A MONTH Late!!

Looks like I need to be playing blog catch up again! Here are pics from Kylie's birthday party A MONTH ago!! We had a family BBQ to celebrate. It was a lot of fun. We even had family from Wisconsin come visit us! :)
We had dinner first. Here is the kids table. :) (The party was Mickey Mouse themed. I took Kylie to the party store and let her pick whatever she wanted. Mickey it was!)The adults ate in the dining room right next to the kid's table. Look at those two babies we were lucky to have join us! They are both SO CUTE! :) And THANK YOU Brad, Dana, and Alan for flying in today so you could be there! :)

We had pictures for them to color and the birthday girl helped set it all up.After dinner we went outside and let the kids run around. And run they did! They had a blast chasing each other and playing around the garden. (Don't know why but kids LOVE going to our garden boxes and walking around them and stuff. It's so cute. And I'll have to post new pics of our garden because I can't believe this is what it looked like a month ago. It's all green and huge now!)

We had a little bubble machine going too that was a lot of fun. The kids chased these all over.

Then on to the pinata. This was fun to watch. So timid at first...

Then Tyler entered the scene to help!!! I loved watching both of their faces!

Sophie got her turns as well and they all got quite in to it.

Since little Bailey didn't want to try, we let Holden go at it and crack it! He must have learned from his Dad! :)

There was a lot of candy for these kiddo's and they loved gathering it all up!

Since Holden was our winner for breaking it, he got to wear what was left of it! He looks just precious with it on his head! Even matches his shirt! :)

The beautiful girl that I actually got to turn around to look at me during all the festivities. :)

She got her Minnie cake and did a great job blowing out the candles...

..and an equally good job eating the cake and getting frosting all over! :)

Then on to the presents. She was so excited for this. She was totally in to it. Would open one up, and then set that aside quickly and open another. Usually she is a slow present opener, but not today! :)

And then I tried to get a pic of the kids by the Mickey picture, but as you can see it didn't work so well. I think it's so funny and cute of them all! Kids are the best! (We didn't even get all the kids in it...we missed Caleb and Finley!!!)

At least Sophie was willing to pose for me! Thanks dear! I appreciate it! :)

We had a great time and Kylie still loves to talk about her birthday party! Thanks everyone for coming! :) I can't believe my baby is 3 already! Where DOES THE TIME GO?!?!?! I miss my baby! But it's so fun to watch them grow up!!! Happy Birthday sweet Kylie!!!!

Kylie's Birthday...

I can't believe I haven't posted these yet. Sorry! But we had a great time for Kylie's birthday! We had a BBQ the Sat before her birthday that was a blast (I will post pics of that soon too!), then we continued the celebration throughout the long weekend. We even had some FUN and WONDERFUL guests there the whole time! Brian's brother and his family (Brad, Dana, and Alan) came to visit and it was a BLAST!!! We had a great time with them and we're SO GLAD we got some time with them. Here are some pictures from our celebration...

We thought it would be fun to have Kylie pick out some things herself at the store for her birthday. We had some presents for her already, but took her to the store to have her find some things she loved. She LOVED being able to play with some toys at the store and get to take some home! :)

Kylie LOVES bubbles. Seriously...if I would sit there all day and just blow bubbles she would be so happy. Well luckily...they have things that will just sit there and blow bubbles for you now! I found this octopus that I got for her birthday BBQ for the kids. It was fun. Then when we went shopping we found another one...


This mega one was a HIT! It blows these HUGE bubbles and bubbles in bubbles and stuff. We spent quite a bit of time playing with this outside.

Here she is running around getting her bubbles. She had full reign of the porch. :)

And what were the Dads doing while we were playing with bubbles?! Well...the boys were chatting landscaping. After we went shopping for Kylie...we did a little shopping for our yard. Brad and Dana are PRO Landscapers so we wanted there help while they were here. The boys planned it all out for us...thanks! Now we need to go buy everything and start planting!

And the view of them both...Kylie running around with the bubbles and the boys chatting landscaping.

During our celebration, we also went to the zoo. (Of course because Kylie LOVES this place!) Here are the visitors that we LOVE at their first trip to the Hogle Zoo!!!!

Looks like Kylie is sleeping here, but she's bending down to tell her Daddy something very important. :) They are SO CUTE together! When Brian is around....that is who Miss Kylie wants to be with. :)

Brad and baby Alan checking out some monkeys. TOO CUTE!!!
The brothers and their kids with the gorilla. They are all loving this pic...can't you tell?! :)

And Baby Alan sitting up there all by himself?!?! :) Wow! (Thank heavens the gorilla was tall enough and such so Brad could hide behind it for us to get this picture!)

