Mom's birthday / end of July

So the end of July flew by so fast the kids and I had such a blast. Sorry I didn't get nearly as many pictures of things as I should/wanted too. 

First of all I have to say I couldn't have done this whole month without the help of my little sister Emily she was my right arm and I had her by my side almost everywhere. I loved and cherished  the time we got to spend together and she made it so easy to have Mike away.  I got to spend a lot of time with my little brother too but not enough if you ask me. They are so much younger than I am but I really get along well with them and we have so much fun together when we get to hang out. 

I went to Harry Potter opening night with one of my best friends from high school, Jada. It was so much fun and I haven't done anything like that in years. In fact most of the audience was made up of teens. Loved the movie, prefer the book. 

We celebrated my mom's 60th birthday. She had a fun breakfast that was like an I-Hop breakfast at home. Then we headed up to my brother Andrew's for a BBQ and a party.  It was so good to see everyone again. 

 Lillie really loves Violet and don't they look so much alike. When ever they were around each other they were glued at the hip.

 My talented sister Gretta made this elephant cake. My mom loves elephants and has collected them for most of her life. it was such a perfect cake.

 We all had a present for her but here is a cute little story. Emmie and Eva got this box without their parents knowing and put some things in the box for Grandma and gave it to her. It had a water bottle, a hat made of crate paper, and a little doll.

 We gave her some hand carved soap for her new bathroom my dad and her put up in their bedroom.

We spent 3 weeks at my mom's house playing on the play set in the back yard, playing in the pool, running through the sprinklers, eating way too much sugar, going for walks, going to concerts in the park, playing in the sand box and just relaxing. Lillie's cousin Alena spent a lot of time there too so Lillie always had someone to play with and the two of them got along really well. And Sam was just in love with Emily and Aaron and played with them all the time. I also got to visit some old friends like my friend Kamila and her new baby. It's nice to know there are some people out there who you will always be friends with on some level. 

We spent our last week in a half at my sister Gretta's house in Kaysville. My little sister, Emily, and I watched Gretta's kids for her while she went to her oldest friend's little sister's wedding and did the flowers for them for 2 days.  Mike's father was in town so we spent some of our time with him too.

We had a dance recital... 

 Ate way too many Popsicles

 Then the girls pretended to play restaurant, they even put a Men's sign on one bathroom and a Women's sign on the other, it was so cute. Here is Lillie serving me some milk. Do you like her little apron?

The next day we went to the Zoo. It was a lot of fun. They had a dinosaur theme going on at the zoo and all the girls couldn't get enough of their books. If one was lost or someone had the wrong one Heaven Forbid. Most of the dinosaurs moved and Sam was not a big fan. My little niece Alivia wasn't a fan of pretty much anything in the zoo she is quite scared of animals so it was kind of a nightmare for her to be there. But the rest of the kids had a blast. Everytime we came across a new dinosaur the girls would look it up on their book. We also got on the carousel and ate pizza for lunch. 

Here is poor Livie being afraid of the dinosaur.  

Here we are with Gpa Gardner. Emily got tired so I pushed her around in the stroller too:) Really is there any other way to get a teenager to last that long at the zoo? I highly recommend it.

 This was by far Sam's favorite part of the outing.

Thanks for coming Grandpa It was so much fun.

When my sister got back we all hung out for a  few days. My sister Gretta had a nasty gash on her hand and had to get 7 stitches. I really wanted to take the kids to the pool but Gretta couldn't go because of her hand. So Emily and I took Eva, Emmie, and Lillie to the Layton Surf n Swim while Gretta stayed home with Alivia and Sam. What a fun time!!! Then on a day that my sister's husband Nate had the day off and could watch the kids we girls went on a shopping spree. We hit up the DI and found some great stuff. Then we went to Downeast  and hit an AWESOME sell and I think we all went a little crazy. I'll never forget my little sister's excitement over such cute clothes for $5 a piece. It was so much fun to hang out with a couple of my sisters for the day I wish it could have been all of them.

We also spent some time at my brother Andrew's house. I always love it there. I love the craziness of 7 children (plus my own 2) running around. Lillie had so much fun playing with younger kids and my niece Misty just loved Sam and kept a good eye on him for me. I love my brother's wife Tami, I have always felt really close to her and I love just hanging out with her and chatting.

My brother, with the help of the older kids, watched all the little one's while Tami, my sister Liz and I went out to eat then Tami and I caught a 4pm movie at the dollar theater. It was so much fun to hang out with the girls.

I am so sorry if I completely forgot something really important that happened. I did my best.

I came home to my awesome hubby on August 1st. It was a bitter sweet experience. I was so excited to come home to my own life and I really missed Mikey, but there were still things I wish I got to do and  although there is always a little drama with my family I miss them and love them. I had such a great time and I feel so refreshed with all the fun outings I was able to do. It will be a while until we make it back and my heart already miss all those I love there. I am so happy to be here with the ones I love the very most my hubby and my little ones.