More Summer Fun

As I said in my last post we have been having a lot of fun! We are so grateful for Debbie and Ferrin Calder who let us come swim in their pool every week! They are awesome!

 We sure know how to fill a pool.

 All the kids are such good swimmers.  Jaycee and Wesley no longer need life jackets.  That has been fun. Bensen has loved the water this year and he loves to swim all by himself, and he does great!

 We are also very grateful for Grandma and Grandpa Bailey and the time they take out of their week to take us to the lake. We love it. 

 Some of my fondest memories are of boating, so I'm glad my kids get to experience it.

 This was Vivian's first visit to the lake.

 Bensen wanted to ride the water weenie.  I tried to tell him he was too little, he was having none of that, so we went for a ride.

 He loved it.

 But what my boys love the most is playing in the sand.

 They could play in the sand for hours...and they do!

It is so fun to see them love something that I love.

Fun Summer

We've been having so much fun this summer that Bensen cant even stay awake to eat lunch!

 He hardly ever just falls asleep, so we must be doing something right!

We've also have been doing fun Family Home Evenings, for this particular night we learned about how important it is to sustain the Prophet.

We sure love him, and now we know some more things we can do to sustain him, like

Pray for him, Stand behind him, Defend him, Do our callings, and Love him.

We really have had so much fun this summer, We've been swimming in Debbie's pool at least once a week, and going boating once a week, played outside, ran through sprinklers, played in grandma Carmae's slide pool.

These kids have way too much fun!

Jaycee's Birthday Party

This was Jaycee's first year to have a friend birthday party.  Don't worry, she only would invite her cousins and Holly. I tried really hard to get her to invite some of her friends, she wasn't having it. We also struggled with what she wanted to do for her party.

We finally settled on a paint party.

 Easy peasy...right.

 It turned out to be a little more difficult then I was expecting, but it turned out so cute.

 I love how different they all are.  These are some talented young artist!

Jaycee is so lucky to have so many cousins close to her age, and that live so near by.

Bensen hardly ever eats anything,  but i have learned that if you just leave food sitting around on tables he eats pretty good. Especially if there are treats on those tables. 

Mike and Vivian got in on the party for a minute.

Jaycee requested the Kit Kat cake! It is a favorite.

After the party she wanted to play night games.

Right before we took everyone home we did some sparklers.

Summer birthdays are the best!

We love Jaycee so much and we are blessed to have her in our family.
Jaycee is the best big sister! She is so good to play with Bensen and to help me with Vivian.
Jaycee loves to ride her bike, play with her cousins, sing and dance, play Mine Craft and eat candy.  She loves water! My mom calls her The Water Queen.  She is always the first one in and the last one out, whether we are in a pool or at the lake.  She loves it all!
Happy Birthday Jaycee, we sure love you.

Jaycee's Birthday and Family Pictures

Jaycee turned 9 on the 15th! 

This week has been girls camp for me. Since I have been taking Vivian with me I have been coming home every night. So I was home for Jaycee's birthday morning. Mike made her breakfast burritos per her request. We also gave her the present we got for her.

Her old bike was looking a little small for her.

Then I headed back up to camp for a little while.

While I was at camp Mike took the kids to The Rush in Syracuse to swim. They had a lot of fun. For lunch they went to Chick-fil-a. Then they came home to give Bensen a little nap.

When I got home we went back to The Rush for some more fun.  We bowled, they played mini golf.  It was a little too scary for Bensen so we hung out at the arcade games. They also did the Go Karts. After 3 hours of fun Jaycee chose Cafe Rio for dinner.

She was definitely spoiled this year.

 Girls camp this year was at the Mantua Home for Girls, in Mantua.

 

 Jaime was the camp director, so I was excited to go.  It was fun to see all the things she had planned and how they worked out. It really was a fun camp. It was nice that it wasn't that far away, so I could drive up everyday.

 When we lived in Hooper our girls went there twice for camp, so I knew there was a beautiful poppy field on the way up to the home.

 I was able to talk Mike into bringing the kids up to try and take some family pictures. They turned out pretty cute.  For some reason Jaycee, the 9 year old, was rebelling against us.  Bensen wasn't happy about it either, until we did individual pictures, then he was all smiles.

 This boy loves flowers. In the last picture of him the plant behind him makes him look like a turkey. He posed himself and everything.

 It is so pretty up there. A little piece of heaven.

Vivian's Blessed

Sweet Viv was blessed on June 5, 2016.

 I thought I would try to take a couple of pictures the day before her blessing, because the day of the blessing is always a little hectic.

 She was so good for me.

 I even got a few smiles from her.

I haven't edited them yet but I didn't want to fall too far behind on the blog.

 Mike was a great help.  What a good dad!

She was blessed with Kollin Whitear, who lives a couple houses down from us.  He is one month older then her. 

Aren't they the cutest?

 We had a lot of support from our families. I am so grateful for them.

 It was a great blessing and I am excited to see the blessings in her life.

 These kids sure love their baby sister.

If I say "Hows my girl?" Bensen says "No! She's my girl." Or "She's my sweet Viv". I was a little worried he might not be that nice to her, but he is so sweet and gentle with her. 

 After the blessing we had our families over for crepes and breakfast casseroles. It was all so delicious!

We are so blessed to have her in our family. She completes us....I hope.