Cousins together hanging out on the big metal elephant at the zoo! :)
We had to take the train ride too! Look at this cute family! :)
There are some big hills to walk up and sometimes we just need a little help. :)

So since you can't really tell...there is a kangaroo sleeping under that tree. Why the picture?! Well these three and headed off to Australia to live for a few years. Brad's job is taking them there. (LUCKY'S!!!) Anyway: we wanted to get a picture of the first time Alan ever saw a kangaroo! See....you guys can move to Utah and still have the same things to see! :) Hehe.
Kylie's fave thing to do at the zoo may just be to ride the carousel. So of course we had to do this. Here is Kylie handing the attendant her ticket. She was excited...although you can't tell by her face. :)

And here is Daddy/Daughter about to start their ride. I believe we rode this like 3 or 4 times this day.

Baby Alan with his Daddy riding it as well. Don't think he had the same love for it as Kylie but it was still so cute! :)

I have more pics to share. It was SO MUCH FUN to celebrate our beautiful daughter, Kylie. And have Brad, Dana, and Alan there too. We MISS YOU GUYS!!!!

Jamaica...Part 3

We've been back for awhile, but I just wanted to update with the last of the pics I will be posting on our trip...
We went out a few of the nights to take some pictures by the BEAUTIFUL sunsets they have there. LOOK HOW COOL this picture is. I LOVE it! It looks like we use Photoshop to add Kylie and Brian in, but we didn't! :) This is how it looked when I snapped it. Too fun!!!

Kylie and I posing.


And Matt posing with his significant other. :) (Apparently he's taken pictures like this wherever he goes. Then when he gets married, we really can Photoshop his woman in and instantly they will have been on all these trips together! :) )

We went on a glass bottom boat tour while we were there. To be honest....snorkeling is so much better, but this was a fun way for Kylie to see some fish! :) She loved it and looked so cute in her life vest!

Kylie LOVES to swim! Which is good because 90% of the time we were here, we were in the water or by the water! :) It's so hot...you just want to be in the water at all times. :) There is a lazy river here that is actually quite fast. It's great. Although instead of using inner tubes, you just wear a life vest. It was better because you got to actually soak in the water and be taken around. Anyway: we took the life vest Kylie had on over to one of the pools when Matt and Brian went scuba diving, because she wasn't liking her floaties. It was SO CUTE to see her swimming around. She would just tip over at first, but after working with her for a few minutes, she just LOVED to swim. It was so cute. When the boys got back, we took a quick video of her...

After all that swimming....you must take a break and sip on some fun "Blended Fruit Punch" while you are swimming! (The boys loved to go get these fruit drinks all day. BFP and the Creamsicle were the faves.)

That cutie girl totally focusing on her treading water. :)A great shot of Matt jumping in the water. :)

We went on a little walk down the beach and found some people selling their homemade Jamaican crafts. It was super fun. We both bought a turtle carved out of wood and this was the artist. He called himself a "Jamaican Mountain Man." It was fun.

Brian surprised Kylie and I with a nail appointment together. :) HOW CUTE is she?! Propping her little feet up and holding SO STILL while she got her nails done. She loved it and kept talking about it the rest of the trip. :) My little pretty girl!

Matt taking some time to hang with Oscar.

Kylie LOVED the Sesame Street characters all around. We went to the shows they did at night. The first time she wouldn't get too close. Then all she wanted to do was get up on stage. She would go over to the stairs and start climbing up there to give them a hug. They wouldn't let her up there, of course, but it was so funny. My little shy girl wanting to get up on stage! :)

A family photo taken on one of our nightly beach walks. (Man....posting all these pictures is making me a bit Jamaica-sick! I want to go back!!!!! :) )

One of our fave restaurants is "Kimonos." It's a Hibachi style cooking place. This guy...Marlin...was THE BEST! He was hilarious! He sang all sorts of songs for us and was so entertaining and fun!

One of the nights, Brian surprised me with a private candlelight dinner. It was sunny at first, but we got to watch the sun set right next to the ocean. It was so wonderful!

Here is our personalize dinner menu. (Brian got to pick all the food we would be having.) It was YUMMY!!!!

Look how talented our server was! Yes....we were impressed! :)

Meet Fritz. (Matt on the left, Fritz on the right) We had to get a pic of him because seriously...he was EVERYWHERE! We would see him MULTIPLE times every day. (He worked there.) All over the place. It was quite funny. We actually expected him to be on our flight home with us! :) He was quite a nice guy and we had funny chatting with him. The employees here really are the best! They are so friendly and so good with the kids and so much fun to be around!!!This is the dive boat that would take the guys scuba diving. Brian and Matt went a few times while we were there, and I never got a pic of them. So here you go! :) They had a good time doing it. Next time it's my turn! :) I can't wait to get certified! I just thought this was cool. In the gift shop window, this was on display. The umbrella, sun, and beach chair are made out of flip flops! I think I need a display like this in my home! :)

So they have this desk where you can conveniently book your next trip while you are currently enjoying the one you are on. Brian made frequent stops here! :) We actually did book another one for next year, but we are going to cancel it. (So sad.....I know. But not really. We are cancelling it because we are going to visit Brian's brother and family in Australia!!!! They are moving there for a few years and we want to make sure we get out there while we are there!) Anyway: there was our Jamaica trip. It was a blast and I HIGHLY recommend this if you want a fun family vacation! We know we are hooked! :)