Kailey's 14th Birthday!

Miss Kailey is officially 14 years old. She celebrated with friends overnight and then spent time with us after they left.

We were thrilled to shower her with presents. Kailey is a great gal and she is such an important part of our family.

Kailey loves her littlest sister and they often refer to each other as "best friend."


Miss Emery adores Kailey and often mimics her very actions. (Some good and some that we have had to discuss.)


These three all attend the same gymnastics class. I love to see the interactions among all three of them.


Kailey and Shelby are learning what communication, tolerance and love can do for a couple of roommates!


Claire is the first to remember the funny stories about all of her siblings- especially Kailey!


I love watching these two walk to the bus stop together. They are becoming good friends.
Kailey is Jake's "fashionista." (But he's wearing his soccer jersey.)


Kailey's smile makes us all happy.


Here is the birthday gal with her 2 biggest fans.

Kailey even went to her first Church Three Stake Dance (which means there were a LOT of 14-18 year olds!) on her birthday. She was an angel (it was a costume affair) and danced several times!!! Woohoo. We think she had fun. Kailey was born after 11:00 p.m. so she was home by her actual birthdate. Danny and I took the opportunity to give her a group hug at that exact moment!

So, the celebration continued the next day when we finally ate her cake.

The very happy birthday cake!


Will she be able to blow them all out in one breath?

We love you Kailey. We are so thankful that you are part of our family.

A very Happy Birthday

Today is my birthday. It has been a great day. We decided that we would start taking a family photo annually on this day. Here is our first installment.

The timer on our camera did good things to some of us- not great things to others.


Take number two was a bit better for some... (welcome to the corner of our backyard!)

Then it was time to open presents-

Stella leaves me presents too frequently- but I love her anyway.

These are my favorite presents-














I love them all. They love me too! You will feel the love as you scroll through these pictures.













Finally- someone who is happy when kissed by me!!!

Truly, my children and husband are the best gifts I could ever ask for. I. Am. So. Blessed.

Jamestown- the 1st Settlement

We still had a bit of time before we headed back home so we decided to stop by the Jamestown Settlement- established 1607.

A cool sculpture in front of the visitors center.

After a quick movie- we headed to the native american village.

The girls are learning to make rope- they loved it! (Since then- we had to invest in some raffia and many bracelets have been made.)


Fun village. The kids all pounded a bit of corn to grind it into flour


and we here we are scraping all the hair off this hide with seashells.

Then we headed to the English Fort

As you can see, we are ready for an attack! (I love how Em has her helmet on.)


You can see where Emery gets her fashion sense. (That would be her dad...)


The water gatherers


Jake and two water buckets (no yoke!- okay - bad pun- he's got a way cool yoke)


Trying to be pious in the church.


A re-creation of the Susan Constant- the biggest of the three original ships (the others were the Discovery and Godspeed). This baby held 71 people- amazing.


Ahoy land lubbers!

Jamestown Settlement was really fun! We would highly recommend it.

Soccer and Saturdays go together like

Pie and Ice Cream!

Jake has been enjoying his Saturday soccer games. He has had a great time with his teammates, too.

Go EXPLOSION!


And here is the cheering section. (When grandpa and grandma visited they actually watched the entire game even.)

Busch Gardens Howl-o-Scream

Williamsburg- Day 2

We had a great time at Busch Gardens. The Theme Park is divided into different European countries. This was in Britain.

Emery and Shelby- they should switch spots...


Everyone looks pretty happy now (except Kailey who is the biggest chicken)

And then...

I felt like the worst mom. (Poor Madi.- But she was only sad for a minute.)


Grandpa, Grandma, Jake and Danny on one of the scary rides. They were the brave ones who rode the real roller coasters!


Madi is on a hot air balloon type ride. She loved it.


This is a giant coffin. We're dead.


Now we're alive!



Grandma, Shelby, Jake and Em on the log ride. Emery LOVED this ride and went on it 3 or 4 times. (The funny part was that they took a picture as you go down a really long slide. In every picture she had this horrified look on her face. She enjoys a good scare.)


It's starting to look scary. The mist is rising from the ground.

This was in France.

Kailey kissing a rat. It was funny until we looked up and saw this-


They had real rats running across this rope. (Ewwwwwwwwwwww.)


Em and the fake ratzies.


I was scared.

We're in Ireland- in Killarney

The guy in the Pumpkin is Jack. We enjoyed his little dance party.


One of the dancers came off the stage and danced with Emery. It was so cute!


As we were leaving, we saw this owl. It was beautiful. (Eurasian Owl- 5 foot wingspan- we saw it turn it's head completely around a couple of times. Very cool.)