Rachel's Baby Blessing

My brother Mark and his wife Amber are in town from Texas for a couple of weeks for our sister's wedding. They decided to have Rachel's baby blessing while they were here since technically they still own the house in our ward. It went really well...My brother gave an awesome blessing! It is so nice to have them home for a little while, I didn't realize just how much I miss not having them only 7 houses away from us. Mark is such a great example to me and I am so grateful that he holds the Melchizedek Priesthood. He is a great brother and an awesome new daddy! Here are some cute pictures one of their friends took the day of her blessing...they turned out awesome!

Rachel is wearing Aspen's blessing's dress and I made her cute little bow...she is a beautiful baby!
I love this one of Rachel! It looks like one of those old fashioned baby pictures! So cute!
Mark, Amber and Rachel Elisabeth

My hair...

My sister Melissa did my hair last week, she graduates from Cosmotology school in August. The pictures don't look great but I think it turned out really cute...now I just have to figure out how to style it! So anyone who needs to get there hair done, she does a great job!

Thanks again Mo!

Aspen's 4th Birthday!!

The month of June is full of BIRTHDAYS!! This is late I know...but Aspen's 4th Birthday was Saturday, June 21st! I can't believe our little girl is already 4 years old! She's growing up so fast! I am so not ready for her to be in Kindergarten next year! She is full of energy and drama! And she will talk your ear off if you let her! We love her so much and enjoy seeing her grow and learn new things!

Her birthday was spent running errands and setting up for her party, lunch at McDonald's, and more errands! We had a party at the park (which got me out of deep cleaning my house) and the kids were able to play on the playground. Unfortunately, about 2 hours before her party, Aspen started to get a fever. She did not feel well for her party at all! She blew out her candles...but didn't quite feel up to eating any of the cake! And then she opened a few presents...but had to be urged to finish opening the rest. As soon as she opened her presents she went and laid down on the blanket and fell asleep. It had to of been the most unenthusiastic birthday's ever!! I felt so bad that she wasn't excited about any of her presents :( The party wrapped up and Aspen stayed asleep for the rest of the night. She did wake up the next morning feeling much better and very excited about all of her new presents!

One in particular that stood out was her new pet hamster "Squeeky" that Auntie Stepho bought her! See Auntie Stepho was smart and asked Joey for permission...I think because she new I would probably say no! Well I didn't find out until about 10 minutes before the party...and then what was I supposed to say? Well we ended up keeping "Squeeky" and she is the newest member of our family! The kids love her and Clayton can even say her name...it's so cute! She pretty much looks like a mouse...and that kind of grosses me out...but I'm getting used to her! Aspen loved everything that she got for her birthday...so thank you to everyone who came! She also loves sleeping in her big girl bed with her Little Mermaid bed set that Mommy and Daddy gave her!

Here is a slide show...more pictures to come when I get them from "Papa"...