  One was painting....

 One was cooking and on the last day they had a cooking contest.  They had to bring all of their things and make something with only a few ingredients.  Lindsey and I thought of pistachio salad with pineapples and marshmallows.  She loves it, so it worked well.  She could do it all by herself and was excited.

 They sang happy birthday to her at the cooking class.  It was another girl's birthday too!

The last session was crafts

 Here they are in between sessions doing a dance.  It was dreadfully hot.  But she was a trooper!

 After Winshape was over we came home and had lunch, then we went to pick up Abi and Ashlyn from Greenwood to come spend the night.  While we were gone Ryan and Uncle Kyle worked on Lindsey's big birthday present....

 She was THRILLED! (which thrilled her daddy!)

 She got a few other presents from us.  It was fun to have Abi and Ashlyn here to celebrate with us!

Kelli came to stay with us for the night while she was on break from Camp War Eagle.  She was so sweet and thought to bring Lindsey a birthday present.  She brought these peace signs to decorate and stickers to decorate them with for them to do together.  

She also brought this for her, a dry erase board fro her room.  We love Kelli!

 The next morning we let the girls make colorful pancakes

 Sweet girls!  They did so good and had lots of fun!

It worked out nicely to let some "old" friends from Greenwood come play before we had the birthday party with some "new" Fayetteville friends.  We invited others from Greenwood, but it just didn't work out for them to come.

Whitney's First Hair Cut

Whitney's first hair cut was so not a big deal to me, but it was just needed.  However, getting her to sit in that chair took lots of bribing.  I finally figured out she thought it was going to hurt.  Bless her heart.  However, once she was ok with it, she did great!

 They offered her animal crackers and that helped too.

 Nothing major, just evened up in the back, but it helped so much!  I have to remind myself that the other 2 girls didn't have near this much hair at 2 1/2!  Crazy!

Like mother like daughter.  HA!

Lake Time With 5 Girls

 This has been a fun summer at the lake.  The girls really enjoyed taking Taylor and Rylee with us. 

Lindsey and Taylor riding together and having fun

 I love this picture. (Courtney doesn't love the tube...)

 Chillin on a boat ride

Whit LOVES to just be along for the ride.  She likes the tube for a short time and swims some, but her favorite thing to do is to ride and watch the girls.

Lindsey loves the ride too.  She asks all the time to just go on a boat ride!

They all 4 rode for a little while!  I love this and it makes me look forward to so many days ahead with lots of girls at the lake with us!

 Courtney loves Rylee...and finally got on the tube with her!

It has been fun to order take out from JJ's at the lake (just a restaurant there on the lake) and eat on the boat.  Notice the sky.  It is evening and it is the most awesome time to be on the water if you ask me.  It's not too hot, there aren't many boats and you can see some amazing views of the horizon with the lake and sky.  I love it!

This made me smile for a long long time.  We turned the radio up and they all started dancing.  It is one of those moments that it made me so excited for our future and all the fun these girls will bring to our house.  They do right now, but that is changing as they get older and I want us to be a fun family that our girls want their friends to be apart of.  These kinds of outings make me hope for that and able to see what that will look like for the next 10 years.  We are so blessed!

SURPRISE Dad, Happy 70th Birthday!

 Mom and I pulled a great surprise party off if I do say so myself.  It was so fun!  There were like 26 people there.  It was lots of fun!

 Lindsey and Whitney waiting for Grangrad and Honey to get to the party!

 Lots of friends of mom and dad's came

 Everyone waiting....

 Taylor and Amber

 Courtney and Ryan were outside on watch for letting us know when they were turning in

 Mom and Dad finally arrived

 He was surprised and said he had no clue

 We went with red and black themed stuff and i like the way the simple flowers turned out

 We had BBQ for supper, one of dad's favorite

 We said no presents, but everyone brought cards, so the girls enjoyed helping Grangrad open them.

 It was great for me to get to see all of these friends, most of which I have known for literally 25 years.  It reminds me how precious friendships can be and makes me so thankful for our friends!

Dad showing Bob the hospital bill from when he was born.  I think it was $125. Ha!

 

 Family pic

 What a great time to celebrate Stewart, Dad, "Punkin" (only mom calls him that), Grangrad.  He enjoyed it I'm sure and we are thankful for him in our family!  We love you!!!!