Easter 2011

Here are a few of the highlights from our Happy Easter.

Everyone had fun dying and designing eggs.

The Easter Bunny visited our house Saturday morning. He knew we would at Papa's the next day so we were happy he could come a little early.

Some eggs, some candy, some loot

After our egg hunt we headed to Oakley for the annual egg hunt put on by Papa and Dee. They always do a great job and the kids look forward to it every year.

Papa and Laney Girl

The kiddos after they found their baskets, golden eggs, new jackets, and plenty of candy.

They were very spoiled as usual.

EASTER DAY

We spent the night at Julie's and were able to have Easter dinner with everyone and just enjoy being together. The kids love playing with their cousins.

Loggy Boy

(he fell asleep on the way home from church and wasn't too excited for picture time)

Laney Girl
She does NOT like grass

3 Cute Girls

Ellie Girl

She is always so photogenic

Bailey Girl
She is getting so grown up

I love mommy she loves me, we love daddy yes siree,

he loves us and so you see, we are a happy family.

(Logan learned this song in nursery and sings it all of the time)

All of the cute Payne cousins.

A Gorgeous Fall Day

We had such a beautiful fall this year. It was great for soccer games and for letting the kids play outside. We like to milk it all that we can, because we know winter is coming. The weekend that we blessed Laney was great. The kids played at the park by Ryan's office for a long time. They loved being outside and playing with their cousins.

Playing in the leaves at our house
The leaves at the park were huge and there were tons of them

The leaf was as big as Laney

Logan and Jackson swinging

Drew and Ellie enjoying a little bar action

Logan loved this toy because it is a tractor

I am the queen of the world

We love fall!

Labor Day, Happy Birthday to Ryan & A Few Other Things

We spent Labor Day in Burley this year. The first night we stayed in a hotel so the kids would be able to swim. They love swimming with their cousins when we all get together. The weather wasn't the warmest so it was a simple solution.

Everyone swimming in the hot tub

The next day was a little warmer so we went over to Julie's to enjoy some outside water activities. They set up this tarp and put some and water on it for the kids to slide down. Logan rode down with Kristi, El was brave enough to go alone, and Bay went a few times then went to go find grasshoppers with the boys.

After the sliding we headed down to the dock for some jet skiing. Julie took the kids out for rides. This is one of my girls favorite things, it was the first time Logan really remembers going out on one, and we was in love I had to pry him off so the other kids could have a turn.

Logan trying to drive

Ellie and Allie with Julie

Bailey and Jaeli having a ride

Where are the men?? Labor Day weekend is also opening weekend for College Football, therefore the men are pretty much non existent. They did manage to fit in an early round of golf before kick off. 4 months to go!

On Sunday we went out to Ryan's dad house for dinner, he and Dee always put on a great spread. This is the first time all the girls were able to get together and wear their Easter outfits.

Totally Picture Worthy

So cute, love all the variations of this adorable outfit

At the beginning of the summer our neighbor Jon (a John Deere lover) gave Logan a John Deere movie. Logan had started noticing tractors and was particularly fond of the green and yellow ones, Logan was expressing his love to Jon one summer evening when Jon informed us that he had a Jon Deere movie. He let Logan borrow it, and overnight Logan's love turned into a full blown obsession. We were not aware that Papa's lawn mower was a John Deere so imagine Logan's excitement when we walked into the garage and saw this......

Papa even had a hat

He sat on this thing for an hour

We had a great weekend in Burley, it is always a good time hanging out with everyone.

Loggy and Daddy looking at tractors in this book. I think I lost this book at Applebees the night before Laney was born. I called but they couldn't find it. Hum.........

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!

Ryan getting ready to enjoy his Blueberry Crumb Cake

I tease him that he always picks the ugly cakes for his birthday. He says he doesn't care how they look, he likes the way the taste. I found this recipe on Pioneer Woman over the summer and it quickly became one of his favorites. Served with caramel ice cream and he is a happy man.

Dinner at Cheesecake Factory


Happy Birthday Daddy we Love You!

I was happy when I found out Laney would be born in September. Everybody has a birthday buddy now. Ellie and Logan in May, Me and Bailey in July, and Ryan and Laney in September. If you have anal tendencies like myself you understand that this is cool. Having her born in October would simply not do. We must even it all out. Good thing it worked out, if not it would have bothered me until the end of time :)

Every year our awesome neighbors the Peterson's put on an outdoor movie. It has quickly become a neighborhood favorite. We all look forward to it every summer. This year we were favored with a little Scooby Doo. It wouldn't be summer without it.

Another season of soccer occurred this fall. Bailey had the same coach, who is awesome, and her 2 other friends that she has been playing with forever. It was a good season she worked hard. It finally paid off in the last game when she scored TWO goals. Everyone was so excited for her. I tackled her after the game. I think she was embarrassed :)

Good bye summer. I always miss you. Our life is about to change. Another little one. Hopefully by next summer we will have a grip on it all. We shall see!

The Month of July

J u L y

One of my very favorite months. There is always a lot of fun things going on. Plus it always starts with my birthday.

Happy Birthday to me. The night before my b-day I went out with some friends to celebrate some of the summer b-days. We went to P.F. Changs and to see Eclipse. It was a great time. It is always nice to have a night out with the girls.

