Princess Playgroup

What do you get when you have 6 princesses in a row? (This isn't a riddle. Jenna has the cutest little playgroup and I had them all dressed up like princesses.) The answer is: an adorable picture!

Every week they get a chance to come together and play. This last week was at our house. The girls excitedly raided our dress up closet. Jadyn helped all of Jenna's friends pick out the perfect outfit. Here are some photos of all of the little princesses. (Jadyn was part of the playgroup. She told me she was "helping her Mother with playgroup" but she had just as much fun playing as anyone else.) They all danced and twirled and had a wonderful time looking so beautiful.

This is the photo that I am so pleased with. Little bashful Sarah hid the entire time I had my camera out. I finally grabbed this shot of her before she ran away and hid again.

Jadyn is a bit envious of Jenna's playgroup. She really loves it when we have it at our house so that she can participate. I think that Jenna is going to love growing up with her princess friends.

A Tonka Truck Party

For Hyrum's first birthday I got really excited about doing a boy theme. We had a Tonka Truck party and it was a lot of fun. Hyrum was given everything a little boy needed. Everyone was so generous with their gifts. We have such wonderful family and friends...What a blessing!


This was our spread. We had little sticks (pretzles), dirty logs (carmel and chocolate dipped pretzles), wheels (chocolate doughnuts), dirt & rocks (oreo truffles), dirt pudding (chocolate pudding with cookie crumbs and gummy worms), chocolate dipped oreos, and the Truck Cake. I thought the whole set up looked great. Hyrum loves chocolate and went for the doughnut wheels right away.

We did the family tradition of "Silly, Silly" and each of the young girls took turns bopping Hyurm on the head with his gifts. Jadyn made his wishes for him. Hyrum was good about it.


He had lots of help looking at his new toys.

The only glitch of the evening was when he tried to grab his birthday candle instead of blow it out. He cried and we had to run his little fingers under water. I have never had a kid that tried to grab the lit candle before. That was a first for me and I felt like a horrible mom. Oh well. He recovered well and had a fun party anyway.

You can't have a first birthday without making a mess of your cake, right? Hyrum did a decent job. He preferred anything chocolate to his birthday cake, but still had fun making a mess.

Happy Birthday, Little Man! I can't believe that you are already ONE! Where did the time go?

Grandma's Surprise Gift

The day after Hyrum's birthday, Grandma called and asked if the kids might be interested in a train ride at the park. Of course, my kids LOVE that sort of thing and it was a great surprise.

With the exception of loosing one of Jenna's flip-flops on our second train ride, (I tell you, Jenna looses more shoes than any other kid I have ever known) everyone had so much fun on the little train. They waved to people and got really excited to see all of the ducks. When we asked Hyrum, 'What does a duck say?' his immediate response was, "Rrrrrrr!" By the end of the night he was saying something closer to "Quack, quack."

Hyrum was not a big fan of riding the horses on the carousel, but he did like sitting and waving at Grandma as we went around and around. Once he got off, he loved waving and yelling, "Hi-ah!" at his sisters and Mom.

Thanks, Grandma for such a fun day at the park! I feel like my kids are especially blessed with wonderful grandparents. I am grateful for the days when we all just get to play together and create a bunch of memories. The kids were thrilled to ride the rides and see the ducks. It was a perfect way to celebrate Hyrum's birthday. As we drove home Jadyn remarked,

"It is so good that Hyrum had a birthday so that Grandma could take us to ride the carousel and the train at the park. Will Jenna's birthday be next week?"

A Celebration of Hyrum

It is hard to believe that my son is turning 1 today. Hyrum is a wonderful boy with a huge grin and the sweetest disposition. I was looking through his photos this last week. I had forgotten how dark he was (for one of my babies) when he was first born. He has always been a handsome kid. Here is a backwards glance at Hyrums first year…

Welcome baby Hyrum! Your sisters were so excited to come and meet you. They came with Grandma and brought a balloon and some little gifts for you. You didn't mind that they poked and loved you to pieces.

A few days old.

A few weeks old.

3 Months old.

Hyrum's first Christmas.

Six months old.

Do you think it is hard to be the only boy?

Could he be the cutest little messmaker, ever?

At the park on his birthday. I was laughing at him. He was so excited to walk and climb. He would randomly scream for kicks. He also would "roar" at everyone he saw.

Your birthday was a fun day. You actually had fun just playing all day with your sisters and your mom. Thanks for bringing so much joy to our lives! I hope that you always know how much you are loved.

Pictures

I rarely take my kids to get pictures, so this was a real treat for me. We did these photos back in August and I am just getting around to sharing them! I am always the one behind the camera - I'm never just trying to get the kids to laugh or watch and it is even more rare for me to be in a few of them. I took my kids over to Still Life Studios (Jared's partner company) and Dani captured the little personalities of my children beautifully. I love every single picture! I know that I am biased, but WOW! I have some cute kids! Here are a few of my favorites.

'Tis the season to get those family pictures done - I recommend Matt and his team to anyone looking for great photos! I LOVE my pictures!

What's Up?

Yep! Over the last week Hyrum has taken the leap from walking along the furniture or with assistance to walking all by himself! He can even walk in footie pjs! (I would probably slip, fall, and basically kill myself if I had to walk around in footie pjs...) He looks so proud of himself and even cheers for himself when we are not paying attention to tell him that he did a great job walking. Hyrum can walk and he is going places! Even though I wasn't ready for him to walk yet (I can barely keep up with him as he crawls), we are all so proud of him! That is the biggest news of recent days. We do have a few other things that made today's news...

Hyrum seems to always be sticking out his little tounge. I think it is adorable. It is always to one side or the other. I just had to include a photo of his "normal" face.

Jadyn was really cute one afternoon when she started teaching Jenna and Hyrum how to lasso Rocky (Hyrum's little rocking horse). She told me, "Mom, I am a good Cowboy. I can ride a horse, catch him with my rope, and do it all really fast."

I asked her if she was sure she was a Cowboy. To this she responded,

"I think I am a Princess Cowboy-Girl, but princesses ride funny, so I'll be a Cowboy-Girl when I ride." What a hoot.

Just for kicks and giggles I had to throw in a photo of Hyrum in a cowboy hat. He looks awesome in hats. I wish he would keep them on for longer than a few seconds!


That is all we have for today. Fun, fun!