Double 4's!

No, not me silly's!

Today is a celebration of the day my husband was born, thus setting the course for my future :) I am so thankful that my Father in Heaven saw fit to send that baby boy to a loving family who would raise him and teach him well so that one day we would find each other and build a family of our own.

So Happy Birthday to my loving husband!!! And may there be MANY, MANY more to come!

I love you!

Hailey is a whole hand!!!

Thursday July 8th was Hailey's 5th birthday!!!! Time sure flies when you don't want it to! I can't believe how big my baby is...she's growing into a beautiful girl - with just a dash of attitude ;) haha!

We got as much of the family together as we could and took her to her favorite lunch spot!HA!!! Proof my kids love each other!!! :)

On Saturday, we had the funnest birthday party ever at her gymnastics studio. They did an obstacle course, danced, had races, and played in the big foam pit! I was told by more than one child that it was the "best party ever!!" :) Yes, it was a hit!

After play, play, playing we blew out her candles and opened a few gifts :)

Parker is a good big brother, even holds her mirror so she can try out her new Barbie make up!!

Mom & Hailey at the end of a very good day...

So much catching up to do!!

It's already been 2 weeks since our trip to Southern California for Scotty's graduation and I haven't posted a thing!!! So, in an extra long post...let's play catch up!!We had an amazing time on our oh so quick trip to Kim's in June. Even if it was only 48 hours, it was so well worth the trip! The ocean air calls to me! I couldn't believe how grown up little Scotty is! He's like a man now! Time is sure playing some cruel tricks on me these days!

After all the festivities were over, we packed our small bags and headed back to the desert heat. I wish I could say our trip home was uneventful, but just 60 some miles from home, the transmission on our Suburban went out!! It took us 2 hours, but we were able to limp our car home where it sits waiting for a new transmission :(
And then came Independence Day! Our family normally reserves our summer vacation to Southern California to cover the 4th of July holiday, but because of Rich's ever-changing work schedule, he was on call for our favorite holiday of the year! After shedding a tear over my homesick ache for the ocean air and extended family to celebrate with, I pulled myself together and appreciated what I DID have to celebrate with my family here. It turned out to be a great day. Jared and his girlfriend of almost 1 year, Megan, spent the day with us swimming and cooking and eating snowcones and homemade cookies and watermelon. When it finally got dark enough, we headed out front to join our neighbors for one of the best fireworks displays this neighborhood has ever seen! Although illegal, so many of our neighbors had gone all out to purchase the "good stuff" out in Moapa and we watched fireworks for almost 2 hours!!! It was great and the kids were in awe :) Of course just when the festivities were winding down, Rich was called to work, so our night came to an end. The day had been perfect. We flew our Colors in honor of this great country, and felt so much pride in doing so. Rich had put together a montage of patriotic music that he piped through the neighborhood during the fireworks and it was quite moving. So even though I missed my California family, it was a great holiday. I hope yours was as well!I couldn't resist this picture of our cute little "Libby" - short for Liberty :)