On my birthday Ryan and the kids were great all day. Bailey made decorations, Ryan got some great gifts, including my new favorite BSU hat, Ellie told me Happy Birthday at least 100 times, and Loggy wanted in on the party action!

Not so much fun being pregnant on your birthday, or anytime really, but at least you can eat as much cake as you want and not even feel one bit bad when you eat the rest for breakfast. My sister Mel made the cake for me and it was delicious, we made homemade mint oreo ice cream to go with it. YUM!

For dinner we went to Flatbread Community Oven. It is one of favorite places, they have the best salads and pizza. Plus it is kid friendly. Win-Win.

The kids can make their own pizza and then go watch it cook in big oven, they loved it

There were also some fun fountains outside for the kids to play in

Jackson, Avery and Logan were in heaven

How cute are these 3?

It was fun having my sisters and their families celebrate with me.

It was a good birthday!

I am glad everyone could stay to enjoy the holiday weekend.

Red - White - Blue
How cute are you?

4th of July spread. Gotta go big.

So good: ribs, steak, shrimp, salads, watermelon

and of course Flag Cake

Logan is crying because he wants cake, he doesn't want to take a picture with the cake, he wants to EAT the cake. He LoVes cake - obsessed actually.

Hey cute girl you were awesome in our kick ball game

Love this picture of him, look at those eyes

My friend Natalie gave those earrings one year when we went to fireworks together. They use to glow in the dark. Bailey made me promise that I would save them for her, so she could wear them on 4th of July. This was the first year she could and she did not forget. She ran around looking for them. Good thing I saved them she looks cute in them .

El is sort of a scaredy cat so she stayed close to Grandma, Logan loved looking at everything but didn't want to stray to far away either.

Although he did like the snakes

The weekend wasn't the warmest, especially for 4th of July, but no one seemed to mind too much. We still managed to have a great time.

My sister Jenn put together a little party for all of the July birthdays. So after a trip to Baja Fresh we came back and had some birthday for festivities. Avery and Bailey also have July birthdays, and since Avery was turning 1 the next week the party was mostly for her.

There were wheel barrel races

3 legged races

A pinata

and of course lots of candy

It was a really fun weekend. Thanks everyone for coming to party.

Some of the other things we did in July......................

Swimming Lessons

This was a big deal for Ellie to jump off the diving board by herself, she was very scared but she did great. But she didn't really want to do it again.

She made great progress on her swimming this year

Bailey learned to dive this year and really started perfecting her strokes

The kids also all got hair cuts. Bailey chopped hers off and donated it to Locks of Love again. She was really excited about it and loves her new short hair.

They sent her a postcard thanking her, she thought it was awesome

Ellie got a trim. She was mad. She said it looked exactly the same. It really did look much better, and her hair is finally getting longer and thicker so I told her she couldn't chop it yet. She was mad!! But now she likes that she can have ponytails and Bay can't.

He may look happy now, but it is only because it is over. He screamed, thrashed, and screamed the entire time. He HATEs haircuts. He won't let me do it, won't let Ryan do it, or my poor friend, at least when she did it you could tell he got a haircut. Bless her for her patience with him. I hope it gets easier soon, his hair grows fast. Good thing he looks cute right?

We went to see Toy Story 3 afterwards. The kids loved it, thought it was hilarious!

We went to the zoo with Mel and Jackson one day. This year Logan really got into it, he loved looking at all of the animals, he tried to talk to them or wave, it was fun to watch him. The girls still love it too, which is nice. It made for a great way to spend an afternoon.

I love Logan's face, he is trying to see the giraffes, he wants nothing to do with me. Thanks for smiling girls, you can look at the giraffes now. Jackson wasn't about to turn around either.

Now we can see everyone. It was a really nice day to be at the zoo, not too hot. Which is great because all of the animals are out for you to see.

The penguins are always a fan favorite



We had to get a zoo water bottle at the end of the day, the trip wouldn't have been complete without it. They still use them so I guess all was not lost :)

One day Logan discovered all of Bailey's old soccer uniforms. He called them soccer suits and was very insistent that he had one on at all times and the girls had to wear them too. Since he stopped wearing bibs sometimes it worked in my favor, but when we had to go somewhere like church it wasn't such a fun new habit.

This one was working great as a bib. I love this picture.

He is so exhausted, they had all been playing outside all night. He was mad he had to come in but he is so tired he doesn't really know how to feel.

We also had our primary Pioneer Activity.

I love celebrating Pioneer Day and singing all of the fun Pioneer songs.

We had some fun water games the kids could play that related to the Pioneers.

Ellie is walking across the frozen river


We finished off the month by going to the Tim McGraw concert

It was really fun, we went to dinner with some friends before. We had good seats, it was a fun night out. It was really hot in there. I wanted to stick my head in the beer cart a few times, but I figured being pregnant and all it would send the wrong message. But it was really hot in there.

I think Tim was a little hot too.....ha

The next morning Ryan left and a golf trip with his dad and brothers They started in Boise and headed up McCall way. They golfed four different courses in 2 days. They are crazy, but they had a good time and can't wait to do it again.

One of the courses they played

Thanks July you didn't disappoint, see you next year!