Happy Girls

We were swinging on the swings and playing dress-up and Princesses one day in July, and I captured some of my favorite pictures ever of my cute girls.  Totally in their element,  These sweet, joyful, full of fun moments make my Mommy heart so happy. :) I'm so glad my little camera phone captured this moment so well. :)

July 2014 - Palisades

We have done a lot this summer that we would like to do every summer, or at least every other summer.  One of which was camping at Palisades State Park.  We went over 4th of July weekend with our good friends, the Fowlers.  We went out on the canoe and paddle boat, fished, ate a lot, played at the campsite and on the beach, roasted marshmallows, and had a great time!  On the 4th of July Andrew and Jenna drove into Manti for a Daddy/Daughter date and watched the fireworks. :) Good times!

June 2014

We have done so many fun things this summer!  I am going to try to do a recap one month at a time. Let's start with June. We got to babysit the Blacks for a few days.  We had so much fun!  We went to a celebration of National Dairy Day in Midway, UT.  There were rides, a petting zoo, games, ice cream, pizza, different flavors of milk, and it was all FREE! We had so much fun!  The line for ice cream was too long so after our fun in Midway, we stopped at Leatherby's for our ice cream fix. :) One of the days tey were with us, we went down to my parents' house and took a walk to see and feed the horses.  The top pic is Sadie, Jenna and Griffin playing on the swing/hammock with Uncle D (Darian). We love living near cousins, Jenna and Ivy had so much fun spending so much time with them!

I already posted about Ivy's 1st birthday.  Just a little before her birthday we spent lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa Hansen as we said goodbye before they left to go serve as Mission President and Companion in the Cochabamba, Bolivia mission.  We love them so much and are so grateful for their incredible examples and sacrifice.  The adults were all able to attend their setting apart in Salt Lake.  We met Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles.  It was a wonderful experience.  We also had a few dinners, BBQs, and a nice breakfast with them.  We were able to have spiritual discussions and a sweet family prayer preparing for their departure. Andrew drove them to the MTC.  We miss them greatly but know they are doing the Lord's work and we are all being blessed because of it.

Grandpa has special powers. He is really good at calming Ivy down when she is being held by someone other than Mom or Dad. (This is pre-calmed down) :)

A few days later, Andrew participated in the Spartan Beast race, which he and all of his teammates say was WAY harder than the Tough Mudder race.  Andrew's a stud!  We are so proud of him for working so hard and getting in good enough shape to participate in such events!

Ivy's 1st Birthday!

Ivy is one!  Time has gone by SO fast!  We had an Elmo themed birthday party for Ivy at our house on her Birthday and just invited family.  It was raining, so he had it inside.  Jenna colored some pictures of Elmo and taped them to the walls as decorations.  We made Elmo masks with red paper plates at the party, and played pin the smile on Elmo. We also had Elmo cupcakes! Ivy loves Elmo!  She had to have a couple rounds of breathing treatments during her first year.  Once for Pneumonia, and once for RSV.  She sat through the breathing treatments the most easily when we turned on Elmo videos for her to watch.  Jenna loved Elmo when she was younger too.  And still does actually. :)  Our favorite Elmo video is 'Elmo's Ducks'.  Ivy had fun opening presents, Jenna and the Utah cousins helped too.  Ivy also loved her cupcake!  She started out by picking pieces off of it, and then decided to pick up the whole thing and try to put it in her mouth.  She also kept offering her guests part of her cupcake with her other hand. :)
Some things we love about 1 year old Ivy:
-She snickers a lot.  When she is excited or happy about something, she will snicker, and she snickers in a lower tone than her regular voice, it's so cute. :)
-She loves to share.  She often offers pieces of her food to us.
-She is very snuggly.  When I take her to her room for nap time, turn off the light, turn on the fan, and put her binkie in her mouth, she will then lay her head and my shoulder and totally relax.  I love it.
-She is still very smiley!
-When she gets really excited she tenses up her whole body, even her hands and feet and stretches out her toes.
-She is a great sleeper, both at night and during her naps during the day.
-She makes us all SOOOOO happy!
We sure love this girl!

Some pre-party pictures

 

 Pin the smile on Elmo

Presents

The guests

Cupcakes

We got creative :)

About to blow out the candle (Mommy helped)

                      YUM!