Pinkalicious Party!

Pinkalicious strawberry cupcakes!

Pink jelly belly thank you party favors

Each party guest got a butterfly hair clip.  I found a pkg of these butterflies at Zurcher's and made them into hair clips and used them to decorate the banner too.

We made pinkalicious bead bracelets.

Tissue pom poms are actually really easy to make.

Homemade banners are the thing to do right now.  I think I'll keep this and get it out every year for her.

Found the perfect pink cupcake pinata and filled it with pink goodies.

We had pink cupcakes with pink ice cream and pink lemonade, of course.

I think I had just as much fun as Leia getting ready for this party.   The little girls were so good and enjoyed every minute.

 After Pinkalicious story time, and pink bracelets and pin the pink heart on the crown and pink pinata candy and pink cupcakes don't be surprised if your girl wakes up completely pink all over! Thanks friends for a wonderful pinkalicious party!

Bre's Special Day

It was Breanna's baptism day on Sat the 6th of August.  She looked so pretty all in white.

The family picture was an afterthought on our way out the door as we were leaving so everyone is squinting in the sun...would have been better in the front of the church.

Then we took the kids to Temple Square.  To think that all this wonderful church history and teaching resources are so close and we hadn't taken them there since Addie was a baby.  We decided it would make for a memorable baptism day for Bre.

We love to see the temple.

We saw the Brigham Young Beehive House and ate at the Lion House.

We saw the Joseph Smith movie in the Joseph Smith Memorial Bldg.  It had recently been revised and was so good...one of the very best church history movie depictions I have ever seen.  

The kids were fairly good and really enjoyed the day.

However, sometimes they were more like this.

Overall, it was a very special day with our very special girl.

5 Things...

For all 1 or 2 of you who may look at this blog...
I found an article that is very insightful and helpful in my journey with my son. It is called  5 Things Every Autistic Person Needs .   I have struggled over whether to post anything about autism or my struggles with my son for fear he would come across it someday and somehow feel bad.  But I want my extended family to better understand...because that is how we learn to love.  Some of you may have a special needs child and you will relate and hopefully understand more.  In fact the needs apply in some way to all of us.  Sometimes I think I will never be a good enough parent for my child.  However, I am learning that his uniqueness and challenges are a blessing for me to learn to be a far better parent than I could have dreamed.  And for that I am grateful. 

I love this image for the "Big MAK's" or Big Mom's of  Autistic Kids.

Family Reunion 2011

Summer Field Trip

I haven't done a scrapbook page for months so I really wanted to.  We took ourselves on a little field trip Saturday and so this was what I decided to scrapbook first.  The summer is already half over!  I actually took the kids to the pool last week for the first time so now it feels like we are actually doing a few summer things.

Happy 4th!

 We love to be festive!

Grandma Garrett gets to spend the 4th with us!  Horray!  Leia was a little frightened by the sounds of the balloons being filled up, but she perked up by the end.

Balloon Fest is always a fun tradition.  The Star Wars guys and balloon was a big hit this year.  The coke bottle is the tallest hot air balloon in the world.  They filled it but it did not go up.

And we're just gettin' started.

This was all Saturday.  We did balloons and a family BBQ and fireworks on the driveway at grandpa's house and then everyone and their friends came over to our back yard to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks.  I pass out glow sticks for all the kids and cousins to play with while we wait for the show to start.   A few of our family invite other friends but then there are always a few people that we don't know that show up on our lawn.  Oh well, the more the merrier!

Summer Festivities

The Orem Summer Fest kicks off our summer.  It was good weather this year so we enjoyed the carnival and had some fun.

On the ferris wheel!

Fun Slide!

Kiddie rides!

Rock Climbing!

Fun house!

Face painting!

Gotta love Addie's mustache!

Dad and Levi bought hats for hiking.

"Fanetik" Spelling?

I love how kids do phonetic spelling.  Here is Bre's grocery list for me:

1. furt by the foot

2. guraps

3. slist chees

4. bred

5. cocoo pebls

One of the best reads

This is my favorite book right now.  Thank you Hollie for sharing this with me...very inspirational!