Valentine's Day 2015

While the big kids were at school, we hosted a Valentines potluck and card exchange for the little ones.

I set up a photobooth for the kiddos to take pictures.

When Abby got home, the kiddos had a mini-photo shoot.

Christmas Festivities 2014

This was our first time having a full-size tree. The kids loved decorating it and Grant only spent the first few days redecorating/throwing ornaments.

We had a great ward Christmas party. Abby, as usual, wasn't interested in visiting Santa.

We were asked to be the nativity family.

Clara was the crowd favorite as the little lamb.

As you can see, Grace thoroughly enjoyed her first Christmas.

Grant got all things vehicle related. We had a hard time getting him to stop playing with the first toy he opened to see the other things.

The girls had such a great Christmas, despite Clara being in a cast. That probably deserves its own post but I don't know if I'll get around to it.

Halloween Festivities

The girls decided they wanted to be Elsa and Anna for Halloween as soon as they saw the movie. I had looked at some tutorials and was contemplating making the dresses. However, when I saw these dresses on sale, I decided to snatch them up. I ordered them in May and they didn't come until mid-September. I wouldn't let them wear the dresses until Halloween.

We figured that Grant should be Olaf to coordinate with his sisters. I finished making his costume the night before Grace was born.

We attended a neighborhood trunk-or-treat that Sam's office was participating in. It was a lot of fun!

Grant wasn't being very cooperative for pictures. He was people-watching and was very distracted. His costume was a hit. There were so many Elsas and Anna's that an Olaf was quite a novelty.

Sam's parents were visiting last week to help with Grace so we had the cousins over a few times to play and to hang out with Grammy and Grandpa. He did pumpkin carving one night.

Abby and Ella insisted on doing stencils on their pumpkins and it took forever. Abby finally let me help her finish but pumpkin carving is not one of my talents.

Grant was obsessed with "carving" the pumpkins. He cried inconsolably for like 20 minutes when we cleaned up all the pumpkin stuff.

The cousins came back over for Abby's birthday and they went trick-or-treating together. They made out like bandits and had a blast.

Grant's costume looked the best when he was looking down.

Independence Day 2014

On the morning of the 4th, we drove to my parent's house to spend the weekend. As soon as we arrived, the kids were begging to swim. It was pretty stormy the night before and there were still a lot of clouds so it wasn't as hot as a typical Arizona morning.

Grant loves the pool. He's usually pretty calm and relaxed. When we brought him in wrapped in his towel, I thought he was going to fall right to sleep.

Abby and Myrta.

Clara loves to jump in. She makes us all a little nervous because she doesn't always pay attention to where she's jumping.

I love this picture of Abby. Can't you just feel the fun?

We spent to afternoon hanging out, BBQed for dinner and then went out for frozen yogurt. We came back and put Grant to bed and my parent's graciously stayed home with him so we could take the girls to watch the fireworks.

There was music playing while we waited for the fireworks to start and the girls were getting their groove on.

Do you like Abby's patriotic outfit? She came up with it all by herself. Clara spilled juice on herself at dinner and I forgot to pack her an extra outfit so she just went in jammies.

It was a really great show. It was a lot of fun watching with the girls. Clara has never seen fireworks and Abby's never really heard them.

Clara was asleep almost immediately when we got in the car. It was a late night for them but totally worth it!

Easter Fun

We started our week dying eggs with Grandma and Grandma. It's fun having them around to participate in holiday traditions with us.

We went to the library for an Easter Egg Hunt but I didn't have my camera. It was the start of a lot of egg finding.

We went to an Easter egg hunting activity with the cousins in Marana. Clara was excited to hug the bunny.

Grant and Abby weren't so sure about the bunny.

They had the egg "hunts" divided into age groups. Clara and Grant were in the baby to 3-year-old group, which was crazy since all of the kids had their parents with them. I say "hunt" because it was just a big open field full of eggs.

Abby got tons of eggs. The kids also had fun playing in bouncy houses and eating free Eegees. We spent the rest of the day playing with cousins.

On Easter morning, we did our traditional egg hunt and baskets at home.

After church, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for Easter dinner, and yet, another egg hunt. We are up to our eyeballs in candy. I never took a picture of the kids together but here they each are in their cute Easter outfits.